Given our play of late, things have begun spinning out of control. I think we can all agree. However, being cooped up with a kid with strep does allow me time to think. And with the middle of the order not hitting, it gives me something to think about. What a year. The changes to this team have been INSANE. I am not going into a history lesson but a few points are pretty important. Kemp was god-like. Kemp was hurt. Kemp was medicore. Kemp is hurt. However, Kemp is still Kemp Loney of the double play become AGon of the double machine with power. Gwynn, Rivera, and Abreu became Victorino with a healthy Carl Crawford waiting in the wings. Ethier got his extension. Mark Ellis is Mark Ellis. Mark Ellis is upended. Mark Ellis has surgery. Mark Ellis is Mark Ellis. AJ Ellis went from the Roman God of walks to okay back to a good catcher. Uribe sucked. Herrera made us smile. Herrera went downhill. Uribe sucked again. Enter the Cruz missile. Dee sucked. Dee showed life. Dee got hurt. Enter Hanram. I do see him. Kershaw was okay. Kershaw was great. Kershaw is great. Bills looked good. Bills looked like shit. Bills went on DL. Bills come back dominant. Bills back to DL for potentially a season. Capuano learns a curve. Capuano is a mild diety. Capuano is merely a man who throws well most of the time. Harang gets lit up. Harang throws well. Harang gets lit up and throws well on alternate outings. Beckett has attitude. Beckett likes fried chicken. Beckett likes beer. Beckett is crap in Boston. Beckett looks good here. Belli is a drug addict. Belli hates airports. Belli loves sinker. Batters hate sinker. Guerra looks hittable. Guerra looks unhittable. Guerra looks hittable. Guerra down. Guerrier hurt. Guerrier is hard to spell but easy to hit. Hawksworth hurt. Hawksworth likes spending time with family. Jansen throws hard. Jansen has heart issues. Jansen will have surgery after striking out MLB. But here we go. We just used the season to do what other teams will do in the offseason. We managed to improve the offense and pitching while still competing. Even if we fail to make the playoffs, January is light on the Dodgers while other teams scramble. Here is a worst case scenario: Kemp takes the rest of the season to fix shoulder and is back for ST. Bills is out for season but can be back for 2014 rested and remembering what pitching well was like. Kershaw is good. Crawford shows up in May or June to take the job from whomever. Ethier is finally wrist and pinky pain free. Capuano is a 3 or 4. Harang is a 4 or 5. Beckett is a 3 or 4. Jansen gets heart under control. Guerra learns to pitch the 7th. AGon loses some power but hits doubles. Cruz becomes a .275 hitter. Mark Ellis is still Mark Ellis. Okay, next year this is our WORST case scenario. This is the dream of about 18 teams in the majors. This does not take into account adding two good pitchers. Kemp coming back with power. AGon regaining power stroke. Hanley finding his way. Dee having to work for his job. Cruz hitting like he is now. Ethier hitting for more power. Cap and Beckett being dominant. Kershaw doing what Kershaw can do. Crawford getting back by ST and becoming the leadoff hittter we have needed for last half decade. Bills having a tear and not needed TJ. My point: no matter how shitty we look right now, next year does make me fucking smile. What if I had told you that next year we would have a lineup of Crawford/Ellis/Agon/Kemp/Ethier/Hanram/Cruz/Ellis before doing any offseason moves? You would have laughed at me. What if I had told you that we would be set offensively and we had money to acquire good starting pitching to go with Kershaw? You would have laughed at me. What if I had told you we would have an owner who thinks winning is more important than profits? What if I had told you that the Dodgers were relevant again?
That exaclty what I said in another thread... ned has nothing to do in the offseason... We have MAYBE 2 bp spits open, backup catcher and thats all...sure we could use more pitchig, but we have under contract 6 pitchers ( you forgot Lilly). As a summary, players we have under control for next year on possible spots: Lineup: Crawford, Mark, Adrian, Kemp, Hanley, Ethier, AJ, Dee Bench: hairston, gwynn, Uribe, Cruz, Punto Rotation: CK, Bills, Beckett, Lilly, Harang, Cappy Bp: Jansen, Beli, gurrier, elbert, Tollerson, Hawksworth, Guerra We could start the 2013 season without a single offseason move...
It does and it doesn't. If we can sneak into a Wild Card game and have Kershaw dominate, we could sneak into the playoffs. But a one game crapshoot is scary as hell. Even if you have Koufax pitching.
and, like I said, it doesn't matter even if we sneak in even if we were to somehow win a 1 game wild card game we're not taking a series Wash, Atl, StL or (having lost 5 of our last 6 to) the Giants Hell, we can't even take a series from the fucken Padres so again, like I said, it doesn't fucken matter anymore...
