Dodgers Team News

Dodgers News: Team Must Keep Playing Their Game

During their current five-game losing streak, the Los Angeles Dodgers have managed to only score nine runs. No matter what kind of team you are, even if you have a fantastic all-around pitching staff, scoring 1.8 runs per game is definitely not something that is a viable way to sustain success. This has been a problem over the last little while.

Then again, if you were to ask catcher Yasmani Grandal, the team hasn’t “gone really bad.” And perhaps he’s right. It’s not like the team stinks or anything. They were in every single one of the five straight games that they lost. That’s the hilarity of the entire situation. They weren’t exactly being blown out in those games at all.



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From Doug Padilla, staff writer for ESPN dot com:

“I’ve been on teams that have gone really bad and we’re not going bad,” [Yasmani] Grandal said. “We just have to keep on playing our game. We know that every time we step out on the field, we’re the best team no matter what’s going on. We have the talent, we have the guys who can do it, and let’s just come back tomorrow and do it all over again.”

More to Grandal’s point, the Dodgers were only trailing after five innings in one of those five games, and that was last night’s game when they trailed 1-0 before Grandal hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning. The team is right there, but they’re just not getting it done as of right now. That will assuredly change in the coming days.

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14 Comments

  1. Remember that season opening series vs the Padres? Well, that’s all gone now. Prepare yourselves for more of the same.

  2. If they keep playing their game, we’ve haven’t much to look forward to.  Lack of energy, motivation, eagerness, hungriness.  Loaded  with talent, but struggle to execute.

  3. I ask you what is their game? Ask the FO, what is the identity that you want for this team? Then ask yourself have I seen this in the moves that they have made?        Which area of deficiencies that we have had over the last three years have this FO solved? I just love speed, because it creates problems for the opponents. For lack of it, we hit into double plays. Roberts try to play small ball, but dose’nt have the personal. Managers want teams built in their image. But how can you when you don’t have the horses. For yrs we’ve stranded to many runners. Without speed and fundamentals, squeeze plays at home plate is out of the question.  Starting a runner on a hit and run to avoid a DP is out of the question when you have hitters that can’t put wood on the ball. So I ask again, what is our identity?

  4. Bleed Blue Forever I’ve always thought of a talented player as someone who performs well on the field of play. Yes we do have talent, like Kershaw, Jansen, and Agon. They have proved their worth. But when you say loaded with it, I believe you’re taking the FO view of the situation. KC has talent, because they have shown how good they are. Two and three yrs ago we had talent, but not quite enough. We wasted those opportunities. And now we’re wasting the best yrs of two of the best Dodgers to put on the uniform, Kenney Jansen and Clayton Kershaw. In which we will maybe look back and regret that waste.

  5. Kershaw should end the losing streak today, but only if they score at least a few runs for him.

  6. Blue58 I hope that you are right. Maybe if they win tonight, the funk is over. I also hope that for the sake of Kershaw and Maeda, that they can average at least three runs a game. Greinke was blessed with runs last year.

  7. Sorry Robert for the choice of words. Substitute enough for loaded. Good talent in Seager, Hernandez, Puig, Turner, Stripling, Gonzo, Jansen, Kershaw, etc. I wasn’t comparing them to KC or any other club. Just saying we have enough good talent to compete at a level above .500. Once again today we’re underachieving. One run on three hits. Lack of offensive line execution and inconsistent BP pitching.

  8. Since you’ve got all the answers Robert, you tell me what their identity is. The FO has not addressed BP solutions nor starting pitchers especially since losing Greinke. Beyond Kersh, everyone is sketchy. I’ve tried to look on the positive side in Stripling for example. Didn’t know anything about him initially but he’s shown some promise. Reminds me a bit of Bob Welch in his pitching style. I’ve always liked small ball, so I agree with you assessment of speed (or lack of it). Gordon helped fulfill that when he was around but look at the poor choices he’s made since leaving. Roberts is inexperienced mgr as evidenced by some of his decisions he’s made. Glad to get rid of McGuire. Sorry to see Lopes leave.

  9. Bleed Blue Forever I don’t  have all of the answers, but being a Dodger fan since my dad taught me baseball, I now don’t see Dodger baseball as i’ve  known it. I’m not looking for miracles from the FO, but I would like to know  the direction which we are going. For example, you mentioned that Lopes is no longer there. Did we not since Jackie Robinson play small ball when winning World Series. KC played traditional Dodger ball last year, and the year before. They pressure you to the point you’re on your heels. We have passed on the wheels to former Dodgers who continued that same style. When Gordon improved at the plate and on the bases, he had the ideal tutor in Maury Wills. Koufax would work with the pitchers. Previous FO’S tried getting players  to fit that mold, the Dodger type player. But do you think that this FO ever considered our winning tradition? They just come in with their #’s game. What style of play did they win a World Series with? None!!! I’m seeing the end of baseball that I fell in love with, and that is DODGER STYLE. R.I.P.

  10. Robert Hamilton  Bleed Blue Forever Robert, you’re correct in that Friedman and his multimillion-dollar front office of seven former GMs don’t really articulate a style. But from watching them operate, I think we can discern that what they favor above all in a major league club is depth and versatility.

    For them, every at bat is a game within a game and they are processing volumes of information to get any edge they can on a competitor. Thus, their obsession with “match ups,” moving players back and forth between the majors and minors, platooning, fielding shifts and moving players from one position to another during the game.

    The days when the Dodgers would play the same infield of Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey, day after day, year after year, is alien to this group. Joc Pederson has only started his second year in the majors and already is a platoon player with Thompson in center field. Some players, like Hernandez, thrive on this system. Others, like Kendrick, find it hard to adjust. 

    This data-driven approach sees little value in speed on the bath paths or stolen bases, so the idea of a traditional lead off man doesn’t get much traction. Anyone with a good OBP can handle the job.

    I think there’s a lot to be gained from examining the data and thinking outside the box. But the Achilles heel of this kind of thinking is that is doesn’t always leave room for the human element. 

    In the end, players are people and are not always predictable. I would guess that a data-driven manager would not have sent an injured Kirk Gibson to the plate in the first game of the 1988 World Series. All the odds were that he would strike out. But that didn’t take into consideration the human element.

    Moreover, all the data in the world won’t help if your hitters strike out too much, can’t advance the runner, don’t know how to bunt properly and are hesitant to go from first to third on a single. The Dodgers don’t do many of those things well, and that’s on the coaching staff and the players.

  11. Bleed Blue Forever Like wise! When trying to get a point over sometime they a misconstrued. We both love Our Dodgers and dissapointed at the way they’re playing. As your name indicate, you bleed Blue. I apologize if i offended you. Kershaw made both of us feel a little better today.

  12. Blue58 Robert Hamilton  Bleed Blue Forever Blue, you are correct. I would love them if they are successful, but I have a hard time dismissing speed. I can’t see some HOF’S getting there or being productive under these guys. What was wrong with baseball before these guys and these computer match ups. For instance why has all teams used this 100 pitch count. Why not the Dodgers using 105, and say the Giants using say 90. These #’s thing to me are to arbitrary. I guess that maybe old schoolers like my myself feel baseball has left traditionalist like myself way behind, until it is frustrating.

  13. Robert Hamilton  Blue58 Bleed Blue Forever Robert, I think we’re on the same page.  I don’t know why this pitch count thing is so prevalent.  Stats I guess.  Kersh for example has no problem going 110-120 on occasion.  I know the stats tell us useful info, but like you said there is the human element which seems to have fallen by the wayside.  I don’t care too much for the platooning thing.  Some players may be okay with it, others – not so much.  Small ball is very important to me.  It expresses good fundamental baseball.  Bunting, moving runners around and the like is what makes baseball the strategy sport.  Things will never be like they were under O’Malley, those days are gone.  I like solid hard nose play like Utley’s slide last year.  I also think pitchers should be good for more than pitching, can’t they bunt the ball anymore?  Today’s players have become far too “specialized”.  Everyone is searching for a winning formula and only when that happens will they stick with it, at least for another year.

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