My Name is Pronounced Blade!

I’m the new guy here and I hope to live up to the standards of this blog.  I see LADT as top quality with its participants being amongst the most cerebral of Dodger fans out there.   I don’t make that statement lightly.  I’ve visited them all and this isn’t a site where you can state an opinion and not back it up with facts and good logic.  You’ll get called out pretty quick if you’re sloppy, but that’s good.  It makes the writers bring a quality product to the site.  I hope to not disappoint.

I have read the posts and I’m not Ross Porter, nor a former employee of the Dodgers.  I’m just a regular guy that has an opinion.  My name is Evan Bladh and I’ve been engaged in Dodger blogs and message boards all the way back to when the world wide web came into vogue. 

I started at the AOL message board in the 90s, then the L.A. Times Board, and Ben Platt’s Dodger web site board, though I’m not sure of the order.  Yes, I was there under various aliases.  About the time Dodger Thoughts was winding down, I decided to create a blog under the google format.  That blog, Opinion of Kingman’s Performance lasted about 5-6 years with a daily post.  I was a one-man show and it was exhausting keeping the ideas flowing and creativity fresh all the while holding down a job and raising a family.  When my real job as a federal law enforcement officer ramped up and transferred me to the nation’s capital in 2014, I just could not dedicate the time to it any longer.  Eventually, my posts trickled off to almost nothing especially when I was assigned to South America for 18 months.  When I returned back home to California in late 2017, my time freed up a bit and I tried to get the old blog up and running again, but the readership had disappeared during my absence.  It was going to require a lot of leg work via social media marketing to get everyone back.  I just couldn’t do it.

For the last few years, I sent an occasional piece to another site, but Mark’s request for a once a week writer really piqued my interest.  Simply because I believe that LADT attracts not the casual fan, but the highest caliber of Dodger fan.  The comments on the pieces posted are extremely well thought out here.  It kind of reminds me of that scene from My Cousin Vinny when Vinny finally spews out an organized, logical and concise argument:

Anyway, as I post my writings over time, I’ll sneak in tidbits about my background and the fan experience that  I bring to the table.  I believe in advanced metrics, but don’t profess to be an expert about them.   I’m learning.  I grew up on Dodger baseball in the late 60s/early 70s and was a Strat-O-Matic junkie during that period as well as a kid.  So traditional stats, as meaningless as they are when it comes to building a strong franchise, they still have some meaning to me.

I try to wrap myself around stats like WAR, wOBP, wRC+, BABIP, and OPS+, and I come to a realization that this is the evolution of the game as baseball advances into the future.  You’d be a fool not to adjust and evolve with the growth of the game.  Batted ball MPH is about as important a stat that can exist.  Why didn’t I think of that? 

The traditional stats are sexy and carry some mystique, but as advanced analytics are further understood, I believe eventually stats like RBI, AVG., ERA, and Wins will be phased out of importance.   To many, they already are.  It’s the dinosaurs like me that keep them alive.  I still can’t help seeing .300 as a magical number when it comes to BA.

The Baseball Writers Association of America and even now the Veteran Hall of Famers on the veteran’s committee is already beginning to look at advanced metrics with their HOF votes.   Who would have thought Ted Simmons would beat out a guy like Steve Garvey in a HOF vote 35 years ago?

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Let me change things up and talk about Andrew Freidman.  Lately, the blogosphere and social media have been attacking him and it’s brutal.  There are so many ignorant people out there that have no clue about what is going on.  As I read all the vitriol and criticism spewed in his direction, I think it’s time to look at the hand he was dealt when he came aboard in 2014 and evaluate how he has performed:

As a General Manager, he joined a storied franchise with relatively new ownership and a fan base that expects to win every year.  He was given the edict to win and do it without rebuilding, an almost impossible task. He inherited a payroll that was the highest in the league and well over the Competitive Balance threshold.  He had a lot of dead weight contracts of players either retired, on their way to retirement or released and playing for other organizations (Crawford, A. Gonzalez, League, Brian Wilson, Alex Guerrero, Arruebarrena, Matt Kemp). 

The organization had it valuable prospects that he immediately identified who was untouchable, (Seager, Urias, Bellinger, later Buehler).  He needed to exercise prudence when signing free agents, and not overspend.  It was a true balancing act as he did everything he could to snatch up players on short, expensive deals that did not mortgage the future of the franchise, (Rollins, Brett Anderson, Kazmir, McCarthy, Forsythe).  He hoped they would pan out and keep his team competitive until the money was freed up years down the road.

He was forced to remain patient, despite the demands of a fan base that is fed up impatiently waiting for a championship after a 25-year drought.  He hired some talented analytical men (Anthopoulos, Zaidi, Byrnes, Kingston, Gasparino, Kapler, Ibanez) in the front office and took on the tactic of building the farm system structure and finding players from outside the country where it is less restrictive and he could possibly to land some talent that may have flown under the radar of scouts. 

He hired a manager (Roberts) that came relatively cheap and possessed skills with interpersonal relationships and getting his players to perform.  Though he may be lacking as a tactical field manager, it was hoped that he’d learn from his mistakes and be groomed to improve in that area.

As the team performed well in a Division that isn’t viewed as the most competitive in the game, the ball club performed admirably winning the NL West each year and advancing as far as the league championship series (2016).  All the while overpaid vets (AGon, Crawford, McCarthy, Kazmir) failed and were viewed skeptically by the fan base.  Regardless of the criticism, the ballclub averaged 97 wins a season over the five years of his tenure, with its poorest showing being a 91 win season, (2016).

He made some good deals, picked up a few overperformers (Taylor, Freese, Wood, Morrow, Cingrani, Watson) and the team won at franchise-record paces (2017 and 2019).  Kids he refused to part with in potential trade deadline deals have panned out on the major league level, (Seager, Bellinger, Urias, Buehler, Beaty, Smith).  Ownership granted him permission to take on big-money contracts in mid-season trades, (Darvish ’17, Machado ’18).  He did so and the ball club broke through and won its first pennant in 29 years.  BUT it still was not enough for the fickle fans that only see one thing to measure success: a World Series championship.

Following his fifth year at the helm, there appeared to be some money to spend as he had finally ridden out most of the albatross contracts, but then the market for free agents went haywire.  Gerrit Cole, a coveted starting pitcher went to his boyhood loyal team, the New York Yankees in a $324 million/9-year deal.  Anthony Rendon signed with Anaheim for 7 years at $245 million.  Strasburg returned to the Nats for the same amount and years as Rendon.  Even lower-tier pitchers such as Zack Wheeler signed for 5 years with Philadelphia for $118 million.

By using common sense and not paying outlandish prices, Friedman has stood pat and decided to go with young arms in your system, (May, Gonsolin, Urias), saving the franchise hundreds of millions.  Additionally, setting him up for a mid-year deal when he can accurately identify what the team needs to go over the top.    Meanwhile, there are those in the fanbase that call for his removal.

In the history of the Dodger franchise, it can be argued that there has never been a more successful five year period than those under Andrew Friedman.  With a little bit of luck (and less cheating from the likes of Hinch, Cora, et al), this team could have won three titles.  Meanwhile, we go with the kids.  And there are a bunch of good ones. 

Oh, and as Mark is often reminding us.  Casty is still out there for the taking.