By many pitchers’ standards, Walker Buehler’s numbers are pretty good, but they are certainly not up to his normal standards. As fans, it is easy to say that his fastball is declining, but that is a rather simplistic overview. Of course, over time a pitcher’s fastball will decline or if it doesn’t he will ultimately need Tommy John Surgery. It was never sustainable for Walker Buehler to pitch at 98…
OK, so what? Yeah, it’s hard to play baseball in the major leagues. Let me take it a step farther, who here could have played AAA baseball? AA Baseball? A Baseball? Rookie League Baseball? I am sure some will say they could have, but unless you did, you really don’t know. You just don’t! It’s easy for all of us to say that the Dodgers should just get rid of…
“Andrew Friedman should have signed….” “What didn’t Dave Roberts pinch hit for…” “Something is wrong with Walker Buehler…” “May Muncy has lost all confidence…” “They should have traded for…” “Why did they not play Rios after his big night? Yes, we are fans and we second-guess just about everything, even things we know nothing about. We may have some information, but not all the information and we simply don’t know…
When I read stuff like the Dodgers don’t have the pitching to win or that Tyler Anderson should not even be on the team, or that Muncy and Bellinger should go to OKC, and it is past time for the Dodgers to make changes, I just shake my head and call the perps out. At best, it is a nonsensical, knee-jerk reaction. At worst, whoever said it, might need to…
Dodger fans as a whole are an emotional lot. They do tend to go off of the rails when the team slumps. I am guilty of this myself sometimes. But let the team hit a cold streak and the boo birds and naysayers emerge from the depths of one’s psyche, and the bad vibes begin. No player or front office person is immune. The finger-pointing and name-calling begin. The blame…
I watched at least three near-future Dodgers last night and one recent past Dodger Hero. I watched the near-future Dodgers, Mike Busch, Jacob Amaya, and Bobby Miller with great elation. Let me tell you about that before I tell you about an old friend whom I felt a great sadness in watching. The trio of Busch, Amaya, and Miller will likely move to Oklahoma City very soon, but I enjoyed…
Many of Dave Roberts’ decisions (or lack thereof) were questionable last night, but I am also of the opinion that players can make a manager look really smart or really dumb. Even Ray Charles could see that Tyler Anderson was not at the top of his game last night, but Doc evidently felt that pitching 6 innings was more important than giving up 7 runs! To me, that was bizarre!…
BTW: I suggest reading that book! Defensive Efficiency Ratio is a statistic used to evaluate team defense by finding out the rate of times batters reach base, on balls put in play. Basically, for every ball hit into the field of play, how likely is the defense to convert that into an out? The formula for Defensive Efficiency Ratio is: 1 – ((H + ROE – HR) / (PA –…
It was said, and I do not remember who exactly said it, that Manny Mota could wake up on a cold December morning, get out of bed, and hit a line drive. He was that kind of hitter. Manuel Rafael Mota Geronimo was born in the Dominican Republic on February 18, 1938. He was the sixth of eight children in a blended family. His mother, Fredesvinda, had four children with…
When the Dodgers went 1-2 in Colorado, all of the morons like Bill Plaschke and a host of bloggers wrote about “What we have learned about the Dodgers” and a lot of other drivel. We heard that they had pitching problems and that they were “overhyped.” The only thing they really learned was that they were morons, but we knew that a long time ago. Geeze… after 3 games, you…