RSS
August 30, 2008
Dodgers Life Support Watch
It’s very very tempting to bury the Dodgers right now. With their lack of run production, bad defense and shaky pitching, the Dodgers should be dead. But being in the Loser’s Division, they still have a shot to play October ball.
Everyone knows anything can happen in October. The 2006 St. Louis Cardinals struggled to 83 wins which won them the NL Central. They swept the San Diego Padres in the NLDS, won game seven against the New York Mets in the NLCS and improbably beat the Detroit Tigers in the World Series in five games.
But the Cardinals do not have the postseason futility the Dodgers have.
Let’s just say that somehow the Dodgers make it to October. The Dodgers have only won one postseason game since winning it all in 1988, and it took a career pitching performance by journeyman Jose Lima to shut the Cardinals out in 2004.
In order for the Dodgers to make any sort of noise they need to start pitching better first and foremost. In this road trip they have given up five or more runs in all but one game. The bullpen is starting to tire out, and the starting pitching is just not as fearsome as it once was.
And the Dodgers need to get out of the habit of leaving runners on the basepads. When the bases are loaded with no outs, you can’t leave the inning scoring nothing. With runners on first and third with one out, you can’t be happy just scoring one run.
Can the Dodgers fix these things? If you’re like some of the commenters, somehow you are optimistic that it will magically come together.
But I’ve seen this last year. There is a new manager this year and it may be quieter, but the Dodgers are circling down the same drain. The same lack of hitting, the same struggling pitching, the same error-prone play in the field. Does anyone really think there will be a different outcome?
Looking towards the offseason, the Dodgers have some big contracts coming off of their payroll and the real questions will start. Who will be in charge of getting the players needed to be a somewhat respectable baseball team? What in the world are they going to do with their young guys who are coming upon their first big-money contracts?
That is what I’m looking forward to, because as of right now the Dodgers look dead.
AP Photo by Rick Scuteri
| 
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
[ report this ]
As I life-long Dodger fan -- watching team after team fail too often at opportune times -- I too am tempted to drift toward fatalism. But I also don't see the point of it. Why the rush to declare the Dodger's dead with one more game against the Dbacks in AZ and three more versus the division leaders in LA?
As I write this, the Dodgers, behind impressive defense and offense, are 6 outs away from being 3.5 back of AZ and defeating 14-game winner Dan Haren. A loss tonight would have been crushing but with a win we are one hot streak away from the playoffs. Yes our bullpen is tired, but our tired arms are better than the Diamondbacks healthy relievers and with what could be the return of Proctor and Penny in the pen I like our chances. Plus, phenom Scott Elbert and Corey Wade could deliver big innings.
The 2008 Dodgers are different than the 2006 Dodgers, even if the record doesn't always prove it. The lineup is better and the starting pitching can be phenomenal. I'm not optimistic that it will "magically" come together, I'm optimistic that this team will play like they know how if for no other reason than I am a fan and don't see the percentage in quitting at this point.
[ report this ]
I'm more of a 'magic' guy, myself.
Maybe it's because of the Goliath we slew in '88, riding on the right armed whip of the hymn-singin' Hershiser and the left handed swing of a certain import from Detroit. With a line up that that seemed meager and overmatched, those guys never lost faith. Those guys believed.
And for a fifteen year old Los Angelino, the sight of the Demper hoisting the Bulldog triumphant has been enough to outshine two decades of disappointments.
So while the job of reporting demands objectivity,
the pleasure of fandom requires fanaticism. Even, nay, especially, when you're down to your final out.
I salute you, Mr. Bramlett, for calling it as you see it.
But me, I gotta believe.