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Dodgertalk
Let’s Get Real
As the season nears its end, I think we have to take a large dose of reality. The reality is that the Dodgers are the best team in baseball. Houston is making a late run, but if they try and catch LA to invoke “Home Field Advantage,” then they are likely to “flame out” in the playoffs. The reality also is that any team can get hot in the playoffs…
Making October Plans
October 11th, most likely against the winner of the top two Wildcard qualifiers. At the moment, that would be the winner of an Atlanta-San Diego Series. With Philadelphia and San Diego neck and neck for the final wild-card spot, we may see Philly slip into that final slot. A surge by Atlanta could place the New York Mets in that top wild card position as well, so it is still…
R.I.P. Maury Wills
Every Dodger fan who has not been living under a rock knows who Maury Wills was. He was undersized but bigger than life. He was not a great hitter, but he won the MVP. He revolutionalized the running game while remaining immensely popular. Maury debuted in 1959, but 1960 was his first full season when he hit .295 and stole 50 bases. The next year (1961), he hit .282 and…
9 Division Titles in 10 Years, Are Dodger Fans Spoiled?
In 2004, the first season under new owner Frank McCourt, the Dodgers won their first division title in 8 years. The 1995 Dodgers won the division after the strike was over in a shortened season. But they were ousted out of the playoffs in the NLDS. The new GM was Paul DePodesta, a strong advocate of analytics when teams were just starting to use that kind of data. He traded…
What Now?
The Dodgers have 101 wins, and the fact that they were the quickest team to win 100 games in the past 21 years should be duly noted. There are seventeen games left, and it is a foregone conclusion that the Dodgers will set an All-Time Franchise Record for wins. They hardly care. Yes, it will be nice, but the entire focus is on winning the World Series. I hate to…
Fringe Players We All Loved to Watch
A lot of guys on teams are nothing but scrubs who wait for their chance to contribute to the team. Over the years, many of these guys were favorites of mime simply because when they did get in a game, they played their hardest. I will attempt to give some examples here, starting with a guy who drove Lasorda bananas. Derrell Thomas On November 14th, 1978, the Los Angeles Dodgers…
Little Bit of This – A Little Bit of That
Do you remember when (not that long ago) when Dodger Fans were questioning whether Farhan Zaidi was the “Genius behind Andrew Friedman?” I hear Farhan is awesome at Fantasy Football and Fantasy Baseball, but suddenly his star is getting tarnished in the real thing. He caught lightning in a bottle last year… never to happen again. Freidman is like the EverReady Bunny. The Playoff Roster for position players is set…
Of Puppets and Men
I find it hilarious that some of you think Doc is a “puppet manager.” I guess it is human nature to ridicule what we don’t understand. “Puppet” implies that Dave does exactly what the front office says, which is so much beyond silly; it is ridiculous! The job of a baseball manager has changed dramatically in the past 20+ years. It used to be the manager was a “John Wayne-type”…
Getting Back to .200
Max Muncy’s year has been about as nightmarish as one that a player of his caliber can experience. We can all speculate on the cause of it, but I’ll peg it on the severe season-ending injury from last year. That elbow dislocation injury was gruesome and as ugly as any injury I can remember. With all the rule changes that will be incorporated into 2023, I am surprised that MLB didn’t…