Just Enjoy the Ride!

Ernest Hemmingway once said “Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors.”

I scanned several Dodger blogs today after the game and the silence was deafening! If the Dodgers had gotten smoked yesterday, man, the critics would have been cranking out the text! But, as it is, the critics did not have much to say. Well, I did read this:

“It’s only one game.”

“The bullpen was horrid.”

“Turner and Pollock looked horrible.”

“Why can’t we have a starter even go seven.”

I know that I really piss some people off when I tell them that their criticism of the Dodgers under Andrew Friedman is moronic. I am truly sorry, but it is! “Criticism is the only reliable form of autobiography,” Oscar Wilde said, because it tells you more about the psychology of the critic than the people he or she criticizes. Astute professionals can formulate a viable diagnostic hypothesis just from hearing someone’s criticisms.

In Psychology Today, Steven Stosny, Ph.D. wrote an article called “What is Wrong With Criticism?” I find this extremely interesting:

“Criticism is destructive when it is:

About personality or character, rather than behavior
Filled with blame
Not focused on improvement
Based on only one “right way” to do things
Belittling (To belittle, you have to be little—Gibran).

Critical people are certainly smart enough to figure out that criticism doesn’t work. So why do they keep doing it, even in the face of mounting frustration? It’s because criticism is an easy form of ego defense. We don’t criticize because we disagree with a behavior or an attitude. We criticize because we somehow feel devalued by the behavior or attitude. Critical people tend to be easily insulted and especially in need of ego defense.

Critical people were often criticized in early childhood by caretakers, siblings, or peers, at an age when criticism can be especially painful. They cannot distinguish criticism of their behavior from outright rejection, no matter how much we try to make the distinction for them, as in the well-intentioned, “You’re a good boy, but this behavior is bad.”

The only thing young children can do to survive is attach emotionally to people who will take care of them. Feeling unworthy of attachment, as criticized young children are apt to feel, can seem like life or death. So they try to control the great pain of criticism by turning it into self-criticism—because self-inflicted pain is better than unpredictable rejection by loved ones.

By early adolescence, such children begin to “identify with the aggressor”—emulating the more powerful criticizer. By late adolescence, their self-criticism expands to criticism of others. By young adulthood, it appears to have shifted entirely to criticism of others. But most critical people remain primarily self-critical—I have never treated one who was not.

As hard as they are on others, most are at least equally hard on themselves. “

OK, enough for the psychology lesson. I only write this because critics are generally miserable themselves and want to inflict some of that misery on others. I ain’t accepting it! Neither should they! Life is great and being a Dodger fan right about now is the best! Enjoy it and don’t roll in the mud with the pigs.

It is only one game, but if you might have thought Spring Training stood for something, it really didn’t. Fans did not expect Joc Pederson, Max Muncy, Austin Barnes and Kike Hernandez to go off on opening day. No way. No how. Simply put, the Dodgers hit Eight home runs on opening day which is the MOST EVER!

It’s only one game, but the Dodgers made a statement yesterday. Maybe Zack Greinke is no longer Zack Greinke, but they beat him like a rented mule and that is what they are supposed to do. One game can’t tell the tale, but it does give us hope.

Unite Dodger Fans, let’s win this thing! I want to see how they do against Robbie Ray. The critics said the Dodgers lost too much production in trading away Kemp and Puig and letting Grandal walk, so the Dodgers come out and hit the most HR ever on opening day. The critics said Max Muncy was exposed… and on and on. Look, like I said yesterday, Friedman is not perfect and there will likely be hiccups this year, but even Ray Charles can see this is an excellent team. There may be some holes to fill… but maybe not. The thing is, Friedman has the resources to fill them.

Molly Knight wrote an absolutely great piece about opening day in The Athletic. If you don’t subscribe to that, well… you are just out of it my friends! Here’s a part of what she wrote:

The Dodgers are good, but you knew that already. When you win six straight division titles and two consecutive pennants, you do not need to go out in the offseason and spend half a billion dollars on an outfielder with a slick bat and slicker hair to feel better about your chances. And you don’t need to shatter the all-time Opening Day record for home runs by any team ever to be considered the class of the National League — because you’re already there, baby.

But for whatever reason, Dodger hitters came out Thursday with ants in their pants, eyes wide as saucers, and spent the afternoon disappearing baseball after baseball into the ether. One had to feel a little sorry for both bludgeoned Diamondbacks pitchers, who took on the pallor and posture of food poisoning victims in the Dodgers’ 12-5 victory. That the starting pitcher for Arizona was Zack Grienke, the friendly ghost of Dodgers past who is being paid $34 million this year to throw 88-mph fastballs, must have made it even sweeter for the local nine he left behind. The former Dodgers co-ace was chased after giving up seven earned runs and recording just 11 outs.

In the other corner was the man who used to slot in third in the Dodgers’ rotation behind Clayton Kershaw and Greinke — Hyun-Jin Ryu. Reliable in duty and miraculous in consistency, Ryu proved once again why he is as underrated as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He breezed through an easy six innings, tossing 80 effective pitches and making exactly two mistakes, one of which was hit for a solo home run, the only finger the D-backs could lay on him. Ryu struck out eight and walked zero.

Pedro Moura of The Athletic gives us a glimpse of how the Dodgers’ are adapting to the new hitting culture:

The Dodgers all received printouts analyzing their individual matchup with the opposing starter, Zack Greinke. Hitters had specific pitches in specific areas they were told to target.

“If we didn’t get them,” Muncy said, “we didn’t swing.”

To the group, hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc stressed the importance of not chasing pitches outside the zone. That advice generally holds across Major League Baseball, but it is particularly important when facing Greinke.

Pedro also wrote this: “In 2019, the Dodgers will depend on many of the same players they did last year. Their roster is not dramatically different. But their Opening Day lineup was. Only three 2018 starters returned, two playing the same position. Of the 15 men who appeared in Dodger whites last March 29, only six are on the roster right now. “

Rants & Raves

• Molly Knight went on the predict that JD Hernandez… I mean, Kike Hernandez, is headed for stardom. She’s stealing my material!
• I am excited to see how Chicken Strip does today.
• Sorry, but I think Brock Stewart is headed back to AAA.
• If you haven’t read Ken Rosenthal’s Predictions at The Athletic, you should – it is hilarious.
• Only 161 to go…