The regular season is over. The Dodgers finished with a 98-64 record, best in the majors. That earns them a first-round bye and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Their offense finished first in 2B, HR, BB, OBP, SLG, OPS, and total bases. With Taylor’s homer today, they finished with 233. Their pitching was a totally different story. They finished 6th in ERA, 3rd in saves, 2nd in innings pitched, 3rd in hits, and 6th in strikeouts. And we all know what a huge toll injury took on the staff this year.
Offensively the team’s obvious leader was Ohtani. .310 BA, 1.036 OPS, 54 HRs, 59 SBs, 130 RBIs, 411 total bases, 5 short of the team record, 197 hits. 99 extra base hits. Teams OPS leaders, Ohtani, Betts .867, Muncy .865, Freeman .854 and Teo .838. Teo had 99 RBIs. Freeman had 89 and Mookie and Smith tied with 75. Ohtani, Hernandez, Freeman and Smith finished with 20 homers or more. Mookie had 19. Nine Dodgers finished with 10 or more. Lux 10, Kike 12, Pages 13 and Muncy 15.
The teams ERA leader was Yamamoto at 3.00. Gavin Stone had the most starts with 25. He also led the team in wins with 11. Glasnow led the team in strikeouts with 168. Paxton walked the most hitters among the starters with 48. Blake Treinen had the most wins in the pen, 7. Phillips had 18 saves and Hudson 10. Kopech had 6 in his limited time with the team. Fourteen different pitchers recorded saves including rookie, Edgardo Henriquez who earned his first MLB save today. Vesia led the team in appearances with 67.
Now they have five days off before the first game of the LDS on Saturday at Dodger Stadium. Sometime this week we will learn the status of three players who are on the roster but currently are banged up. Freeman and his ankle, Miggy Ro and his balky hamstring and abductor muscle which he will need surgery on this winter and Kevin Kiermaier who suffered a dislocated finger on Saturday.
The only thing left to be decided is which of three teams make the cut. If the Mets and Braves split their doubleheader on Monday, Arizona is the odd man out since both teams hold the tiebreaker over the D-Backs. If the Mets or the Braves win two on Monday, the D-Backs back into the playoffs. The 6 seed would play the Brewers and the 5 gets the Padres. The Mets pulled off an exciting come from behind win over the Braves in game one, winning it on a 9th inning 2-run homer by Lindor. Chris Sale was unable to start game two because of a back issue. Grant Holmes, the former Dodger got the start instead and pitched four scoreless innings allowing just 1 hit, a walk and striking out 7.
Game was 1-0 Braves going into the bottom of the 7th inning. After a walk to Murphy, Albies got aboard on an error by Brazoban and ended up on second with Murphy on third. Ozuna then singled them both home. Despite a single by Iglesias to start off the 9th, Raisel Iglesias got Nimmo to hit into a double play and Alonso grounded out to end the game. Braves are in the playoffs playing the Padres. Mets go to Milwaukee to play the Brewers.
Now the Dodgers will await the winner of the Braves-Padres series. The Braves were 3-4 against the Padres during the regular season. They open the series in San Diego tomorrow at 5:40 Eastern time. Dodger fans will be pulling for the Braves to upset the Padres. LA was 5-2 against Atlanta this year. Defending NL Champion Arizona is going home for the winter.
So now the first-round matchups are set. AL Det-Hou, KC-Balt. NL SD-Atl, Mil-NY. Should be an interesting first round. Braves had to fly to San Diego after the game. Much longer flight than the Mets had. It is the seventh straight year the Braves have been in the playoffs. They and the Dodgers both go into the playoffs missing major pieces. Flaherty is probably starting game one on Saturday. Dodger regulars should be well rested and ready to go. We will learn just how healthy Freeman and Rojas are later in the week.
Glad Az was eliminated. Made my day. Haven’t liked those guys since ever.
I have nothing against Arizona. I was at the inaugural game at Bank One Ballpark (The BOB) in 1998. The company I worked for had several thousand residential and commercial units in the Phoenix area, so I was in Phoenix a lot. My boss bought me tickets to the game in the ritzy section. They played Colorado and Colorado beat Arizona 9-2. It was a great experience.
Arizona won 100 games in 1999, their 2nd year. They won the World Series in 2001, their 4th year.
I was a huge Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling fan and was given tickets to Games 1 and 2 of the 2001 World Series. Schilling won game 1 and Johnson won game 2.
I have never experienced obnoxious Arizona fans. Well maybe University of Arizona and Arizona State fans. San Diego Padres fans are some of the worst fans in all of sports. They have taken over as the most hated team in all of sports for me.
Nobody to me is more hated than the Astros and I’ll guess 29 other fan bases hate them as well.
Go Tigers!!
I am with you Bobby. Cheatros are my most hated with Puds 2nd. And of course I loathe the cheating Wolverines of Michigan.
Haha. I just got back from Columbus and my buddy who has OSU season tic showed me the stadium!
One day I’ll join him for Michigan-Ohio St
Make it happen Bobby. You won’t be sorry. Great atmosphere and experience.
I wanted AZ to be in the playoffs and give Joc another post-season opportunity. I also had access to free tickets at BOB that gave me access to their executive lounge/restroom The owner’s wife usually stayed in that lounge during the games. I even peed standing next to Jerry Colangelo. I wish their fans would attend more games. They have a good team.
Lived there for 12 years. I got to disliking that team when Gibson was their manager. Dislike Padres and Giants more, but I just never warmed to the Arizona teams.
We learned yesterday that Pete Rose had passed away. I saw Pete play many times. I remember one time when I was at Dodger Stadium that the fans were throwing stuff at Rose. He was playing left field that day. I always admired his hustle and the way he played the game. But he changed a lot when he became a manager. Many think the game did him wrong. I believe Pete did it to himself. He was arrogant through the whole gambling scandal and never did apologize to the fans or the game. He is at peace now. Maybe there will be a time when he can go into the hall since he is no longer here. It would not bother me to see him inducted for what he did on the field. But I also think like with Joe Jackson, the game itself might not be so forgiving.
I’m glad to see the dbags out of it too Bear, but the Pads scare the heck out of me, they seem to be able to play way over their heads when they face the Dodgers
Well, we took two of three at Dodger Stadium against their best pitchers. They are using King tomorrow, then Musgrove and if needed on Thursday, Cease. Just need the Braves to take them to three games. Leaves Darvish for game one. Cease and Musgrove would not be available early. If Dodgers are healthy, they can win this thing.
Any team can win this thing. That’s the rub.
There was a year just recently where the Dodgers OWNED the Padres, but still lost in the playoffs.
We gotta remember the playoffs are a crapshoot (Arizona last year, anyone) and just hope the Dodgers play to their capabilities.
Brilliant take, I bet you did a bunch of research to come up with that insightful post.
I didn’t, but I read the research.
And you came up with that brutal take? You need more research to read
Okay?
always looking.
good discussion!
Haha
I think there was a year where the Mets owned the Dodgers in the regular season and yet the Dodgers prevailed in the playoffs.
1988
Dodgers were 1-10 against the Mets in 88.
We beat Philly 10-11 in 1983, and Phil got us 3-1 in October.
Happens.
Any team? Nah. The Dodgers are going to do it, this year!
His lack of contrition and culpability is what was ultimately his biggest mistake. He brought baseballs punishment upon himself and he paid the price. May he rest in peace.
I too was lucky enough to see him play in person many times at old Riverfront Stadium with The Big Red Machine. The Dodgers and Reds had quite a rivalry back then in the old NL West.
That big red machine was one heck of a team,
Awesome offense, great relief pitching, and a weak rotation other than their Ace.
“His lack of contrition and culpability is what was ultimately his biggest mistake.”
While that is true I believe he didn’t apologize because frankly he wasn’t sorry. He was just not the kind of man who was going to give in to public pressure even when it was clearly in his best interest to do so. Willfully ignorant was the man’s nature.
So very true. Every interview for years he said he never bet on baseball, even though there was hard evidence to the contrary.
The worst
The irony is we now see gambling advertisements during games. An addiction that literally ruins lives. It’s shameful.
I absolutely agree with that. Some game I was watching was “brought to you by FanDuel”. They can purchase incredibly expensive advertising space paid for by the gambling losses of those fans watching the games.
You can bet on anything, even the color of the Gatorade. I recently read the company’s sports betting sector made up to $11 billion in full revenue. Flutter Entertainment. You maybe should read up on it. How many lives has it ruined?
Putting up a “bust” of Pete Rose in Cooperstown makes perfect sense.
“Fan Duel” the official sponsor of the Pete Rose HOF Induction Ceremony on ESPN at 7:30 est
The epitome of “It takes money to make money.” And the House always wins. Over the long haul you stand no chance. But it’s an addiction and addictions don’t care about any of that.
Yep. Should treat gambling advertisements like cigarettes were treated.
Good idea actually.
Rose clearly had Hall of Fame stats.
Obviously. His nickname was hung on him in his first spring training by a couple of veterans who were amused when he ran to first on a walk. Mantle was one of those guys. Pete played the game the way it was meant to be played. He never took a play off. He rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and despite his talent, or lack thereof, he was really only popular with the fans of the teams he played for. I respected the guy but hated his guts when he played the Dodgers. His career line against LA .284/.340/.387 OPS .727, which by the way is his lowest OPS against any team. He hit 20 homers and drove in 116 runs against the Dodgers. He stole 18 bases and was caught 15 times. Here is a stat for you, he hit better against teams above .500, .308, than he did against teams under .500, .299.
Are we witnessing the end of Justin Verlander? He was left off the Astros Wild Card roster. If Houston goes on to the ALDS maybe he makes the roster, but he was not effective at all going down the stretch. Verlander was torched for a horrendous 8.89 ERA over his final six starts, which included individual games that saw him yield four, five, six and eight runs.
This could be an end of an era. What if Verlander, Scherzer, and Kershaw all decided to retire at the end of this season. What a HOF induction that would be. Similar to 2015 with John Smoltz, Randy Johnson, and Pedro Martinez. And Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux in 2014.
Then again, none of the three may want to retire.
I think something along the lines of watching Verlander, in his prime, Clockwork Orange style is what Bobby Miller needs.
Just keeping his fastball and working the top of the zone like Verlander does (did?) is a recipe for success with Miller’s arsenal.
The end comes for everybody. Some go out with flair. Others just go away. Koufax’s last game was a bad World Series loss that was more on the offense and Willie Davis’s 3 errors than it was on Sandy.
It’s much too early and there’s not nearly enough data to weigh in on the relationship between it and arm injuries, but WRT the pitch clock:
3,617 stolen bases: The most since 1915.
2:36: The quickest average time of nine-inning games since 1984.
Total attendance this season was 71.3 million, largest since 2017.
MLB says 24 of 30 clubs have increased average attendance since adoption of the pitch clock.
I agree with you above about the Dodgers owning SD in 2022, only to play pathetic in a 4 game playoff series. We just beat them 2-3 last week, so it’d be a very fun series should we get them.
Having said all that, go Braves!
I would keep the pitch clock but allow a few more timeouts.
Put it back to 20 seconds.
https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/news/how-the-2024-mlb-playoff-teams-were-built?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage
Nice article on how playoff teams have been constructed. Categories analyzed were:
· Homegrown – Draft, International Draft, Undrafted free agent
· Free Agents
· Trade
· Waivers
· Rule 5 Draft
The Dodgers may have been the best team in MLB based on wins and losses, but talent wise, they come in 3rd. Philadelphia (50.1 WAR) and NYY (50.0 WAR) edge the Dodgers (47.7 WAR). San Diego is right behind LAD with 47.6 WAR. The least talented (in terms of WAR) are the Brewers at 34.4 WAR and Detroit 34.5 WAR.
Every NL playoff team has less homegrown WAR than any of the AL playoff teams. The Dodgers at 6.4 homegrown WAR is the lowest. Atlanta at 7.0 WAR and San Diego at 8.3 WAR are just slightly better with homegrown talent than is LAD. Houston (30.8 WAR) and Cleveland (25.4 WAR) have the most homegrown talent.
NYY with 11 trades (19.7 WAR) was the only AL playoff team with more WAR from trades than any NL playoff team. The Dodgers acquired most of their players via trade (12 and 16.9 WAR) which tied San Diego with the most in number. However San Diego dwarfed LAD’s trade WAR with 25.3. In the NL, only NYM (13.6 WAR) and Philadelphia (14.8 WAR) had less WAR via trades than did LAD.
Of course the Dodgers acquired most of their WAR via free agency (8 players with 25.0 WAR). The Dodgers have the number 1 WAR via free agency of all the playoff teams. Only Philadelphia with 21.5 WAR is close.
Every AL playoff team generated more WAR from homegrown talent than any other category. Only NYM has generated most of their WAR via homegrown talent.
It is fun to see how each team develops their roster. It is clear (at least to me) that the Dodgers need to rely on free agency and eschew homegrown talent to stay at the top of the standings. Although next year, I can see some additional homegrown talent on the roster. Mostly from pitchers.
So interesting!
i wonder how much of Houston’s composition (post tanking) comes directly from the cheating scandal, or if a focus on International market inefficiencies was already underway.
Chris Sale not on Atlanta’s Wild Card roster. He has not pitched since September 19 against Cincinnati. His velo was way down in that game, and Atlanta shut him down for an emergency needed win. They had that yesterday, and they did not use him. Could it be that Sale is another done for the year? Reminiscent of Max Scherzer in 2021 with LAD???
Jeeez.
feel for the guy. Had such a strong year.
Atlanta has named 21 year old rookie RHSP AJ Smith-Shawver as their Game 1 pitcher in the Wild Card series against San Diego. Smith-Shawver has all of 4.1 MLB IP this year. He is Atlanta’s number 2 prospect. Advantage Michael King and San Diego.
—————
MLB listed their top 49 players and five additional key closers for the playoffs (all in NL and not with LAD).
Philadelphia – 7 plus 1 key closer
San Diego – 6 plus 1 key closer
Baltimore – 5
Houston – 5
ATL – 4 plus 1 key closer
LAD – 4
NYY – 4
KC – 4
Milwaukee – 3 plus 1 key closer
NYM – 3 plus 1 key closer
Cleveland – 2
Detroit – 2
Grant Holmes is still around?!
Seems so. He is only 28. Montas was in that trade also to the A’s for Hill and Reddick.
Wasn’t Cotton part of that trade?
Yes, Jharel Cotton. Last pitched in 2022. Was with the Giants and had a 2-0 record. He is 32 now.
The wildest stat to me is the team leads the league in wins and the top pitcher only had 11.
And he was the only starter with double figure wins.
Houston-Detroit is the game of the day. Skubal vs Valdez.
Detroit is up 3-0 in the top of the 5th inning.
Skubal pitching a gem so far.
Sweeney with a hit . He has done well for DET after the trade.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man Skubal reminds me of the Twins’ Johan Santanna
Dude can deal the ball for sure. How epic would it be if Detroit eliminates the Astros!
Well? He has hit only .218. He does have 4 homers in 110 at bats. But defensively he has been pretty good. Just 4 errors in 145 chances. He has been a lot better than Vargas was for the White Sox. Dikembe Mutombo also passed away yesterday. Was an excellent shot blocker.
How about Nick Ahmed. Started the year with the Giants, released and signs with the Dodgers, released again and signed with the Padres. He is on the playoff roster. Kim is out, so he is nothing more than a defensive replacement. Whatever they get from his bat would be a plus.
Extra good thread today.
I think so too. Royals beat Baltimore 1-0. Burnes went 8 innings allowing 1 run. Dude should sue for non-support.
The Pete Rose belongs in the Hall debate is heating up again. Giants parted ways with their GM, Pete Pitula. Several teams changing coaches. Corbin Burnes should be the Dodgers #1 target in free agency. Tigers win game 1. Heyward hit a screaming liner right at the first baseman with 2 outs and the bags juiced.
Yep Heyward hit into some bad luck. Can’t say I feel bad for him as he plays for the Cheatros.
Rose violated the cardinal rule of baseball and most likely will not see the HOF. But if they ever let Bonds and Clemens in, I will have a problem with keeping Pete out. Bonds and Clemens cheated between the lines. Rose did not. His numbers are legit.
You let Pete in, then you have to let Shoeless Joe in too. Joe was not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. I agree Pete’s numbers were legit. A little contrition would have gone a long way. He was too stubborn to do that. Heyward hit in bad luck, but another former Dodger, JD Martinez knocked in two with the bags juiced in a 5 run Met inning.
Joe was a victim of circumstances. He did not bet on baseball or tank it to throw the series But, he knew of the fix and didn’t speak up. Guilty by association. Given his diminished mental capabilities, he was a lamb lead to the slaughter.
Ironic that none of the 8 men out actually bet on baseball.
A couple of those guys were low-life’s. Chick Gandil was not a nice guy by all accounts. I believe Joe and Buck Weaver were the least culpable. But like you said, both know about the fix and did not speak up. Of course, they lived in a much different era and Charlie Comiskey was not a very generous owner. Had he paid Cicotte the 10,000-dollar bonus he promised, things might have been different. The Sox deliberately sat Cicotte when he got to 29 wins so he would not get the 30th that guaranteed him the bonus. Another player, Hal Chase was banned. He was not a member of the White Sox at the time.
Yes, a very different era. Like most debacles there were a lot of little things that went wrong that lead up to the big disaster.
I read an article that said Joe did go to Comisky, told him about the fix, and begged to be benched so he wouldn’t be accused of cheating, but Comisky said no, because there were rumors every year about fixing the series, and Joe was too important to the team to be on the bench. So Comisky knew but did nothing, the guy was a dirt bag.
Interesting. There is a lot to the story we will never know.
I’m sure there is, but I think Jackson more of a victim than a perpetrator
Jackson could neither read nor write. He went along probably because his teammates did not tell him that the idea was to lose the series. He hated to lose. Still, he hit .375 for the series and had the only HR in the series. Buck Weaver hit .324. All of the other conspirators played badly. Risberg hit .080, Felsh.192, Gandil .233, McMullin’s hit .500 but only had 2 at bats. Lefty Williams was 0-3 with an ERA over 6. Cicotte was 1-2 with an ERA just below 3. But he allowed 19 hits and 5 walks in 21.2 innings. Between the two of them, Williams and Cicotte, they won 52 games and lost 18 during the regular season. Gandil later would express remorse.
Is this your opinion or someone else’s:
“Corbin Burnes should be the Dodgers #1 target in free agency”
Simply mine there Bluto. The guy is a true ace, and he pitches a lot of innings.
Is it true that Fernando died? I’m not sure, but I read something
in hospital
Astros lose the first playoff game, it’s a good day, hopefully Detroit will win the next one too.
Damn Padres
Well Braves had to be gassed and tired from the doubleheader yesterday and arriving late in California. Mets played well though against Milwaukee.
I guess I’m traditional, my 2 hated teams are the Giants and Yankees.
The Big Red Machine was a good team. I was a kid, and I barely started watching baseball (Dodgers) when they were still together.
Some shocking Dodgers splits this year:
Edman against RHP .181/.256/.267/.523
Lux against LHP .152/.220/.174/.394
Taylor is bad against both, but against LHP .183/.289/.256/.545
Kike’s bad against both.
Pages against RHP .213/.277/.370/.647
Rojas against LHP .260/.316/.375/.691
Muncy against LHP .172/.289/.453/.742
Now for the discussion, how do you platoon those guys defensively? If Rojas can’t be platooned then that’s fine because his lowest is the best of the bunch. Even Muncy can be excluded because of the power.
Everyone probably went to bed, so I might post this again tomorrow.
Leave Taylor and Kike on the bench, Leave Muncy and Rojas alone, Play Pages in RF against LHP and bring Betts to 2B. Some people are going to cringe about this, but play Pages in CF against RHP.
They won’t move Mookie in Eric. Edman is going to play CF most of the time. Much better defensively than Pages. Don’t read too much into Edman’s stats this year. He only played in 37 games, so his splits really don’t mean much. I know his career stats are not great, but he doesn’t need to do a ton in this offense.
There are volumes of information on every Dodger hitter not only against every pitcher they will likely face but against every pitch those pitchers, and every pitcher in the league, throw. Lineups will continue to be made the way they have been made all year, algorithmic probabilities.
Exactly
Braves lose 4-0. They had to be very tired from their cross-country flight to San Diego. They struck out 15 times. Nice win by the Tigers.
I’ll repeat my earlier post, Damn Padres
Working on the next post guys, so there most likely will not be one tomorrow.
34 minor leaguers have elected free agency. Some are veterans who have played in the majors like Andrew Knapp and Andrew Knizner. Thairo Estrada, former Giant, Cole Tucker, Billy McKinney and Christian Pache. Former Dodger pitchers Phil Bickford and Mitch White, pitchers, Ty Blach, Cole Irvin, Matt Koch, former Dodger, and we wish he wasn’t, Yohan Ramirez, Trevor Richards, and Jordan Weems.
9 Dodgers eligible for salary arbitration this winter. May, Kopech, Graterol, Gonsolin, Phillips, Lux, Vesia, Brogdon, Banda. I don’t believe they will bargain with Brogdon who spent the entire year at AAA.
Dammit, I hate it when the Brewers lose games. Not because I especially like the Brewers but because it means less opportunities to watch their home games at Family Friendly Park and get a look at Front Row Amy (Williams). She’s always there by herself, keeping score. She makes such a nice couple. She is a major visual improvement over Dennis Gilbert who sits in the same area, but at Dodger Stadium. Amy may be the most interesting fan in MLB. Go Brewers.
Great TV day for a baseball junkie. What a great time of year:
I love it when the Asstros lose. Skubal was an Ace, as usual for the Tigers.
The pitching match up of the day was the Royals Cole Ragens vs Corbin Burnes of the Orioles. Both were great. Burnes gave up one earned run in 8 innings which was 1 too many. Ragans left after 80 pitches with a calf issue but 3 relievers threw up goose eggs to seal the 1 – zip win. Great post season pitcher’s duel.
I’m afraid Atlanta is toast. Chris Sale being out is the final nail in a tough season
.
Gawd, I hate the Padres. But Michael King is the real deal. He dominated Atlanta with 12 K’s over 7 innings. His cross-fire stuff is filthy.
Who is this guy? He came to the Padres from the Yankees in the Soto deal. In 5 years as a mostly middle reliever with the Yankees, he was 13 and 17 with a 3.38 ERA. Nothing to really write home about. Suddenly at 29, he becomes a Dude with the Padres going 13 and 9 in 30 starts with a 2.95
.
I really enjoy Ben McDonald in the booth. He’s doing the Orioles series along with Jess Mendoza. It’s a treat having her compare thoughts on pitching with Ben in that series. Actually, it isn’t. Sean McDonough and McDonald cover the game and allow Jess to pitch in some ideas which they ignore. Ben and Sean would have sufficed nicely without Jess.
I think I’ll do it again Wednesday.
Game 1 set for 530pm Saturday and Game 2 at 5pm Sunday
Lousy start time for the hitters.