voted 2/3 ck and greinke should have no problems as long as our offense does their job same with ryu but...
These are the series we should destroy. For what it's worth, the first 2 months of last season we absolutely beat up on teams like the Pirates, Padres, Rockies, and Astros.
If we don't sweep, it's pathetic and it probably means Kemp would still be pressing for his rhythm which is no bueno. Not gonna assume Greinke will come out and be nails. I'll wait to see it first. He has blowup innings and if his defense fails him like they've been doing, we could see out nemesis Garrett Jones cashing in on unearned runs. Although pitching hasn't really been the problem. We can't hit. And we always get dominated by crappy pitchers. I embrace the pessimism role now, so idgaf. There's nothing wrong with making them show me something.
I wanted to see how we started out the season last year, damn we were good lol. Won 9 out of our first 10, were 16-7 in the first month... then what happened A good little reminder if we get sad if we get off to a slow start: Getting off to a hot start is awesome but lots of baseball to be played
failing to knock in runners in scoring position would be one thing but when you combine it with poor at bats -- specifically a lack of patience/discipline -- it's doubly frustrating for example, ethier swinging at the first pitch after a-gone just walked on 4 pitches and it would be somewhat understandable if it were a pitch he could drive, but he had to reach for it and popped out weakly to the left side i have no doubt mcgwire is supplying them with the knowledge, the problem is they're apparently not listening
In reference to Capn' Treez from the closed thread The article basically stated that everything evens out. The most clutch players bat 10 points above their average with RISP. It's not saying Loney is better than Cano obviously, it's saying that Loney might be a .250 hitter who hits .260 with RISP, and Cano is a .320 hitter who hits .310 with RISP. It also states that even with a 10 point increase in batting average, which is on the more extreme side of outcomes, even that is just 1 extra base hit with RISP per 50 GAMES! Essentially, being good at hitting with RISP is folly. If Matt Kemp hits .300 this season, he'll hit just about .300 with RISP. It may seem otherwise, but that's how narratives begin. Derek Jeter has been a bad defensive player for 15 years who wins gold gloves off of narratives, so they can have legs when you let them.
The Dodgers are such a huge brand and draw, but I have a random question.... How much bigger do you think the Dodgers would be if there were no Angels or Padres?
If there was no Padres, but there were Angels, I don't think the Dodgers would be drastically larger, it'd help the Angels more (just given what I think I know from experience/data of San Diego sports fans demographics). But if there were no Angels, then obviously Los Angeles would just dominate an entire large region of Southern California and would control an INSANE market, too much power almost lol. What is different about baseball when compared to what basketball+football teams can do in terms of dominating regions is that baseball doesn't have a popular college sport to compete with. Baseball fans in southern california would be Dodger fans (whereas basketball fans are mostly Laker fans but theres still UCLA/USC bball, and football fans can be UCLA/USC football fans). Fascinating question though, it'd be unreal to have that but still think it's fun to have the Angels/Padres for the good of MLB. Wow, I made this a lot longer than I thought.
Yeah, it'd be nuts. I don't know if there would ever be empty seats. You'd have the most populous metropolitan (Other than possibly NY) and THEN SOME to yourself!
No bigger whatsoever. Angel fans are all bandwagon POS's that would just as soon go to Disneyland or a Mighty Ducks game if there were no Angels. And the idea that the Padres have fans is fictitious. I've been to a lot of games at Petco and its a rare event to run into a Padre fan.
haha true but there are a lot of big baseball fans in OC who have Angels ticket plans and sponsorships because they have a team of their own. Look at the NBA. Everyone in OC reps the Lakers because they don't have their own brand.
I know a lot of Angel fans who are extremely fair weather - season tickets one year and then have no clue what the team is doing the next. People who honestly don't care about baseball. But on a serious note, there would be potential for fan growth. I think a number of teams like the Cardinals benefit from having no other teams geographically close - they have fans from Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, etc..
