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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.
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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
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