Believe it or not, some people saw a bit of logic when the Dodgers ignored their suspect bullpen while trying to upgrade their offense at the non-waiver trade deadline last month. After all, there were some internal moving pieces which would improve the relief corps, and the addition of two of the best available offensive weapons would seemingly allow the squad to slug its way into the postseason.
Continue reading “Dodgers Worst Enemy: An Anemic Offense or a Second-Rate Bullpen?”
To say this season has been frustrating is an understatement. Every time the Dodgers seem to get things going, some other piece of bad news hits the fan. It has been said that during any series at Coors Field, the best you can hope for is to get in, get out and hopefully everyone escape healthy. It didn’t quite happen that way this time.
Continue reading “There’s Still No Reason for Dodgers to Panic, but It’s Getting Close”
It’s all that everyone’s been talking about—with good reason. What many followers of the Dodgers have considered to be the team’s biggest weakness all year long is finally proving to be true. It took an illness from the team’s All-Star closer to prove, but what folks are now learning is that Kenley Jansen was the single cog which was seemingly holding the entire Los Angeles relief corps together.
Continue reading “Dodgers Roster: More Thoughts on an Otherwise Shoddy Bullpen”
The Dodgers are facing a tough road to make it back to the World Series. With the loss of Kenley Jansen, a starting rotation not always looking as sharp as they could be (see Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda), and very close divisional race, the next few months are going to be interesting indeed.
Continue reading “Dodgers Offense Will Need to Carry Depleted Pitching Staff”
The first half of the 2018 season is over , and the Dodgers have somehow found themselves in first place in the West. Of course, this is all what we expected from a team that was this close to winning the World Series last year. Yet, this season so far has been anything but what fans thought it might be.
Continue reading “Led By Unlikely Players, the Dodgers Survived and Succeeded in First Half”
After a nearly unprecedented June (preceded only by June of 2017) the Dodgers climbed out of the hole they were in and now find themselves neck-and-neck with the Arizona Diamondbacks for first place in the National League West. How they were able to do it is a story in and of itself—one that is always worth telling. The story that I am interested in now, however, is how the Dodgers will fare going forward.
Continue reading “Will the Dodgers’ Regular Season Strength Also Be Their Postseason Weakness?”
While there have been many fantastic storylines that have come in the first-half of 2018, none has captured the hearts of Dodgers fans more than the emergence of utility man extraordinaire Max Muncy. By no means am I saying his overall statistics are monumental—his home run output is very close, though—but considering where he was on the organizational ladder last winter, his ascension to becoming the Dodger’s top slugger has been colossal. It’s almost reminiscent of the under-the-radar advent of Chris Taylor in 2017, but in a much smaller span of time.
Continue reading “So Far, Max Muncy’s 2018 Season Has Been Monumental”
The Los Angeles Dodgers are on another one of their infamous tears, having won 27 of their last 38 games after a six-game losing streak and season-low 10 games under .500 in mid-May. This is the stuff beat-writers dream of—a Dodgers team featuring an All-Star candidate in Matt Kemp that was considered a strong DFA candidate before the season began. Max Muncy is 2018’s 2017 Chris Taylor, and an almost entirely rebuilt rotation has filled in for injured stars, with Ross Stripling turning himself into Clayton Kershaw 2.0.
Continue reading “The Science of the Comeback: How the Dodgers Turned the 2018 Season Around”
Blame is a far more common idea in baseball than people may think. We, as fans, always look for someone, or something to blame, because we have no actual control over the game. We just sit on our couches, or in our seats at the stadium, and yell as the home plate umpire makes a bad call. That is not out of character for fans of baseball, or sports in general. A certain level of complaining is in our nature. Tuesday night, even, I was thinking, or rather critiquing, about how the Dodgers could have won had they taken advantage of the bases loaded situations when they had them.
Continue reading “Looking Back at the 2017 World Series & Who Was Blamed for How It Ended”
A few weeks ago, when the Dodgers looked like they were at rock bottom, I went through and looked at the upcoming schedule, and what the Dodgers would have to do to climb back to .500 and back to the top of the division. An off day today was a good time to take stock of what has transpired over the first two and a half months of the season.
Continue reading “A Look at How the Dodgers Have Weathered the First-Half Injury Storm”
Think Blue Planning Committee 