Optimism versus Reality

As has been the case of the last few years, there seems to be a disconnect between those claiming optimism and those claiming reality. The joke is that if this team would just win consistently, we would all be realistically optimistic. But, sadly, not so much.

I think I can sum up everyone's feelings in one thought.

We have far too much talent with game experience to be this bad. Even great teams play like shit occasionally--see the Braves getting their asses beat yesterday. We have nine Allstars on this team. Unfortunately, half of them have been on the DL for at least part of the season and the other half have not played to their potential. We now have one of the best 1,2,3s in baseball. However, there are five spots in a rotation.

Simply put: We have a great team playing like shit due to injuries and poor decisions. We are ten games below .500 in a pretty tight division. AZ is playing above their heads. CO just met the injury bug. SF's pitching is not as bad as it has been. The Padres make for great spoilers.

Could we make the playoffs as a WC? Yes. Could we with the way we are currently playing? No.

I hope we get in. I do. I like to win and I love the Dodgers. I am also worried that Vin may actually retire after this season with this record.

However, look at this way. There is no way that we are this bad twice in a row. Kemp will get stronger. Ethier will learn to hit again, grab a needle, or get traded. Hanley is coming into a contract year. AGon will hit. Crawford has been babied this year and should be a decent regular next year. Kerhsaw and Greinke are Kershaw and Greinke. Ryu will only help. We lose Uribe's contract (ironic that we all want him IN the lineup at this point). And, we now have PUIG. Think of it like this: if we can have the following lineup for 3/4 of a season, how far can we go?

Crawford/Puig/Agon/Kemp/Hanley/Ellis or another 2nd baseman who can actually get on base/Insert 3rd baseman/Ellis

We are not a bad team. We have played badly due to a number of issues. Our owners will not let it happen again. They need asses in the seats.

 

like the optimism especially coming from an old pessimist like yourself.
one thing you learn about guys after posting all these years is their tendencies to a degree. i respect that SDF doesn't just hang out when things are good. in fact he doesn't seem to hang out at all.
but when we really suck he's always here. i remember posting in game threads on the dark side when it seemed like it was just one or two of us and we really sucked. i mean we still do suck but thats a different story. i'm talking hee seop choi days. it was pretty awful and SDF always showed up when it was the worst. not sure why but thats how it seems to go.
i share your optimism esp for the pitching staff. and our long term goals look attainable if we can get a decent gm.
i don't like all these overpaid broken down guys playing out their rich contracts showing us flashes of their former brilliance in between DL stints.
if our own guys had panned out or contributed at all its a different season. kemp and eithier have really hurt us.
theres always reason to have hope but its just getting old looking toward next year before the all star break.

 

I still think there's time. Dbacks/Giants ain't shit. Neither are we, but we have a higher ceiling than them. Needs to happen now though.

 

When I think about this team, all I hear is 'tick tick tick'

 

If we had a half decent bullpen we would be right there in the mix.

 

Going into this season, no one was worried about the BP. Belli was nails last season, League was resurgent, Jansen is jansen, we added Paco, JP Howell, and we had two extra starters willing to move there.

 

That's true but despite the injuries and offensive struggles the BP has blown what 15 games? Say we win half of those were a half game out.

 

Most of the games you say the BP "blew" were probaby blown because we left 3-5 runs on the basepaths. Nobody should expect the BP to never give up any runs, but you should expect the lineup to drive at least 1/3 to half the runners in scoring position in.

 

I would also agree with you there no one can expect the BP to never give up runs but we also can expect the closer to have a sub 6 era. Ok so lets say we win 1/3 of those games still we are in much better shape than we are now.

 

Well, I wasn't defending the pen as much as I was pointing out how many different reasons we lose this season. It's just about in every aspect, offense, defemse, starting pitching(other than Kershaw/Ryu), injuries, bullpen...improve any and we are in MUCH better shape.

 

Pen has been bad but the biggest reason for our shitiness is the offense. Way too often our pen has to he perfect in order to keep the lead because our shit ass offense can only score 1 or 2 runs.