There ya go! Mousey, you don't hate the Nerds but you hate the team they're responsible for creating? Sign a bunch of sore arm pitchers and pay other players millions to sit in the minors or to play elsewhere? Trade RBI machines for glass made roiders and All star/batting champions for gas can, unreliable relievers and finook utility guys who hit near the Mendoza line? (and FUCK the PED thing since it was unknown at the time, he was what he was and they traded him anyway) and, 22MM to the guy they traded for Alex Wood only to avoid proven FA's like the plague? Yeah, Love me some Nerds! WTF is everyone so surprised about? How about THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING!!!
Don't walk it back...if he was in our OF right this very moment, he'd be the second best OF we've got. In spite of the hatred and contempt for anyone that doesn't agree. Your post made perfect sense. Just because this one and that one says " you're this or that if you want Kemp" doesn't mean shit. What he can produce, no matter what, is badly lacking from the team. Some would rather endure the shit we have now because of personal dislike of the guy rather than the fact that who we have don't come near his numbers. I'd rather have the offense over this shit now, and just deal with the Sabr pop ups every night here. We'd have a better record. In spite of his " worst OFer who ever played in history" status, he'd be somebody better out there than Puig, CC, Hendrick or limp little Kike...by far. Bunch of non-hitting fucking bums. No one knows about Dre or SVS right now. So what does that say then about our big guns in the OF... aside from Joc?
Somewhat true. I don't think these guys are very good at free agent signings, and their trades for major league ready talent have been underwhelming. But plan B is running pretty damn smoothly if you ask me. Cheap, young and controllable players flooding our system. Sucks for the 2016 version of me, but this part of it might make 2017-2019 me happy. If I don't die a horrible death by then.
Just feels like we're wasting the best pitcher in baseball on this team. Not sure CK can keep this up for much longer.
Yeah, that part does suck. The feeling of not putting the best supporting cast around the best pitcher this team is going to see in a long time hurts. But, it also makes me think that 2013/2014 can be highlighted as years that weren't suppose to be wasted and well.. Although it was a team effort and theres lots of context, Kershaw also took part in that wasting. Last year, not as much, as the team could've used help.
shitty thing is this: The pitching isn't the problem. All together, the results of the pitching staff have them as a top 5 or so team. The offense is though, and, theres nothing really that can be done about that other then these guys getting better. There wasn't much that could've been done, IMO, that would've made sense to upgrade somewhere cause so many spots were already locked in. The one place with a hole was at 2B, and although Howie has been bad, Utley has been fantastic. Catcher, 1B, SS, and 3B were all locks and would've taken something drastic to happen to try and make an upgrade there. Turner has been bad, but it would've been weird (and still might be) to have tried to replace him. Adrian/Seager obviously weren't gonna move, and Grandal neither cause catchers just don't get moved often. For the outfield, it never made logical sense to try and upgrade there cause we have 1,000 outfielders but each with weird trade value cause of struggles/injuries, and adding an OF would've meant either having a glut of OF's or giving someone away. This is a long way to say: The offense is the problem and the only way I can realistically see that problem being fixed is simply by having the players play closer to their potential and not all slump together. That's more frustrating then hoping help can come from the minors or outside, but that's the way it is.
Yeah, if you buy into this plan B, it is shaping up. No doubt. But really...it's baseball, and it's long ago we were champs. When and if you're in a rebuilding state, then the next year, or even the next, is the promised land perhaps, and you can deal with it. But when you have a team full of superstars ( real or imagined) , and the highest payroll in the sport, and an assembled Alamagordo think tank of supposed bb geniuses ( real or imagined) button pushing...and this is the result...it's absolutely hard to take. On so many levels.
Certainly was an option. Granted, a guy like Kemp pretty much forced them to trade him because of his deteriorating game, piss poor attitude throwing teammates under the bus, having Stewart push LAD to trade him during the season, health issues, unwillingness to embrace LF, the list just goes on there so no problem whatsoever with them just finally paying to remove that problem and riding with Puig's potential there. Cool with that, gotta build the correct atmosphere, would do it 100 times out of 100. It also got Puig out of CF and Joc in, so excellent. But they definitely had the option of moving some of these other OFs a year later, just didn't, but I do get why. Plus, it's always hard to say that 1 bat is going to make that much a difference. But let's also recognize that they actually did make a move here, they were high on Trayce and for good reason. At the end of the day, like you said guys just have to perform better, I think a lot of us know that which may be part of why we play the lineup game everyday, hoping a reshuffle can spark them. Talking about Joc batting cleanup makes some wanna jump off a bridge, but in theory this should be a thing. Now, I'd rather him be in the 1 or 2 spot, but with these lineup makers I'll even take 4th. I think it's pretty clear that, if the kids aren't the best hitters on the team, at the very least they seem to be the guys providing the offensive sparks in the majority of these wins, so why not have them out front? These kids are getting on base. Not saying Utley should move, he's good, literally The Man, as they called him in Philly. But everybody else can move down, even Adrian, 5th would be fine for Adrian. So overall, I too think the offensive fix could come from within.
That would be an accurate statement. I think you are romanticizing a bit to call Kemp an "RBI machine", and I feel fairly confident saying that if we still had Kemp and Dee we'd be in the same situation. The current FO has made their share of mistakes, but they have also done things right. Who are the GMs who always field a perfect team? Which guys really know what they're doing? I'm tolerant of the FO right now. I hate the team, but I can be persuaded to change my mind with a modest win streak.
Tonight's bums - Los Angeles DodgersVerified account @Dodgers 1m1 minute ago Utley 2B Turner 3B Seager SS Kendrick 1B Pederson CF Thompson LF Grandal C Puig RF Crawford DH (Stripling P)
Andy McCullough @McCulloughTimes 1m1 minute ago Chin-hui Tsao was called up. Mike Bolsinger optioned. Dodgers bullpen carousel spins anew.
At least Joc got to 5th which is close to my suggestion earlier to put him cleanup. I guess Dave is PRAYING that Howie being put in the cleanup spot will get him going!!
I know you didn't ask me, Mouse, but there are no perfect teams fielded, of course. But, and it must be because collectively we are evil, vile men, the closest thing would be the SF Giants. I for one, would happily settle for that "imperfection". Or 2/3 of it. Or 1/3 of it.
Man. Howie hitting cleanup and Turner at #2, man. This lineup is possibly the worst it could be. At least Puig and CC are where they belong.
Don't mean to be a Debbie Downer bro. But I think you're Trayce estimates and projections will never be lived up to. I think he'll make a nice platoon with Ethier, and could cover all OF positions if needed. I personally don't envision him being much more than SVS. Once again, hope you're right and I'm wrong, but I just don't feel it.
No Debbie Downer, I don't have any projections, most definitely like that he's talented and that they targeted him, excited about what he's doing to help the team currently and hope he keeps it up, but if he doesn't past this year the best part is that he doesn't have to because the OF is deep on the farm. All Trayce has to do is keep outplaying Puig for the rest of the season, which seems easy enough, and the OF will be solid with Ethier/SVS coming back. But either way you want to look at it, the FO sought him out and made that happen, it's been a move that's paid off thus far.
Probably overboard on my part, ( what does it really matter), but if this is an actual FO thing with the lineups, then they should be executed publically on the field with extreme predjudice. And if it's Donnie Roberts, at least tarred and feathered. I'm being lenient here because I basically like him. Now watch it work....
I've generally been optimistic all season that we can turn things around, but I've gotta be honest - I'm starting to get very pessimistic about our chances. We need some serious overhauls.
