Baseball

Once again it’s that time of year, and the Fall Classic, a.k.a. World Series is upon us. The Dodgers make their 2nd consecutive appearance after getting past the Milwaukee Brewers in a tightly contested 7-game series. They are taking on the Boston Red Sox, who were the MLB’s best team all year and have steamrolled through the post season thus far. Boston is seeking their 4th title in the last 14 seasons.

After Boston dominated the first 2 games at home, the series switched to L.A. for game 3. Game 3 is now an instant classic!  An 18 inning thriller that ended with Max Muncy crushing a homer to left field to give L.A. the win, and put them back in the series.

This would be a costly loss for the Red Sox as they used their entire bullpen for extended innings, seemingly leaving little in the tank for Saturday night’s game 4.

Game 4 started out similar to game 3, with the game scoreless into the 6th inning. Rich Hill was on the mound for L.A., while Eduardo Rodriguez worked the mound for Boston. In the bottom half of the 6th, L.A. erupted for 4 runs, 3 of which came via a crushing 3-run homer by Yasiel Puig.

To this point Hill had allowed only 1 hit over 6 innings, and showed no real signs of tiring. After walking the lead off man in the 7th, Hill then struck out the next batter. Then inexplicably, Dodger manager, Dave Roberts removes Hill. Are you serious?

Why remove your starting pitcher who’s dealing? Hill has pitched a masterful 1-hit shutout to this point, and was not in imminent danger of opening the flood gates. There was 1 on and 1 out. But you pull your starter and go to the bullpen? After this switch, the Red Sox erupted for 3 runs in the 7th, 1 in the 8th, and 5 in the 9th to seal L.A.’s fate and take a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Needless to say, this decision will go down as the one that cost the Dodgers not only game 4, but the series, and possibly Roberts’ job as well. Now it’s no certainty that the Dodgers would be able to beat Boston in this series, but they certainly had the chance to even this series and carry that momentum into game 5.

Roberts has done a great job getting the Dodgers into the post season and appearing in the World Series for 2 consecutive seasons, but it’s become obvious that he is not the one to get L.A. to the promised land. He’s so wrapped up in the analytics of the game that he has no feel for what’s actually going on on the field. Had he had a true feel for the game he’d know not to pull his starter in the midst of a 1-hit performance. Especially after expending numerous arms in game 3’s 18 inning thriller.

I love Dave, but I think it’s time for him to sail off into the sunset. The Dodgers have done well in grooming talent from the minors and capitalizing on free agency and trade deadline moves, but Roberts may not be the guy to get them to their first title since 1988.

Time will tell, but I think the handwriting is on the wall. If the Dodgers lose this one, chalk it up as the second consecutive instance of what could have been.

Failure?  Maybe not, but definitely a waste of a perfect opportunity.  All season, the Dodgers had shown themselves to be the cream of the crop of Major League Baseball by consistently steam rolling one opponent after the other.  They set a team record with 104 wins, swept division rival Arizona in the division series, avenged last season’s loss to the Cubs in the NLCS, and seemed primed to do away with the Astros in the Fall Classic.  But I guess that’s why they play the game.

After game 1 of the World Series, and through the first 7 innings of game 2, it seemed like we were going to crown the Dodgers as this season’s champs.  Kershaw was lights out in game 1 and while Rich Hill didn’t make it past the 4^th inning in game 2, the bullpen was looking strong and looked to be on its way to holding home field as they would go to Houston for the next 3 games.  But the Astros had something to say about that.

Many point to this game as the turning point in the series.  Many, including myself think that the pro-analytic mind-set of Manager, Dave Roberts proved to be what ultimately helped the Astros win, and the Dodgers lose.

All season Roberts utilized his bullpen masterfully.  There’s a phrase that if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.  If it was so effective during the regular season why couldn’t it work during the post season?  At some point you have to throw analytics and stats out the window and use your gut to squeeze out a win.  Why pull Rich Hill after the 4^th inning of game 2 when he had only given up 1 run on 3 hits?  Why use your primary set up man in the 7^th inning and then lean on your closer to get the last 6 outs (which he had not done all season)?  This overuse/mis-use of a dominant pitching staff is what ultimately cost the Dodgers their first world title in 29 years.

While it was just one game, it ultimately set the stage for an epic collapse that could not be stopped.  There’s such a thing as going to the well too often.  Think about it.  If you’re using the same guys out of the pen every night, and they’re pitching to the same hitters, they’re gonna get accustomed to what, and how they throw.   It’s like watching the same movie every night and expecting a different ending.

The Dodgers deserved better, after all, they were the best team in baseball all year.  In the end, what got them to the doorstep is ultimately what hurt them the most.

Baseball used to be America’s pastime, and the MLB All-Star Game was the center-piece of that pastime.  This was a game in which the best players would showcase their talents in what truly was the only REAL competitive all star game amongst the 4 major sports.  But my first question is who even watched it?  I know I didn’t

According to several reports, including those from Fox Sports and Ad Age, this was the lowest rated all star game EVER.  Only 8.7 million people even bothered to tune in.  The fact of the matter is that the game is boring.  Many of your prime time athletes are deciding to play either basketball or football.  And the reason for a lot of this is because baseball is almost non-existent in the inner-cities of the United States.  This is where the majority of your high profile and best athletes come from, and they simply want no parts of it.

We can attribute a lot of this decline to the strike that took place during the 1994 season.  Ever since then baseball has been on a downward spiral.  With no baseball to watch, fans turned their attentions to other sports.  And baseball has never recovered.

They tried to add some excitement to the game by putting home field advantage during the playoffs up for grabs during the game.  But that didn’t make much sense because the game was already competitive.  Home field advantage should actually be decided by the individual teams making a post season run, not by a collection of the best players from each league.

Will they ever get it right?  Who knows, and at this point who cares.  By the way, in case you missed it, the American League won the game 4-2.