The Lineups Are The Least Of The Problem Here s The Biggest Problem:
There s not much to say that hasn t been said ad nauseum. Almost every day we look at the lineups and have a cow or roll our eyes, but they win more often than not. I don t think it s the dumb, stupid, moronic lineups that are the problem. I don t care where you hit them or in what order (well, I do care, but it s not all that), I think hitters
There’s not much to say that hasn’t been said ad nauseum. Almost every day we look at the lineups and have a cow or roll our eyes, but they win more often than not. I don’t think it’s the dumb, stupid, moronic lineups that are the problem. I don’t care where you hit them or in what order (well, I do care, but it’s not all that), I think hitters are going to hit… maybe not Yasiel who seems to hit best lower in the lineup.
I think the whole problem is “approach.” The Dodgers see more pitches than any team in baseball. Joc Pederson, Yasmani Grandal, Chris Taylor and Kike Hernandez all have a great batting eye – they just can’t hit a lot of them. It’s one thing to see pitches, it’s thing entirely another to hit them. When you go up there with the idea that you are going to work the count, you are less aggressive and more defensive and then when they get 2 strikes on you, if you are aggressive, you are apt to strike out. If you are defensive, you are apt to foul off repeated pitches and make weak contact.
The lineups may be 20% of the problem, but the approach is 80% of the problem. The other day, Doc said that Cody was just “trying not to make an out.” In basketball, if you go to the foul line and try not to miss, the odds are you will. The focus needs to be on what you need to do: Make a basket! In baseball, if you go to the plate with the idea of working the count, your focus is not on getting a hit – it’s on a process. Certain type of pitchers thwart that process.
When the Dodgers hit, it seems like everyone hits and when they don’t, no one hits. The Dodgers problems are not Roberts stupid lineups, but rather, the approach which may have been fostered by FAZ, but also carried out by Turner Ward and Dave Roberts. The players should not be so concerned with working the count as they are with getting a pitch they can hit. That’s a big part of the reason Dodger pitchers like Clayton Kershaw are giving up more home runs: Players know they are trying to get ahead with a strike and they jump on the first one they see.
I am not saying that they swing at every pitch they see, but quite often, I see Joc, CT3, Yasmani, Cody and even JT watch the first pitch right down broadway… and it is sometimes the best pitch they see. You can train for this, even in batting practice: Line a dozen hitters up and you only get one pitch… and you have to swing at it. I’m not advocating swinging at the first pitch, because pitchers will get wise and adjust too, but I am advocating being ready for a pitch in “your zone” and hitting that pitch.
FAZ may have started this trend – I can’t say, but it needs to end and it will likely end with the replacement of Roberts and Ward!
Dodger News
- You can see Striker Buehler’s greatness – he just needs to learn how to pitch better at Coors, although he wasn’t bad. He’s developing game-by-game.
- Rich Hill has a 7.17 career ERA at Coors, so he will probably pitch a perfect game. Kidding…
- Freeland was very good last night. He deserved the win. Oberg and Ottavino were filthy.
- Brian Dozier and Matt Kemp look lost right about now. I would give both 5 days off. Maybe pinch hit in a laffer!
- Alex Verdugo looked like a rookie with the bat…
- For some reason, Dave Roberts is loathe to play Andrew Toles
- Ruiz, Jackson and Lux are all hitting over .350 in the playoffs and Tulsa plays game 5 today.
- Thomas, Rincon, Wong and Berman all hit over .300 as RC won the first round and now plays for the championship.
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Discussion (157)
Disagree, not disagreeable
The Athletic has a good take on all this today:
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Really, the first 142 games are irrelevant. The Dodgers are still more talented than their competition, and they are close enough to said competition that talent should matter. The potential trouble resides within their mentality. As Turner said last month, to start hitting better with runners in scoring position, the Dodgers needed to stop trying so desperately to hit better with runners in scoring position.
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Put another way, Chris Taylor has struggled for much of the last month, losing playing time in recent days. After he homered Saturday, he relayed the fixes he and hitting coach Turner Ward had made to his swing and approach that allowed it. He lowered his hands some and strived to keep his head still mid-swing. But, more than anything, he said, he endeavored to stop trying to do so much. He hit a homer because he wasn’t trying to hit a homer.
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Open on theathletic.comhttps://theathletic.com/513380/2018/09/09/dodgers-have-stockpiled-an-impressively-deep-roster-but-even-that-might-not-be-enough/I agree with you in part. Yes, if you are trying to work the count rather than to hit, you might not hit anything. But this isn’t new – it’s what most of the team did last year. it’s mostly the same cast of characters after all. As I have said before, it’s partially too many guys who had career years last season, but a large part has to do with all of the platooning.
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Per ESPN.com this morning: “The Dodgers, 1 1/2 games out of first place after a loss to the Rockies, have scored three runs or less in 8 of their last 10 games. That lineup is way too good for that.”
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What happened 10 days ago (OK 9 days ago)? The 9/1 increase in roster size. Since then, Roberts’ maniacal managerial tendencies have been exacerbated by the number of moves he can make and the number of guys he platoons. Even Roberts admitted as much yesterday:
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“”It’s not only September. We’ve taken the mindset that these last 26, 27 games are essentially playoff games,” said Roberts. “If I can go into each game thinking it’s a postseason game, it’s a good mindset for our players; and as you’ve seen me manage the roster in a game, it sort of mirrors a playoff game. We’re afforded that luxury because we have a lot of good players.”
That’s why, Roberts explained, Yasiel Puig and Cody Bellinger were not in the lineup against Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland after successful at-bats Friday night against right-hander Jon Gray. The expanded roster provides Roberts with more matchup options than normal, although the Dodgers have relied on matchup lineups since the current front office took over.
“When you don’t have the depth we have — and I would argue that 29 other clubs don’t have it — there is the argument to ride the hot hand,” Roberts said. “But over the course of a long and big sample size, each game and each pitcher is different. There’s value in lumping it all together in recency, but there’s also an even stronger case to be made on the larger sample size. My answer is easy when you have guys that are a better option, to be frank.”
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In other words – who cares if a hitter is hot. Or even if he has a good track record against a certain pitchers? He’s going to look at a “larger sample size” and platoon almost everywhere almost every day.
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I think that Roberts’ awful lineups are the new thing here. Last season, the Dodgers played with mostly a left/right/left/right lineup and it worked. This constant platooning? Not so much.
the strategy was to full the initial pitcher with pitchs so that the others team used more relievers (apparently the weakness of the other teams) and the previous year it worked, but the actual does not so I agree with a new strategy the problem is They will go with bad pitchs but I prefer that to get strikeout watching the third strike as Grandal yesterday