A Dodger Blue Post Mortem

What a painful experience it was to watch the last out of '09 last Wednesday night. Especially seeing that it was that asshole Victorino getting to catch the ball. It made me wonder if I'll ever live to see the Dodgers win it all again. The Dodgers. The one time storied franchise who were considered, year in and year out, the class of the National League.

It was an odd season. From time to time - especially after they swept the Cards in the NLDS - they made an all too brief believer out of me. I mean, let's face it, they won 95 games. That's a good season in anyone's book. But, to this day I don't believe the 2009 edition of the Los Angeles Dodgers deserved the right to play for the National League Championship. On the other hand, practically all the Dodger teams from 1974 - 1982 seemed good enough and four of those teams went on to the World Series. In 1988 they won their last World Series with a team that was so offensively challenged, this years Padres would've outhit them. But they had amazing pitching and a guy named Orel Hershiser. This Dodger team didn't have anything close to an Orel Hershiser. What they did have was a few good players, a decent bullpen and a lot of smoke, mirrors and luck. A whole lot of luck. Some of that luck was evidenced in Game 2 of the NLDS when Matt Holliday turned out to be the Giving Tree. Also, even though the NL West produced the Wild Card team and a fairly competitive Giants team due to Lincecum and Cain, the Dads and and the Snakes were terrible. The Rockies also stunk the first part of the season and the Blue got a lot of wins against those teams. During the regular season the Dodgers played okay against the defending champ, Phillies, winning the seasonal series, but they stunk against the Cardinals, Braves, Astros and, yes, even the Nationals. I guess what I'm trying to say is, the Dodgers were good, but not as good as their record and, echoing the sentiments of Vin Scully as he called their last out, they were an extremely lucky team who's luck ran out in Philadelphia where they went up against a far superior and much better managed club.

The Dodgers put up some decent stats over the season, and some of those numbers help us understand why they got as far as they did. But it was the glaring things they didn't do, from the field to the front office that led to their repeat failure. Yes, "failure." Look it up in the dictionary. They failed. They didn't win. Sorry, everyone, but unless you look at it that way, you'll always accept second place and I won't do that.

SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS. NOW HERE ARE THE REASONS:

1) Fundamentals. The team, as a whole was one of the worst offensively fundamental teams I've ever seen in baseball. They could neither bunt, nor hit and run, nor run the bases properly. They were oppo-challenged all year and their pitchers walked too many guys when it counted. Much of it was Joe Torre's fault. He managed way too leniently and didn't stress the things that take a team to the next level. (On the other hand, Mike Scioscia did and look how that turned out for him.)

2) Starting Pitching. You can't have a staff full of of number 3 starters and expect to play in a World Series. The only teams to accomplish that feat in my memory are the Big Red Machine squads of the 70's. Can you name one starting pitcher form those teams? Don Gullet? Wayne Simpson? Fred Norman? Pat Darcy? Jack Billingham? Mario Soto? Gary Nolan? Not exactly household names. But they had the best starting 8 in the game for years: Perez, Morgan, Concepcion, Rose, Foster, Geronomo, Griffey and Bench. And they had a reliever named Pedro Borbon. But, alas, that was a different time. No longer can you win without a one and two and anyone who tries to tell me Billingsley, Kershaw or Wolf were bona fide one or two guys, I won't need to hit you over the head because, clearly, someone already has. Nowadays, you need dominant starters who take over a game from the first pitch on. When the opportunity came along to land one of those special arms, Frank McCourt and Ned Colletti dropped the ball. No excuses. E-GM. E-OWNER. The problem with the Dodgers leadership is they make assumptions about pitchers before the fact. They assumed Billingsley would be their ace. They were wrong. Now they assume it's going to be Kershaw. I would agree he has a shot, but maybe not yet. If they can't land Roy Halladay or his equivalent for 2010, look for another year without a World Series at the Ravine.

3) Steroids. My belief is the Dodgers knew or at least heavily suspected Manny was on roids before they acquired him in '08, but they were willing to take the chance because of the revenue he can bring in and the numbers he could put up if he didn't get caught. He stupidly got caught, but, miraculously, Ethier and Kemp began to emerge on their own, Juan Pierre stepped in and did his Mr. Wonderful thing and the team seemed fine. However, when Manny returned after his 50 day suspension, he clearly lost strength, confidence and all his bat speed. In short, he stunk. Instead of a big bat in the four hole he was a big bat in a black hole. It was hard to watch, yet Torre seemed intent on keeping him there and continuing to let Manny be Mario Mendoza. And, to add insult to injury, we got him for another year and we gotta pay him $20 million. But, was Manny the only Dodger who sucked because he was off the juice? Not in this blogger's opinion. Look to our beloved catcher.

4) Russell Martin. He was terrible. He grounded into so many double plays, everytime I close my eyes, I still see Russell Martin grounding into another double play. Most of the time, he simply refused to go the other way. He insisted on being dead pull, even it meant surrounding a pitch a foot outside and grounding out weakly to short. But what happened to his 20+ HR power? Let's put it this way: the ball wasn't exactly jumping off his bat this year the way it has in the past. If I didn't know better, I'd say he looked just like a man off the deca-durabolin. Not only that, he was slower afoot - remember he used to steal bases? - but the main thing is, a worse defensive catcher I haven't seen since the days of Mike Piazza and I actually think Piazza was better at times. Martin was, for the most part, lazy and unorthodox back there and catcher is not a position where you can afford to be unorthodox. He was terrible throwing out base runners, and his pitch calling, in my opinion, left much to be desired. (some of that is the dugout's fault) In 3 years, he went from being one of the top 10 catchers in the game and one of the top 50 young players in baseball to one of the 5 all around worst catchers and one of the most mediocre players I've ever seen. Perhaps he should go away.

5) The Corners. Pedro Feliz is an ok hitter as the third baseman for the Phillies. Normally, you need a pretty big bat at that position and most champions have that bat there. But the Phillies can afford to have Feliz there because they have 3 game changers at 1st, 2nd and short. The Dodgers, on the other hand, do not have game-changers anywhere on the infield. So, having two slightly better than average players at traditional power positions like first and third greatly weakened their batting order. Neither Loney nor Blake hit with enough power to justify the position, though Loney, a fairly solid player at times, did manage to drive in 96 runs. But, as I've stated in the past, many of Loney's RBIs were tack-ons late in ball games. There were a couple of months during the early summer when James was on fire and sparked the offense. Still, no power. Blake, meanwhile is a great fielder, but he's a dead pull hitter who hits too few home runs to justify his many, many strike outs. Now, look at the production from the corners on the other teams in the NLCS and ALCS. Ryan Howard for the Phils, Kendry Morales and Chone Figgins - no pop, but adds so much more with his high average, OBP, and speed - for the Halos and Teixeira and ARod for the Yankees. Not to mention Youkilis and Lowell for the Bosox. Other clubs? Pena and Longoria for the Rays, Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez for the Cubbies. Morneau for the Twins. Pujols for the Cards. Fielder for the Brew Crew. At least one of those positions needs to go to a big time power/production guy. (Wish we could land an Adrian Gonzalez.) As there are no future plans for Loney or Blake to go elsewhere, look for more of the same impotence in next year's lineup.

6) The Middle. For most of the season, Furcal stunk and the O Dog was just pretty good. Hudson's skills waned so much toward the end of the season, however, (so, apparently, did his attitude) he was replaced by jounrneyman, Ronnie Belliard, who still may be in the Dodger's plans for next year. Furcal made some dazzling plays but he also made a host of errors, some of them costly. He finally came around offensively at season's end, and for the NLDS. He was god awful, however, in the NLCS. Truth be told, it was a good enough middle infield to not keep the team from going to the next level, but it sure wasn't Jeter/Cano or Rollins/Utley. It may be time to start looking for a shortstop unless, Dee Gordon, the 2009 Midwest League Prospect of the Year, is soon ready to go. But we all know how the Dodger organization overrates their prospects. For all we know, Gordon can end up being another Jose Offerman or worse. As far as second base, it looks like Blake De Witt will finally get his shot to at least platoon with Belliard. I've always had high hopes for DeWitt. I think he's a pro. Not a game changer, but a pro.

7) Joe Torre. I'm sorry. I know it's blasphemy, but I just don't think he's a great manager. I think he's a great baseball man, a great human being, a great clubhouse diplomat and a great nurturer, but I think as a field skipper, he leaves much to be desired. He proved to be way too lenient with the guys and his handling of the bullpen is legendary for it's mistakes. Ronald Belisario is simply not one of the best right handed relievers in the game but Torre used him like he was the second coming of Mike Marshall. (1974 reference) Belisario was okay, I guess, but any idiot knows you can't tax a guy's arm like that and expect him to remain healthy and effective throughout a long, grueling season. Torre's constant juggling of the batting order left guys wondering what the hell their roles were and didn't allow them to get comfortable with any spot in the lineup. Sometimes that stability is what a team needs, but Torre never let them have it. He was soft on Manny. Too soft. I was also surprised, having been a great catcher for most of his career, that Torre didn't look for a replacement for Martin by midseason. And his decision to let Kershaw stay in during that horrific 5th inning of Game 1 of the NLCS set the tone for the rest of the series. I wonder what Bowa, a firebrand, could do at the helm, or even Mattingly. With the young, overly cocky guys in that clubhouse, they need someone with less patience, not more. But Joe didn't kill us and he has won in the past with some amazing Yankee teams. One more year, I guess.

8) Ownership & GM. Now we get to have a winter wonderland of fun with the McCourt Divorce reality show. I don't like those two, but here's hoping Frank emerges the winner in this one, otherwise we're in for some very lean years. McCourt's decision to cut payroll cost the Dodgers dearly. The decision not to pursue C.C. Sabathia or A.J. Burnett (who would've had an even better year in the NL) in the offseason and, instead, go to the Costco of free agents by signing Randy Wolf could have been the difference maker. There was no attempt to acquire Teixeira or anyone who's salary would've have taken the Dodgers payroll out of McCourt's comfort level, but would have gone a long way toward a World Series appearance. And when push came to shove and it became apparent that the only thing needed to practically ensure a trip to the Fall Classisc was an available number one caliber starter, McCourt held on firmly to his wallet and Colletti, no doubt, overrated more prospects that he was unwilling to part with and made inadequate offers to Toronto for Halladay and to Cleveland for Lee. (In Ned's defense, I'm still not sure what Toronto wanted, but I'm sure it was too much. Cleveland, on the other hand, would've taken less) Once that deal didn't go through, you'd think they'd grab up Jake Peavy or Pedro. Didn't even do that. Not even any mention of it. They let Peavy go to the White Sox for Clayton Richard and didn't even make an offer to Pedro. Instead we got Padilla and Garland. Padilla turned out to be a surprise, but give that credit to Bowa, who lobbied for his services, not Colletti. Colletti didn't want him. Colletti has had as many misses as hits - Jason Schmidt & Andrew Jones to go along with last year's Manny deal and one year deals to Hudson and Wolf. I guess we'll see how great these prospects turn out to be that he refused to sacrifice for a championship this year. That is, if we ever find out who they are. As an owner, McCourt is perfectly happy with second place and has no burning desire to win. In fact, I'm sure he'd be fine if the Dodgers missed the postseason altogther for a year or two, because he can always talk about how he got them back there in '08 and '09 and how they actually won some playoff games. With 3.6 million fans a year, he's still more concerned about his public image and his profits than he is about getting to the World Series.

THE WORLD SERIES

I was surprised how poorly Scioscia's Angels played in the ALCS against the Yankees, but, clearly, the Pins are the best team in the league and probably the best team in baseball. Their lineup is frightening in their professionalism and is just scary overall. The Phillies, I believe, have slightly better starting pitching and an equally scary lineup, except they don't have a Hideki Matsui to DH in Yankee Stadium. They'll probably go with Ben Frencisco, Dobbs or Stairs. Both teams are extremely well-managed. The Yankees bench is better and their bullpen, though they performed poorly against the Angels, is markedly better. Lee could potentially shut the Yanks down, but Sabathia may be able to do the same to the Phillies. I think both lineups will hit the likes of Burnett, Pettite, Pedro and Hamels. However, if the Yanks can get into the Phils' pen, they'll do much better than the Dodgers did. The Yanks should not take the Phillies lightly. For the first time in years, I actually think the 2 best teams in baseball are playing in the World Series. I'll take the Yanks in 7.

So, that's it for the Dodgers in '09. It was a strangely trying year for a team that finished with the best record in the NL. They still seem so far away from accomplishing what the Phillies have accomplished. As always, I hope I'm wrong.