Losing streaks happen — sometimes even long, horrific ones. But when a team clinches a playoff spot 10 straight seasons and has essentially controlled the National League West for a decade, fans begin getting impatient and overly frustrated when a club is at its worst.
There are so many things to digest about the 2023 Los Angeles Dodgers, and we’re not even at the halfway point of the season. Obviously, injuries have been a critical part in the way the season has played out so far, from Julio Urias’s hamstring issue and Dustin May’s elbow to Gavin Lux’s ACL injury to Max Muncy’s latest stint on the injured list.
Blend more than a dozen untimely injuries with some very poor play and underachieving, and the Dodgers are sitting in third place in the division, trailing both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants.
You know things are bad when your skipper must resort to using Jason Heyward and David Peralta in the cleanup spot to drive home one of the best first threes in MLB — Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith — who are also underperforming, to a degree.
Freeman has put up All-Star numbers and has been one of the club’s lone bright spots with the lumber. Still, before Muncy’s injury, the 32-year-old lefty slugger was hitting a paltry .191 with an OPS that was sliding rapidly. In addition, Chris Taylor has been sitting with a knee issue, but his current .207 average isn’t much better than any of the prospects the team could run out in the starting lineup in his place.
Nevertheless, it’s not even fair to talk about the team’s struggles without mentioning the bullpen, which seemingly has no relief in sight. The Los Angeles relief corps just isn’t stinking it up in the National League, but the team’s collective 5.04 bullpen ERA is the second worst in the majors only to the Oakland Athletics.
None of the calls skipper Dave Roberts is making seem to be working. Granted, Roberts and his crew don’t have much talent to work with as far as either starters or relievers go, but some of his in-game decisions aren’t doing the team any favors.
I rarely criticize Roberts, but why not allow Emmet Sheehan to start the seventh inning of Friday’s opener? Of course, Sheehan needed to come out of the game close to when he did, but the Giants were salivating when Brusdar Graterol went to the bump at the top of the seventh frame, knowing that Sheehan had shut them down all evening.
It’s just an example of momentum. Let Sheehan throw to one batter. If he gets one or two outs on a handful of pitches, great. If he surrenders a hit, go to the mound and get him.
The crowd goes bonkers with a standing ovation when Sheehan walks back to the dugout after Roberts takes the ball, and even more electric happens when Graterol rushes in from the outfield gate.
Instead, Sheehan is pulled between innings and the crowd doesn’t get a chance to release the positive energy it was accumulating for the first six innings.
Momentum and positive energy certainly don’t win games, but there’s no question they can help. And the Dodgers need all the help they can get right now.
Let’s just hope they can stay in contention before things get any worse.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
It looks as though there will be far more buyers than sellers at the deadline so that means relatively few worthwhile players will be available and they will mostly be overpriced because of scarcity.
If Andrew puts me in charge tomorrow (and I actually don’t expect that to happen until Tuesday), I immediately make Mookie the permanent shortstop. He already seems to be a far above average shortstop and will only get better with every-day reps. I think putting Mookie in the middle of things might bring some life to a pretty lifeless group right now. And I think it would help Mookie’s overall outlook as well. While we’re at it, we can appoint him captain.
Outman seems to be slowly coming back to life so I’m willing to tear up the ticket to OKC, at least for the time being. I like what I’ve seen from Jonny D so far. A decent outfielder at the deadline will be easier to come by than a good shortstop, which is another reason I’d like to move Mookie.
Lance Lynn had a spectacular game today after being pretty horrible for most of the year. It seems as though the Sox may be sellers at the deadline and it might be worth exploring a trade for him, if it wouldn’t come at great expense, and also dependent upon where we stand with starters closer to the deadline. Is Urias back and healthy? Are Miller and Sheehan good more often than bad? Is there any chance that May is back by August? Have we suffered any further injuries to the starting staff?
There are always relievers available at the deadline so whomever hasn’t straightened themselves out over the next month will have to be jettisoned (optioned, dfa’d, traded) and replaced with other warm bodies, some of whom will hopefully turn into Evan Phillips.
We’re still only four out of first but are now in third with the Padres finally starting to make the run I’ve expected from them since Opening Day. Things could get very tight between now and September with anyone capable of winning the division with the exception of the Rockies.
If the worst happens and we miss the playoffs altogether, I’m hoping we’ll at least continue to see a number of our prospects so we can g3t a feel for what they might contribute next year.
So far we’ve seen Miller, Grove, Stone, Sheehan, Outman, Vargas, Busch and DeLuca. That’s a total of 8 and I’m sure a substantially higher number than any of us expected by mid June. As my Dad used to tell me, “everything happens for a reason.” In the meanwhile, I’m going to try to be patient and see how it all plays out.
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Jeff: You have broad (e.g. Lance Lynn?), analytical, and creative ways of looking at baseball. That’s a talent. 😎
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Reminds you of Ned Colletti in a way. 😉
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I actually liked Ned more as an analyst than as a GM. Maybe there’s a TV gig in my future.
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Always good to see my spectacular talents recognized, Waldo.
Most people just come straight out and tell me I’m nuts without bothering to couch it in a compliment. 🙂
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Right. Pretty slim pickings this year so far, which means overpriced. Think the Dodgers, like most teams, will just have to roll with what they have. We’ve pretty much burned through the farm system, but if Urias and May get back, and one of those rookie pitchers is real, and Kersh can have his injury early, starting pitching should be ok. Bullpen that’s something else. One or two additions won’t solve much, unless the others can get it together. Won’t even comment on the position players.
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Well said, Sheehan was pulled way too early. Roberts never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity
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Sheehan was pulled too early? Well that’s the way Dodger analytics roll. If you look under the hood, Sheehan was lucky (as anyone pitching no-hit ball for 6 innings can be). Based on the quality of balls hit, strikeouts, and walks, he should have given up a minimum of 2 runs. Lucky babip and good defense helped him. All those balls hit in the air were catchable. It was still a great outing, and he helped himself by inducing weak contact, but not as dominant as no hits look.
Of course that doesn’t address what happened after. Graterol and VGon suffered reversion to the mean, and Vesia suffered who-knows-what. lol
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You are missing the point Waldo. Analytics aren’t working with the pitching staff. And 5/6 inning no hitters are a weekly occurance. Jeff is absolutely right, let him start the 7th and see how it goes. Lot of innings, but he seemed OK, and he can recuperate back in tulsa next week. Along with Grove and Stone I guess.
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They keep their young pitchers, especially rookies like Sheehan, on a short leash. And that is organizational philosophy, not just Roberts. He did the same thing with Stripling a few years ago, and he threw way more pitches then Sheehan. And the amount of pitches he threw was close to what he had thrown in the minors. And remember, this was a kid who was called up from AA, he had never pitched a game at AAA even though he was promoted. It is organizational philosophy that kept him from pitching longer. Yeah, he could start the seventh and give up a bomb or two and his confidence is not what it is today.
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bearone: The hard evidence bears out your observation about short leash being a Dodger trademark. For Roberts entire career as LA manager he’s had a quicker hook (average number of short outings over 162 games) than any other currently active ML manager during their career. [Bill James Handbook, 2022, p457]. Given the way the Rays managed their pitchers, it wouldn’t surprise me if Friedman brought that philosophy with him, and everyone down from him now buys into it.
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