And Now On To 2019

I hope there are several changes in this team, an almost total renovation, starting with the manager, someone who puts play the 8 starters batters regardless of whether the pitcher is left or right, and the bench players are that: BENCH PLAYERS! Thank you very much Mark for allowing me to participate in this excellent blog, is my favorite and although I rarely mention anything (the English language is not my native language) I read this page every day.

And if all goes well, in January I could be living in Tampa with my girlfriend, but I will always be a Dodger all my life !!

Good luck to everyone, see you next season…..

For me, Justin Turner is the heart and soul of the modern version of the Dodgers, not Kershaw or Seager. Kershaw is on the decline, Seager will have to get to the level of Turner to get this team to the next level. Will Seager’s body hold up? Will he be as good as he was before the surgery? These are big questions that the Dodger FO will be mulling over come the next several months.

Turner is the kind of player every team wants and needs. I can’t say enough good things about his talent. But he will need to shave that beard off if he wants to win a World Series!

This one hurt bad… because it did show the Dodger’s weaknesses were too great, to be coached around in a playoff series. I am proud of the job the team did in making the WS, but I was fearful of this outcome. I sat there last night thinking, “is this the last time we see Kershaw at Dodger stadium?” Boston was the better team, and they wanted it more than some of the Dodgers did, but I digress. But hey, pitchers and catchers report in February, there is free agents to be had. I hope Freese becomes the new Chase Utley (going to miss the “Silver Fox!”), and I too, hope the Dodgers extend Kershaw, but who is going to be the new ace of the staff? Thanks Mark for another great year! Keep up the good work! Thanks AC for all your contributions! Go Blue!!!

Nothing to say Boston is the better team and deserves the championship.

I am disappointed — they coulda stole one with some better execution at key times. Ultimately, though, this very-flawed team overachieved and exceeded my expectations. So I am going with the glass half-full and saying, “Thank You , Dodgers, for a crazy ride of a year!” Now let’s see if we can get the pendulum to swing back a little from “The 3 true outcomes” strategy to situational-hitting matters.

BTW — I really enjoy this site — very little yelling and LOTS of well-reasoned takes combined with healthy venting. Thank you Mark and AC for maintaining this excellent Dodger-fan space 🙂

AC, this is one definitely hurt. But I think we all knew the weaknesses this team had, and we saw them on fulll display for all to see.

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I think we all need to take some time to reflect on this season, and what we would like to see the Dodgers look like next season.

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Until I read it, I didn’t realize that Kershw’s decision to opt out comes in just the next 3 days. I have a feeling that he and the Dodgers could create some flexibility around that timeline, especially if they’re in the midst of extension talks. In any case, we’re likely to know something pretty soon.

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I have some thoughts on the matter, but I’d just rather wait until we have something more definitive.

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At my age I shouldn’t be trying to speed up time, but right now ST, and then opening day can’t come soon enough.

I do not know what to think. We got beat by a better team and manager. This is what I do know. Doc has to go. He has favorites. If the attitude of HR or bust is from FAZ, then they must adjust or leave. I believe FAZ is smart. I think they see the HR or bust has not worked. They will change and construct the team differently. They have some good contact hitters in the minors in Verdugo, Toles and Lux. JT, Seager, and Bellinger are pretty good contact hitters already. The bull pen must become a priority. We need a catcher. Barnes and Grandal must go.

Thanks Mark, AC, fellow posters. We had a hell of a ride and my solace is that the better team won. I guess the plan is to win it all 31 years after 1988. I expect a lot of familiar faces back. Maybe we get a little younger and cheaper overall. It’s time we let the young guys play. Good luck to all here. It’s been real.

For whatever reasons, this one hurt a lot less than last year. I thought we should have won last year but I never had that optimism this time around. Boston cruised by the Yankees, the Astros, and the Dodgers. I tip my cap to them and hope next year brings better results for the boys in Dodger blue.

I think Kersh and the Fo find a way to get this done, by adding a couple of years and then lets hope Kersh finds his old stuff or reinvents himself with his decreased velocity. There will be a lot of time to discuss the Hot Stove League but for quick starters to get the season kicked off:

Kershaw–get it done quickly, avoid the drama add two years

Freeze–exercise the club option

Many decisions remain. What to do with Ryu, CT3, Grandal, Keekay, Puig, Cingrani, Fields, Yimi Garcia. Some will be with the team next year, others will be DFA’d, others will be signed by other clubs. One thing for sure, Turner Ward has to go…he couldn’t get his players to make adjustments, they continued to swing for the fences, failed to go the other way and generally played real poor fundamental offensive baseball.

Team needs a new offensive direction and I look for Doc and the FO to make a decision on the coaches in the next ten days. Look for Mark Prior to be named pitching coach and some other moves as well.

I really don´t know much about baseball as other contributors of this site do. I mostly like to read it. However, as this is the end of the season, I strongly believe, Roberts must go. Pederson, Grandal, they got to go too. They have no sense of relevance of particular situations and games. They will always try to do the same, with no sense of October. They just don´t realize it. Regarding Barnes hes got the necessary stuff for the bench. Period. Not the World Series. We should keep Freeze, let go Dozier and Machado. Give Seager, Verdugo and Toles a real opportunity. Keep Kike as utility man. Put Muncy on a diet. Send Janzen to the pen, and get a real closer. Expend on a good catcher too. Give Kershaw a chance, and see what is wrong with his body. Hes still young. Finally, the only good thing is, we can hope go for the title again in 2019.

From sunny Costa Rica, go Blue.

Carlos Zamora

This was the one series I could not wait to be over as it was inevitable, but equally hurt because of the glimpse of hope Max provided game 3. I am with you guys as this will definitely take a long time to get over. I really don’t know what to do, however with us being out of salary cap jail we definitely need a C, middle infielder, BP arms, and top caliber SP. Trade guys like Wood, Barnes, Kemp, and Alexander for players with heart and swag. Players with heart is what got Houston and Boston championships the last 2 years. As much as some hate Puig in here I loved his play, he backed his talk on the field this year. Overall a successful year as we didn’t cruise in to the playoffs, and played our butts off in September.

MLB please make the DH universal.

This one hurt more than last year… for me. This series was winnable if we would have played with a sense of urgency. From my point of view, the team was banking on HRs coming. It was frustrating watching the BoSox adjusting their approach with two strikes. When DR removed Hill, I reverted back to when Mattingly was going to take CK out of the game against STL and Adams hit a homer. In other words, bad move. The Dodgers body language after the 3 run homer showed that the WS was the BoSox to lose.

I too think DR to go, but not yet. Buy out his option and add two years. I think LA has his replacement in the building in one Chase Utley. The Silver Fox want s to spend time with his family after retiring. Make him a special assistant to the GM/Vice Pres of Ops; in other words, keep him in the building. If DR just doesn’t cut it after next year, you Put Chase in the dugout.

After the playoffs, I am in the let Machado walk camp. I also have a felling that CKs decline is not normal. I believe that he is hurt and if he leaves he will mostly return to his old form after he heals himself. I think his hip needs surgery. Lets see what happens.

Sign Marwin Gonzalez.

LOL at everyone saying Doc needs to go. We would not have made the World Series without him as Manager. You can dissect his moves all you want but he didn’t lose the championship….the players did. Doc will absolutely be back next year I have zero doubts about that.

Its time for the front office to look in the mirror and decide who they want to be. Are they tired of being the runner up or content?

I love Doc, but it’s hard to ignore some of the decisions made in the World Series. Should he be judged on his past work? 3 division titles, 3 NLCS, 2 World Series appearances? Or the judgement calls he made in the World seres? Is there anyone better out there anyway? Joe Giradi? Buck Showalter? I dont know..

But the main thing here should be, ITS TIME, time to go for it. So here’s my take.

Resign Clayton Kershaw 6yrs 200 mill. It’s steep, but he needs to be a Dodger for life.

Resign Ryan Madsen 1 Yr 8 mill. He stumbled in the World Series, but was pretty good otherwise.

Sign Joe Kelly 3yrs 45 mill. We all saw he was nails in the World Series, we need to replace Morrow, this is the guy.

Trade for Whitt Merrifield. Plays a great 2B, will hit leadoff, great speed 45 SBs last year.

Resign Freese 1 yr 7 mill

Grandal will accept the Qualifying Offer, im almost certain now after his playoff woes. If not, great! we will take the draft pick and let Barnes catch until Ruiz is ready.

*If Grandal leaves – Sign AJ Ellis for 1 yr 2 mill (great way to make Kershaw stay as well)

Mets Receive – Alex Verdugo, Will Smith, Dustin May

Dodgers Receive – Jacob Degrom, Degrom signs 5 year 150 mill extension.

Its time to make a big splash. The Dodgers are missing that second guy since Grienke left. Degrom, Kershaw, and Buehler would be devistating. Not to mention what a great role model for Buehler to learn from.

Kick the tires on Bryce Harper, go for him if he doesnt want something insane, but if he wants over 300mill, pass. Load up on pitching.

We pinched our pennies for a reason last year. To get under the luxary tax THIS YEAR, so spend like it was for a reason! It’s time to GO FOR IT, ALL IN, if it fails, it fails, 31 years is long enough.

Merrifield 2B

Seager SS

Turner 3B

Muncy 1B

Bellinger CF

Kemp/Taylor LF

Puig RF

Barnes C

Hernandez

Freese

Ellis

Taylor/Kemp

Pederson

Kershaw

Degrom

Buehler

Hill

Maeda/Urias

Maeda/Urias

Wood

Alexander

Baez

Kelly

Madsen

Jansen

Oriole guy was about what I expected, and with 20-20 foresight:-)

predicted when he was acquired. Not worth the $, nor will Bryce be,

whatever zaniness obtains.

Reasons for skepticism last two seasons, among others: could not see

a single starter worth betting a prop that he would win two games

in a five or seven-game series. Note that nary a Dodger starter

got even one win against Sox, even with the Sox’ top four ghosts ’til

Steve Pearce went bananas starting late in game 4. (and fully aware

that Walker and Rich were excellent. Even CK was good enough in

game 5 if the Ds lineup – Kike’ third?????? – could have made ordinary

contris).

Have never liked “boomball” teams in short series. Uppercuts bring

lower win totals…

If Kershaw is still a Dodger next year it is a sign that there is nothing better out there that the Dodgers are willing to spend on, and no young arms are close to being ready. Seager is a better hitter than Machado but will he be whole. Does the Boston Red Sox management just care more about fielding great teams or are they just way smarter than the Dodger management and owners. To be fair the Sox were head and shoulders better than any team I’ve laid eyes on in a while. Will they be next season? Dodgers need youth, good talented young pitching under salary control, and position players too. Ones that hit for average and power and get on base and drive in runs, and play great defense. Players good enough where suspect game management can’t hurt em.

Some excellent points:

I’ve been a big sign Machado guy, but upon further reflection he may not be worth the outlay that would be necessary to sign him. Right now, without knowing exactly who’s available in free agency, I’m leaning to the guy that I recall that AC targeted, namely DJ LeMahieu. Even with Seager returning, the Dodgers need to upgrade their infield, and LeMahieu is the perfect combination of offense and defense that they need.

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For me the guy that should be leading off next season is Alex Verdugo. Not worried that that would give the Dodgers two left handed hitters back to back at the top of the lineup. Let those guys see lefthander pitching on a regular basis and they will adjust. But without knowing the makeup of next years team, suggesting lineups really doesn’t make sense at this time.

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If Kershaw comes back, then I hope he does so with a new found changeup. For me, that’s the final piece needed for him to complete his transformation as a pitcher. If part of his problem now is the similar velocity of both his fastball and slider, then the fix for that is the change-up he currently does not possess.

Resign Kersh 6/200??? Really John??

While we’re at it, why not 4 years, 80mil for Madsen and 5 years ,125 for Brian Dozier

Red Sox made Dodgers look like a minor league team, (as they also did to Yankees and Astros). Let’s face it BOSOX were the team this year. That’s just a fact.

FAZ should be thankful to Sox, they really exposed all the Dodgers flaws, if FAZ are as smart as they think they are they should have a pretty easy time of knowing what needs fixing.

Ha, didn’t really need to be humiliate by Sox though, they could of been following ladodgertalk. Some pretty plain straight shooting on this site.

But still, we love our Dodgers and congratulations to a very classy team. Upward and Onward in 2019.

Yeah, maybe another 2 years for Kershaw. 6 years would be,

as they say, ” felony stupid”

Even Brother Ray can see that.

Ha ha, IMO.

After that long game and we were ahead by 4 runs in the 7th, I got emotional attached to this team more, because I never thought we could win in all this year, but I thought just like AC, we could win the National pennant because the National League was so extraordinary weak, this year.

That game is on Roberts, and I don’t like the way he handled his decision publicly after that game.

I don’t think Roberts is the total reason that move was made, so I think Roberts is not only probably protecting himself, he was protecting the guys in the front office too.

The swing of those two games, showed me how easy a team that is not the best team, can win a World Series.

And I am not saying the Red Sox were not the better team this year, but if we win Hill’s start, the whole momentum of this series, would have went to us.

And Cora’s management of his pitchers would have bit him in the but, but I like the way Cora runs a team, and his vision how baseball should really be played, too.

I think the Dodgers have to evolve like the other two super teams, the Astros and the Red Soxs, because this extreme saber metrics still hasn’t won a single World Series.

And I don’t care what anyone says, this constant changing in these line ups, with these platoon extremes, makes it harder for our players to hit consistently.

And that is why we need to play our best players throughout the season, so they will be able to hit both leftie and rightie pitching better, especially in the post season.

We can rest players throughout the season at times, but not all at the same time.

We are the second richest team in all of baseball, so we don’t have to constantly cut around the edges like the A’s and Rays, although at the same time, we shouldn’t spend our money recklessly either.

I don’t dislike Kike and Mark knows that, but the main reason Kike hit third yesterday was because he hit a HR in the game before, and that has been one of this team’s biggest problems all year.

Kike hit quite a few HRs in the first half of the season this year, but his offense was not necessarily consistent during that time.

But because Kike hit quite a few HRs early that caused Roberts to over play him, even though he wasn’t hitting consistently, and it got so bad, Kike hit 149 in July, but he played throughout July.

And to Kike’s credit, he had much better numbers in August, probably because he figured, he better change his approach.

Kike is not alone on this team when it comes to this stuff, he was just an easier to use as an example, because of this recent history, of yesterday’s game.

This front office puts so much importance on HRs and power, and because of that, we had almost an entire line up of 250, or below hitters with pop, instead of a balanced line up, like the Red Sox.

And because this front office values HRs so much, it isn’t unusual that our players don’t have the right approaches, at important times in games, and overall.

Although a lot of our hitters, can’t handle their bats well, because they are average or below, when it comes to hitting in general, too.

And because of this, we had a great run differential, but our run differential didn’t mean much, as almost everyone here knows.

Because this team had trouble having a consistent offense all season long, but for the most part, our pitchers prevented runs pretty well, too.

Our offense looked better then it really was, because we had games when we were facing subpar pitching, or just a pitcher having a bad day, and almost our entire line up would go deep but on this subpar pitching, but it was mostly when there was never a single runner on base.

Because even bad pitchers, pitch tougher when runners are on base, and even more, when runners were in scoring position.

One thing that was very apparent in this series, is that these long swings don’t hit many HRs against high velocity pitching, even if it is right over the plate.

And that one dimensional approach. actually makes it much easier for pitchers to pitch to these type of hitters.

Yes pitchers make mistakes, like the hanging curve Joc hit out, but most major leaguers, will hit those out, so that is not a great talent, in baseball today.

How about the Dodgers sign Trevor Rosenthal?