Put the Blame Where it Belongs

GM malpractice…..letting Seager leave in Free Agency! While the Dodgers had Trea Turner to cover SS for one-year before he hit FA, the reality is Seager who was drafted, developed and quickly becoming a superstar should have never been allowed to leave the Dodgers. NEVER.

I know it “takes two to tango, the taxes in CA are terrible, LA traffic is horrible, Seager’s agent is the devil incarnate Scott Boras, the impending strike/lockout between MLB and the MLBPA compressed the FA signing period,” and many other reasons the AF and Guggenheim apologists will come up with why Seager wasn’t signed, but it was an unmitigated organizational failure to not sign Seager long-term. Organizational failure= an AF euphemism for I f@#$ed up and didn’t get it done.

A couple of notes I saw on Yahoo Sports. 1. Manfred is considering dropping the number of pitchers on a roster to 12. He says the 13 is not working towards teams building good starting staffs and fans want that. 2. MLB is talking to officials in Japan about the baseball they use. It is treated and is stickier than the balls MLB uses. He said the experiments for the tacky ball here have mostly been not very good. 3. The Dodgers are still considered the front runner to sign Ohtani. Mets and Giants right behind them.

Seager ties it with a 2-run shot in the 9th and Garcia walks it off in the 11th. Rangers up 1-0.

Memo to self:

Keep your stud young superstars

Interesting threads here, but I have to push back a bit about Mark’s opinion about Bruce Bochy. Bochy never had the most talented teams in the playoffs, his teams were always huge underdogs. But he knew his players and how to use them. Case in point is 2014 game 7 in the Series against the Royals. Bochy started Tim Hudson but told his long reliever Jeremy Affeldt to put his leg brace on before the game even began. Told Affeldt he’d probably need him early (all season Affeldt never put his brace on until the 6th inning). Sure enough Hudson didn’t last 2 innings and Affeldt pitched until the 5th, followed by Madbum to close it out. Just what Bochy thought would happen. I believe if Bochy had been managing the Dodgers since 2016 they’d have several more Championships. But what do I know, just an opinion.

MLBTR is reporting that the Cubs are interested in trading for Juan Soto. Padres supposedly want to cut about 50 million from their payroll.

I agree with 90% of Mark’s points. Doc has been between a rock and a hard place with Kershaw for years. He’s arguably the greatest left handed pitcher in history. He is respected by every player, on and off the Dodger roster. He has earned the right to be our ace. He has always been a huge competitor who puts more pressure on himself than Doc ever could. Maybe that’s his problem. He puts everything on his shoulders and simply gets in his own head. Who knows? His regular season versus playoff record is inexplicable. But he earned the right, every year, to be treated like our ace come playoffs. Obviously, this needs to come to an end.

We are now done with our “transition” year. Next year it’s time to rebuild the rotation around our young arms. I don’t see Kersh being part of that plan. I also don’t see him retiring. He won’t go out like that. But all great things come to an end. And it’s time Kersh’s number be put on the shelf until it’s officially retired. The Dodgers need to focus on the young arms and adding one or two more.

Watford dodger

I agree with everything you said in both posts you made today.

A 6-0 and 3-0 deficite in the 1st inning changes the hitting approach.

I was also surprised Yarbrough wasn’t on the roster just in case what happened…happened. He could have been brought in… in the 1st inning when clearly Kershaw didn’t have it and could have gotten far enough into the game to get to the 4 dominate relievers the Dodgers had. And maybe the hitters didn’t need to press.

I also agree about Kershaw being a distraction in the playoffs.

And I would add that Pepiot should have started instead of Lynn because every run is crucial in the playoffs and everyone knows Lynn is a home run allowing machine. This is not hard to figure out. I’m not doing whatever the saying is and complaining only after it happend because it was pretty obvious that Lynn was going to give up at least 1 home run and probably 2. And to me, it wasn’t surprising that he gave up 4, considering it was the playoffs.

With all of that said. Good pitching beats good hitting and the Dodgers didn’t have enough good pitching when they entered the playoffs. So maybe none of what I said matters.

And I want to clarify that I’m not talking shit about Kershaw because he’s a top 3 Dodgers starting pitcher in the history of the Dodgers. You make the call (not you specifically watford dodger. Anyone) where he ranks in Dodger history.

Mookie and Freddie looking at a lot of first and second pitch strikes didn’t help and caused some of that chase. For whatever reason I didn’t see much confidence in either and it baffles me

I agree Watford those early deficits were a huge disadvantage as was the five day layoff, it didn’t seem to bother Smith much though. I guess deep down want to think our superstars could reach down and find what it takes to overcome those kinda things, rise to the occasion. You know I love Freddie, he’s a great ball player on both sides, top three in NL no doubt and great person to. But it’s strange the two years he’s been there are our worst playoffs collapse’s ever, not for one second am I saying the problem is him at all. Just find it strange

It was smart of Friedman to call it a organizational failure putting the blame on everyone which limits putting blame on anyone in particular or groups of some and the system itself, the problem is what we all want to know is where the changes come from that prevent such embarrassment next time around but for now all those who love to play GM roster moves have about four months of play time

Michael

How do you think the D’Backs got a team that had preached patience at the plate to chase and chase early?

Could it possibly have been a 6-0, and 3-0 deficit after one inning on successive nights in the NLDS? Their Pitching was no different to the other games that we’d beaten them this season, but the big difference was our boys had no choice but press. It wasn’t their stellar pitching, it was the situation that we found ourselves in that forced the issue.

The Dodgers were taken out of their comfort zone by what had happened.

BTW I’m not defending Mookie and Freddie -,they were as much to blame as anyone – just giving a reason as to why.

Bear: You hit the nail on the proverbial head. Let us not forget that baseball is absolutely a “GAME OF CYCLES”. Unfortunately (and for whatever reasons), our team was in a bad cycle and the Dbacks were in a very good one.

We scored 6 runs in 3 games and you are not going to win many games with that production. It was not the 1st time this year that we scored only 6 or 7 runs in a 3 game period. It hurts, yes. It is extremely disappointing , yes, but it’s baseball.

It’s the layoff, it’s the fact that we platoon, it’s the GM, it’s the Manager, it’s because we don’t have a team built for the postseason. No, all of that is bullshit. It’s plain and simple the fact that the team just didn’t perform much like the way they also didn’t perform over 3 straight games many times this year. Unfortunately this bad 3 games came at the worst time.

For all of you that think the only measure of success is to win the WS, you will continue to be bitter, disappointed fans. While I would love to win the WS, I personally would rather have 100 wins and not win the WS than 84 wins (Dbacks) and win the WS. For me, 6 months of joy far outweighs a few weeks.

If a player hits 300 for the year that’s fact. Inside sources don’t make it fact, it’s nothing but hearsay that’s not admissible in court and big culprit of all these false rumors out there. Hell even if heard something straight out of Friedman’s mouth doesn’t make it fact, he could be just trying to appease the listeners or flat out lying. It’s a wise thing for us to be careful on claiming what is fact

Baseball is entertainment. And for 162 games this year, the Dodgers were one of the best entertainers of all. Isn’t that why we all watch the game? To put the everyday stuff aside for a few hours and watch the game we love. They lose three in the playoffs and all of a sudden, they are lepers. Oh, we can sit here in our computer chairs and analyze what happened over and over, but it boils down to those last three games were not the kind of entertainment we were expecting. And therein lies the problem. Dodger fans expect their stars to perform every time they take the field. They expect championships and when it doesn’t happen, the criticism starts. Who is at fault. Roberts? The front office? Ownership? The players? Arizona had nothing to lose, and they played that way. They caught one of the best pitchers in the game on a really bad day and they took advantage. Their pitchers took a team that preached patience at the plate and made them chase early. They did not work counts like they had all season. They were jumping first and second pitches like a bunch of overanxious adolescents chasing a girl they had no shot with. The D-Backs took the Dodgers out of their comfort zone and capitalized on every mistake. Had the Dodgers merely scored the same number of runs they averaged in games two and three, and they would have won both. But their best hitters flunked the test. None of their power hitters did a thing. Only CK got hammered. Lynn did about what was expected. The Dodgers hit four homers off of him when he pitched at Dodger Stadium for the White Sox earlier in the year. Roberts left him in one hitter too many.

We were not entertained, and we certainly were not happy. But winning all the time is not possible. You are going to run into teams that are hotter, better, and in this case, so much hungrier. The Dodgers were busy reading their press notices. The D-Backs were intent on making them eat the paper they were written on. To quote Maximus Decimus Meridius……..” Are you not entertained?” For most of the year, we were. It took three days to ruin that feeling.

Next, you may see Dr. Neal S. ElAttrache comment that he does not believe Kershaw should pitch w/o surgery or is that an ethical violation?

Absolutely spot on post Mark. It’s not as hard to comprehend as many here make it. If you don’t hit, especially your Butter and Egg Men, you don’t pitch worth a shit and can’t get through the first inning without a big deficit, you don’t win. It’s true in May and true in October. Speculate all you want folks but that’s the bottom line. These guys aren’t robots. They didn’t mean to suck. All the second guessing is useless. AF didn’t make moves that some wanted in retrospect but you all forget, the initial goal was to see the kids play, attempt to whittle payroll, including the Bauer Dead $, and set the Dodgers up for this off-season. That’s what I call a transitional year. AF stuck to the plan while many here totally forget that. How we won a 100 games with this group is more startling to me than our early exit.

This wasn’t that good of a Dodger team and AF wasn’t about to spend his way out of that fact at mid-season with unspectacular available candidates. Many here are like rats running off the ship when they are disappointed. If you’ve never experienced unexpected losses, you never played.

Next question – how do you think it would have played if Doc had not pitched CK for fear of failure? And we lost without him pitching. That uproar would have been about the same as it is for Doc pitching him. It’s a no win.

Again, if you don’t hit and can’t pitch, you don’t win.

I reserve my judgement until I see the moves and roster made this winter and spring.

Can we move on?

Whatever pitching woes we have in the playoffs We don’t lose to many of those games 11-9.

And to continue on RC post. Its not Kershaw’s fault the Freddie and Mookie had 1 infield single TOTAL against AZ.

Nice to read about the progress of Casparius and Williams. I keep hoping that Maddux Bruns might take a great leap forward in ’24, but it would be OK if others do too.

The farm system seems rich in pitching and catching. Good trade capital.

I think it’s true that AF tries to “win” every trade, which isn’t a bad thing. In bringing in Lynn, Kelly, Rosario and Yarbrough–all considered, a decent haul–who is the pllayer that AF traded that we’d miss most? My choice would be Nastrini, but he may rate below Frasso, Knack, Ryan, Hurt and some others. (We knew Syndergaard was a bust and getting Rosario seemed like a win, even if he wasn’t picked for the postseason.) And let’s not forget the Eduardo Rodriguez deal-that-did-not-get-done. We don’t know what AF offered for the rental.

Anyway, if AF can bring in an ace-quality starter like Burnes or Cease or ???, an “overpay” could be a win.

“Put the blame where it belongs”

The blame belongs with the entire team including the manager and front office.

But primarily with the players and definitely including Kershaw.

But it is hard to blame only Kershaw for games 2 and 3 this year when he didn’t play.

And hard to blame only Kershaw in 2022 when he pitched only 1 game and left with the game tied at 3-3.

And hard to blame only Kershaw in 2021 when he was hurt and did not pitch.

And hard to blame Kershaw in 2020 when they won the WS and he won the pivotal game 5 of the WS.

Kershaw is 13-13 with a 4.49 Era and 1.11 WHIP in his career postseason. He has had many great postseason outings and won 13 games.

Another hall of famer, Max Scherzer, is 7-8 with a 3.86 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in his career postseason.

It has been a pleasure to watch Kershaw pitch the last 16 years, and he had a great year in 2023. He managed to pitch through injury and post a 2.46 ERA , second best in the MLB for starters. Amazing! And Clayton took less than half the salary of Scherzer and Verlander and only 12% of DeGrom’s guaranteed salary. I hope he is healthy enough to pitch again next year for the Dodgers. He is a great baseball player and a great Dodger.

Mark – one of your very best Posts, calling it exactly like it is.

Have been saying the same about Clayton for sometime. Unfortunately, like I mentioned the other day, he has become a distraction come Playoff time.

Mushers, cannot agree with your giving a pass to Roberts starting him in game 1. It made zero sense. Last year he made the same mistake of pitching him in game 2 ahead of Tyler Anderson, after Julio had beaten the Padres in game one – possibly pushing the Dodgers into a 2-0 lead in the NLDS and ensuring at the worst a game 5 back at Dodger Stadium with Anderson back on the mound.

Kershaw lost and then Doc pulled Anderson after he pitched a gem, restricting SD to just 2 hits. The Pen then coughed up the game.

Kershaw has been a hindrance not a help these past few Post Seasons, since he lost his edge, notwithstanding he wasn’t at his best in October even in his pomp.

Miller had to start game 1 because he was our best Starter, and he’d then be available for a possible game 5. Poor organisational planning for the second year running.

Letting Kershaw walk means we could also jettison Barnes, and upgrade at backup Catcher.

Please AF move on. No one year $20m deal for 24. I’d rather get Lynn back because at least he’ll win his fair share and importantly, eat a lot of innings, thus saving the Pen and other young starters for the Post Season.

I’m also confused by the omission of Yarborough for the Post season?

When he arrived he looked a lock to be the Long Man in a Piggy Backing Post Season roster, and he performed well in that role.

It was only when the Brainstrust decided to try an use him as an “Opener” that he began to unravel. They created the problem by not using him to the best effect. Still doesn’t make any sense.

If Kershaw had come out and put up some zeros in the NLDS we probably wouldn’t be having the Mookie/ Freddie hate.

They were pressured into having to do more than expected after that horrible start, rather than letting the game come to them. It’s called “Pressing” – trying to over achieve.

I wouldn’t swap Mookie and Fred for any 1/2 in Baseball. The problem is that when they go quiet we have no plan B. Watch the D’Backs to see how they change approach according to the situation. It is not something we are good at, and that is on Roberts.

Everyone is reaching for answers.

Why did this happen? Do the Dodgers need to change their approach? Has the playoffs become Groundhog Day (the Bill Murray movie) for the Dodgers. No matter what they will win the division and a hundred games or more, but suffer an early exit in the playoffs. That’s the script the past two years.

Andrew Friedman has no real answers and Dave Roberts can’t explain it. Maybe it’s a combination of things, some big, some small. But when there is a failure, people want an explanation. Two failures in a row and uncertainty begins to creep into the organizational mindset.

When terms like organizational failure are used, fans, writers and pundits come away confused. It almost comes off like spin. Say what? No one really umderstand what that means. Maybe that’s a term that Friedman threw out, because he was still in shock and had no real explanation.

Now Dylan Hernandez, columnist for the LA Times, wrote a piece yesterday and he isn’t buying any of it. Yah, I know, it’s Dylan, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider the points he’s making.

He questioned Friedman’s.statement (we have enough pitching to win it all) when clearly they did not. Okay, I never bought that either. But the Dodgers did win a hundred games and that means something, right? This is a team that knows how to win. But like an electric car, runs great in the summer, but the battery runs down in the fall and you’re left by the roadside as the gas powered cars fly past. Your battery dead, just not enough juice.

He said Friedman has to win every trade. Well, that’s his reputation, good or bad. I recall a story a year ago with other team officials saying their respective teams didn’t like dealing with the Dodgers because they don’t like the approach.

When Friedman needed to add some pitching at the deadline, he refused to put together a package to get it done. No Jordan Montgomery or another solid arm. He values a trade and refuses to budge. Others, of course, made deals and those deals seemed to pay off. Or you could just say, they had a deal with Detroit and somehow that went sideways.

I’m probably more inclined to not overpay, but then when the starting pitching unravels, which it did, I should be more willing to accept the consequences. Oops, that didn’t work. But I still have my best pitching prospects and they are important to the future.

On the free agent market, Friedman tends to set a value and not exceed it. Call it disciplined, but as Andrew points out that approach means you’ll end up third in the pursuit of the player every time.

So Friedman admits it’s a double edge sword.

Hernandez claims the Dodgers have allowed the markets, free agency and trades, to dictate what they can and cannot do. I won’t disagree with that. Obviously, staying in a comfort zone is important to some, maybe that’s one of the reasons they try to stay away from the big, long term contracts. But again, they don’t get the player.

While contending the playoffs are somewhat of a crapshoot, the Dodgers have made it more so because of their inaction. says Hernandez. Again, that rings true.

He believes that Mark Walter’s increasing absence, he’s not seen around the stadium as much, is part of the problem, he’s not demanding answers. Okay, I’m not totally buying that. Friedman is self driven, he wants to win, but he’s also boxed in by his philosophy. It has worked, until it doesn’t.

Another problem and Max Muncy brought this up and those, like Jerry Hairston, on the Dodger channel agree, the Dodgers need to change their hitting approach from summer to fall and become more aggressive, mainly because other teams are making changes as to how they approach playing the Dodgers. Again, it’s a philosophical thing that works well in a long summer, but not so well in a short series. The Dodgers have become too passive. That’s Muncy’s thinking.

As to the future, will Friedman’s philosophy again leave them short in the free agent and trade markets.

There is more pressure. The fans are uncertain, beginning to have doubts. A downcast fan base, no question. The future dynasty seems to have derailed when it counts.

Will Shohei Ohtani be the big test? Is $500 million actually in play? Once the World Series ends, we may pick up scraps of information here and there to better understand how Friedman values the superstar. You may have to read between the lines.

But we already know in Friedman’s own words that he intends to pursue pitching this winter. Using a Friedman saying, what that looks like at this point we really don’t know.

But the real question is, will he make it happen and get everybody excited about 2024? I’m guessing he does, but then I’m somewhat of an optimist. I also have doubts that won’t go away.

Nah no way. Clayton wont go out like that. And he wont go out like that as a Dodger.

I want him back for another season, its not like he was chopped liver this past season.

Hes a once in a generational Pitcher, and to see him in Dodger blue one more season and to atone for that last start, well Im all for it.

Ill bet on #22

As Bear points out, Kershaw has pitched several good games in the playoffs. So why so many bad ones? I’m not sure what the answer is.

I can give Roberts a pass on starting Kershaw in game 1 but why Lynn in game 3? Pepiot was the better pitcher and yet never threw a pitch. Was this just Roberts call? Or part of the organizational failure AF refers to?

Before the NLDS, I thought AF would not try to sign Snell. Now I’m not so sure? Does he try to be a pig? Last time he did that it blew up in his face. But does AF sign Snell because the Dodgers could really use him?

Clayton Kershaw was 5-5 with a 4.26 ERA and a 1.495 WHIP in his rookie year and then put up sub 3.00 ERAs for 10 straight years.

Bobby Miller was much better as a rookie, with a 11-4 record and 3.76 ERA to go with a 1.102 WHIP. Yes, he had a bad start in the NLDS, but stuff happens to rookies. Is he ready to be THE ACE?

I think he is!

The way I see it, the Dodgers need a LHP who can be a #2 or #3. Not many out there… save Montgomery. Do the Dodgers go all in for Jordon? 6 years/$180 Million?

Thanks for the AFL notes

He did pitch 6 innings in game #1 of the 2020 WS allowing just 1 run on 2 hits while striking out 8. In game #5 he pitched 5.2 innings allowing 5 hits, 2 runs while striking out 6. Two wins to help the Dodgers to their only WS victory during his career.

Love CK, the second best LH pitcher of all-time to wear a Dodger uniform. Really want him to wear just 1 MLB uniform, but I’ve come to the realization it’s time to close the chapter on his Dodger career. AF has given CK and open invitation to return….as he should.

I don’t view CK’s $20+ one-year contract as a hindrance or an albatross, but it would sure seem helpful if AF used that salary in other more useful ways=better results. Call it dope fiend if you desire, but AF needs to go BIG GAME hunting (trade or FA) and acquire some younger/exciting pitching talent and mix it with the youth in our system.

In a non-exhaustive list count me in as a Dodger fan tired of seeing the offseason and mid-year acquisitions of the likes of Syndergaard, David Peralta, Joel Peralta, Bolsinger, Forsyth, Kazmir, McCarthy etc. I realize there always a need to fill out the roster with veteran relief pitchers who have only seen middling results and to provide depth, but he needs to use the minor league depth to trade for established starting pitching or open the checkbook and buy on the FA market.

If that means CK is no longer a Dodger….oh well life goes on and as Vinnie said so eloquently said in his last game send-off…”when the upcoming winter gives way to spring ,rest assured it will be time for Dodger baseball.” Will CK still be a Dodger as a player?…….I don’t think so, but will he always hold a special place in the hearts of Dodger fans?…………ALWAYS!