What Do The Dodgers Know That We Don't?

At the trade deadline, Dodger fans were generally underwhelmed by the acquisitions of Kike Hernandez, Amed Rosario, Joe Kelly, Lance Lynn, and Ryan Yarbrough. I have opted not to copy and paste what many of you said about the players Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes acquired at the trade deadline so as to protect you from being called a certified moron. A few of the commenters who mocked the acquisitions have evaporated! Yeah, I would too…

Consider this (and yes, I know that this is still early):

• Joe Kelly had a 4.97 ERA with the White Sox, and in his 3.2 IPO with the Dodgers, he has a 0.00 ERA;
• Lance Lynn had a 6.47 ERA and was 6-9 with the White Sox and is 3-0 with a 2.00 ERA with the Dodgers;
• Ryan Yarbrough had a 4.24 ERA with Kansas City, but in his 7.1 innings with the Dodgers, he has a 1.23 ERA;
• Kike Hernandez was hitting .222 with Boston, but since re-joining the Dodgers, he is hitting a 100 points higher with a .884 OPS; and
• Amed Rosario had 3 HR with Cleveland in 385 ABs, but in 42 ABs with the Dodgers, he has hit 3 more.

So, should we believe that all five of these players are just playing out of their minds and this anomaly will crash and burn? Well, you may think that, but I don’t. I also think it is very simple – kind of how it’s very simple that the best team does not always win. That is a concept which a couple of people have been unable to grasp! I will provide proof of that at the end of this blog, but back to what Andrew Friedman and Company know that we do not.

They know how to put players in the best position top experience success. Of course, they are also applying “weeks” to what the players are doing and it certainly helps that most of the players left varying bad situations and are enjoying being a Dodger. Rosario and Hernandez both started out as platoon players. They were going to hit against LHP, but with injuries and other situations, their roles have expanded. Rosario is not a “little guy” but he has hit like one his whole career. Suddenly, he has matched his total home runs for the year that he accumulated in 385 ABS in just 42 ABs.

Lance Lynnn feels like he has a new lease on life as does Joe Kelly and Ryan Yarbrough. By all accounts, the five acquisitions are great teammates and fill a void on the team. Now, I do not expect them to continue to play at this pace (10-1 in August), but I do think they are on a 95+ win trajectory! Tony Gonsolin and Julio Urias are getting their mojo back and Clayton is pitching like he has never been gone. Add in the fact that Bobby Miller just pitched his best game of the year and it looks like the rotation is not a weakness, but rather a strength with the addition of Lynn and Yarbrough (as a swingman). The only troubling question surrounds JD Martinez and his lingering health problems. Without him, the team is good. With him, it is dynamic!

The Best Team

I stumbled upon a well-written and researched blog yesterday entitled “How Often Does the Best Team Win the Title?” This is not just about baseball, but it spans all sports and it is pretty clear that they are not hung up on what constitutes the best team. They use this criteria:

“Let’s quantify excitement vs accuracy by defining the “actual best team” as the one with the highest power rating, then seeing how often it wins the title. To estimate this, we ran 10,000 simulated seasons in 6 major American sports: professional football, basketball, baseball, hockey; college football and basketball.”

— Robert Robison

The study can be found HERE and it emphasizes how difficult it is for the best team to win, Some of you will read it and some of you will not want to be confused by the facts. You prefer this situation: