Armchair GM
Well, basically, that is what we all are in some form or another. I know that I have often thought, damn, I can do it better than he can, or what is he thinking? Armchair GM s also usually feel they are good managers too. Over the last several years, I have often disagreed with both Roberts and AF. I still feel Roberts, although a great communicator and player s manager, still
Well, basically, that is what we all are in some form or another. I know that I have often thought, damn, I can do it better than he can, or what is he thinking? Armchair GM’s also usually feel they are good managers too.
Over the last several years, I have often disagreed with both Roberts and AF. I still feel Roberts, although a great communicator and player’s manager, still plays favorites sometimes and sticks with his player, even when the player’s skill’s or production have deteriorated. I still also believe he is not a great or even very good baseball strategist.
As for AF, well I thought, especially when he first arrived on the scene that he was just acquiring players who were cheap and hoping for lightning in a bottle. That assumption was made because it seemed at the time that he was claiming almost every pitcher or player who was put on waivers.
Later because of what was written I found he was doing all of that to give the team some minor league depth while he transitioned the minor league system to his way of doing things. There were some very good players already in the pipeline at that time, and the team itself was starting to come together.
I of course, being as old school as I am, did not get all the sabermetric data he was using when he picked these player’s up. So for the better part of the time he has been in charge, I have scratched my head at almost every move. Agreed with some, disagreed with more. And yet, here we are 6 seasons later and they still are winning.
I also admit, I have mellowed a lot in those 6 years. I was more combative then, and more likely to start an argument. I still argue, and I still take issue with some of the moves made by both of those guys. But I also try to understand WHY, more.
The game itself has changed immensely from the game I played back in the day. I think because I have finally begun to accept that it will never be like that game again that I can finally enjoy this version of baseball a little more.
The 3 true outcome hitters have made the strikeout acceptable. Guys like Muncy and Pederson, as long as they keep the power numbers up have a value to the team. Muncy walks a lot. Joc prior to this truncated season, could be counted on to deliver a long ball when the team needed one. Yeah, he still struck out a lot, but he also had days when they could not get him out.
The best contact hitters on the team are Betts, Seager, Smith and Turner. Belli, Joc and Muncy are the 3 true outcome guys. Taylor, Barnes, Kike, Pollock and to some extent Rios and Beaty, are the streak hitters.
Being the armchair GM I am, I do not retain Joc or Kike. There are cheaper options in the chain. The starting staff will no doubt be bolstered next year by the return of Price. So, going into spring they will have Kersh, Price, Buehler, May, Gonsolin, Urias, Gray and White as the potential rotation staples.
My thinking is that they either need to decide on an in house replacement and PARTNER in the closer’s job next year, or at least trade or sign someone with that kind of experience. My thinking, and I am thinking as a GM now, is that Baez, Treinen, McGee, Alexander, Wood, and possibly Floro will not be returning. That is a chunk of salary right there.
I think Jansen will not be moved simply because of the 18 Million he is owed next season. I would resign Turner to a 2 year deal. No longer than that. And after his playing days I would do whatever I could to keep him in the organization.
Bullpen arms are easy to find. Getting the right mix is the trick. This year, at least through the regular season, the mix has been pretty good.
I honestly believe that over this winter, when he can look at film, and also have some sessions with the hitting guru’s on the team, that Bellinger is going to look a lot different come next year. He is too good of an athlete to not make adjustments.
He is also one of those guys who so far in his career is very good year, so so year, and then a very good year again. This year was somewhat of a downer. He should rebound nicely. Muncy has 2 more years on his deal.
I would guarantee he is not going to be happy about how this year has played out, and if healthy, he is going to be one of the harder workers in camp next season.
As for Roberts, his job is safe. Even if the team is beaten in this playoff, he is going nowhere unless the word comes down from ownership and they blame someone for the continued lack of a win in the World Series or not getting there. AF is definitely safe. He is the ownership’s fair haired boy.
I am often wrong, but aren’t we all? I love the game, and I love the team. They have been, and always will be a huge part of me. I got a message on Facebook from the wife of one of my friends here in town. She is up in the Springs with her daughter and her husband who are both huge Dodger fans. That right there shows we are everywhere.
We have endured over 30 years without the big prize. If it eludes us again, we will all analyze, and critique all off season. Make suggestions for changes that we all know the owners and FO are not even going to consider.
We will watch the winter meetings and the free agent moves and signings and when some star signs somewhere else when we know that guy would have been a perfect fit in blue, we will call the ownership cheap for not fulfilling our fantasy.
Happens every year they do not win. I have often said that AF has done nothing until the team crosses the finish line and brings home the trophy. The thing is, this year, because of everything that has happened, it is about as hard to do as anything they have ever done.
Just being in the bubble, playing for so long with no fans in the stands has changed the entire dynamic. And more changes are coming. The 3 hitter rule is not going away, and I am pretty sure the DH is in the NL to stay.
7 inning double headers will not return, but they still will be part of the minor leagues. The runner on second to start extra innings has garnered some support, but I do not believe it will be adopted. Some old school people dislike it a lot. One of them being Kershaw who said it is not real baseball.
The electronic strike zone is coming kids. Bank on it. For some it is something that should have been implemented a while ago. I also think that MLB, because of all of the controversy about how bad some of these umps are, will re-evaluate many of them before that happens and is implemented.
The QO this season is 18.9 million. I do not see a single free agent on the Dodgers who will be offered that kind of scratch. When the series is over, and after players declare, and teams make offers to the ones they want to keep, and implement the dual or team options they have on their players, it will be a lot easier to see who the Dodgers might target. Right now it would be nothing more than speculation.
I once again later in the year will pull out my armchair GM hat, and make my moves. Whether AF follows my lead or not, well, that remains to be seen! That is me and my brother Steve……my choice for the new Dodger manager! (Pictured) LOL
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Discussion (162)
Disagree, not disagreeable
This is a quote from Alex Wood before last nights game…..
I think one of the hard things for this team and this organization is that you get so used to you winning the division every year, you make a deep run in the postseason a lot of years, you have a lot of guys that have a lot of experience in these types of games. And so that’s great, but also it can become, you can start to feel stagnant a little bit at least speaking for myself. Passion-wise or that ability to get up for a big series in a big game when things like this have become almost expected and normal.
What kind of horse crap is that. You get paid millions of dollars to play a game and you want to talk about success. Someone tell Wood success is winning a WS, not winning a NL West crown. What an idiotic statement to make and an embarrassment as a big leaguer. I go to work everyday knowing I give a full days work for a full day of pay so I can make the mortgage, feed the family and he wants to say the team (at least him personally) might have a problem getting up for a big game. Lebron doesn’t have that problem, Joe Montana didn’t have that problem, Tom Brady doesn’t have that problem. Utter ignorance!
May obviously scared to death! The whole team playing scared! The Braves confident and aggressive! May not sharp from the beginning! Every brave pitcher Cy Young! Dodgers offense will be hard pressed to score much less 2. May only 23 I guess should have nerves after the first ballot hall of fame got roughed up. Although we were 1 hit by a 22 year old. I keep thinking how can this keep happening? Dominate year after year and then play scared. Roberts starts Pederson against lefty again. Roberts playing chess while we play checkers. Kkkkk
Who the hell do you bring in?!!!!!
I’ve seen enough of May. Time to go to the pen, but Doc will try to eek out another inning just to see May give up two more runs
I’ll take that back. Minter may pitch a complete game.
Losing 2-0, 48 pitches in, two men on and nobody up in the pen. He’s saving the guys for game 7 I guess.
The bottom of the lineup is doing this!
Start the bus, 32 years and counting, fandom is a rough life
Looks like a bullpen game for both teams.
The Dodgers are soooo unlucky. Every pitcher they face pitches really well!
Wow long night and more pathetic offense, wake up bums!!
Peak now or forever hold your peace Dodgers.
Wow! Talk about a team that doesn’t look ready to play! Pretty sloppy defense.
Swinging at ball four is a deal killer Max!
They need the real Mookie Betts asap
Lose and everybody is a critic. Win and everybody rejoices.
Not until one team wins 4 games will we be able to sort out the successes and the failures.
Hindsight plus Kershaw’s back issues says the right decision was to pull Kershaw after 5. His fifth inning was as good as his first four. Not great but effective. 89 pitches through 5 meant Roberts was hoping to get another 18 pitches (that is what he was averaging through 5), out of Kershaw and finish the 6th with 107 pitches or maybe he was going to pull him as soon as someone got on base. Either option has challenges.
Doc pinch hits for Joc who is locked in instead of hitting for Rios who is not locked in. Maybe a good decision but who could have guessed how much difference it made hitting Joc 5th and Rios 6th instead of the other way around. BTW Joc hit one fly fall to the warning track in center field and one to the wall in center field. Both balls were well hit and both would have been home runs in Dodger Stadium or maybe in Texas with the roof closed.
It’s not over until it’s over.
Winning 3 games in a row isn’t going to be easy against this team, but it’s definitely in the realm of possibility. Again… it’s the first team to win 4 games… so we just have to play one game and one inning at a time.
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I was not real happy with the strategy / approach at the plate last night. The wind was a huge factor… blowing in for much of the game, so right off the bat you should (as a team) come to the decision that there’s not going to be a lot of home runs hit and you should focus on making contact, putting the ball in play, and passing the baton. Very much like the Braves did in the 6th inning and the Dodgers did amazingly well in Game 3 against the Padres. Whether it was the game prior that made them take this approach or the fact that they thought the wind would be blowing out all game, as was reported it was before the start of the game… I’m not sure. But this team has a very hard time making adjustments throughout the game when needed… or in the case of Game 1, staying on script for more than a few innings when it looks like a strategy is working.
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You can definitely say that our relief pitchers did not execute last night… because in essence, they gave up a lot of hits and allowed runners to score. But what I also noticed is the overall pitching strategy seemed to be off. Kershaw wasn’t missing his locations in the 6th inning… he was locating them just fine. My question is… why are you pitching the ball middle in, to Freddy Freeman on a 1-2 count? Also, look at where ball placement is on the hits against Graterol… they are all essentially down the middle of the plate or middle in. Again… just like Kershaw… Graterol was hitting his locations with pin point accuracy… so that comes down to an overall strategy question. Yes, the Braves players still have to execute and hit those pitches… but it’s a little easier to hit those pitches when they are right in a players wheelhouse… even if the pitch is 100 mph.
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Lastly… baseball is definitely flukey and it can seem like one team is getting all the bounces and lucky breaks throughout a game and the other team is snake bit. It sure felt like that last night when their hits found holes and ours didn’t… or went a foot of two foul… or the wind kept an all be certain home run from going over the fence. But that’s baseball… I can live with that. What I have noticed lately though is that our positioning seems to be a little off. I have seen Freddie Freeman beat our shift against him several times in this series… which makes sense because he’s a great hitter and has said publicly that he loves when other teams put a shift on against him because it makes him a better hitter. But it seems like we have been out of position more times than not this series. In the 6th inning last night, after a flukey hit by Acuna and error by Kike, the very next hitter is Freddie Freeman and we have an extreme outfield shift put on him for some reason, where Mookie is playing closer to center field than he is to the foul line… a routine ground ball gets past the infield and goes all the way to the wall… Freeman gets a double and the momentum kept on rolling after that. Not sure why you would ever put a shift on Freddy in the first place… but it’s especially strange for a team to do it and then have the same strategy to pitch him inside… where he loves the ball and can easily pull one down the line.
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Anyway… it looks as if the Braves are changing their game plan and making adjustments much faster than we are… whether it’s game to game or during the game, based on what we’re doing and what our approach is at the plate, pitching, and fielding… and that’s just good playoff baseball. We seem to be a step or two behind in this series. If the front office isn’t able to see what’s going on and can make the necessary adjustments, then you have a manager, bench coach, hitting, and pitching coaches that should be able to make the necessary adjustments. And of course barring all that… you have the players themselves that should be able to make these in game adjustments when the initial strategy isn’t working. So as many people have already pointed out… this was a whole team loss last night. You just have to hope they can learn from their mistakes and piece things together… and do it very quickly.
That makes sense. Ha, but can they hit?
Today’s lineup:
Mookie
Seager
JT
Muncy
Smith
Belli
Pollock
Joc (DH)
CT3
Angels trainer who provided Skaggs with drugs indited by the grand jury,
Minter gets the open for the Braves. We know it is a bullpen day for the Atl. Seager hit a 3 run shot off of him in the comeback almost game
Maybe what this team needs isn’t a pat on the back, but someone to get in their face. Where’s Gibby when we need him?
Last night’s game was one where the Dodgers didn’t play well in any aspect of the game – they didn’t hit and the bullpen stank.
I didn’t think that Kershaw looked like himself all night. He was missing arm side which meant that he wasn’t coming all of the way around on his release point, probably because his back was still stiff. It’s also why his breaking stuff wasn’t crisp and why his velocity wasn’t up. For 5 innings, he got away with it. He’s a warrior.
I don’t fault Roberts except that he should have been ready to pull Kershaw out of there at the first sign of trouble.
Like I said before, no one executed last night – it’s everyone’s fault.
There’s a fun article by Cory Brock today in the Athletic on the 1970 Spokane Indians “Tommy’s Gang”. The best AAA team I ever saw.
I personally, am not making any comments about off-season transactions and personel until this season is over. There’s plenty of time when this season ends.
Here are my thoughts on last night:
* Andy McCullough of the Athletic this morning criticized Doc for leaving CK in to face Ozuna a 3rd time. It’s an easy criticism when you know the outcome. Dusty Baker stuck with his pitcher in the Cheato’s win yesterday and was lauded as a loyal Savant for keeping the guy in against the book. His move worked. Doc’s didn’t. Doc has made some mistakes for sure in the past, but trusting and sticking your Ace to face Ozuna wasn’t one of them.
* Nobody pitched well. Floro was closest, giving up a homer and 2 unearned when Beaty can’t catch the ball at first base.
* MLB does it again. With the bubble format and select, warm weather venues there is no fear of a rain out, snow out, freezing temps or a postponement. The game in San Diego with the Rays and Cheatos was perfect weather. So who in MLB decided to leave the friggin roof open to play in a windstorm in Arlington? The excuse was to keep the covid in the wide open spaces, like there isn’t enough ventilation with the roof closed and the folks in there aren’t pretty much quarantined? You got folks in hoodies and bundled up like they were playing in Boston or Philly in the snow with the wind whipping around like Candlestick. It was a a safety decision. Right. Piss in my ear and tell me it’s raining. Manfred and MLB have another cranial-rectal inversion.
* 2nd base has become an offensive Black Hole. Apparently CT3 has lost that job by hitting .143 (.429) with 11 K’s in 28 AB’s. His replacement, Kike, is hitting .182 (.762) with 5 K’s in 11 AB’s. Why is 2nd always a troublesome position year in and year out?
* Bottom line – a rookie shoves it up your nose. Apparently this line up didn’t read the Memo that Wilson gets lit up by left handed bats. The Dodgers get 2 runs, both by an unlikely DH, on 3 hits and 4 LOB. No Traffic. No production.
End of story.
If WAR is the Holy Grail of modern-day baseball then AF should find some mathematical savant to come up with a playoff WAR. 162 game WARs are fun to talk about and a nice stat to justify decisions and arguments but don’t seem to relate to short series. There must be some way to analytically measure something like a that. If not, it is just plain dumb luck.