It s Not Too Late to Save the Season

This is something we have seen very rarely …

3 outs ….. 3 k’s

From Dodgers’ Insider:

“As the Dodgers start this series 3-for-21 with runners in scoring position, one of the more surprising statistics Roberts said he found was the Dodgers lead the league in strikeouts on balls in the middle third of the plate.

“When we do get a good pitch to hit, middle-third, we’re swinging and missing it,” Roberts said. “One equation of that is it’s a good thing that we’re swinging at that pitch, but the other part is you still have to end the at-bat.””

–

They’re missing the pitches right down the middle!

I saw Barnes try to squeeze against Oakland in two consecutive ABs, one successful and one not so much. That approach speaks volumes to the confidence and ability Doc has in Barnes. He would rather try a squeeze than a sac fly knowing the alternative is a K, probably looking at a pitch that is center cut.

This team has too many of the same type of offensive players…not enough contact hitters and way too many Ks. Cody, Joc, Barnes, CT 0 for 3, Keekee are terrible contact hitters (HR or K w/ the exception of Barnes-he’s just a K). Fire Turner Ward and Brant Brown.

If there is no turnaround I must confess I look forward to the day I can watch a game without Puig, Keekee, Barnes and instead see Verdugo, Toles, Smith, Ruiz, Lux et al.

It can’t help the bullpen when the starter goes 4 innings 2 games in a row. I often watch the pitcher’s expression when Doc takes the ball and it is pretty uniform: the pitchers are not happy! I heard a rumor the recent stolen base binge was runners going on their own. That’s 2 signs Doc has lost the team, at least to me. I agree that too many times a pitcher hits in a crucial spot then gets yanked after 1 or 2 batters. I have seen 1 squeeze play all year and NO hit and run plays. Doc says his guys strike out too much for that approach to work. Bases loaded? Let’s hit a GS when a hit scores 2 and a 2B scores 3! Second and third with no outs? K, pop up, K is the norm and no accountability for it. Now Doc can’t be blamed for the injuries and lousy performance but he is the one making out the lineup each game and he is the one mismanaging the bullpen. I have seen enough of Joc and of Kike. Kemp is a first half player. Puig is wound so tight he might explode. Muncy is a good DH. Barnes has no confidence at the plate. CT3 needs to scrap launch angle and be the gap hitter he was born to be. Cody has all the talent in the world but is in love with the HR. Dozier, Manny, JT and Grandal are the only hitters I have confidence in and even they are not all that clutch this season. Mathematically they are still in this race and they do play the teams they are chasing again but I just don’t see them pulling a 180 and righting the ship. Some heads should roll for the lack of inspired play and sense of urgency that is missing in this years team.

I agree with Mark… I think firing Dave would be a good idea, but I just don’t see it happening before the end of the season.

–

Last week on the radio, it was alluded to that Dave has something like a script that he goes by each game… similar I guess to a football coach having the first 20-30 plays of the game planned ahead of time. Now if that is indeed true, the follow up question would be… does Dave and his coaching staff put that script together themselves? Does the Front Office give it to the coaching staff? Or is it some kind of collaboration?

–

And when it’s a major decision like… should we start Yu Darvish in game 7 of the world series… who’s word is the final word?

–

And hypothetically speaking… if the bulk of the decisions being made is coming from up above and they just need a manager who they feel they can easily control… then if the team doesn’t make it to the playoffs or gets knocked out quickly and Roberts is fired… wouldn’t the FO just replace him with another amenable manager.

–

After all… they didn’t pick Dave for his excellent coaching resume. He had managed the Padres for exactly 1 game prior to being hired by the Dodgers… and he didn’t even win that game.

–

And who knows… maybe most of the teams do this to one degree or another these days. But I really hope that my team would try to hire the best manager they could find (with a proven track record) and trust him to manage the team and make most of the in game / on the field decisions without much interference from the FO.

Just cannot believe the line up. Doc has no clue.

First of all we started the year horribly why? I blame Roberts as he had the laid back attitude that we will ease into the season. Kenley basically did nothing and performed accordingly. I don’t blame him that is how he was managed. It cost us 3-4 games and then turner got hurt so our leader and clutch hitter was out. Kershaw went down again. Our bp was awful but faz didn’t take notice. Roberts laid back no sense of urgency attitude set the tone. Roberts over and over would bat a pitcher in a risp situation only to take the pitcher out after the first batter in the next inning. He has continued to put Baez in high leverage situations only to backfire. He played Forsyth’s over and over with negative results. He refuses to start runners to stay out of the double play. A hitter gets hot so he sits him the next day. He has misused, mishandled his bullpen over and over. We had an August swoon last year and terrible this year. We are playing 500 at dodger stadium. HIs idiotic moves last year nearly cost us the home field advantage. I repeat he shows no sense of urgency no fire. I don’t know if it would be the right thing but I would fire him now and have Dusty Baker finish the year. If we don’t make the playoffs he needs to be fired anyway. He is a nice guy and the players are comfortable. Faz did not help him by not getting a solid bullpen guy. I haven’t give up this year but we can’t beat the cards, dbacks, rocks, and giants so how do we win? We haven’t won at home. Can’t hit with risp, and our bullpen is unacceptable. If you say we have all this talent then why aren’t we winning? It has to land at the managers feet. Somebody has to do something dramatic for us to snap out of this trance. Some said I was just complaining but then we went out and left 14 men on and our bullpen blew up so same old samo nothing changes.

PEDERSON

TURNER

MACHADO

BELLINGER

DOZIER

MUNCY

GRANDAL

PUIG

BUEHLER

un-fricken-beleivable, joc back at leadoff, I give up, I cant do this anymore

I’m not even convinced that Roberts makes the lineup. FAZ are way too involved, this is their own doing because they decided to hire a yes man for a manager. Remember that Mattingly was the same way. I think there is too much coincidence that both of them over platooned and never had the same lineup. The constant is FAZ, they need to stop running the games like a video game.

Some fascinating stats on this thread today, especially the one about attendance being down. However, I don’t think the lower attendance stat applies to the Dodgers; it likely does apply to a ton of other crappy teams/organizations/cities. We draw quite well; I know as I’m a season ticket holder, and after last year the Dodgers raised season ticket prices on all seats, and fans still didn’t cancel.

Whether Roberts is the problem, or the perceived problem, there’s no way he gets canned so long as we’re in this race. Let’s see how this final 35 shake out before we start making changes and planning for 2019.

I”m on record saying we’ll win this division, and have as good a chance as anyone of getting to the World Series again. I’ll stick with that until this goofy team proves me wrong. The Ace goes tonight, so let’s salvage 1 game of this series!

Ok guys, before we blow the whole damn thing up, borrowing a Mark quote, “Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water”. Let’s jog our memories a bit about how this season has gone.

1. Losing Turner for an extended period of time to start the season really affected us, and I think set the tone for this up and down, helter skelter season. Don’t forget when he was out how bad alot of the guys at bat approaches were. JT treats every at bat like it was his last, a friggin grinder. Next to Jansen, probably the most important glue guy on the team. Alot of the young pups got away from that approach, and a few of them are still struggling with bad habits.

2. Losing Seager, who we all know wasn’t right even back in August of last year, was big. If we have a healthy Seager, FAZ doesnt’ have to trade for Machado at the deadline and can instead get pitching help.

3. The disappearance of Chase Utley playing here and there is a subtle undercurrent. While we all know he has declined alot, just his presence on the field was kind of a toe the line thing for the other guys. They knew what Utley expected of them, both out in the field and at the plate. He and JT restored order. All you have to do is look at Kikes t-shirt to see how much Utley means to them. Also, every one of the young bucks were at his retirement press conference. This guy is huge to them. Not having him on the field every once in awhile, while not a huge deal, does have some affect.

4. Guggenheim. Mark and I believe AC touched on the infighting awhile back, and they speak truth. There are a few articles out there. They are currently being sued. This could go bad if they lose. With this going on, and the self imposed goal to be under the luxury tax, has to affect some of the player decisions FAZ can make.

5.Competition. Don’t forget, our front office got raided over the winter time. We lost Anthropolous to the Braves, Kapler to the Red Sox, who I believe took some of our lower tier of coaches with him. Also, we are not giving the other teams credit. Alot of NL teams got alot better over the winter. Both the Phillies and Braves got good a year sooner than expected. The Brewers got a whole lot better. The Cardinals, who are currently kicking our asses like they used to, are back after being bad for a few years. The Cubs made moves with us in mind. I also really think our bad start out of the gate gave the D-Bags and RockShow some confidence that they can take us down. We have yet to prove them wrong. I know you hate me quoting Uncle Ned all the time, but as he says, “Hey, the other guys get paid too, and don’t think for a minute anybody in the league feels sorry for us, because they don’t”.

6. Bullpen. FAZ has always been able to assemble a good bullpen over the last few years with a couple of cast offs here and there, and a guy or two that Honeycutt can fix. This year it didn’t happen. They haven’t changed their approach, just the guys they thought would turn into a Joe Blanton or Morrow for one season didn’t happen. Not going to roll lucky 7’s every year. That’s baseball. We all know how unpredictable bullpen pieces are.

7. Finally, Roberts. Before we all tar and feather Doc, don’t forget he was Manager of the Year his first season, and took us to Game 7 last year. If you compare his body of work to this year, he hasn’t changed his style, but the players have. We pretty much have the same core of guys as last year, but CT3, Barnes, and even Kike at times have been real bad this year. All of those guys were crucial last year, and they came through. Not so this year, but Doc is still trying to get them going, to a fault. Alot of the players are not having the season they had last year. We were not a boom or bust team last year, home run or nothing. Pretty much the same guys, even better with Machado and Dozier, but wildly inconsistent. The same moves that we trash Doc on, especially lately, worked for the most part last year. He is making some of those same moves based on what the players were last year, and some of them are just underperforming this season.. I still love Doc, but his biggest fault seems to be that he believes in his guys until the last breath, and it has hurt him the last month or so.

My last take is that I would hope that Doc gets back to his roots and demand that some of the regulars start battling for their at bats, put the ball in play, scratch, claw, walk, even take a ball in the side (Where are you Chase)to get on base. Mark used to talk about us being junkyard dogs last year, and I know Doc used to be like that. He needs to pass that on before it gets too late. Because right now I see alot of lap dogs.

Per TrueBlueLA:

“The Dodgers are 17-21 in one-run games this season, and they’re 2-7 in one-run affairs in the month of August so far. ”

“Last year the Dodgers had the best record in baseball, 104-58, and were 25-19 in one-run games. ”

“The Dodgers’ bullpen has blown 23 saves, three fewer than the Giants who lead the majors with 26 blown saves and 7 more than last season. ”

“The Dodgers are hitting .231 in high-leverage situations this year. That’s 37 points lower than last year’s team. They’re simply less clutch this year. “

When the Dodgers were playing from May to the all star break, was Roberts using the same lineups as he is now? I don’t think the problem is Roberts. Our problem is that the Dodgers have a lineup that has hitters, with the exception of Tuner,with averages ranging from .200 – .260. How can you have a sustained level of hitting when virtually the entire team will make outs 3 out of every 4 times. Couple that with excessive number of strikeouts ( which preclude making productive outs) and you end up with the Dodger offense.

As a leadoff hitter, Joc Pederson is hitting an amazing .220 but has an incredible .286 OB%! (sarcasm)

–

What idiot bats him leadoff?

–

Doc is dumber than a bag of hammers!

I agree with Mark and AC. It is too late. Doc should be fired now but won’t. The players will continue to hit HR, SO, or walk. No thought of a productive out. I watch the Dodgers until the 4-5 innings and then go to bed. CT did get two hits last night and did hit the ball hard on the one out. Who knows. Just maybe he may start hitting like last year. Doubt it. Joc is a horrible lead off batter. I hate Puig’s antics at the plate. We do not have one good outfielder right now and yet they will not bring Toles and Verdugo up. Why? I firmly believe they would have to do something with Joc and who ever else and they will not do it. They are going to wait until September 1st. They do not want to hurt someone’s feelings. No guts.

I think Mark Walter and Co. need to figure out what’s the best direction for the team to go from here and to keep in mind their ultra-loyal fan base. Thirty years and counting is ridiculous. Do you keep it status quo? Do you replace Roberts? Do you replace FAZ? Do you replace them all? I’m beginning to think a clean sweep may be in order.

Really interesting read about the team that has turned high-contact, low-power middle infielders Ramirez and Lindor into power-hitting superstars….

`

what about this lineup toles, turner, machado, Bellinger, dozier, grandala, Verdugo, puig

Interesting commentary, but not without merit. I do not believe that a different manager can turn this around. I am not sure Doc can either. But at this juncture, IMO he is the only one that can. Sometimes it is not the manager, but how the team is put together. Look at the Nats. Everybody thought that it was Dusty who was the problem. Dave Martinez had more offensive weapons with Eaton and Soto, and yet the team is a .500 team. Sure Strasburg has been hurt, but he was hurt under Dusty as well. They traded for a solid bullpen last year (Kintzler, Madsen, Doolittle), and they all started with the Nats this year. Kintzler was traded to Chicago at the deadline, but he led the Nats with 15 holds. They also added Herrera this year. They are just an under-performing team.

.

I believe the Dodgers problems are more deep rooted. The overall offensive strategy seems to be power, power, and more power. Strikeouts? No problem, just give me that HR. Don’t worry about hitting behind the runner to get that extra base. That seems to be the philosophy up and down the organization. Change launch angles and swing hard. Not every batter has the eye that JT has, and the results are not necessarily going to be duplicated. Outside of JT and Machado, the Dodgers are not getting any BA. Belli is starting to warm up, but is it too little too late? Puig remains an enigma,

.

The much maligned bullpen was put together by FAZ. Mark and I disagree about how much FAZ values a bullpen. But with 35 games to go, the bullpen is still a problem. Cingrani is probably done, Fields may be back soon. He pitched a scoreless inning yesterday. Hudson comes off the DL to gives up a 2 Run HR. Chargois back on the DL. Venditte back on the roster apparently in name only as he generally sits in the bullpen and gets returned without pitching. Who knows who the real Axford is, or whether he is going to back. Koehler did not pitch 1 inning for the team. Rosscup pitches an immaculate inning and he finds himself back on the DL the next day. Garcia is probably going to be back at some point. He also pitched a scoreless inning last night. Baez will get everyone’s hopes up, and then get hammered. He is not reliable; cannot be a late inning high leverage producer. So the current roster is going to rely on starters (Maeda/Ferguson/Stripling or Wood/Stewart in Sept) to be the key participants leading up to Jansen, who also has under-performed this year.

.

FAZ certainly deserves some scrutiny for their roster structure, but it is Doc that keeps CT3 in the lineup even though he leads the NL in Ks. He is the one that continues to put Joc in the leadoff spot even though his numbers are dismal in the leadoff or #2 slot. But they are very good in the 5th and 6th slot. Kike’ has more PA this year than any other year. Why? I think the 18 HRs has something to do with that. Again that fascination for HRs. His lineup on Monday included Kike’, CT3, Barnes, and pitcher in 6-9 order of the lineup. That is just the latest in questionable lineups. That is all on Doc. His usage of the bullpen is curious at the very least and incomprehensible to many.

.

Why hasn’t Doc gone to Zaidi and tell him get me someone who can make contact and send some of these power only bats back to OKC until they learn how to change their approach, especially with 2 strikes, and make that point clear as they are demoted. Be specific…why do I not have Verdugo and/or Toles and/or Locastro on my roster. Another question that he may not be able to answer…what has happened to Machado’s bat to ball skills? Dozier is an improvement over Forsythe, but IMO that trade was made more to bring salary down. Yes he is better, but primarily because of his power. And before someone tells me that his job is to manage and Farhan is the GM, then I question why Doc took the job if he has no say in how the 25 man is put together. Why isn’t Verdugo and/or Toles not on the 25 man? Now, not Sept 1.

.

There is a lot of blame to go around, including (and mostly) the players themselves. But if they are not held accountable for their inabilities, why should they change?

1- Managers aren’t fired this late in a season unless the team is throwing in the towel and they are not in contention. Roberts isn’t going anywhere – at least for now.

2 – The comment “This team is built to win a World Series!” is manifestly untrue. The team has 2 major design flaw. Not enough guys making enough contact, crummy bullpen. It’s been true all year long. No hitting with RISP, no “productive outs”, everyone is just working on their launch angle and trying to hit everything out.

Rudy Byrd posted a link to an article the other day which made several good points.

Here are a few comments from the article which apply to the Dodgers:

* Says Hall of Famer Don Sutton, now an analyst for Atlanta Braves television broadcasts: “As soon as somebody decides it’s not a good idea, then people will draft differently. They’ll train differently. But right now it’s about the home run and the strikeout and give me five good innings [from a starting pitcher]. ”

*• The ball is not put in play in roughly a third of all plate appearances, 31.6 percent of which end in a strikeout, walk or hit batter.

• The .248 MLB batting average is the lowest since 1972, the season before the American League instituted the designated hitter, when it was .244.

• There were more strikeouts than hits in a month for the first time in MLB history in April and, through early August, MLB had accumulated more strikeouts than hits overall. The race is on for whether it will happen in a full season for the first time.

• Emotion and energy is being drained from the game one replay and administrative move at a time (see above re: takeout slides and home plate collisions). Games are averaging about three hours in length and replays almost one-and-a-half minutes per review, according to Maury Brown in a story written for Forbes.com in April.

Perhaps not coincidentally, per-game attendance this season has dropped to its lowest point in 15 years. And longtime baseball people shake their heads at the bland sameness of it all.

“It’s the most boring game I’ve ever been to, and it’s every night,” says one scout who has been in the game for 50 years. “You know exactly what’s going to happen before it starts.”

There has been a grand total of 24 complete games in the American League and 10 in the National League. As recently as 10 years ago, in 2008, there were 75 complete games in the AL and 61 in the NL. Ten years before that? AL pitchers fired 141 complete games, and NL pitchers checked in with 161.

Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated in June noted there is more dead time per game than ever before and that the average time between balls in play is three minutes, 45 seconds.

Speaking of those loftier heights, home runs, through the first week of August, accounted for 40.2 percent of all runs scored this season, according to Elias. Though that is down a tick from last year’s 42.3 percent, this is the third consecutive season the number of runs scored on homers has been 40 percent or higher.

Even in 1961, an expansion season that featured the Roger Maris-Mickey Mantle assault on Babe Ruth’s single-season record of 60 homers, long balls accounted for only 33.4 percent of all runs scored. And 53 years later, in 2014, the figure was still the same, 33.4 percent.

Time after time in today’s game, players insist on swinging for the fences. It is the path to riches—salary arbitration hearings and free-agent negotiations usually don’t hinge on “productive outs” and other little things that help teams win. And across the game, clubs tolerate strikeouts in a way they once didn’t.

Whiffs this season are at an all-time high, gobbling up 22.1 percent of all plate appearances. Through Sunday, 15 of 30 teams had more strikeouts than hits.

The design flaw in the Dodgers is a nearly-league-wide problem. BUT – if it’s all going to be swinging for the fences and 5 inning starts from your rotation, then you’d better hit some of your HRs with runners on base and you’d better get good innings from your bullpen, and the Dodgers have trouble with both of these.

Hope we don’t miss out by 1 game!

–

Remember Keke pitching the 16th inning at Citizens Bank Park when Rich Hill was ready?

–

That complacency from Roberts set a very bad tone.

The fat lady hasn’t sung yet – but she’s clearing her throat.

–

I tend to agree with Mark. If the Dodgers expect to be in the playoffs this year something dramatic will have to happen. We have watched uninspired play with moments of greatness all season long. And at the moment we seem to be regressing.

–

Dodgerrick told us in April that all of those lost games would come back to haunt us in September. And he was right.

The lineups need to change. Call up Verdugo. Need Bullpen help. Hitting approach has to change. The NL needs a DH. Call up Toles. They need to play with some fire. The fans deserve it. I also dont care about luxury tax nonsense.

Luis Avilan was traded to the Phillies for that Loogy they need.

.

McCutcheon is sitting tonight as the trade winds are swirling. The Giants have to move Cutch as the loss of his salary will drop them well below the luxury tax threshold.

Taking a team to the NLCS and WS in your first two years managing the team gets Doc a very long leash. I’ve certainly been critical of his game management but he won’t be fired. Will the FO demand some changes ie Ward must go, perhaps Honeycutt retires and maybe a new bench coach to replace Geren but he won’t be fired.

If the FO wants to be completely transparent they have to do some circumspection and realize they could have also performed much better. The BP construction has been terrible, remaining with CT 0 for 3, Keekee, Barnes and Forsythe for as long as they have is highly questionable, Koehler was an injury risk to begin with.

If it’s a results driven equation for Doc it’s also the same for the FO and they haven’t been stellar either.

If they don’t make the playoffs I would expect some changes to the coaching staff and the FO, starting with Gasparino who failed to get the first round pick signed, and Byrnes who doesn’t do much anyway. Tuner ward has to go, it’s one thing to see the continued poor contact by so

Many Dodgers but the hitting with RISP and the lack of a fundamental approach is utterly astounding. What the heck was Puig and Dozier doing with less than two outs and runners on third and second. Hit a freaking fly ball and score a freaking run.

I know I go to many ballgames per year and with the dynamic pricing I was paying 65.00 for the reserve level on a Friday night, parked the car for 15.00 and bought a dodger dog and soda for 15.00.

Unless there are changes I won’t be doing that again anytime soon.