It's Over Now!
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…
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 failed to hit. PERIOD! It was just like last year… and the year before. I detect a trend…
The Dodgers team ERA was 6.58 in the playoffs. Another 100-win team was Baltimore and they were worse with a 7.27 ERA. The Arizona Diamondbacks ERA was 2.20. Do you see the problem here? The Dodgers had a team OPS of .498, while the Diamondbacks were nearly 400 points higher at .877. The Diamondbacks have hit 13 Home Runs in five games, while the Dodgers have but one in three games. The team batting average was an anemic .177!
So, we have to blame someone… anyone… Right? Where do we start?
Andrew Friedman – Start at the top, Blame the guy in charge, “He knows how to build a team that wins 100 games but can’t win in the playoffs.” So, you expect me to believe that winning three games is harder than winning a 100? 5 out of 4 people struggle with math. “Well, he did not trade for any good starters after May, Gonsolin, Kershaw, and Company were injured!” There are two things here: (1) Teams have repeatedly demonstrated that method is not the path to winning (many of you wanted Jack Flaherty. His ERA after he was traded to the Orioles was 6.75), and (2) THE PITCHING WAS NOT WHY THE DODGERS LOST THE SERIES TO THE D-BACKS! Andrew traded for Mookie Betts and signed Freddie Freeman, and both were Top Five players in the NL this year. They were good enough to win 100 games, but not three!
Dave Roberts – Of course, there is the “Fire Doc” faction, even though he has the best all-time winning percentage of any manager ever in the history of modern baseball! Of course, some of you say, “Well, anyone can win with the teams he has.” That contradicts anyone who has a beef with Freidman and there are a few that do. I think that the Dodgers will have Dave Roberts back, but this is something that has to be considered. Ultimately, I think that this is not the problem. People love to second guess what a manager does because it somehow empowers them. People second-guess because they think there are ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answers or ways of doing things. Since they believe there is the perfect answer to a problem, they get caught in a conundrum of questioning decisions and believing that they know better. Of course, with second-guessing, they are always right, and that makes them feel smarter too. Can Roberts improve on anything? Of course, but he will be back in 2023, I believe.
Robert Van Socyoc – Now, we are getting somewhere! “It’s the all-or-nothing approach. Teams that rely on the home run can be easily beaten!” Yeah, that’s the ticket. RVS can resurrect JD Martinez’s career along with Jason Heyward. He can help James Outman improve his “caveman swing” and help Mookie and Freddie be candidates for MVP, but you can’t be too reliant on the home run in the playoffs. Whoops, the D-Backs have 13 HR in the playoffs. The three teams in the playoffs still alive, are all reliant on the home run this postseason. I am sure that the Dodgers will look at RVS with a microscope up his butt, but ultimately, who is better?
Mark Prior – He seems to be able to help pitchers resurrect their careers (yes, it didn’t work with Thor because he thought the Dodgers could get him back to throwing in triple digits again, as he also believes in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny). Mark Prior’s arms problems de-railed a Hall-of-Fame career. Maybe he knows too much about contorting the arms and spinning the ball, which causes arms to blow out with more regularity? I am being serious. That has to be looked at. The Dodgers have had an unusually high number of arm issues. Dodger pitchers led MLB with over 2,200 man games lost to the IL. Could it be that Prior is “too good” at his job? Ultimately, I think Prior will also be back, but he will also have a colonoscopy!
The Players – How about the guys who failed to hit? Let me list them: Mookie (.000 BA), Freddie (.100 BA), JDM (.200 BA), Muncy (.182 BA), Peralta (.167 BA) Outman (.000 BA). Kudos to Will Smith, who hit .417, Kike Hernandez, who hit .375, and Miguel Rojas, who hit .333. Other than Smith, Hernandez, and Rojas, the entire offensive team sucked so much that they choked! When all of your leaders hit like sissies, the team goes home. The Dodgers are where they belong and where they deserve: at home!
I think the real culprit is Bill Plaschke, who cursed the Dodgers by saying they were going to in the World Series. Instead, the Diamondbacks sent them home with their tails between their legs. Disgraced and ridiculed on the biggest stage. The fans are clamoring for someone’s head, and there is a saying that “It better to hang some feller than no feller!” This feels like a lynch mob. No rational thinking – just hang someone! The video below says it all.
Mookie barely hit .200 in 2018 when the Red Sox won the World Series. In 2020, he hit .296 in the playoffs and World Series. In 2021, it was .319, but then in 2022 and 2023, he hit .143 and .000, respectively. Freddie Freeman has a career BA of .291 with a .402 OB% and a .933 OPS in all of the combined playoffs, while Mookie has a pedestrian .256 BA/.338 OB% and a weak .722 OPS in all the combined playoffs. He is an amazing athlete who can bowl 300 but can’t lead HIS TEAM to a win in the playoffs.
You may never see another team like this. It’s a team full of good character, guys… Guys who help little old ladies across the street and visit sick children in hospitals. They do a lot for the community and each other. Their character is impeccable, and they can win 100 games, but they can’t win three when it counts! There will be lots of changes next season. Joe Kelly, Lance Lynn, Shelby Miller, Jimmy Nelson, Clayton Kershaw, David Peralta, Kolten Wong, JD Martinez, Chris Taylor and even Jason Heyward could all be gone. Maybe the team needs a Juan Soto in LF and will cough up the prospects. Maybe Blake Snell will become a Dodger. Maybe Shohei Ohtani comes to Chavez Ravine. Maybe they sign the Japanese dude.
Get ready for the winds of change. It’s in the air!
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Discussion (129)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Listen to the video that had Freeman and Betts talking in it that Mark provided up top. Start it at the 2 minute 45 second mark. The reporter asked Betts “is there a flaw in the playoff format” and Betts gave a quick answer of “no comment”.
1) Could it be that Betts doesn’t like 6 teams allowed in the playoffs in each league because it makes for a crapshoot?
2) Could it be other players feel the same way?
3) Could it be that Betts is suppose to shut up when asked this question because it’s all about more money?
You make the call.
In regular season games a couple batters in a row get singles and Doc pulls the starter, last night Lynn gives up 3hr in a row and and he gets the opportunity to make it a foursome. Is there anyway that makes sense. And then in 5 more innings the DBacks don’t score another run. Roberts should have started the bullpen right from the beginning, game one.
And obviously let them bat also, every bullpen pitcher should have pinch hit. Come on !
Has this become a negative self fulfilling prophecy for this core group?
Big fish – small pond. One WS win in 30+ years – a trend not an aberration. How is it that the Dodgers and Kershaw repeatedly look vastly overrated when the playoffs begin? It is hard not to attribute the post season failures of the Dodgers and Kershaw to the same source. For the last 2+ decades, the NLWest has typically been the weakest division in all of baseball. During this stretch the Dodgers and Kershaw have played half of their games each season against primarily sub-.500 teams. Example – The Padres recently went 10 straight years below .500. This year, the Padres prevented the league from having 3 sub .500 teams (a rarity) by ending up at .506. but still lost 9 of 13 to the Dodgers.
I find the post-mortem analysis a little reactionary.
Consider this:
1 – The Dodgers had no healthy starting pitchers from the anticipated rotation and still won 100 games.
2 – The rotation that was left was not ever going to be competitive in the post-season. Untested rookies, injured Hall of Famers, and bomb-throwing veterans – a bad combination.
3 – It was always going to be up to the offense to win games. The offense cooled off the last 3 weeks of the season and never heated up.
4 – What exactly was Roberts supposed to do in this situation? Maybe lift Lynn before he could give up 4 bombs, but otherwise? Winning 100 games with this squad was the best managing job that Roberts has done yet. No way he’s leaving.
5 – Friedman tried to bring in SP at the deadline but there wasn’t much to be had. As has been pointed out, only a couple of guys that were moved at the deadline have pitched well and one of them (Verlander) was never available.
In short, the Dodgers did better than I expected. While another post-season loss to a lesser team is VERY PAINFUL, the season was fun.
What do they do going forward?
A – This was always going to be a transitional year. They left expensive veteran talent leave and didn’t sign any big names last off-season. As Mark noted, there’s going to be a lot of turnover again this off-season. Will the roster spots be filled with more untested or thus far unsuccessful rookies, or with expensive free agents or trade acquisitions?
B – Rookies who have impressed thus far – Miller, Pepiot, Outman. Those who have not: Grove, Sheehan, Stone, Busch, Vargas. Will any of the latter play better next year? Who knows?
C – Things that have to change next year:
*No Muncy at 3B
*Starting pitching from outside the organization – Buehler and May are big questionmarks going forward and Gonsolin won’t be back next year. Urias is gone and Kershaw is a questionmark. Miller and Pepiot look like rotation candidates going forward but they need more than 2 SP.
*They will potentially have vacancies at 3B, 2B (or SS), LF. Who plays there?
*Do they bring any of the free agents back? If Muncy moves to DH, then no to JD Martinez. (And no to Ohtani – he can only DH for now). Maybe they trade Max? No to Peralta. Maybe to Heyward? No to Kike Hernandez. No to Lynn, Kelly, all of the injured pitchers who are on the IL, etc.
Change of pace…… What are the Astros doing???? 7th straight ALCS. They’ve lost some of their main cheaters and continue year after year to win in the playoffs. I’m jealous!!
The week lay off didn’t help
I see now that I’m looking at this game and series all wrong. It was not an epic and ignominious collapse and defeat by the Dodgers, it was an epic triumph and win by the DBacks.
Look it could be worse.
We could be Mets, Yankees, Royals Twins, Rockies, Pirates etc etc etc fans.
Truth of the matter is winning a WS is hard, damn hard.
You do have to get hot at the right time. Mostly likely 3, 100 win teams and the best 3 teams in Baseball wont make the LCS.
Not excusing anyone’s play because we were bad, but its fricking hard to win a WS.
Ill always cherish 2020 because that may have been one of the toughest to ever have been won. We peaked at the right time, but one more loss to ATL and we wouldn’t have.
Lets enjoy the journey back to the mountaintop because it is coming, will it be 24, 25, 26. Heck I dont know but it IS coming….
Go Rams!
I snapped awake this morning, still in my recliner, from the worst nightmare. In my nightmare, it was smoky, like an old black and white noir movie, and through the hazy I could hear a voice that sounded like Rod Serling, but his partner kept calling him Bob. And he was broadcasting the Dodger – D-Backs game that I was watching before nodding off.
The faces and the names in my nightmare looked familiar but they weren’t playing right. They didn’t look the same. Every Dodger face looked pale, hollow eyed and in shock. Every player looked dazed and confused. There was no life in their faces and joy in their play. They looked like someone stole their hearts. Gone was the happy, joyful play and the great team chemistry. Nobody doing the Freddie.
The D-Backs had hit 4 homers in one inning, in this stupid dream. Yeah, like that would ever happen? And get this – they were all hit off the same pitcher, like he’d still be in the game after the 3rd one?
So, am getting up out of my chair, turn off the episode of “Friends” on TBS this morning, grab some coffee to shake out the cobwebs and turn on my DVR. I can’t wait to watch last night’s game that I recorded it in case I fell asleep early in my chair.
Good regular season, and the usual terrible ending. Hope AF with money to spend this offseason signs players that can perform in October. I wish all the bloggers on this site a healthy safe Fall and Winter. Approximately 120 days till pitchers and catchers.Enjoy!!
Not like we weren’t sweating the top of the rotation . We came up short on starters – no surprises here.
Easily fixed next season. We shall rise once again.
How about dem Lakers !
Always liked Mike Batts Winds of change much better than the Scorpions.
It is a true classic. The lyrics with that amazing melody always give me goosebumps.
As for the Dodger; Wait til next year.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Remember this was the year that the Padres were the team to beat not LA. I give full credit to Doc for taking this team to 100 wins especially with a deceminated starting rotation. Most other teams would have fallen apart. As for the lack of success in the playoffs, the hitting disappeared again. I am not sure how one fixes this… These players had very successful results during the regular season only to go cold in the playoffs. AGAIN!
We are very fortunate fans to have a team year after year kick butt. We are spoiled. That being said, it would be nice to win one once in awhile.
Driman
So the end to a thoroughly enjoyable “Transitional” season, was a little earlier than many had anticipated.
For me, it was far more than I had expected, and gives great hope going forward into 24 and beyond.
The emergence of so many young players who have now gained invaluable experience
A raft of affordable, controllable young arms and the improvement in James Outman, added to the remodelled Vargas plus the return of Gavin Lux and Walker Beuhler give great optimism.
So much money coming off the books gives great opportunity for AF to do his thing.
When the dust settles, this has been a great season. People are hurting and eager to put blame at certain doors but the reality is this was not going to be our year. Too many Starting Pitchers going down and Kershaw unfortunately coming to the end of the road, meant that we couldn’t compete in the higher quality Post Season.
Yes Mookie and Freddie were disappointing in October, but they were the best one/ two in Baseball and both were in the MVP conversation. They went cold. It happens.
I sincerely hope that Clayton rides off into the sunset and enjoys his family life.
Time to face reality. Him being around only clouds things in the Front Office and makes things complicated for Roberts, who had his best season managing the team.
He really did a great job of patching a Pitching Staff together, and his use of the Bullpen was his best effort yet. This one’s not on him.
It was disappointing to see so many people here dismissing a very good, young hungry Arizona team after the first series of the season back in April.
Labelled a .500 team at best, and that they’d fade in the second half due to their perceived lack of depth, they came back to bite us with a vengeance. Anyone who’d taken notice in the second half of 22 could see they would be a force.
Sham Diego and NYM are great examples of why trying to buy success doesn’t work. It’s about growth from within engendering a spirit and togetherness plus good player development which we know the Dodgers excel at. The D’Backs are a great example of this, but the difference is that we have far more financial clout to secure any top level Free Agents.
If this was a “Transitional” year(100 wins is an amazing achievement), then I’m
looking forward to the next already.
Remember this was the year that the Padres were the team to beat not LA. I give full credit to Doc for taking this team to 100 wins especially with a deceminated starting rotation. Most other teams would have fallen apart. As for the lack of success in the playoffs, the hitting disappeared again. I am not sure how one fixes this… These players had very successful results during the regular season only to go cold in the playoffs. AGAIN!
We are very fortunate fans to have a team year after year kick butt. We are spoiled. That being said, it would be nice to one once in awhile.
Driman
I actually believed the Dodgers could win two straight in Phoenix and bring it back home for the win. Hats off to those here who were not so naive and were realistically pessimistic. There is no way to sugarcoat this embarrassment. The 100 win accolades for this team stand in vivid contrast to the humiliation of being crushed like an empty aluminum soda can in the playoffs , by a team you owned in the regular season.
What a disappointment. I heard on the Dan Patrick radio show this morning that the Dodgers have won 100+ games in franchise history 10 time and have not won the World Series in any of those ten seasons. Unbelievable. The only thing that was not a disappointment was the bullpen. Credit to Mark, who told us all year that they would turn it around… but 6 runs in three games from the offense against an 84 win team… PATHETIC.
I will make my comments in my next post, which I am working on now. But this I know for certain. Roberts will not be fired, nor will he leave on his own. Not with this bad taste in his mouth. He has two years left on the extension he signed last winter, and I doubt the Dodgers want to pay two managers at once. Freidman is going nowhere either. There will probably be some coaching changes. Showalter is probably getting the Angels job and Francona is done. Especially because of his health. I would not be surprised to see a couple of Dodger execs poached again by other teams nor a couple of coaches replaced because they have moved to other teams. I can see Barbary being elevated to the major league club. The only player with his future totally in his own hands is Kershaw. The Dodgers will let him make the decision on whether or not he keeps playing in LA, retires, or becomes a free agent and signs elsewhere. Only three Dodgers have contracts of two years or more. Betts, Freeman and Taylor.
Time to change up the buddy buddy country club atmosphere in the clubhouse. Less puppy dog and more pit bull. Too difficult to bring in fiery leadership as players, and that’s not who Mookie and Freddie are. So as much as I like Doc and don’t blame him, I think a new manager is needed. And not some rookie manager. Strong leadership. Showalter would work for me. Someone to get in some faces and put some fire into this team! Have to go in a different direction even if it means less regular season success. These Octobers demand a change!
anyone else wish Corey Seager was still here? i know the california tax was a roadblock, but that bat would’ve helped a lot, maybe not enough to save them this year, but he’s a stud! if mookie is full time second baseman year, maybe we need 2 outfielders not named peralta or kiki! heyward on the bench is ok. sure they averaged over 6 runs a game, but they could also go ice cold for lengthy stretches. agree , chemistry and character matter, but .230 hitters aren’t hard to find, and we seem to have more than enough of those. i’ve seen the rumors floating about Doc. not gonna blame him for this , but the dodgers are heading for the tutu of regular season champs! but no postseason glory. i hope Lance Lynn signs with the Friars!
So one guy I certainly do not blame is Roberts. He puts the guys out there and they have to do the job. We handled Arizona during the season and should have done it in October. We beat those starting pitchers. So we knew we were weak in starters going in. So plan was to have them go 4-5 innings and turn it over to our great relievers, hopefully to hold a LEAD. So that didn’t work as all three starter failed to do the assignment.. Game 1.-ok that game was over in 2nd inning. But other 2 games were winnable. So I say that’s all on Mookie and Freddie. JDM and Max had 100+ RBIs because they came up with those guys on base. The guy that we thought was used up and tired-Smith- came thru. And Kike being Kike.
You make a strong case why Doc and some coaches won’t be fired, but only one number matters when a team has been to the post season 11 straight seasons and that is how many championships have you won. AF has most likely explained OPS, ERA, SLG and all the other sabermetric stuff to the ownership group and while they’ve probably been educated on some “inside baseball” stuff at the end of the day they want championships. I’m not saying it makes empirical sense to fire some coaches, but millions of fans need to see a change, feel a change, hold out hope that better days are ahead with better results. To that end, changes are indeed coming.
When players are traded and suddenly put up better numbers with the new team we often hear it’s because a change of scenery was all the player needed. I believe that to be true here and that is why this team, the coaching staff, and even perhaps the manager will look much different next year. Some of my prognostications will occur, some will
not, but here goes. Yes, these are wild ass guesses…..
1. Doc will not be fired, but he will leave on his own and will be hired by the Giants, Guardians or some other MLB team.
2. Brandon Gomes will get the Red Sox Chief of Baseball Operations job and Chaim Bloom will reunite with AF and become the Dodgers GM.
3. Gabe Kapler will reunite with the Dodgers in some front office job. He will not replace Doc.
4. Travis Barbary who led the OKC Dodgers to a PCL pennant will be strongly considered to replace Doc. We’ll also hear Showalter and Francona as possibilities, but Barbary gets the job.
5. CK will retire.
6. Muncy’s option will get picked up and he will be slated as the full time DH. They have to get his stone hands out of the IF. When he slumps horribly or gets injured Will Smith will DH.
7. JDM is not coming back.
8. Peralta is gone.
9. I put a new Heyward contract at 50/50 right now.
10. Hernandez does not return.
11. Rojas becomes the Swiss Army Knife.
12. Lux will be given the SS job.
13. Busch is next year’s 3B.
14. Vargas is used in an off season trade for more pitching.
15. The transition with more youth will continue as a combination of Pepiot, Miller, Sheehan, Stone, Grove and others will be in the opening day rotation.
16. AF might cash in his ownership stake with the Dodgers and try his hand at another storied MLB franchise the Red Sox. If the Red Sox ownership group indeed wants AF and he leaves, look for Gomes to stay with the Dodgers and be elevated to the Chief of Baseball Operations gig or Josh Byrnes might inherit that role.
17. RVS is gone.
18. If AF stays ownership will instruct AF to quit wasting money on player contracts who do not contribute (Freyersian, Reyes, Nelson, Kahnle, Treinen, Hudson, Duffy) or minimally get some better surgical/health analytics about the expected recovery of the players coming off injury.
19. Ohtani will be signed.
20. Snell will be signed.
One, two, ten or none of the 20 things will happen this off season. I have no “inside source” and these musings are emotional over a morning cup of coffee. I’m not certain what will happen, but even Ray Charles can see changes are coming.
Extremely disappointing.
But we will be all be right back when winter turns to spring.
It sucks but you have to enjoy the journey, and I enjoyed this season, up to the last 3 games.
See you in ’24
Austin Barnes
Pinch hitting swings at the first pitch , come on work the count . I could go on but that sums up the Dodgers game plan .