DODGERS/RED SOX

The difference between Harper and Machado is Harper isn't, to my limited knowledge, a product of his home ballpark. His talent plays anywhere.

Bryce is capable of hitting for average. He had only 1 season where it was abysmal. Truly think he will learn from every season prior and put together a remarkable prime ages 26-31 if he stays healthy.

And let's be real. .270 will do if he is hitting 40 HR and getting on base at a .400 clip.

The problem with our guys is they hit .240 or below and don't have the OBP to help. Even Brian Kenny said it..at some point batting average matters. When it gets too low, your rate of success isn't high enough to convert opportunities.

 

I guess you're right but the FO ain't giving him the 350 mil he will get from Philly

 

I agree with all this, except Dave. That said, I think he stays, but I would love to see him fired. There are just too many things. Hill has been pulled early from playoff games for 3 years now. I watched Joc and Kiké leadoff 1st like douches against Jon Lester, and our manager let them keep doing it like it was his idea. I watched him not start our best players for half of our postseason games. I watched him bat Kiké 3rd tonight. I don’t know if these ideas come from Dave or the FO, but we need a manager who will put a stop to this. We need a guy to say “no, I need my best guys in there to see pitches and get in a rhythm.” Our FO breeds platoon players during the season, and Dave goes along with it. Dave isn’t inventive, and he doesn’t provide a layer of baseball knowledge that the number crunching nerds upstairs need. Why is he even there? I’m 100% convinced Manny Machado would make a better manager.

 

I agree with you both, but I think the front office just doesn’t care. If anything, they rebuild these guys with the sole intention of lowering their contact rates to increase homers. It’s the right strategy for the way the game is going, but it’s boring as hell. Chris Taylor hit over .300 every year he was in the minors. Kiké hit over .300 his first year here. Now they’re .240 hitters who hit 20 homers a year.

 

BC as much as the idiot was obsessed with running that gas can Madson out there, he was just as eager to keep Freese on the bench and the HR and error triple was just a wee fish slap to his fucking face. Freese was the X factor and he was completely misused by a buffoon. Fuck, even the President of the Unitedl Buffoons said it.

Fuckwood stepped on his dick a dozen times and blew this series and big as anyone could.

 

It isn't the right strategy though, imo. Wish I could cite a source and maybe I'm completely wrong, but I heard an interview where Bill James said the fundamental change in the Astros from 2016 to 2017 was lowering the swing and miss and that contact is vital. He said the Red Sox made it their mission to be a well rounded offense and make contact. Their situational hitting was extraordinary. Maybe that isn't as sustainable though.

I understand we were close to beating both of them. Sure. And the data may not even support what James said.

Maybe lowering contact is the right strategy for MARGINAL PLAYERS, but not your every day stars in the middle of the lineup. Maybe you take the lowering contact approach with Kike and Joc. Fine. But don't do that to Bellinger. Know what I mean?

 

Look up a Bryce Harper spray chart, and it’s amazing. He uses the whole field so well, and has great opposite field power. He’s one of the elite hitters in the game, and offensively on another level above Machado. He plays hard and brash like Puig, and it would be cool to see the two of them out there as bookends to Bellinger. Also, Harper hit a broken bat HR... and not a cheap HR or a small crack in the bat. It was a full broken bat.

 

I agree. We need a fundamental change in how we use data. In the playoffs you face shortened pitching staffs, extra scouting against you, and a longer series against the same players. Taking a big sample size of regular season data won’t always translate, and I think it’s no mistake our players have struggled in the playoffs the past few years.

 

I do not want them to SETTLE with Cody. Work with him and challenge him until he's a better hitter. Don't be satisfied with his net WAR. Yes, it is great how versatile he is, how fast he is, how strong his arm is, etc. And his bat plays big when you consider all he does.

But he has the talent to be a middle of the order hitter. He wasn't this year. He hit .200 in the LCS and got 1 hit in the WS. Cannot rely on that.

If you want Kike, Joc, and Taylor to reduce contact to hit HRs, great. That makes them better players. It does NOT make Cody better. It would not make Turner or Seager better. It won't make Gavin Lux better. The stars need to hit with volume and get on base.

 

The counter argument to what you and I are saying is we came within 1 game of winning it all with this strategy. So it CAN work. But it is so risky and frustrating to watch.

Another thing is platooning. We had to do it out of necessity this year. I don't want to see it any more. We have the resources to get complete players. I hate having players that are useless against LHP/RHP.

 

I'm taking a different approach.
I have 5 months to make the necessary adjustments to be a better fan.
I want to come into next season with a better attitude.
If I want the Dodgers to make adjustments, maybe I can too.
My goal is to love and enjoy the Dodgers.
Gotta let go of 2013-18 and just enjoy the team like I did as a little kid.
If I can't do that, I'll step away.

 

To steal from Mick and Keef, I had "no expectations" going into the Series. Boston was the better team, a team which took out two 100 win teams with ease to reach the Series.

So while I'm frustrated at another postseason failure, I'm not distraught. Thought it was inevitable.

If I'm going to play the blame game, I'll point the finger at a front office which constructed this flawed roster which needed a 163rd game to win a mediocre division.

'77 and '78 were much more frustrating. Dodgers were at least the equal of those Yankee teams.

That said, I'll be back again in 2019, just like I have every year since the last couple of years at the Coliseum. Can't help it. I'm a hopeless addict. or maybe I'm just hopeless.

This senile citizen will be ready to throw down on the first fucking Giant fan who harasses me today.

 

I agree, and that’s what I meant when I said it might be the right approach. It made Chris Taylor, Max Muncy and Kiké more valuable than they have any right being.

And again, I hear you on platoons but I’m not sure this front office sees it that way. I read an article once that said every team in baseball should employ a catching platoon because you have carry two anyway, so you might as well find one that crushes RHP and one that crushes LHP. Obviously if you hve Buster Posey in his prime you’re not gonna do that, but I think they see it as optimizing the 25 man roster.

I agree with you though on a lot of it. I’d love to see Verdugo start next year and hit at the top of the order when it’s all said and done. He, Cody and Puig would be my OF unless you can get Harper.

 

I'll always be a fan, but I'm not nearly as passionate as I used to be when I followed the Dodgers in totality(MLB-Rookie ball and draft) on the ESPN boards. The Spectrum TV deal made sure of that.

Made this WS loss much easier to deal with, thank god.

 

Ok, I get it. Agree with your logic, now that I know what you meant.
HOwever, in the LAD world, they'll give Dave Robots big credit for having the foresight to play him and leading him off.
No one will mention the mystifying Kike batting third, or anything else he did/didn't do.
Incredibly, there are people on this very site who watched the whole thing, every inning, every repeated Charlie Brown blockhead, micro managing, veteran taint-licking, platooning obsessed move he made undermining the team's chances, and they are Ok with him staying.
In fact, Dodgerworld real life, I expect praise to be heaped on him.
Now the Red Sox have won the ALE before, and yet Dombrowski made a managerial change...and now they are world champions.
Because if you are good, or elite, doesn't mean everything has to stay the same...
and the Red Sox are a perfect example of that.
The FO is spoken about in stellar terms most of the time, except for a few, like yourself.
Remember, no FO is "as clever". I guess stating all those superlatives, in light of so many others who have gotten rings and achieved so much more, is justified in some minds. Continuing to lose is fine. As long as Roberts is driving. All is well.
Imo, getting rid of Dave, so drastically and obviously needed, would be a big step in partial justification for their great rep, but it won't happen.

 

Managerial inspiration to achieve minimal results by micromanaging and adherence to platooning.

 

Pearce got pulled after 2 AB’s in Games 1 and 2 when a RHP came in and was benched for Game 3