I am Realistic as Fuck

in the Dodgers and our chances of winning this year.

We have 4 SP's out and we literally do not have a decent 5 SP right now. We have even more injuries with the position players. Hanley is likely going back on the DL, Kemp suffers a setback, AJ still on the DL, and Ethier likely should go on the DL.

Agon needs a day of rest or two but we are so hurt and have such shitty depth that we cannot afford to give him a single day off.

SVS is coming back down to Earth from his hot start which means that we have another AAAA in the lineup to team up with FedEx.

Cruz not only doesn't belong in the majors but he doesn't even deserve a roster spot on a AAA team in case of injuries to the big league club. The guy is just beyond horrific.

Punto has been rock solid for us but I mean seriously it's not going to last. We all know that.

Skip Bootlicker is gay but has been playing a ton better with the bat lately. Which is nice.

Hairston is shit.

Ramon Hernandez needs to rejoin his group, the ramones, because he cannot play baseball to save his life.

Mark Ellis is a decent player but he is far to heavily relied upon to be a run producer.

Uribe has been a fantastic surprise but does not get any playing time because the "Manager has diarrhea on the brain.

Etheir has been playing his worst baseball by far but it's not anything I didn't expect. He will never be an .800 OPS guy again but with every day that goes by gives my thoughts about him more validation and I think that it sucks he won't prove me wrong and make me look like a fucking jackass.

Kemper will get better with time but I doubt there is enough time left in the season to get him right. His power is gone for now because of the surgery but it's his mindset at the plate that has me worried. 2010 rearing it's ugly head again.

Crawford has been outstanding and a breath of fresh air but his out for awhile more with a significant hamstring injury. Also knowing our training staff they will clear him far before he is ready and he will restrain it.

Our bullpen which was supposed to be the strength of our team and one of best if not the best in baseball has been one of the worst and I do not see it getting significantly better. Belli is awful, League has been really bad, Grrrrrr is Grrrrrr, Guerra is bad, Howell has been nails, Paco is awesome, Jansen is by far our best arm but needs to learn not to throw the same exact pitch in the same exact location to a hitter when they keep fouling it off.

Ryu has surpassed my expectation by a long shot. After we signed him and I read the stuff people were writing I figured Ryu would be a 5th starter with a 4th starter ceiling but he has been great. I can see him as a legitimate #2 for most teams, just not ours and that is awesome.

Greinke has been disappointing because of that piece of shit cum licking deepthroat taking aids carrier getting buttfucked machine Carlos but as more time goes on he will be dominant imo.

Kershaw is the best pitcher in baseball. End of story, it's his world and we all just live in it.

And now Puig, I had really high expectations for him and he has surpassed all of them. I know it's only been 7 games but I believe he will be an MVP candidate every year from on out. The guy has everything and then some, just a rare talent. imo.

With all that together I believe that we are not going to make it into the playoffs. I do not ever see us being healthy enough in the near future to keep our deficit in the west close enough for when our players do come back we can even get one of the two wildcard spots. Hell, I think we may end up with a top 10 selection in next years draft.

I think our final record will be around 75-87, in what will be known as one of the most disappointing seasons ever.

 

Yup

 

way to kill my buzz

 

Not even going to read it because I probably agree with most of it anyways. I'm however not afraid of the Dbacks and Giants. This team needs to get healthy to have a chance. If they don't get healthy, this was a waste of a season pretty much.

 

This thread is mostly good IMO. There's a little too many bad predictions and over the top negativity, but I understand why.
BTW Ethier- .284BA/ 20Hr /.812OPS last season. WTF? Now- .229/4/.664 and looks to be 20lbs. skinnier.

Anyway, my realism sees this.
We are playing 10-10 since the sweep we suffered in ATL. I pick that spot because it was when the shit was hitting the fan and it's 20 games. We are 5-5 over our last 10. So basically we are a .500 ballclub right now and for sometime. Puig has played a huge role in 4 of those last wins. I don't think we've dropped more than 2-3 GB in the last 20games. The Division is somewhat stagnet this month.

We have within those 20 games played the best teams around the NL. We have also played some of the worst...but a pretty good mixture including the Angels who always play us tough, although they are worse off than we are this season in many ways.

We have only 3 SP right now that have a name. CK/Greinke/Ryu. A decent rookie in Fife and nothing 5th. So the starting picting is in decent shape overall because our top 3 are far better than most. I'm guessing in a few weeks Capuano will fill our 5th spot behind Fife. Beckett and Lilly are pretty much not to be counted on ever again? If those 5 can stay healty, I'm confident that rotation is not a problem and more a strength.

The bullpen is hard to figure out. I see them being better than they were 20 games ago. Guerrier has pitch well lately, Beli & League are still questionable but can be good. Jansen, Paco, & Howell are good. I gotta think that's better than most pens out there but not the best by any means. (ERA means shit to me in the pen so fuck off)

OK, the positions...we are fucked now...really fucked.
OF=Injuries are fucking huge and the OF is our biggest hurdle to climb.
*Puig has obviously made up for Kemp or Crawford or Ethier but can't do it all.
*SVS is sliding badly and must be the 4th OF/bench powerbat.
*I don't see any hope of CC staying healthy anymore.
*We need Kemp or Ethier to get back to being good players...only one needs to, both preferably.
*The OF of Puig/Kemp(if decent at least)/Crawford (While CC is out Ethier/SVS platoon.) should be good enough.

IF= Injuries less of a problem.
*Catchers. Well AJ is hurt and we have to guys. One hits better than the other and one fields better, but neither are good hitters. That can be ok until AJ returns. not a big problem IMO.
*1B. AGon is in a little slump. His 2nd of the season. Last one didn't last long, hopefully this one won't either.
*2B. Ellis needs to be platoon vs. RH for awhile. He's having his anual leg issues again. Hairston or Skip can do this.
*3B. For God's sake. Just start Uribe daily until he really sucks.
*SS. Like Crawford, Ramirez is great but cannot be counted on to play. It looks like this is his new job, DL. I would play Punto close to fulltime or Cruz between Hanely visits. I don't need to ever see DEE here again, really. My fear of having Dee back is the only thing keeping me from wanting Cruz completely gone. When Hanely is on the big team, send Cruz packing to minors...if he don't take it, release him. A trade should occur soon to get another SS or 3B.

IMO, this season all depends on 2 things. Injuries need to almost stop happening with the exception of CC and Hanely. They are toast overall healthwise IMO.
The other is Kemp and Ethier. Like I said 1 or both have to get going or we are missing the playoffs.

Remember .500 should keep us afloat through the break as nobody in our division is running away from us lately.

 

The season was gonna go one of two ways. A success or a disaster. There was no middle ground. Ethier Billingsley's elbow would hold up or it wouldn't. Either Kemp was gonna be a star or a detriment after injury. Cruz was either gonna be competent or terrible. Crawford was either gonna be great or injured as always. So much was waiting to go wrong and it went even wrong-er than anyone could've imagined.

 

There's always next season boys!

 

Yep, but in my eyes, Kemp is the only one of those that can't be overcome. Well Puig could, but then the other 2 OFers issues come up.

 

You're all wrong.....

Ned will pull a monster trade out of his ass.... We'll get Pau Gasol and make it to the finals....

 

thats where i was at from the start. too early to start thinking about turning it around?

 

Well, I know we haven't scored runs previously all season, but that can change. With the talent this team has on the DL, it's not set in stone that we cannot score. The addition of Puig makes that even more evident.
As was talked about on Dodgertalk, If AGon is the only real bat in the middle of the order, then we are fucked. HanRam is never around, and Kemp and Ethier have sucked and aren't available anyway. The answer is Puig. Don has to move him into the middle for us to have a chance at least until one of Hanely or Kemp return. We have to have at least 2 power threats in the middle. SVS barely qualifies, but Puig seems to be a guy that will drive runs in when the bases have people out there. AGon and him will clean the shit up.

We don't need Puig leading off, we have planty of guys that can get onbase. Punto, Ellis, Shumaker, Hairston, or even Uribe all can bat 1st or 2nd for now. I'm hoping don realizes that this series...we need a "heart" of the order more than anything now.

Today, even using Cruz over Uribe or Hairston the lineup would've probably been more effective like this...
Punto
Ellis
AGon
Puig
SVS
Cruz
Fedex
Magill

You could swap AGon and Puig/Cruz and Fedex/Punto and Ellis.
If Ellis wasn't well enough to run, even Cruz 2nd would've made more sense than 5th.

 

we are doomed now because of the AAAA lineup they are running out, but we did spent about a month and a half with Kemp, Crawford, Ethier, AGon, Ellis (2) playing... sure now 75% of the useful players are DL, but its no excuse for where we are right now in the standings... CK has a below 2 ERA and only 5 wins to show for it... Ryu has been awsome, but they havent received any run support, even with the full lineup playing...

I think this season was needed so the new management could clean house...

I saw on Twitter something about a Dodgers exec telling a reported that "Maddon let Loney be who he is. Too many people on the Dodgers wanted him hitting HRs"... I'm no Loney fan after so many failing seasons, but we need to question why good hitters turn into crap when they get here... MArk was supposed to be a savior, and he's proven worst than Hansen (at least on the team results)... Is it something on the top level strategy what is creating a ripple effect dragging the team down the drain???

 

I'm not sure about "good hitters turn into crap when they get here".
Plenty have gotten better here too. Kemp, Ethier, AGon, Ramirez, Crawford, Ellis, Ellis, Punto all improved here until injuries got in their way.
Somehow the results don't show up as far as scoring as team.
Loney is just a strange deal. They seemed to try everything with that guy. I'm convinced it's a "cracks under pressure" thing with him. T.B. is a low pressure system, Madon is great at keeping the team lose and it probably suits Loney mentally. Loney was expected to do great things here because he was great early on here.

 

those 2 lines are mutually exclusive... if they get better, it has to show up on the scoring... if not, then what are they better at???

I agree on Loney cracking at pressure, but still it hurts...

 

Well, gauging a hitter getting better or worse would go by his individual stats wouldn't it? Somehow we manage to have guys improve their stats but somehow we don't score runs. Don't ask me how, that's the mystery ain't it?

 

we are the anti-moneyballl team... they get on base, but simply cant score...

 

LOL, yeah exactly. It's mind numbing.