"C" Is For "Complacency"

I must say that as much as I like Joe Torre as a human being and a baseball man, I certainly find myself questioning his managerial judgment. Joe allowed the Dodgers to embarrass themselves today and for the entire last series of the season. With the playoffs next week, it’s no time for fun and games. We already had fun and games well into the wee hours Thursday night and Friday morning and it resulted in a loss to a bad team on Friday. By letting Nomar Garciaparra “manage” today’s game and by not letting his starters take their at bats against a tough pitcher like Lincecum, Torre did nothing to prepare his team against the mighty Chicago Cubs, who they will open up against on Wednesday. That’s right. The Metropolitans choked for the 2nd year in a row and the Milwaukee Brewers are your National League Wild Card team, going into the post season for the first time since 1982 when they won the AL East and eventually lost in Game 7 of the ’82 series to the Cards. What does this mean? It means the Dodgers must open the 2008 Playoffs against the Chicago Cubs instead of the very beatable Phillies. So, by all means, let’s have some fun.

Complacency. That’s the new watch word for the Blue on this late September afternoon. They’re just happy to be there and they obviously don’t really expect to win anything. I believe it’s a good idea to rest your starters when the Playoffs are looming, but most of them have had plenty of rest already this series and it’s very important to have some momentum going into the post season. The Dodgers have zero momentum. The Cubs pitching is also the toughest pitching staff in the league, and Tim Lincecum, today’s starter and eventual winner for the Giants is the best single pitcher in the league. So, Torre cheated his team out of a chance to face some tough pitching – an ideal tune up before having to go up against the likes of Dempster, Harden, Zambrano and Lily. I mean, why not give Raffy, Manny, Kent, Martin and Ethier (Ethier had 2 its in 2 at bats today) a shot at Lincecum instead of just letting them enjoy themselves some more? There’s no reason why they couldn’t all have at least started and played the first 5 innings. And why do you just want to award the hated San Fran fans a victory? NEVER! No Dodger worth his salt would ever do that. Aside from strong performances from Kuroda and Ethier, Kemp, Blake and Loney and the rest of the team looked like Shiite, and pretty Sunni, the Dodgers will be dropping 3 straight games to the Cubs.

Let’s face it. In spite of what Peter Gammons says, the Dodgers only finished 29-24 since acquiring Manny. That’s 5 games over .500. That shows they still needed pitching and hitting they weren’t getting. They won only 84 games, making them tied with the Florida Marlins as the 7th best team in the NL. There were only 8 teams with a worse record than the Dodgers in the 16 team league. That’s the working definition of “mediocre.” The Dodges get a “C” and make the Playoffs. The Cubs get an “A +.” They finish the season with 97 wins and run away with the title in the league’s toughest division. The Dodgers would’ve finished IN 5TH PLACE,12 GAMES behind the Cubs had they played in the same division! Hate to be a downer, but the Dodgers, even with Manny, don’t belong on the same field as Chicago. Dempster, Zambrano - the chest thumping, hot headed bastard who looks like he should be in a street gang rather than making millions as the Cubs’ ace, along with Rich Harden should set the Dodgers down in order. Ted Lilly may also join in the fun. Their lineup will pick Dodger pitching apart and if they’re lucky enough to get into the Dodger bullpen, there may even be some blowouts. Yeah, by all means, party hard at that pep rally in an hour or 2 because that’s likely the last pep you’re gonna see from any Dodgers for a while. If the Dodgers somehow prevail I will be extremely wrong and extremely happy. But the way they look right now – a little too happy and a little too content – I don’t give them much of a chance against the Cubbies who are 100 years hungry. I just would’ve handled this whole “winning the West” thing much differently.

As the 2008 regular season has ended, here are my picks for individual awards:

NL MVP – Albert Pujols (Sorry, Manny was amazing, but 2 months doth not an MVP make and Ryan Howard was great but he hit .250. Pujols numbers all year long are, once again, awesome.

NL Cy Young – Tim Lincecum (Brandon Webb’s late season collapse was a big reason for his team’s collapse. Sabbathia may steal it because a precedent has already been set by Rick Sutcliffe following a midseason trade. Still, I gotta go with young Tim.

NL Rookie Of The Year – Cubs catcher, Geovanny Soto, going away.

NL Comeback Player of the Year – Carlos Delgado (over Brad Lidge, Miguel Tejada, Brian Giles, and Fernando Tatis)

AL MVP – Francisco Rodriguez (Yep. A reliever. Over Morneau, Quentin – missed too many games – Pedroia, Youkilis, Josh Hamilton and Miguel Cabrera. Come on. Dude set the saves record for a team that won 100 games)

AL Cy Young – Cliff Lee (22-3 with a 2.54 ERA and 170 strikeouts. Enough said. Over Matsuzaka, Halladay, Francisco Rodriguez)

AL Rookie of the Year – Rays 3rd baseman, Evan Longoria (over KC shortstop, Aviles, Chisox 2nd baseman, Alexei Ramirez, Twins right fielder, Denard Span, and a host of other fine rooks.)

AL Comeback Player of the Year – Cliff Lee again. (How do you not give it to him? He spent much of last season in the minors. Gotta go with Lee over Josh Hamilton, who isn’t really coming back from anything anymore, Jason Giambi, and Aubrey Huff)

That’s my take.