As far as I am concerned, there are only Eleven things wrong with the Dodgers right about now: They can’t hit with runners on base; They can’t hit with the bases empty; The starting pitchers (other than the New Ace- Old Man Kershaw) are pitching from erratic to horrible; The relief pitchers are worse; The pitchers cannot hold runners; The Runners are stealing the Dodgers Blind; The Dodgers can’t steal…
it is … at least for a while! Remember what I have always said, “Relief Pitchers are fickle?” Well, it has never been more true than this year. Phil Bickford has been bad (and he was not good last year but was great the year before); Yency Almonte had a 1.02 ERA last year – this year, he absolutely sucks with a 9.28 ERA; Alex Vesia has a 9.30 ERA…
There were a lot of “firsts” last night: The first walk-off win was the kind of thing that can galvanize a team. Mike Grove pitched his first great game, and (someone else said this), “Looked like Buehler.” Not bad for a guy who is just trade bait. Disclaimer: I don’t think that, and most baseball people don’t think that. Watch his interview after the game. Shelby Miller, who has been…
I don’t understand why it happens, but every time the Dodgers go on some kind of losing streak, the novice Dodger fans come out of the woodwork and proudly announce that Andrew Friedman and Dave Roberts are the problems, and they proceed to solve all the problems by getting rid of players such as Muncy, Taylor, Peralta, Heyward, and others. It’s actually comical to see how little many of them…
I know it bugs him, so here it is. š The Dodgers clinched the NL West in May… or they might as well have done it then. Right about now, sitting on 108 wins and knowing they will play the Rockies for six games at home and then be off for the next five days, they aren’t exactly excited. Many players are just going through the paces. Gavin Lux’s neck…
I have always wondered about the predictability of having a closer and why teams have simply gone in the direction of having a 9th inning man, no matter what the situation was. If you really think about it, throwing that āstopperā out there for the final three outs night after night is probably not the best managerial strategy. It may be for teams with limited bullpen resources, but not with…
If you ain’t failing… you ain’t trying! Well, Andrew Friedman has failed a lot! It all started with Brett Anderson, Scott Kazmir, and Brandon McCarthy. Maybe they weren’t an absolute failure – maybe they were a “bridge,” but most people view it as a failure. He tried… Good on Andrew. Seth Godin (one of my favorite writers) writes about the “Lizard Brain. Some people call it the “resistance.” Seth Godin…
I had already started this blog post when Whistling Ranger (welcome to LADT) posted this: “I look for the Dodgers to concentrate on roster management in the offseason. There is extreme competition for the 40-man roster. Look for them to trade older players for younger, promising players that they donāt have to protect. If they donāt, they will lose some through the rule 5 draft or have to DFA them.”…
With the playoffs a full month and a half away (48 games), itās a bit of a reach to try to predict what a potential playoff bullpen will look like. Weāll know a lot more once weāre closer to the finish line, but from the looks of things, September will be a tryout for October. Even more so with pitchers than position players. To make matters worse, or better, depending…
As the season passes the halfway point, Miguel Vargas is poised to make his debut in LA sometime in the next 30 days (that’s my opinion, not a fact). Miguel has made a lot of progress this year defensively. I think he can play an “above-average” Third-Base RIGHT ABOUT NOW, but he is blocked by Justin Turner and Max Muncy. So, he has recently taken up playing LF and while…