Sometime in 2010, I wrote a blog post about the Dodgers needing a President of Baseball Operations like Andrew Friedman of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I wrote this because the Devil Rays (now just the Rays) had one of the lowest payrolls in baseball and yet made the playoffs very frequently… even making it to the World Series once. I mentioned this in my interview with Andrew in April:…
… and they lived happily ever after! The End! There are a lot of improbable things that happened along the way that created this storybook ending, not the least of which was Dave Roberts taking out 5’9″ Tommy Edman and replacing him with 6’1″ Andy Pages. Kike could not catch that ball, and neither could Tommy Tanks have gotten to it. Somehow, Doc knew that Andy Pages was needed for…
When I saw this, I immediately knew the game today wasn’t going to be too big for the Dodgers. Dave Roberts is doing his best to keep them loose, and I think it is working. Watch as Doc “attempts” to race Hyeseong Kim around the bases (with a head start): Little things like this can create bonds and feelings among the people who play this game. The team appears loose,…
Everybody hits or nobody hits! They score 12 runs of just 1 or 2. The Dodgers are like piranhas smelling blood in the water. They go into a hitting frenzy, or they lounge on floaties. I’m not saying they are not trying… I am saying they aren’t doing! The big difference is that the Dodgers strike out an average of 9.88 times per game, while the Jays strike out just…
Lots of Dodger fans are blaming Dave Roberts for using Blake Treinen when Blake has not been successful. They genuinely believe that Roberts is a moron for repeatedly running Treinen out there. I want to make one thing perfectly clear: Dave Roberts is the Game Manager, but he is not the ultimate decision-maker—baseball has changed from the days when Leo Durocher, Casey Stengel, Walter Alston, and Sparky Anderson were managers….
… and they did! Ernie Banks was famous for that saying, and last night the players took it literally as they played 18 innings! My son texted me that he was worried they were going to have Sandy Koufax start warming up in the bullpen in the seventeenth inning. This was a game for the ages. How so? Last night will become known as the Game that Broke the Blue…
Yesterday, Dodger fans were making excuses for Blake Snell: “Well, he hadn’t pitched in 10 days.” So, Yoshi Yamamoto hadn’t pitched in 11 days, and he went nine innings and won 5-1. This is a no-excuse zone, and Blake Snell failed the test. Yamamoto aced it. Like Yoda said, “Try, there is no try – You do or you don’t do!” Make no mistake about this: Yamamoto is the Dodgers’…
Blue Jays aren’t actually blue. Their brilliant blue color of their feathers isn’t from pigment — it’s an optical illusion. Their feathers are structurally designed to scatter light, reflecting only blue wavelengths. If you crush a Blue Jay feather, it turns brown! However, the Dodgers are actually blue… physically and emotionally. The Dodgers arrived with a semi-trailer carrying their press clippings, while the Blue Jays came in a bus full…
Tonight, at 5:00 PDT and 8:00 EDT, the Dodgers will take the field in the Rogers Center to face the Blue Jays. 32-year-old Blake Snell will take the mound against 22-year-old Trey Yesavage. Snell has 10 years of experience and has pitched 1,158 regular-season innings and 70 more innings in the postseason. Trey Yesavage has pitched 14 innings in the regular season and has accumulated 15 innings in the playoffs….
The Dodgers are in Toronto and have a couple of days of practice before Friday’s Game One of the World Series. Everyone is comparing the Dodgers’ position players to the Blue Jays’ Position players as if Vlad Guerrero were pitching to Freddie Freeman or George Springer were pitching to Andy Pages. The starters for the Dodgers don’t pitch to the starters of the Jays. The Dodgers are the better team……