Since July 4th, watching the Dodgers play has become very frustrating. Excuse the language, but a 9-game lead all shot to hell. Poor pitching when the offense was clicking, bad defense, no offense when the pitching was great. You name it, it has happened. All the injuries would be an easy excuse. But injuries are no excuse for no situational hitting, leaving so many men on base and in scoring position. They have been horrible with the bases loaded and less than two outs.
Also frustrating for us old-school guys are all of the strikeouts. Ohtani is going to pass the total he had last year. He already has 154. To me, that is way too many empty at bats. The other frustrating part about that is that he consistently chases balls out of the strike zone, then he will take a pitch right down Broadway: maddening. Reminds me of what Bellinger did so often his last couple of years with the team. Teo isn’t much better. Lately Will Smith has been doing the same thing. I give Will a pass though. This is his first real slump of the year. He was the most consistent hitter until about two weeks ago.
In 2021, the scenario was a little different. LA was chasing the Giants almost all season, and they finished just one game back. The furthest they were behind the Giants was 5 games in August. They lost the season series to the Giants that year, so SF held the tiebreaker had they tied for the division. This season LA owns it. The Dodgers, on paper mind you, have the second softest remaining schedule in the majors just behind the Padres. They play just 3 teams with winning records. The Reds, this week, the Phillies from September 15-17, and the Mariners, who they face in Seattle the last series of the season. 9 games against teams with winning records and 22 against the lesser teams. Who I remind you, have nothing to lose.
16 of those games are against division rivals, SF, Arizona and the Rockies. Right now, LA is 4-3 against Arizona, 8-2 against Colorado, and 4-2 against the Giants. They also play Baltimore, and the Pirates. They have not played the Orioles, but they are 2-1 against the Pirates. They definitely need to do better than just win 5 of 9 against the three winning teams. They need to at least take 2 of 3 with the Reds. The Mariners should play well against the Padres since they are still in the AL West race just 2 back of the Astros.
What the Dodgers need to do is not watch the scoreboard. Just take care of their own business and leave the scoreboard watching and hand wringing to us fans. Help is on the way. Kike should be back this week. Muncy probably not until the 1st of September. Kim is closer than Edman, and from what I have read, LA wants Edman as close to 100% as possible, so you might not see him until after September 1st.
The possibility that the Dodgers could end up second in the division is there. This is the closest race they have been in since 21. In 2018, they tied the Rockies for the lead and ended up having to win game 163. It is doubtful they can end up with the best record in the NL since the Brewers have 7 more wins than they do right now. But this is baseball after all. Anything can happen and usually does. Let’s just hope the Dodgers play more like they did the end of last season, than they have in the last couple of months.
A complete all around game for the Dodgers. Great pitching, great offense, and super great defense. Emmet Sheehan was exceptional. 19 whiffs vs 17 whiffs from Hunter Greene, 10 Ks, 2 hits, 1 BB. Conforto had 2 hits and made a great defensive play in LF. Teoscar has been a different RF since he was called out by Doc. Made multiple excellent plays. Mookie’s play at SS to get Ke’Bryan Hayes for the last out in the 7th was exceptional. Hayes hit it 105.9, and it was by Mookie when he snagged it.
And San Diego lost, it was a great day to be a Dodger fan.
Great game.
Did Sheehan have the best game of any Dodger starter this season? I think so. 10 Ks against 1 walk and only two hits over seven scoreless innings.
Will Conforto save his spot on the roster? I doubt it…. but any injury to a position player who is not a catcher could give him a reprieve.
What the Dodgers need to do is learn how to manufacture runs without the home run. When we hit homers, we win. When we don’t hit home runs, we struggle.
And all the strikeouts are a big reason why we can’t manufacture runs.
I was switching between the Padres-Mariners and the Dodger game. Looked bleak in the beginning as SD took a 4-1 lead. Seattle tied it at 4 and then went ahead with a big rally, 9-4. They ended up with a 9-6 win. Would not have been that close but Suarez air mailed an easy force out at second in the 9th that let SD score their 6th run. Padres hit 3 homers, including Tatis’s first in over a month. Raleigh hit his MLB leading 50th, he now holds the record for the most homers in a season by a catcher. Great performance by Sheehan. Just when you think Conforto is on his last legs, he hits 2 doubles and makes a great catch. Bottom of the order won the game tonight.
“Uneven Dodgers equal parts contender and enigma going into stretch.” Times headline
“They’re gettable.” Rival MLB scout at game.
“It’s a sprint” Freddie Freeman. When asked when that sprint actually begins he said “on my birthday”. He turns 36 September 12th
It would appear everybody scheduled to return will be there for that sprint.
Doc said today that Muncy will be activated when they go on the road next week to Baltimore and Pittsburgh.
When Max is activated, who will be shipped out?
I got Kim for Dean, Muncy for Freeland & Edman for Kim.
I think Freeland stays on the big club when rosters are expanded in September negating the need to demote him.
I’ve got a Dean demotion when Muncy comes off the IL, a Conforto DFA when Kim is activated.
I assume Dean will be the next to go.
The answer to your question Bear is NO!
Who does Conforto get waived for? Aaron Judge??
Hope you were treated well in Lawrence. Did you get the opportunity to hang out on Massachusetts street at all? How was the barbecue?
Thanks, John. We went to Biggs bbque. It was good, but not as good as Q39 in KC. I got the brisket, burnt ends, beans, and naturally the banana pudding.
The KU campus is pretty, and the stadium when fully renovated will be great (thanks to a cool $300 mil gift by David Booth!) . Of course, Fresno St, after the game was 7-7, decided to not play anymore, but overall the people were friendly and fun to talk sports with.
Fresno State could be good, Warner can’t take a pounding every week as he did last week. He seemed to get hit on every pass play. He’s a good one. I haven’t tried Q39, my go to place is on 23rd street at a gas station. It’s pretty close to the house I live in when I’m in Lawrence. Good luck to your football team the rest of the season. And yes Mr.Booth has been very generous to KU. He has given time and time again to the university. Probably pisses off his kids :).
Let’s get serious. judge is a RHB, the Dodgers need a LHB.
Maybe we can go thaw out Ted Williams. I believe he is residing in Arizona right now.
Just his head. Not sure it can swing a bat.
He could tell them how to hit with colorful language.
Bases-loaded moments in August 2025
Last night, if it wasn’t for De La Cruz’s error they wouldn’t have scored a run. I can’t remember when the Dodgers last hit an extra base hit with the bases loaded. What’s their problem?
If anyone knew, I think they would have figured it out by now.
Kershaw has been nails this month. I expect CK to pitch another good game. Nice to see Lux get his ring last night. His Dodger career did not turn out like we hoped it would, but I wish him nothing but success in Cincy. Just not against LA.
Ditto Bear. I almost always root for our Ex-Dodgers to do well except against us. They do seem to do well against us however.
I do not consider Machado a Dodger and I always hope he tanks.
I have to remind myself not to get too high or low with this team at present. If not for a big night by Pages, we’re talking about the team’s hitting woes.
The bright spot is that our vision for A-level pitching going into Sept/Oct seems to be coming together–this is the opposite of last year.
In my opinion the Dodgers made two hi-risk decisions prior to the season that are not paying off. Conforto and Muncy. Max is becoming like our high-end starters–i.e., you hope the timing works out so he can mash in the playoffs. Max has proven to be injury prone– both self inflicted (elbow, knee) and more chronically with his thoracic injury. And, even when he was healthy, be batted .079 against LH pitching for the first half of the season. This, and his below avg defense. makes this a bad deal.
We need consistency, availability, and power from the hot corner. Max delivers on power for brief time periods. I would not sign him next year.
You and I are watching 2 different Max Muncy’s this year. First of all this was the 2nd year of a 2 year deal, so there was no decision to make, unless you think he should have been DFA’d. Even with his limited play, he has a 3.3 bWAR, and an OPS+ of 145. That’s is 45% higher than league average. He is making $14.5MM this year ($12MM AAV), so he is more than earning his pay. His fWAR is 2.8 making his value $22.5MM. You may not like Max, but he was not a bad decision.
With respect to Conforto, the results say it was a bad decision. But at the time of the signing most here and elsewhere believed it was a good signing. IMO, judge the deal at the time of the signing, but then respond in a timely manner as to when to cut. IMO the decision to sign Conforto was okay, but to retain him as long as they have has not been a good decision.
Max is 35, it comes with the territory. That being said, he is having one of his best years statistically since he hasn’t hit above .249 since 2021. The other thing is that his defense is better than it has been, plus he is only costing the team 10 million. His production is very good for that type of contract. His defense improved a lot since the beginning of the season.
Max also makes around $10 mil while Conforto has robbed us of $17 mil
To Bear’s point, “Also frustrating for us old-school guys are all of the strikeouts”. No kidding! Any approach that encourages contact, especially with 2 strikes, is almost completely out the window.
It is so contrary to how us old guys were taught growing up. Striking out was an embarrassment; especially a called third strike.
I took a look at the 13 MLB games played yesterday; just another August Monday, with 13 games played. There was one game with under 10 combined strikeouts. The Royals and White Sox amazingly had a 5 total strikeout game.
Every other game had 11 or more combined strikeouts. 7 games, nearly 1/2 of the games played, had 20 or more combined strikeouts.
The Tigers v A’s = 24 K’s
O’s v Red Sox = 24
Angels v Rangers = 22
D-Backs v Brewers = 21
Pirates v Cards = 21
Yankees v Bats = 20
Dodgers v Reds = 20
The MLB strikeout rate average fluctuates annually but has hovered around 22-23% in recent years, with a notable increase from 16.4% in 2005 to 22.8% in 2023.
The MLB batting average last year was .243, the lowest since 1968, the Year of the Pitcher, when the MLB average was .237, The year when Bob Gibson sported a 1.12 ERA and Denny McLain won 31 games. They dropped the mound 5 inches to compensate and the averages jumped to ,253 in 1969.
Pitching dominates the game and it’s not surprising with all of the technology that favors pitching. The proliferation of guys throwing in the upper 90’s and low 100’s, with about 6 different pitches and the refinement of pitch shaping and the usage of fresh bullpen pieces, making hitting hard.
But you can’t hit if you don’t swing. Yesterday I saw an uncountable number of called 3rd strikes. Equally frustrating to this old coach is taking fat fastballs in advantage counts. How do you take a middle-middle fastball on 2 and 0? What on earth are you looking for or waiting on?
The Dodgers (RSV) and other organizations approach to hitting just excepts high strike out rates. The philosophy to swing at only strikes has been taken to a new level, despite the fact that I see more “chasing” on 55 foot breaking balls than ever.
There are very few “bad-ball hitters” anymore.
And what is a “bad-ball” now anyway?
The superimposed K-Zone on our TVs is so accurate now that they show “correct” calls and “misses” down to a fraction of an inch. I saw an at bat yesterday where the pitcher painted 3 strikes on the edges by fractions, the batter taking each. And he complained after each called strike as he strolled back to the dugout with runners on base.
Seriously, what happened to the advice “anything close”, you’re swinging? If it’s close enough to be called a strike ( with due consideration of the CD Bucknor’s of the world), it’s close enough to hit.
Classic bad-ball hitters like Roberto Clemente, Yogi Berra, Tony Oliva, Honus Wagner, Vlad Guerrero and Tony Gwynn would catch shit now for expanding the zone from the “Hitting Gurus” like Robert Van Scoyoc and Aaron Bates.
To me, Luis Arráez and young players like Jacob Wilson are pests who maintain a high contact rate with very few K’s. Make defenses make plays!!!!
I love to see a more of that in MLB, especially with the Dodgers. It kills me seeing a called third strike on a close pitches with runners on base.
As an old guy, I could not agree with you more. I thought of Arráez and Wilson as players who do have the ability to be pests. I think Steven Kwan could have that ability, but not under the RVS tutelage. Alex Call’s K rate has gone from 15.2% with Washington to 21.4% for LAD. Kim has gone from 12.4% (2023) and 10.9% (2024) to 28.8% with LAD. Sure he was in the KBO, but 2.6 times greater? The downside of this is that the Dodgers have scored more runs than any other team, 2nd most HR, 2nd most BB, and only 14th most K in MLB. I am sure that they do not see a problem with their strategy.
Yes definitely not another SS in baseball I’d rather have. I see a gold glove in his future