There is plenty of time in the long, dark offseason to second-guess and armchair quarterback what should have happened with the Dodgers in the 2019 playoffs, and what should happen over the coming winter.
This offseason has been especially hard on Dodger fans, as more and more evidence comes out every day about the Houston Astros. The eventual World Series winners may or may not have used technology to gain an unfair advantage in the 2017 season. Specific to Dodger fans, Game 5 of the World Series will haunt them forever. I wrote about this last week, and specifically how it makes me upset for Clayton Kershaw and his postseason legacy.
Earlier this evening, I was listening to Bill Plunkett of the OC Register on MLB Radio. Host Casey Stern suggested that the Dodgers were too stubborn in their plan of attack in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Washington Nationals. Plunkett took it further, saying they were too arrogant. They had a plan going into Game 5 and stuck with it regardless if their gut told them otherwise as the affair unraveled. They ran Kershaw out there too long, setting him up once again for failure.
So now, after seven failed postseason attempts in a row, the Dodgers’ front office must leave the arrogance behind.
Admittedly, so far the template has been very good. You don’t win seven straight division titles and reach the World Series twice in seven years on luck alone, along the way having two Rookies of the Year, two NL MVPs, and a farm system still full of young talent ready to help.
But, the fact still remains that they have yet to win it all.
This is one of the best free agent classes in a while. Realistically, the big names last season weren’t anyone that the Dodgers were going to sign, both position-wise and long term contract-wise. But this offseason, there is not one, but two premier arms on the market, plus an MVP finalist infielder.
The Dodgers’ front office and owners must recognize that they cannot remain with the status quo if they expect to win the World Series anytime soon. The Dodgers have been the best team, at least record wise, in the National League for the last three seasons, but there are a few teams that are closing in. Sure, as is, the Dodgers could easily win the NL West for the eighth straight year with just a few tweaks to the team. But that is not enough for the team or for the fan base.
There are many great suggestions out there as to how the front office can make this team better. The question is, how many moves does the front office finally make so that Kershaw is not called upon to go one too many batters again? So that they don’t have to throw a not-yet-rehabilitated Rich Hill as a starter? So that maybe there is another clutch postseason hitter?
This team is lead by many brains who have done a very good job so far. Fans now need them to do a great job.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
“The question is, how many moves does the front office finally make so that…….”
3. A starter, a reliever and a middle order hitter.
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Is that a prediction or a suggestion Scoop?
Andy, Andrew just called me and asked if you could put another picture of him up at the top of your article. Something a little more dynamic. Says this one makes him look kinda dorky.
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Tell him to stop looking so dorky then 😜
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He says the photographer snuck up on him after the last out against the Nats. Turns out he called down to the dugout and said to tell Doc to use Kenley in the 10th. They misunderstood and thought he said Kelly.
This picture makes him look like such a nebbish that the other GM’s aren’t giving him the proper respect in trade negotiations.
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Just a suggestion. My predictions have already been made and I was quite clear with them. They are going to sign a guy or two, make a trade, promote some players, demote some others, pick some up from waivers, waiver goodbye to others. I think it’s safe to say they will pay too much for somebody and make a questionable trade. There. Clarity.
I believe what they are going for with that picture is nerd, not dork. Nerd is vogue. I think they succeeded. That guy above looks like a tight jawed nerd.
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Tight jawed nerd? I thought that was a bird found in the Upper Zambezi Basin.
I think “nebbish” is the way to go.
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I always thought nebbish was Yiddish for young and …. not particularly gifted. I looked it up. nebbish: a pitifully ineffectual, luckless, unfortunate and timid person. A zero, a nonentity. I don’t know… I don’t find Friedman timid.
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Oh, you’re very nasty Mr. Scoop.
I just thought that the photo should be in Webster’s next to the definition of “nebbish”. It’s the absolute perfect expression on his face to symbolize what I think a nebbish should look like.
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While we’re going back and forth here Scoop, I think we have managed to drive away everyone who ever came to this sight with our repartee over the past couple of days. Even Bear can’t handle it tonight. Keith tried for awhile yesterday, but I think he’s given up and, if you’ve noticed, even Andy and Dennis are so discouraged that neither one of them has gotten on to tell us to shut up and get the hell outta here.
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Yeah, I noticed it’s quieted down. But I don’t think it’s us. I think we are glib and entertaining. I’m sure others find our glibberish captivating as well.
Again, it’s pre winter meetings off season. Folks is watching football.
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I think it’s mostly because you refused to engage me in a conversation about hurling.
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I thought you said “curling”. Everyone knows that’s a girls activity. The only hurling I know involved excess partaking of adult beverages. That hurling video looks like lacrosse without rules. Looks like fun too.
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Man, you guys ( as in Jeff, and Scoop ) really hijacked poor Andy’s article. She stands up and calls out the front office, and you guys start your abbot, and Costello routine. you both owe her an apology, and are on a fifteen minute time out. 😀
Seriously you guys keep a, so far boring, off season fun. keep up the good work, maybe look into an agent that can get you guys some stand up gigs. 😀
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Yes, you guys are more entertaining than the offseason! Keep it up!
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I just checked. My 15 minutes is up. Who’s on First?
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Andy, I really appreciate that you try to keep your articles positive, it’s easy to sit around write about The negative, or shoulda, woulda, coulda. Good for you, calling the organization out on this. It’s exactly what happened.
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Thanks Keith! I save my real bitching for my twitter feed 😉.
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I just read Jeff @ 10:41pm I’m still laughing. Classic Jeff at his best. 😀
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Don’t encourage me Keith. 🙂
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I really do apologize Andy. I know that you and Dennis put a lot of work into your posts and we certainly aren’t meaning to minimize that. I think, on my part, it’s just the result of the post season coupled with no activity yet (for the Dodgers) in the off season.
Frustration, coupled with inactivity, coupled with too much time on my hands leads to silliness. I’d much rather we have a spirited conversation about our new outfielder Mookie Betts or our new starter Cole or our new bullpen addition, etc.
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Jeff, honestly, there is absolutely no need to apologize, especially now when there is little to nothing to talk about. Without you guys, there would be no blog, and Dennis and I are so very appreciative of you all
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Thanks for your kind understanding Andy. Do you think you could possibly write a short note to my wife to let her know how valuable my contributions are. She just tends to roll her eyes at most of my comments (on all topics).
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Haha as a wife myself, I suspect even if I wrote a note she’d still roll her eyes 😉. It’s how we keep you guys humble
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On a serious note, have you guys watched any of the videos about the sign stealing? It’s horrible, there is definitely no question about there guilt. Today a vid came out showing a table, a monitor, and a trash can, in the Astros runway, right next to the dug out, during the 2017 World Series. The dodgers got hosed. All that crap about Darvish tipping his signs was all a lie to cover up their cheating, that makes it even worse.
The punishment should be severe.
Dennis, and Andy, maybe you guys could do an article showing some of the videos? Just a thought.
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I keep hearing that the Astros probably weren’t the only ones doing it. I just hope we weren’t involved.
One thing for sure, the Astros have by far the worst reputation in all of MLB, probably in all of U.S. professional sports.
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I thought about that, Keith. I’ll look into it
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It would have been even worse if the stros had Beat the nationals. we would all be talking about them stealing the World Series that just finished. It’s a shame that this is going to be the story everyone is talking about all off season, I don’t think this can be a quick investigation, and be done properly, if the MLB tries to sweep this under the rug it’s going be a stink that they can never get away from.
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As a 40- year plus Dodger fan, I look forward each morning to the articles and the comments section. Don’t change anything you’re all doing…fun and informative.
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On behalf of the “regulars” Jonathan, I’m glad we haven’t driven you away. Hope we’ll see some more comments from you relating to whatever topics Andy and Dennis bring up. Sometimes I forget that there are lots of you out there who come here every day to read, but rarely comment. You need to take that last step and make your opinions known to the rest of us.
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Apparently Puig and Bellinger heard something. They mentioned whistling.
There was a steroid stink that lasts until today. And what happened? Not much. A couple players are wearing a collar, but records still stand. Make no mistake, until the fans actually do something, and they won’t, MLB won’t do a thing. It’s not about honoring the game, it’s about MONEY. And the money is rolling in.
Here’s something to think about – it sure looked like Rendon and Soto knew what was coming. How’d they do it in LA? I think there should be an investigation.
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I disagree Scoop. No they won’t kick the Astros out of baseball but I’ll bet they get some pretty stiff penalties. They came down pretty hard on the Braves a couple years ago and this is probably considered worse. I don’t see them taking away their 2017 WS title but they’re going to lose a bunch of draft picks and international money and there will be some suspensions, which will ironically also wind up having an effect on Boston (Cora) and New York (Beltran). If they don’t come down hard here this will just escalate and will eventually wind up totally out of control. I don’t think they’ll actually wait for the teams to lose money because of it in order to take action.
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I guess we’ll see won’t we. Whatever happens could be embarrassing, but I doubt it’s damaging. It certainly won’t be as damaging to the Astros as it was to the teams they were facing when these outrageous indiscretions took place.
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There’s a good article at Dodger Nation about our leadoff hitter status. By the numbers Joc shows signs of nearly but not quite impressive mediocrity. Verdugo is probably the choice. I know there used to be a representative prototype for that job, but in today’s game who knows what they might look for. Just the fact we led the league in scoring suggests to me they won’t want to change anything.
Goff sucks. Yeah, I know. That’s rather disconnected. Just like most of his passes. And they owe that guy $100 million. The Rams window appears to be closing. And the Chargers are suffering the effects of climate change. Their Rivers has dried up.
I think I need more coffee.
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AF arrogant? Never ! My take is he still operates like LA is a small market team. But that is his modus operandi. Plus the mandate that they stay under the luxury tax. Tomorrow is the first significant post season deadline, those the organization wants to protect from the rule 5 draft must be put on the 40 man. LA has 3 open roster spots. Opinion now seems to be that there is a decent chance Ryu gets a 3-4 year deal from the Dodgers. 20-25 million range according to some reports. With Hill’s 16 mil coming off of the books they can afford to throw some coin his way, and he makes sense. Not more than that though.
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Yesterday was the anniversary of the day that Koufax announced his retirement from baseball at the age of 30. I remember how stunned I was at the time. It was after the 1966 season. The Dodgers knew of the coming announcement and asked Sandy to not announce it until they had a chance to trade for a replacement. He refused.
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I hadn’t heard the story about the announcement before. I wonder why Sandy wouldn’t go along with that. It certainly would have made a difference in terms of the front office’s ability to trade for a replacement.
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My memory of the event, which is damaged and unreliable as I spent that summer in boot camp and ITR, was that Sandy was just a tad pissed because his arm was about to fall off from overuse. He and Drysdale were both embattled with ownership regarding contract disputes for some time during that period.
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That makes sense. I do remember some very contentious contract disputes so he may well have had a bad taste in his mouth. Happily, they long ago mended fences and we get to see him at the Stadium on a regular basis.
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Well Jefe, you have to remember that relations between Sandy and Bavasi were strained at that time. That was after the great holdout. Koufax and Big D did the unthinkable, and did not sign the contracts tendered to them. They wanted 3 years and 1 million dollars to be split among the 2 of them, giving them each a salary of 167,000 a year. Mays had just signed a 2 year deal with the Giants for 125 per. Koufax was coming off of his second Cy Young in 3 years and had barely been beaten out by Mays for his second MVP. But by the end of the 1966 World Series, Sandy’s elbow was not getting any better. He went to a doctor after the season and the doc said, if you want to have use of your arm the rest of your life, you have to stop pitching now. Sandy took the docs advice and notified the Dodgers that he was going to announce his retirement. The meetings were coming up and Bavasi asked Koufax to postpone the announcement. Sandy just flat told him no. His replacement in the rotation that season was Mike Kekich. Yep, the same Mike Kekich who after he was traded to the Yankees ended up trading wives with Fritz Peterson.
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welcome Jonathan, don’t be afraid to comment, me, scoop, and Jeff will protect you from bear, mainly dont stick your fingers in his cage, and you’ll be ok.😀
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Very funny Keith, do not worry Jonathan, I only bite those who continually annoy me…like Keith…
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Koufax got 125,000 and Big D got 110. His arm hurting all the time Koufax managed to win 27 games and lose 9. 36 decisions, unheard of in today’s game. Big D on the other hand was under .50 at 13-16. Dodgers managed to win the pennant and then were swept by the O’s. Koufax lost in his last big league start. A few weeks later, the best pitcher I ever saw retired.
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You know I can’t help myself sometimes bear 😀
What exactly was wrong with sandys elbow, Bear, would it be fixable now if he was playing?
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The thing is this Keith, us old very knowledgeable fans keep waiting for you to say something really relevant…………LOL…….
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Sandy’s elbow was severely arthritic. It was getting to the point that he could not straighten it out. They might have been able to perform some kind of surgery, but I doubt it would have made it much better. I have the same problem in both of my elbows. I cannot straighten either arm.
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