You Don t Play to Win the Game!

I want to reiterate what AC said earlier: Joey Bart is a beast. He will be better than Buster Posy.

The Giants should move Posey to 1B and start Bart as C… looking to trade Belt, Panik, Madbum, Crawford and anyone else with a pulse. Posy might play 3 or 4 more year at 1B.

They should sell off and tank… something the Dodgers have never done.

Ok Mark get your drift. With that said, was Turner Ward a true believer of the launch angle for all these years, or something different ? I do know that he pushed the hitters to go deep into the count, but that doesn’t play well when you start off 0-2 with a few fastballs right down the middle and you swung out of your shoes both times(Joc, CT). What is your “Magic fairy dust” to undo the all or nothing approach of last year? It seems like team wide we got into that long ball rut, and it really showed in the World Series.

I agree with Dodgerrick. Alot of flailing strike outs and not much situational hitting this spring. I truly hope that changes.

I haven’t commented for a while, but here goes:

1 – Friedman has done a good job on the whole in putting the team together. One of the things that gets overlooked sometimes is something that Mark pointed out yesterday (in part): With starting pitchers going 5+ innings and the resultant need to carry 7 or 8 relievers, teams have to go with short benches. This means that most of your players and especially the bench players have to be versatile. Friedman has been out in front on this tread, and the number of Dodger players who can competently play multiple positions is probably greater than any other team.

2 – Similarly, Friedman has no equal in his ability to put together a 40 man roster, and this has been especially important in light of the tendency to sign players who can’t stay on the field.

3- One big beef has been the refusal to overpay as a sunk cost necessary to bring star players on board. During Friedman’s tenure, the Dodgers have made deadline deals to bring stars aboard (Machado, Darvish) but only as short term rentals. If a star is available as a free agent, you can generally forget about the Dodgers signing him.

4 – #3 above raises the big question: if an overpay to a big star is what’s needed to put the team over the top to win a title, the Dodgers won’t do it. Is that a good decision or a bad one? I think most Dodger fans would vote to overspend now to win even if it costs the team a few years in the future (sunk cost salaries, loss of draft picks).

5 – The other Friedman issue for me (as an old timer, but not as old as many here) is the new way that baseball is played/managed. The emphasis on “launch angle” to facilitate HR, the lack of emphasis on making contact, the lack of consequence for players who K, the platooning, the reliance on the computer to tell a manager who to play and what to do, etc. make baseball a less interesting, less beautiful and less personal game to watch.

6 – Many here assert that the platooning, emphasis on the HR and disdain for contact, etc. was coming from Zaidi, but I have seen no proof of these assertions and doubt seriously that Zaidi would be pushing any ideas that Friedman disagreed with.

7 – The role of manager has changed with New Age Baseball. The manager’s job is to communicate with his players, get them to accept what the front office wants, keep them motivated, and to buy into whatever the latest SABR-theory is. Look around baseball. More and more teams are hiring young managers, guys without managerial experience who are able to “relate” to the players but don’t have the years of experience that guys like Lasorda and Alston had in the minors learning their trade. (See Cora in Boston, Baldelli in Minnesota, Boone in NY, Bell in Cincy and so on.) When viewed that way, Roberts may be an ideal manager, but as a strategist, game manager, and independent thinker, you can’t compare him to Alston, Lasorda, Durocher or Dressen.

8 – I can’t believe that anyone would criticize Roberts for moves made in Spring Training games. The games don’t count! He’s not trying to win them.

9 – The question for this year – will the Dodgers, once again, have a good 40 man roster but not have a good enough 25 man roster to win it all? Will the failure to bring in star power to win this year cost them? And while the NL West will be a weak division this year and help the Dodgers to a good W – L record, thanks to the unbalanced schedule, how will they match up with good teams from other divisions and the AL?

I don’t know how you measure the legacy of the head of baseball operations or general managers. However, it seems to me that AF is in the same boat as Kershaw. To be considered one of the greatest of all time it lwould cement the legacy by throwing in a World Series or 2. I know kershaw is there in the regular season but he could elevate his status with a World Series. I’m sure AF wants to be at the top. It seems to me he would need a World Series to add to his resume. The players have to win it but he provides the players. He has had success but he has placed his chips on kershaw and Roberts. I hope for all us dodger fans this is a winning formula because it looks like that is the direction.

About Taylor, in his break out year he only struck out 36 times less then he did last year.

But last year he had about 20 more at bats, so maybe this is just Taylor.

Because I think Taylor probably had the advantage over pitchers in that first break year, because he came out of no where.

And last year those same pitchers were more ready for Taylor, and because of that, they made their adjustments on Taylor, from the start of the season.

Taylor just might be our Nowhere man.

I’m no Conor McGregor fan but I have to side with him on this one. Anybody takes a photo of me without my permission can expect at least their phone to be smacked out of their hand. Maybe I wouldn’t step on it afterwards but it depends on how I’m feeling that day. Slow news day. Not sure how I feel about the Russell Westbrook story. If he threatened a female, that’s inexcusable.

Damn, another day off today!

And I only hope that Roberts, dunce that he is, leads us to the playoffs again..

Our depth in pitching is scary… Gonsolin was a beast yesterday..

OK truth be told, I’m waiting for hamchuck to challenge M.T. on his first bullet… Please let it be!!!

I agree with you AC that some of these guys are not quite ready for the big show. However, I like what I see. You cannot teach a 100 mph fastball. However, if they cannot locate it and have movement, the hitters will hit it. AC, you are right, the Dodgers have depth and time to develop these kids. AF will take chances on these kinda guys. I like what he does.

59, they still have two weeks in ST. Still time to make adjustments. My only complaint is slow walking Buehler and what I think they may do with Urias.

Sorry Mark, but I couldn’t disagree more. Roberts has a knack for unnecessary pitching changes. It’s just a Spring Game, he could have easily left Allie on the bump, or put in a pitcher who isn’t historically wild. Even the announcers are commenting about the mid-inning pitching changes in these Spring games. Sadly, it doesn’t look like Roberts learns his lessons and is destined to keep making the same mistakes. And no, he wasn’t seeing who he wants to go to war with as Vasquez has ZERO chance of breaking camp with the Big team. Not when your pen is loaded you had to cut an actual good reliever because he doesn’t have options.

It’s called a Maddux when a pitcher throws a complete game shutout with less than 100 pitchers. It’s called a Roberts when a reliever comes in with men on, walks the first guy and allows at least one run to score (preferably when attempting a platoon advantage). Let’s see how many Roberts we’ll have this year.

Gonsolin was about the only good thing that happened yesterday beyond a double each for the LF competitors. Lets see if this offense comes out of their slump after a day off today.

CT3 takes one step forward and two steps back wearing the golden halo yesterday 0-3 with 3 Ks!

Pederson is hitting 160 with a 747 OPS. Verdugo 280 / 669. Oh my.

Muncy, Pederson, Pollock not hitting their weight.

Taylor and Belli hovering around the Mendoza line.

Seager, Kershaw and Bueller still haven’t been seen anywhere near a box score.

This is not a good look with 2 weeks of Spring remaining.

Follow up on MLB Pipeline Grades:

Dustin May – 60 FB, 60 CB, 55 Cutter, 50 CH

Dennis Santana – 65 FB, 55 SL, 50 CH

Mitchell White – 60 FB, 60 SL, 55 CB, 45 CH

I did not watch or listen to yesterday’s game, but as I recall via MLB Gameday, it was Luis Vazquez who gave up the three-run double to Joey Bart. Cabrera had a similar meltdown in Sunday’s game against the Rockies in the 8th. Both Allie and Cabrera will get their opportunities in MiLB this year and could find their way to LA at some point. But they are just not ready for the Show.

I know we Dodger fans are anxious for Keibert Ruiz to make the climb to LAD, but Joey Bart is going to be a big-time catcher for the Giants. I have liked Bart since his days at Georgia Tech. They have definitely found Buster Posey’s replacement, who will soon become Brandon Belt’s replacement. The first two selections in last year’s draft, Casey Mize (Tigers), and Bart were highly predictable and are not far from the ML.

Tony Gonsolin is legit, but I caution all to just let him dominate at AA and AAA before pushing him to the LAD 25 man. The same is true with Dustin May. They will get there soon enough. For Gonsolin, that could be later this summer as a bullpen piece. The Dodgers are fortunate to have the luxury of letting their future fully develop before making the bright lights of MLB.

There was an interesting list on MLB Pipeline showing the 6 pitchers (and only 6) they grade with 3 plus pitches (Grade 60 or above). Four of the pitchers are familiar to those who follow the minor leagues even marginally…Forrest Whitley (Astros), Shane Baz and Brent Honeywell (Rays), and Casey Mize (Tigers). The remaining two pitchers with three 60+ pitches are familiar to LAD fans…Tony Gonsolin – 60 FB, 60 CB, and 70 Split (the exact same as Casey Mize), and Zach Willeman – 70 FB, 60 CB, 60 SL. The one to watch is going to be Forrest Whitley who has four plus pitches – 70 FB, 60 CB, 60 SL, and 65 CH. He has a tremendous chance to be VERY special.

Who knew about Zach Willeman? DC did. I have included his 12/23/18 article on Zach.

https://ladodgertalk.com/2018/12/23/meet-zach-willeman/?preview_id=5263&preview_nonce=d209ac7ca0&preview=true&_thumbnail_id=5264

Gonsolin looked good yesterday, another good outing.

I do think Roberts makes some poor game decisions but yesterday was not one of them, he did just what the situation called for, see what the players can or can´t do and how they react.

Someone who is very diabolical is making a massive assault on this blog trying to hack it. It is costing us countless hours a day to fix it and figure out who it is. It seems to be from Russia, but I may have to shut down the site for a while. If I do, you will know what to do. I’ll have it posted on the Home Page. Dirty Bastards!

Mark, you forgot about Baez. That would make 13 pitchers. Granted, he has not looked as sharp as he did last season, but don’t you think they are going to bring him along this year?