Greinke/Kershaw masked a lot of flaws last year with two spectacular seasons. One of the most impressive 1-2 duos I've seen a team have....this year it's only Kershaw and he can only do so much. 10-1 when he's on the mound and there's no Greinke with a Cy Young caliber year behind him. Mediocre team with the best player in the world. This team is going nowhere.
I can understand the bat failing as you get older at that position, but the one thing you should not be so terrible at is framing. He has cost the team so many strikes over his career and it is frustrating that they think he should still be up.
Did they tho? There was like a 100 game stretch of mediocrity where they lost all hope for home field advantage in the post and everything.
Idk, I'm not necessarily strongly disagreeing but, a better starter on this team doesn't really do much cause the main problem has been the offense. The pitching has been fine, generally speaking, but the biggest change between last year and this year is that the offense has been poop. Decline in contributions from 3B, Catcher, and the OF. Last year the offense was actually good for the most part, especially with Grandal, Turner, and Ethier hitting. This year, it's been bad. Not saying the pitching shouldn't be analyzed, just that, IMO, the offense has been the problem this year for the most part and the biggest area of decline from last year to this year
You know what... f*** it. Batting average does matter to me to some degree. Joc needs to learn how to hit the f****** ball. This is why we suck. Our best hitter can barely hit .200. Not enough volume of hits per AB from our guys and it makes it impossible to put together a real rally. Terrible. I don't need a guy to hit .300 to think he's good, trust me. If a guy can slug, get on base, etc, there is a lot of value. But there's more to hitting.
If CK/Kenley/Adrian moved into Corey/Trayce/Joc's house with them, all the good LAD would live under one roof. Utley, landlord.
Notice the limited rallies we get are always centered by Utley, Gonzo, and Seager. Guys who can actually hit. Not the high strike out, low BA hitters with so many holes. When the game is magnified, it doesn't matter if your good eye and decent pop makes you valuable over the course of a season. It matters that you have the tools in that situation to succeed. Too many guys with weaknesses easy to exploit. Gonzo isn't doing what he needs to do as a slugging 1Bman, bit we need more hitters like him in other positions.
If Grandal and Turner were producing somewhere comparable to last year with Trayce, Seager and Utley doing their things, I would have no problem with what Joc is doing and have him in the 8 hole where he seems way more comfortable. That's not what we are getting and it's forcing fans to look at him as something that he is not.
