For six straight years, the Dodgers have been NL West Champs. For three straight years they have won the NLDS and headed to the NLCS. From this point on, it’s really World Series or Bust, but this 2018 version of these Milwaukee Brewers are tough… and opportunistic. While we are at it, let’s no forget that the Atlanta Braves, even though they just burst upon the scene, they were pretty…
Sean Newcomb is left-handed and almost no-hit the Dodgers once this year. The other time the Dodgers faced him, they lit him up. Which Newcomb will they face today? Maybe it’s not which pitcher they face… maybe it’s what approach the hitters take and you will see a different approach because there will be different hitters tonight. Most likely this will be the lineup: C – Grandal (You don’t take…
In the Dodger’s clubhouse, next to Justin Turner’s locker is a whiteboard that people observed after last night’s game. It simply says “10 Wins!” That’s the simplest way to write down the understood goal of winning the World Series. It takes 11 wins in the postseason. After last night, there are 10 to go. No more, no less. It’s that simple… Simple… but not easy! The thing is: these guys,…
It’s really as simple as that! The regular season is over and this is the “Mini-Playoff” to determine who wins the West. While everything is “reset to Zero,” I think it might be good if we list what this team did this year without Corey Seager, because frequently it was all about one of the following: What a stupid lineup Doc ran out (there were complaints yesterday and it turned…
We should know the answer by later in the afternoon (EDT). The Dodgers will play: At the Brewers in the Wild Card game; At the Cubs in the Wild Card game; Verses the Rockies in Game 163; or Verses the Braves in Game 1 of the NLDS. It could take me until this evening to explain it all, so we will just wait and see what happens, but the best…
Pitchers and hitters don’t progress from one stage to another in a straight line. That’s what we would like, because we like predictable. We like things neatly arranged and sequential, but baseball player development happens so differently… and sometimes, so maddeningly different than what we like, that we are frequently frustrated beyond belief. This time last year, Striker Buehler, who was then named “Walker” Buehler, was stinking up the joint…
The Determined Dodgers fell down several times this season, but they got back up and kept themselves in the running. This Band of Brothers understand that as long as you are within striking distance, it’s how you finish, and they are now finishing what they started… and stumbled… and got back up – they never stopped running! In 2008 Heather Dorniden-Kampf, the favorite, was competing in the 600 meter race in…
Evidently, there are worse things than not being able to hit LH pitching. Many of us on this blog were growing weary of Joc’s two steps back after his one step forward. Well, last night, Joc hit his 22nd and 23rd HR, as the Dodgers leadoff hitter and is currently OPS’ing .843. So that we don’t forget, here is how most baseball people rank OPS: Rating OPS Excellent 1.000 Great…
I guess we should be happy with 3 out of 4 in St. Louis… but I was hoping that the boys would just win out the rest of the season. Adam Wainwright looked like an Ace again after missing about four months. The biggest difference between Wainwright and Kershaw is pitch selection. Wainwright is not afraid to walk a guy and doesn’t try and get that first strike in everytime. …
Maybe Guggenheim and Company invested heavily in a pharmaceutical firm that had a new blood pressure medication and the plan was for the Dodgers and their coaching staff to do whatever was necessary to keep to Dodgers treading water, choking in the clutch, implosions of the bullpen, freaky lineups to drive up Dodger fans’ blood pressure so that they would seeking this new wonder drug to lower their collective blood…