When the players pitch and get hits, the manager looks like a genius. Torey Lovello looked the part last night as Merrill Kelly looked like Cy Young. In what can only be called an epic game, Kelly went seven innings, allowing three hits, one run and striking out nine. This was a guy the Dodgers hit hard during the regular season. He has a 0-2 record against them with a…
I like to break things down to their simplest form, and here is why the Dodgers were swept in the NLDS: They could not score more than two runs a game. In 162 games, the Dodgers averaged 5.6 runs a game, but in this three-game series, they scored just two runs a game. They were blown out in the first game, but the next two games were very winnable and…
I see similarities between Jason Heyward and players like Tyler Anderson, Andrew Heaney, Thor, JDM, and others. Anderson and Heaney came to the Dodgers hoping that the Dodgers could “fix” them. JDM didn’t come to the Dodgers to get “fixed…” maybe to get better, but in the past, he did work with Robert Van Socyoc, who is now the Dodgers’ hitting coach and credits RVS with making his career!. The…
The Dodgers are coming off of one of the all-time great seasons in the history of Major League Baseball. Only the 1906 Cubs had a season in the Senior Circuit with more wins and only 4 teams have ever matched or exceeded 111 wins. There’s no doubt about it, last year’s team was great, tainted only by an early postseason exit against a team they dominated all season. That’s not…
I have been away for a long while and will return to posting a piece now and then, now that I start this new phase in life called “retirement.” Some random Dodger bullets running through my mind. As disappointed as many fans are that the Dodgers didn’t land a mega superstar such as Juan Soto, I am actually relieved that the farm system remains intact and strong. Soto is definitely a…
Why can’t the Dodgers just win every game? Come on, at the rate they are going; they will only win 109 games! That is unacceptable! I had them winning 162. Man, was I off! A lot of us feel that way… even if we don’t admit it, but I am elated that the Dodgers have the record that they do when a lot has gone wrong. Let’s start with the…
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…
Please excuse the timing of this post. It was written early last week, however I was rushed to the ER with what turned out to be a TIA or mini stroke. I was in the hospital being pricked and probed for nearly three days, but came away with a clean bill of health. So now I am publishing, albeit a tad tardy. IMO there was very little difference between LAD…
There are a lot of new commenters here since I first started writing for LADT in 2017, and I guess many do not know who I am. I will admit that this post is really out of my comfort zone. But I have been advised to push the comfort zone for better mental health. The other day, Mark intimated that I may have more contacts now than him. I have…
It might be hard for some to believe, but prior to 1977 the position of Hitting coach as such did not exist. The first hitting coach with that title was Jim Gilliam. There have been 18 since. Before that time, players did not have a specific person to go to. All of these guys had varying degrees of experience. Some, including Gilliam, Mattingly, McGwire. Wallack, Reggie Smith, Jack Clark, Mota,…