Total Lack of Focus
Never underestimate the power of focus. Conversely, never underestimate what happens when you lack focus. Case in point: Yasmani Grandal: For whatever reason, Grandal is at home with his wife (again) at least in his mind. Three passed balls, 2 errors. Strikeouts, can t advance runners. His head is somewhere else. There are no excuses you do or you don t do. I ll talk about what I think the Dodgers should
Never underestimate the power of focus. Conversely, never underestimate what happens when you lack focus.
Case in point: Yasmani Grandal: For whatever reason, Grandal is at home with his wife (again)… at least in his mind.
Three passed balls, 2 errors. Strikeouts, can’t advance runners. His head is somewhere else. There are no excuses – you do or you don’t do.
I’ll talk about what I think the Dodgers should do at Catcher next year, but right about now, there’s still a series to win…. and it is still winnable! However, it’s not winnable if the Dodgers keep playing like this.
Chacin was focused. Buehler was cocky! Chacin knew he had to pitch the game of his life. Buehler thought all he had to do was show up. The Dodger hitters lacked focus as Chacin fed them table scraps and hid the meat and potatoes. The Brewers were focused while the Dodgers just made you “cuss.”
Maybe they are still focused on getting to the World Series, when they have to win the NLCS first. Maybe I am wrong, but it feels (to me) like the Dodgers are not nearly as focused as the Brewers. Chacin knows how to pitch with similar “stuff” as Kershaw, but Clayton still is focused on what he did when he was 27. His focus is wrong!
The Dodgers are in trouble unless Rich Hill can focus today and get a few of the troops to focus behind him. Kike Hernandez hit the nail on the head (I’m surprised he didn’t miss it too). From Ken Gurnick at MLB.com:
“We sucked. That’s why we lost,” said Enrique Hernandez. “I think as a team we were a little bit flat tonight and it showed on the offensive side. The playoffs, you’ve got to want it. Today it just wasn’t our day. We had no energy. The stadium had no energy. The fans had no energy. So overall it was a pretty bad day for everybody that calls themselves Dodgers. Tomorrow is another game.”
Hernandez clarified, emphasizing that it was the players who set the listless tone, not the fans.
“I don’t have an explanation for why some days we just don’t have it as a team, like energy or whatever it is,” he said. “But sometimes we can feed off the crowd. The fans here do a great job of showing up and packing the stadium every night and have a lot of passion for the game. But tonight for whatever reason I guess as contagious as energy can be from the fans to the players, it was from the players to the fans tonight.”
Well, he nailed the explanation – too bad he can’t nail a baseball like that! I feel bad for Yasmani Grandal – he’s a stand-up guy and well respected by his teammates, but he is killing the team with his bat (or lack of it) and his defense (total lack of it). He needs to sit the rest of the series. Kike, Cody, Dozier, Muncy, Puig and Freese have all had cold bats. Bellinger is making contact – he only has 1 strikeout in 10 AB’s, but he needs to get his focus back.
Every player as an individual, is responsible for their own focus, but Dave Roberts is the “gatekeeper of team focus” and he needs to do his job better. Yes, theese are grown men. Yes, they are responsible, but as the manager you can certainly inject some focus into the lineup. It just seems to me that their focus ALL YEAR has been on the World Series, but they have to win NOW to get there. Somehow, Doc has to get them TOTALLY focused on today’s game. Rich Hill should be focused and that can be contagious. Let’s hope so, because it will be hard to climb out of a 3-1 hole.
- It’s THIS game
- It’s THIS at-bat
- It’s THIS pitch
- It’s THIS moment
Nothing else matters – focus on what is in front of you THIS second or THIS series is over! Bring it, Rich!
More from Dodger Talk
Dodgers Food Trailer
I did this interview a couple of weeks ago with Chef Mike, who runs the Dodgers Food Trailer for the Great Lakes Loons. They are there for every home and road regular season and playoff game. They prepare three meals a day for approximately 50 people (players and coaches). Since games end late most evenings, they do not prepare breakfast. Many of their hotels have a complimentary breakfast anyway. However,…
Meet LAD 2026 Draft Picks 1-12
3 picks were High School players (2 SS and 1 OF). There was a college OF, college catcher, college SS, and 10 college pitchers. Of all the talk for a need for a catcher, the only catcher the Dodgers selected was Luke Bard, son of LAD bullpen coach Josh Bard. Bard was a 4th year senior from Houston Christian University. He is not a prospect, so the Dodgers are still…
Interview with Paul Beachy – Team Bus Driver For The Great Lakes Loons (LA Dodgers Minor League Team)
It’s been a few days since I did this interview. We have evidently been working my son-in-law (the video guy) like a rented mule at US Water Systems. However, I am taking him to London with me in a few days, so maybe Watford will buy him a pint as a tip, but he’s a dang Red Sox fan, so there is that! I thought that it would be interesting…
Thanks for Your Service: Chris Taylor
I was going to do this post when Chris announced he was retiring, then he changed his mind, but since the chances of him ever playing for the Dodgers again are slim and non-existent, I will go ahead with this post. He unretired, went on the IL, then decided to call it quits on May 24th. Taylor was born in Virginia Beach VA on August 29th, 1990. He attended Great…
Discussion (192)
Disagree, not disagreeable
That is another bad move with Freeze!
What makes this move even worse, because this move was about the platoon advantage, more then anything else.
Because Muncy has been just as guilty as others, at striking out in these situations, and I don’t think I can say the same, about Freeze.
I guess you can blame Roberts but I never saw him swing.
–
If Freese stayed in and struck out, a fair number of Dodger fans would have skewered Roberts.
–
If Muncy had hit a Grand Slam Doc would b a genius.
–
It all boils down to the fact Muncy did not deliver. That’s the bottom line.
Dodgers have no chance to win a World Series until Roberts is fired. He is the worst manager I have ever seen.
I thought this team was built for the postseason 😉
Wow, how many strikeouts is that? And looking????
I think I need to take my bp med early today
1 for 8 RISP after only 3 innings! 2 more K’s with RISP. 6 LOB after only 3 innings. This hurts to watch. I can’t remember any Dodger team that was this incapable of hitting RISP.
Puig is a cocky son of a gun that just got shown up by the rookie pitcher.
How many backwards K’s Can this team take.
I am tired of watching Dodger hitters taking strike 3 with RISP.
–
I understand not getting a hit WRISP most of the time. After all, no one hits .500 or above. But it seems that the Dodgers almost do it all of the time.
–
Are you sure you really wanted to include that smiley face? 🙂
What bothers me is the approach most the team is taking at the plate. They seem to battle until they get two strikes and then just stand there and watch strike three go by. We have to do better if we want to win. Stop killing a rally!
Bold prediction. We need more than one run to win this game.
Terrible inning for home plate ump. Blew one on Barnes blew one on Taylor.
We probably would of gotten another run if Freese batted instead of Muncy. But we were going for four more.
We got none. Yep strike 3.
Turner Ward doesn’t survive this post season misery if the Dodgers offense doesn’t rebound. Got to be purged and start over with a new approach
c’mom guys, give Hill some damn runs, the dude is on fire!
Yes, regardless we are watching a gem from Mr. MOUNTAIN.
The worst part of using Muncy so early in this game? Now we have 1 less pinch hitter and it’s more likely Grandal needs to be used as a hitter.
I have said this on other occasions but the truth is the Dodgers just don’t have good hitters. You got turner and then………well freese is a solid hitter against lefties and righty’s. After that kemp is probably next but doesn’t walk and dps. With the game on the line and needing contact I would probably rather have Kershaw up as Muncy, bellinger, Taylor and the rest of the strikeout kings. I forgot about machado he would be the second best hitter but remember the Dodgers didn’t have machado or freese to begin the year. It is sad that I trust Kershaw more as a contact hitter than pitcher but I digress. Just an all or nothing team that most of the time is no fun to watch. As I am posting the game is tied. We cannot get 7, 8,9 out. This team just doesn’t seem to have any fight. Rich hill is doing what he can but he may not have enough. He just struck out Yelich. Hill is such a competitor just not enough fire from the rest.
Hopefully Roberts has learned how to be a manager, how and when to use a pinch- hitter, thanks Counsell for the free classes to our stupid manager !!
That and the ” I’ve got to be me” crap sure turns me off.
I can hear the narrative now….Dodgers lose composure and lose late in a blowout..That would fit nicely into Joe Buck’s fantasy
I think Joe Buck’s fantasy involes Hader. He won’t stop taking about him.
Manny totally got hosed with the timeout call. Friggin horrible. By the way, was Joe Buck born in Wisconsin?
What I am afraid will happen, the Brewers will get the go ahead run in the eighth or ninth, and then bring in Hader.
Who is going to hit him off this bench, if that happens?
You wouldn’t know it by listening to the guy DodgerRick. Really like Smoltz, not so much for Buck. Dude is a friggin homer.