Now and Later…

Recklessingly winning back to back championships and a possible 3 peat!

I watched that Pirates – Rockies game last night too since it was early and the Dodger game didn’t come on until 9 my time. He is a horse and he makes MLB players look pedestrian quite frequently. Lots of other great baseball to watch around MLB. I am a baseball fan first then a Dodger fan second. Not sure how to chime in about Dodgers that hasn’t already been said either positively or negatively. I just feel like we are playing with “House Money” this year. If it happens great but according to history odds are against us. According to CoPilot (AI) only 13 teams have won back to back titles and only 2 teams have won 3 or more with the Yankees doing it multiple times and the A’s in the 70’s. I didn’t proof these results and just plugged them into the tool.

Our COO is a huge Cubs fan. When I walked into the office today, he said, “Why are you in such a good mood? Don’t you know the Dodgers have lost 4 in a row?” I explained that the Dodgers do not have any control of my happiness.

Without RP Miller,the Padres are .500 team at best. They will fade as there is nothing special about their offense or starting pitching. We should win the Western Division easily,but the Dodgers are going make it tough on us OLD guys.

Skenes is something to watch that is for sure. Dodgers made Hauser look like an ace, just like they have several mediocre starters this year. They are 6-6 in their own division, and they have not played the Padres yet. They are 1-4 against the Giants, a team they have dominated the last several years. Best news about the Padres is that their offense has been anemic, but their pitching has been pretty good out of the pen, starters, not so much. Tatis is hitting just .245 and has no homers. He is also striking out a ton. Machado is hitting .193. He has 6 homers. They are hitting .223 as a team. Fermin, Merrill, Sheets, Castellanos, Laureano, all hitting below .221.

While I’m waiting for the Dodgers to break out of their funk, I can look forward to Paul Skenes’ next start. He is must watch TV for me. He is the best pitcher in the game by a wide margin. Last night it was another treat; took a no hitter into the 7th, finished with a 2 hitter through 8, 10 K’s reducing his ERA under 2.00. He last gave up a walk a month ago. He has 40 K’s since his last walk. He struck out the first 6 Rockies yesterday and it looked like Little League; wicked stuff and just paints. Sorry to go on and on about a non-Dodger but if you are not watching this guy, you are missing a generational guy. ps – please no caveat like “until he breaks down”. Just enjoy the moment.

I have to say, not in an argumentative way that they are tending downward. To begin this season they had the best record in baseball then dropped to second and so forth to now 8th? To use a business analogy if sales are dropping because we’ve not updated our product line and sales continue to drop from 1st to 8th, do we do some self examination? Or do we simply say we’ll bounce back? They are now 1 and 4 against the hated/terrible Giants! Dominated even. If a Dodger team can’t get up for hated rivals, we need to ask why? Mark you are a very successful businessman I’m sure that reveals a constant attitude of self examination of your product and employees. If a salesman on staff was good in years past, but currently seemed lethargic and had seen a decline in sales, you would not simply assume he will bounce back. It’s time for a meeting, some rump kicking, or maybe calling up a young stud from the minors. After all the Dodgers are a business.

Dodgers have 8th best record in baseball……2 days ago Bluto posted that they had the 5th best.

And when fans accept mediocrity from a supposedly elite team, that is dumb.

That is mostly because of the way they played early. The last 4 games alone, they are -20.

Last year?

There is an old saying — It’s when the complaining stops that signals trouble. There is a difference between complaining and analysis and merely burying one’s head in the sand

I totally agree they have the best organization in baseball. I totally have enjoyed most every season since 2012 when Guggenheim took over. But not every day is all wine and roses. They go through stretches like this when the baseball they play is simply unwatchable. Right now, this team is not entertaining or watchable. It hasn’t been for more than a couple of weeks. You might be satisfied with mediocrity, but from this kind of an organization, I, and many other fans, expect better play. They are slow to make adjustments; they seem to be waiting for something. Maybe I am wrong, if they were playing up to their capabilities, well, no one would gripe if they lost now and then. But the way they are playing now looks like they are just sleepwalking.

Doubtful. Treinen is still one of the more effective arms in the pen. Mills will be the first to get cut. Treinen’s ERA is about the same as Henriquez. Barnes and CT3 were position players on the last year of their contract. This will most likely be Treinen’s last year. But he will get a long rope as compared to some other pitchers.

Ward’s defense as an outfielder was in question. Teo had a great first year and got rewarded for it. In retrospect, resigning him was probably a mistake, just like signing Conforto did not pay dividends. But who at AAA in 24 besides Ward had a good year at the plate? Pages was already here. I remember way too many players who tore up AAA only to be over-matched when they came up. DJ Peters and Billy Ashley to name just two. Ward wasn’t getting a shot at first with Freddie signed through 27. Prospects are suspects until they prove otherwise. LA likes their veterans. The OUTSTANDING kids get a shot, the fringe guys, not so much. Why do you think they traded for Alek Thomas? Not for his bat, but for his glove. He is an elite CF, and a true backup for Pages. He won’t give you any pop, but he has elite speed.

… and yet they still have a +59 Run Differential – Good for 3rd in MLB.

Been a long time since they had a real power hitter on the bench. Most PH homers in a season? 7: Dave Hansen, mostly a backup 3rd baseman.

I say again that games in May count as much as games in September. One third of the rotation is consistently bad. In the last 30 days the Dodgers have scored 113 runs and allowed 149. A run differential of -36.

Man, those were the days

I think some people just like to be miserable, instead of enjoying what they DO have. And what we all have is the best Organization in sports…..

Were they old when they started out 15-5? I mean its only what one month later, suddenly they got old and cant play?? The just took a series from one of the hottest team in MLB, were they old then?? 162 is a LOONNNG season. Losing sucks but the goal was never to win 118 games. The goal is the get into the dance as healthy as can be and roll the dice…worked pretty well the last 2 years…..

Dodger fans have been psychologically reprogrammed by success. Most fanbases live in a draft-pick wasteland where 84 wins gets you a parade route and a key to the city. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers have basically turned the regular season into an assembly line: Win 100 games, complain anyway, repeat.” So now the fanbase reacts to a Tuesday loss in May like Victorian townspeople spotting a comet. Player goes 0-for-4? “DFA him.” Bullpen gives up 2 runs? “The dynasty is over.” Team is on a 93-win pace with half the roster held together by kinesiology tape and sunflower seeds? “Worst team since the Black Sox.” The funniest part is the annual cycle: April: “THIS TEAM IS UNSTOPPABLE.” May slump: “Dave Roberts has destroyed baseball civilization.” June injuries: “We may never score again.” August: Dodgers quietly win 97 games. October: Entire emotional ecosystem detonates. Dodger fans are basically Wall Street traders with helmets. Anything short of perpetual upward graphs causes immediate emotional margin calls. And honestly, part of it comes from expectations. When your payroll resembles the GDP of a medium-sized moon colony and your roster includes MVPs stacked like Pokémon cards, fans stop viewing “good” as acceptable. They expect baseball perfection in a sport specifically designed to humiliate perfection. Baseball is chaos. The best teams lose 60-plus games. Hall of Famers fail 70% of the time. Even the Los Angeles Dodgers go through stretches where the lineup looks like everyone ate expired airport sushi before first pitch. Yet every season, some fans react to a 3-game losing streak like they’re guarding the final candle in a medieval plague village. Meanwhile the team is sitting there with: A top-10 record, Stars on the IL, Key hitters slumping, … and still pacing toward the postseason like an armored train rolling downhill. It’s not insanity exactly. It’s spoiled-baseball aristocracy.

Add to your list: Glasnow ($115M), Snell ($137M), T Scott ($77M), E. Diaz ($60M), Tucker ($220M), and Teoscar ($42M). The Guggenheim group has been, IMHO, reckless the past couple of years with the amount of money they have paid for players. The resigning of Teoscar has blocked a possible opportunity for a Dodger prospect. And, as Jeff mentioned, the Tucker signing was a real head scratcher. With all the OF prospects in the Dodger system, when are they going to get a chance to play for the Dodgers? What they did to Ryan Ward’s career is a complete disregard for the player and the person. The reasoning behind it by the Dodgers is confusing. I know, it appears no other team has had an interest during a rule 5 draft, but at least they could have released him to find an opportunity on his own. I can’t believe he wouldn’t have been more productive than many of the current outfielders/1B playing for all the crappy teams in MLB. It would have been nice for him to find out.

The Dodgers have the 8th-best record in baseball right now, even though several players are mired in slumps, and others are on the IL. They are 5 wins behind the team with the best record. They are on a 93-win trajectory. This happens every year. Many Dodger fans lose their freaking minds if they don’t win 162 games. I made a meme of it,

The Dodgers haven’t been good since Alex Freeland was on the team.