1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Friday “Dodgers Decisions-Are They Right-or-Wrong”

Posted by on October 26th, 2018  •  0 Comments  • 

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“Dodgers-Calling the Shots-Taking the Heat”

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Who manages the Dodgers?

Dave Roberts of course, the face and voice of Dodges baseball in the LA dugout, finishing up at 3rd season at the helm.

But who runs the Dodgers, a faceless front office, that does research, and hands down edicts from above.

Dave Roberts is likely told who to put, and where, in the lineup, and what type of matchups, the analytics team upstairs wants to see.

Yes you can say it has worked, as the Dodgers won another NL West title, but the reality is the team is about to get knocked out of another World Series.

Managing is about production at the most important time of the year. Hitters, pitchers, fielders.

It cannot always be about just the stats, the matchups etc.

And so LA is in another hole, down (2-0) heading to the Friday night third game with the Red Sox.

The stat sheet does not lie about what has happened at Fenway Park in games 1-2.

Boston sprayed hits all over the field. The Dodgers were trying to employ launch angle baseball, and hit pitches out of the yard.

How good is Boston? They hit a league high (.282) at home this year, but it’s not just JD Martinez home runs. It’s putting the ball in play with a ton of guys hitting (.270-plus).

How good is Boston?. They hit (.415) in postseason with men in scoring position and 2-out. They’ve hit (.297) in the post season games so far, with a (.406) slugging percentage.

That’s how good they are.

Yes they got decent starts out of Chris Sale and David Price too. and they have those power arms in the pen..

The Dodgers, are not hitting good….a team batting average (.175) so far in the series.

The Blue have just a (.235) on base percentage vs the Sox, and an anemic (.222) slugging percentage…this from a team that hammered home runs all year long.

The guts of the batting order, Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy, Matt Kemp, Christian Taylor and Yasiel Puig, are a combined (3-27).

So this team is in trouble. Find me anyone who believes LA can win 4-of the next 5-games against a Red Sox team that won 108-during the regular season, and is mopping up the competition.

But here’s the most galling thing about where the Dodgers are, heading into their Friday night life-death game.

The front office, dictating lineups, had their manager sit their top power hitters, all lefthanded, on the bench, for chunks of game one, and virtually all of game two, because they were facing lefthandeded starting pitching.

Did you know 89-home runs sat on the bench for nearly 8-innings in the 2nd game loss, when David Price and the bullpen were dealing?>

The World Series is the best-vs-the-best. The Dodgers analytical team is hurting the Dodgers team this postseason.

And in a sad comparison, it was the Dodgers mis-use, over-use of their pitching staff this week a year ago that cost them that World Series. You remember the bullpen burnout situatiion?

If the Dodgers go down this weekend, and it ends badly, it will be more than just a good Red Sox batting order and bullpen that did the damage.

It’s a shame that the upstairs at Dodgers Stadium is hammering Dave Roberts as much as Mookie Betts, JD Martinez and Andrew Benitendi etc-etc.

Let the best players play. Let the manager manage too.

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