You're completely right though. Loney is hitting 120 points below his career OPS, and even his career OPS would be meh for first base. If he would simply be hitting around his career, lame, OPS this team would be damn better. Not to mention a staggering 15 DPs hes grounded into. 1B is one of our biggest problems, no way is it near the bottom of our problems.
Dre being dead meat against lefties is a problem, our penchant for going into team hitting slumps and our starting pitching is waning, I consider those more important issues than Loney at 1st especially he is a part time player now. Also include Matt being less than 100%, Victorino's declining stats and our closer is showing chinks in his armor.
i agree it was a long time ago that i was able to find anything redeeming about james. i think i hung in there as long as anyone but he is what he is now. i think there was probably a lot of effort made to improve his power and all the tinkering just left him with a lack of confidence. he can't even square up a ball anymore. the dude is broken. but obviously his days are numbered. unless he hits .400 the remainder of the year which is not out of the realm of possibility. then we might do it all over again next year.
It's not even just the stats that fuels my loney hate, it's his robot attitude, no fire in that belly, no emotion either way. Here is james after he was told his mother was raped and murdered
You'd rather have him smiling while we stink up the place? Maybe he is just tired of being in the middle of the shit storm or maybe he doesn't want the other players to know that he is hating being a part timer.
Dodgers first basemen in 2012: .638 OPS Andre Ethier vs. lefties in 2012: .630 OPS So our first basemen have basically been Andre vs. lefties. Only the Indians and Mariners have a worst team OPS at first base.
Huh? Loney has always been a "eh" guy. Doesn't matter if things are going good or bad or if he's playing good or bad. He will always be eh.
Dre against lefties is similar to what Loney is hitting overall (how pathetic is that), our hitting slumps include Loneys lack of hitting. Matt being less than 100% is a thousand times better than Loney. Victorino "declining".. still better than Loney.. Yeah, Jansens 1.92 ERA and ridiculous K rate with a lower walk rate is not concerning man. Like I said, if Loney even hit around his career average (which is fucking lame) this team would be so much better. I have no idea how he is not one of our biggest problems. He's playing 1B and is pathetic there.
So when Loney is off the team next year what is going to be the excuse for Andre? Well he isn't as bad as Mark Ellis so it is ok. What you're saying is absolutely true but just because they are still playing better than Loney doesn't make it acceptable.
I'm not saying it's okay for Ethier to be however he is just because he's better than player X. And I don't know what there is an excuse to make for Andre, how is he doing bad where we need to hide him?. He has a career 124 OPS+ and currently has a 125 OPS+, and this is after a slump. His struggles against lefties is well noted, but it seems to take away how much he beats the shit out of the ball against righties, who he faces most of the time compared to lefties.
Also, according to bWAR, Ethier is 32nd in WAR in all of baseball. That means, according to what they find, he is the 32nd most valuable player in baseball. Of course, it's not perfect, but it shows he's far from something you need to make an excuse about.
With all that said, fuck Loney and Rivera. Fuck them to hell. According to bWAR, Rivera ranks 1,046 and Loney ranks 1,051
You can say that about 90% of the players, it is a long season and if you get too down or too high you will be a basket case that is all I am saying.
Reaching? I didn't come to my conclusion by my myself it's a well known often repeated by MLB players concept that you cannot get too high or too low. The subject matter also wasn't about his performance which obviously is lacking but in regards to the comment that he was robotic.
