What the Trends Are Showing

I agree with this. Top hitters should be hitting 1-2-3 to maximize more plate appearances per game. The rest of the order doesnt matter as much. Ohtani-Mookie-Freddie has been the recipe to their success for the last 3 seasons.

As I said Matt, as I said…

Matt, how long have you been watching baseball? It is not about what we want. It is about being more consistent. It is about a batting philosophy that prioritizes hitting the ball in the air, not meeting it square, the wat we were taught when we were young. Badger and I were both taught to hit line drives. Which translates into hard hit baseballs, not chasing out of the zone, and protecting the plate with 2 strikes. The only guys in this lineup that hit like that are Freeman and Smith. Everybody else is trying to hit a long ball all the time. Call is a contact hitter, his approach with 2-strikes is excellent. Did you watch Pujols when he was in LA? Power hitter, but when he got 2 strikes on him, he looked to go the other way. Also, I don’t look at things through rose colored glasses and say all is fine when it is blatantly obvious that the exact opposite is true. Doesn’t matter if it is May or September. I saw this team blow a 4-game lead with just 7 to play. So don’t tell me how to judge or watch a game I have been watching for well over 70 years. Maybe they will pull out of this, and maybe, just maybe, they are showing their age. Players slowdown in their 30’s and the Dodger lineup is loaded with age.

In 24, the season started with Betts leading off, and he was doing a great job doing that. Ohtani was doing fine in the 2-hole. That changed ONLY WHEN BETTS hand was broken on June 16th, against the Royals. In the second half, batting second, Mookie’s BA plunged 41 points, his OPS, 81 points and his OBP over 90. He is a .295 hitter as a leadoff batter; he has 52 leadoff homers. He hits just .277 in the 2 hole. His OPS is over .900 leading off. His OBP is 375. This season, Ohtani is hitting .219 leading off. His OBP is just .3342 and his OPS is .780. He has struck out 12 times and walked 5. His BA when swinging at the first pitch is .228. His OBP is .298. OPS .718. Sorry, they might have gotten the job done the last 2 years, but Ohtani is definitely not getting the job done now.

10:10 PM ET Giants (17-24) Dodgers (24-17) SP Adrian Houser R 0-4 6.19 ERA SP Y. Yamamoto R 3-2 3.09 ERA Confirmed Lineup DH S. Ohtani L SS Mookie Betts R 1B F. Freeman L RF Kyle Tucker L C Will Smith R 3B Max Muncy L CF Andy Pages R LF T. Hernandez R 2B Hyeseong Kim L 64° Wind 8 mph Out Tonight we breakout with a WIN!

As a long-time lurker who never comments on this site, this Dodgers team is too talented and deep not to win another World Series. As soon as Mookie Betts gets hot, the Dodgers will pull off a 12-15 game-winning streak.

“LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani won’t hit in one of the final two games against the San Francisco Giants this week, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hasn’t yet decided if that will be on Wednesday when Ohtani pitches or on Thursday for what would amount to a mental reset day for the slumping superstar”.

So I guess the question is how long do you go with guys who aren’t hitting in 2026??? So if Ohtani and Betts are still crap in August do they still bat 1-2 because they have the highest OPS since 2020? If we are still winning I guess the answer is yes. After all we stuck with Conforto for all of 2025

I believe in you, Scott. Get to it!

If they are winning, they will stick with what they have. But something has to give. On paper, they are far and away the best offense in either league. On the field, well, that is something else again.

This story will have a happy ending.

Above, Matt wrote “but trust the process…..” After 2 straight titles won in 2 very different ways, I sure as hell will trust the process until proven otherwise. Yes, the team is boring as all hell right now, but whatever. I’d rather say this in May than in Oct, when we’re anything but boring. We’ve seen an extended period of suck every single year since this run started in 2013. Maybe back in those early days, losing games in May meant as much as losing games in Sept, but since 2020, it’s not quite the same. So I’ll let them struggle, I’ll let them bore me to sleep (better than any Ambien, that’s for sure!), because I know it’ll eventually turn around, and most importantly, it’ll turn around when it matters most. If it doesn’t? Then I’ll complain. But for now? It’s all part of the journey, so I enjoy the ride. And it the major league team sucks, well, the minor league top 3 farm def makes for exciting reports by Jeff, Bear, and Mark (our Ohtani, Betts, Freeman). Meanwhile, Watford and I are basically our Kike and Rojas.

yeah! Get to writing that article.

THUMBS UP!

We all have our opinions of what ails the Dodgers. My personal take is that it is a combination of many things, age, approach, lack of good situational hitting. I also think several of the players are pressing. This team has been making mediocre pitchers look good. Not a great recipe for wins.

they have the fifth most wins in all of MLB. And they’re not playing well. but maybe they should change their hitting approach to a Badger and bear did when they were growing up? Forgive me, but that’s just silly.

Bear trust me ive seen plenty of baseball. My kid played high l evel DI college ball. The game is hard…. Are we in a rut yeah…would I take anay team over us in MLB…Hell effing no. So have fun, and enjoy the ride. I’ll trust the front office and guys that are back 2 back champs and winners of 3 in 6. The game aint easy bud.

Some people like to be pessimistic….like sands thru he hourglass….

Well said!!!!

I think it just silly to keep saying that ‘we still have the ……..best, fifth best etc, when that was a carry over from the beginning of the year. The struggles are NOW. Two more weeks like this you can say we still have the tenth best …… On the other hand if they come alive we might have the 3rd best. For all these years management and the players have figured it out. Hoping they will this year as well

I’m hoping that my fears will be proven unfounded….but right now no Dodgers fan can be happy with the way Kyle Tucker is playing after he signed that fat contract: four years at a record AAV of $60 million. For that kind of money, we should be expecting all-star level play at a minimum. He should be putting up the kind of numbers Pages is now producing. My concern boils down to this: What if Tucker’s character is that of a mercenary who, having now signed massive FU money, lacks the motivation, drive and pride that true superstars possess? The rap on him was that he was a talented player who exhibited little emotion or “fire.” I discounted those opinions. But what if there really is a bit of Rendon in his character? Tucker’s low-key demeanor may not be a problem at all–but I have to wonder about it as long as this alleged “superstar” keeps producing around league-average levels. Considering the investment and expectations, it’s odd to me that many fans here seem less concerned about Tucker than the periodic struggles of Shohei or Teo. There could be a looming problem here: It won’t be easy to bench a guy getting paid $60 million per year through 2029 to make room for a rising prospect. It’s not just the Dodgers $$ that is invested in Tucker, but also AF’s ego. Last season, Conforto would have been benched a lot sooner it not for $$ and what it reflects. Like I said at the start of this rant, I hope that Tucker shows that my fears are unfounded. He was supposed to slot into the top of the lineup and provide a spark. With Shohei, Teo and others struggling, when will Tucker deliver?

The struggles are now. NOW is not the future.

so far

Stay in the moment Mark. Matt “….like sands thru he hourglass…. That puts the dialog of Dodger past, present, and future into Soap Opera territory.

I have no idea what the point of that post was? If the team does better it will be better, if the team does worse it will be worse?