1-Man’s Opinion Column–Thursday “Dodgers Blue-New Meaning”
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“Dodgers Blue-New Meaning”
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It doesn’t get much worse than this, especially when you are amongst the rich and famous, and have tried to do so many things right.
In a span of 24-hours, the Dodgers lost 4-pitchers, to a wide variety of injuries.
A certain death-blow to their pennant hopes, which had been on the edge all season long, because of prior injuries and surgeries, and long rehabs.
Clayton Kershaw, as great an arm as modern day baseball has seen, is down again, and now the rumblings are back surgery may be coming to solve a herniated disc situation, he has dealt with over the last four weeks.
An equal to Sandy Koufax, and the more moderrn Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton, he has been an iron man as a starter for the Dodgers.
The statistics are staggering.
Pick any season, and they flash in neon lights.
Look at the career totals, (125-58) with a 2.39-ERA, (1,891-strikeouts) in (1,732-innings).
This is a huge loss, though pitchers have come back from disc issues.
The devastating Kershaw news came hours after pitcher Hyun Jin-Ry went back on the disabled list, with elbow problems, after just 1-start. This after 7-months or rehab work to recover from shoulder surgery, with its starts-stops-setbacks. They fear he may never be the same pitcher again.
Add to that the loss of setup reliever Chris Hatcher with an oblique, and the elbow surgery for a bone spur to ex-Braves pitcher Alex Wood, who has never been fully healthy, and this seems close to a death blow to Los Angeles in hopes of chasing down the first place Giants.
Starter Brett Anderson is still having his mail sent to the DL, not having recovered from his own arm surgery a year ago.
The Dodgers may be rich in payroll budget, they may have money to burn, based on the contracts they have eaten with all their failed Cubans, or the money paid to players they no longer wanted (Matt Kemp), but there is a limit to the adversity a franchise can handle.
They have young arms coming. Julio Urias is here, but is being monitored at age 19. Jose DeLeon might be the next to join the big roster.
And of course, with the trade deadline coming soon, they are rumored shopping up and down Yasiel Puig, in a package deal, to get a front line pitcher.
LA may be the 2nd biggest market in the country, may have the deep pocketed owners, but they can take only so many hits, and they have.
The atmosphere at Chavez Ravine probably is colored “Dodgers Blue”, but it has a different meaning now, than before.
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For the MLB as a whole, and according to ALL SD media and talkshow hosts, the injury to Tyson Ross is more important.
This is because they place him in the category of Kershaw, Bob Feller, and Sandy Koufax; all-time greatest. What a joke.