What Box?

Most people have a great deal of difficulty thinking outside of the box. In most cases, the box is just a wall they have built around their minds. The past couple of days I have read some really dumb stuff from people I think are very smart, but somehow, when it comes to the Dodgers, they take out their brains, set them on the dresser and come to comment on this blog!

They rant and rave and talk in circles about their own self-imposed misery and evidently think if they are bitter enough, someone else will get sick. No, THEY are sick! I do actually believe it is a form of mental illness.

“It’s been over 30 years since the Dodgers have won a World Series” Wait, Andrew Friedman has only been here 5 years

“It makes no difference – It’s his fault.“

The Dodgers just need to go BOLD! OK, I’m in, but at what point do you draw a line and say “This is stupid.”

It’s an established fact, that Cole, Strasburg, and Rendon were not coming to the Dodgers. Many of you were under the delusion that Rendon wanted a shorter deal and that JT had agreed to move to 1B. You work in this little box around your mind, where everything happens in a vacuum and at your whim and caprice. Some of you think “OK, maybe I’ll think outside of the box.”

HELLO, there is no box!

Here’s an example of thinking In the Box:

If the Front Office does nothing more this off-season, they came up empty because the team is clearly not improved.

HELLO!!! What? Then I read I don’t agree that the team was “Clearly better” with Verdugo over Puig. Wow, just Wow! That box is made of Titanium, Kevlor-Reinforced steel if you believe that or you have some deep-rooted, baseless, irrational hatred of Alex Verdugo. Puig was a disruptive element in the clubhouse and unsound in the field and last year Puig had a 1.3 WAR while Verdugo had a 3.1 WAR. There is really no comparison. But you built the box. It really doesn’t exist and it is fundamentally unsound reasoning to try and make a determination in the off-season that the team came up empty.

Anything short of adding a superstar to this team would have been a downgrade and it has already been established that the Superstars were not coming to LA. So, let’s just make a move to make a move? That’s even more ridiculous.

This team has a chance… a really good chance, I think of being better next year! The Dodgers were better in 2019 than 2018… 15 games better actually and their two big acquisitions (Kelly and Pollock) had little to do with it. They improved from within, with players evolving, stepping up and 9 minor leaguers making The Show. Yes, the season ended badly, but that is the nature of the game. You can’t buy a Championship with Fantasy Baseball Trades and if you think you can… we are done here. Seek help immediately from a mental health professional. You are out of touch with reality.

If what AC posted yesterday about Free Agents doesn’t say something to you, you simply have lost access to reason. Josh Donaldson and Hyun-jin Ryu are good, but flawed players. Both are injuries waiting to happen. Turner should not move for Donaldson. I’d rather have May than Ryu.

Trade Gonsolin, Gray, Downs, Ruiz, and Lux? Not me. They may be better in 2020 than the player you get. Standing pat right about now may make the team better rather than making a dope-fiend move.

• Box Thinkers will say that Will Smith is the Dodgers catcher, that Keibert Ruiz regressed last year and should be traded. People who really think will say that Ruiz worked all season on retooling his swing and it finally came together at the end of the season in OKC. Ruiz could be a rare talent.
• Box Thinkers will say that Tony Gonsolin wasn’t overpowering last year. People in the know realize he had an oblique injury that would not allow him to throw hard, but he still absolutely knows how to pitch. Imagine how well he will do when he can consistently throw 98 MPH.
• Box Thinkers would trade Gavin Lux. People who understand know that he could likely become the ROY in 2020 and that the sky is the limit.
• Box Thinkers would trade Josiah Gray because he’s at least a year away. Maybe, but maybe not and he may be a #2. They don’t grow on trees.
• Mitch White, Dennis Santana, and Brett de Geus may be a year away… or maybe one is ready now. Jeter Downs is likely another year away…

The Dodgers don’t need all that to happen. maybe just one or two things… and they are demonstrably better. It’s not wishful thinking – it will happen. Too much talent, Too much preparation. Too much development.

You can talk about Rendon, Scherzer, Strasburg, and Kendrick, but without 20-year-old Juan Soto and 22-year-old Victor Robles, the Nats don’t win. The kids just needed the opportunity. So do Lux, Ruiz, May, Gonsolin, Santana, and White… maybe others we don’t think are ready. This team is loaded. They don’t have to make dope-fiend moves… and you shouldn’t live in a box.

There is no box!

… and I haven’t even touched on what year number two under Robert Van Socyoc might look like. The second-year will likely be much better than the first.

The Truth Hurts summed up how some Dodger fans feel. I have nothing against anyone on this blog but from the day Andrew Fredman took office, I have understood where he was headed. I have been attacked repeatedly for being a “Dodger Homer,” when nothing could have been further from the truth under the past front office. I just call it the way I see it, and winning the World Series is seldom about stacking your team with bloated signings and trades. The Giants won three World Series in 5 years because they went out and signed all the big free agents? The Royals got to back-to-back World Series and won one with free agents? Houston should have lost in 2017 and their cheating is being adjudicated as we speak, but they were homegrown with a low payroll, tons of prospects from 10 years of tanking and signed Verlander. There is no comparison to their situation and the Dodgers.

The Nats signed Scherzer and Strasburg years ago and players like Anthony Rendon chocked in their first two Playoffs only to breakout in 2019. The Nats struggled for 5 years despite being one of the favorites to win it all… and it came together after they lost their superstar, with as “rag-tag” of a group as you will ever see. I call them “junkyard dogs.”

The Dodger have spent more money and won more games in the past 5 years under Andrew Friedman than any other team in baseball. That’s a fact. The Dodgers have one of the best and deepest farm systems in all of baseball. That’ a fact. They are poised for many more years of playoff baseball. That’s a fact.

What role the 2017 loss played in all this remains to be seen, but lives were altered in the process. Without the Cheating Astros, Clayton Kershaw would have likely been the MVP, but instead, he was the Goat. They had a “hangover” in 2018, but made it back and in 2019, they were bounced by the ultimate champions who would not be denied.

At one time San Francisco got the best Free Agent in all of baseball – Barry Bonds and they signed Barry Zito t a huge boat anchor contract, but Bonds didn’t help them win and they won in spite of Zito with a bunch of homegrown players and journeymen – junkyard dogs all.

Winning the last game is the ultimate goal. AF has no World Series titles in 5 years, but they are coming. I guarantee it! Theo Epstein has 1 in 8 years with the Cubs, but how he was able to win was by blowing it up, hoarding picks and trading players for more prospects. Now, they are looking to “fix” their issues or re-build again. Andrew Friedman was mandated to rebuild the Dodgers while also winning. It’s never been done like that before. They are rebuilt and while it would be nice to have Gerrit Cole, it was not happening. There’s no need to add bumper stickers to this Ferrari!

Stay in your boxes, if it makes you feel better, but it’s a box manufactured by You! There really is no box and this is a damn-good team. I enjoy the fresh air out of the box. Other stuff may happen in the offseason or at the trade deadline… but there’s a chance not much needs to occur. You are in charge of your own misery…

Get Ready…