Dodgers: How Did We Get Here?

DAVE ROBERTS

The easiest scapegoat for the team’s recent slide has been Dave Roberts, and it amazes me how quickly fans forget what times were like when Don Mattingly was the skipper.

Roberts’ record as the manager of the ball club is 183-119, a .606 winning percentage in Los Angeles. Yet, his tinkering with the lineup and sometimes quick pitching changes still get Dodgers’ fans undies in a bunch.

Managers will almost always be thrown under the bus first when there is no exact reason why a team is playing bad, so this isn’t unusual. But Roberts’ role as the manager in this organization is probably pretty far from what many expect, not that it matters to him. With the multi-faceted front office, there is certainly input on what the lineup should be from those above the second year manager.

To add to that, this front office is always active, moving players up and down and to and from the 10-day DL. I like the way they handle business, but it also makes Roberts’ job harder, and that should be taken into account. He knows this and controls the controllable, meaning he doesn’t stress the things that are out of his hands. 

The Dodgers have used 90 different lineups this season, and the most common one has only been used ten times. 

A lot of the lineup shuffle has come over the last few weeks, as the Dodgers have essentially gone into tryout mode for the players trying to make a playoff roster and allowing their stars to get healthy.

Roberts simply is not the guy to blame. He may have made a switch or two that cost them a game, but he has been working with less recently. And when he’s had more, he’s done nothing but win.

If there is one criticism that may be fair, Roberts might be too loyal to the players who have gotten him to this point, with Pedro Baez being the leading example. Baez seemed destined for that eighth inning spot a month ago, but at this stage, he is fighting for his playoff roster life.

The 2016 Manager of the Year can only work with the 25 guys he has every day, so maybe it goes beyond loyalty. Maybe he has seen something in Baez and other guys that average fans haven’t. Either way, being the players’ guy he is, he is pulling hard for the dudes that have been getting it done all year to do the same for the next month and beyond.

It doesn’t always work that way, but I for one have no problem letting him continue to manage the way he has. I can assure you every player in that clubhouse would run through a wall for him and that isn’t something you’re just gifted in his position.

The bottom line is that Roberts hasn’t been the one giving up bombs, making mental errors or not being able to put together good at-bats. The players need to do that and there hasn’t been one guy on the roster who he could have given more opportunities to that would have turned it around.

The Dodgers are lucky to have Dave Roberts and will only continue to benefit from his gentle hand when things really start to heat up.

THE HITTERS

As mentioned, the Dodgers have used 90 different lineups this year, and most of the time they have had great success. Over the last 13 games, there hasn’t been that same confidence when the Dodgers are hitting but that can all change with one good offensive inning.

Bill Plaschke of the LA Times wrote an article Thursday night going over many of the same things I talked about here. One part stood out to me, “But somewhere along the line, the players have begun acting like it really is spring training, swinging for the fences and fielding with their heads in the stands.”

Although this is in part right, when have the Dodgers not swung for the fences this year and why is that a problem? The Dodgers have hit 191 home runs this year and were on pace to crush the club’s record for a season of 211; they still might.

During this 13 game slide, the team has hit eight home runs and has had an OPS of .567. 

In July, they had 35 home runs in 23 games. In June, 53 in 28 games, a franchise record for a month and an average of 1.9 dingers a game. They had 34 bombs in 28 games in May.

What I’m getting at is that home runs aren’t the problem and swinging to produce them certainly isn’t either (We could get into the fly-ball hitter discussion here, but we’ll save it for another time).

The issue during this losing period has been the support and health that the hitters had enjoyed all year.

All of the Dodgers’ most used lineups have one thing in common, a top half of the order that includes Chris Taylor, Corey Seager, Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger, all with more than 18 home runs this year. Coincidence that both Seager and Belly have both been out of the lineup for a majority of this streak? No shot.

Those two guys are the most important pieces in this lineup and their ability to put together quality at-bats at such a high rate and come through in the biggest moments aren’t replaceable. They are better together as well, protecting one another and forcing pitchers into situations where they have to throw strikes.

They don’t just make each other better; it’s the whole team that benefits from this. Their presence allows for other hitters to get better pitches to hit. Especially Justin Turner; no shocker he’s having a career year hitting between these two. 

Taylor is just as important here too and has really been the only Dodger to continue to put together quality at-bats. He’s hitting .308 in September. There hasn’t been a better lead off hitter in baseball, and they will need that going forward.

Hitters slump, teams slump, it’s a part of the game. As infuriating as it is for fans to have this happen at this point in the year, the pressure and anger for the players are twice as great as anything a fan could ever go through.

They want to break out just as bad as we want them too and I feel like they will.

Corey Seager came back last night, Belly is back, and Roberts has said that the guys who will be on the field come October will start to get more and more of the at-bats now.

They will get back to mashing; they’re too deep not too.

THE PITCHING

The starting pitching over the last few weeks has been puzzling for people watching this team. The team has seen a bit of everything, such as Rich Hill taking a no-hitter into the 10th before losing on a walk off home run in Pittsburgh.

There have been awful starts like Rich Hill only lasting three and two-thirds innings and giving up six earned runs in Arizona. And there have been your solid starts that give your team a chance to win but don’t blow anyone away, like Rich Hill’s six innings, two-run start at home against Arizona.

Now, I don’t mean to pick on Rich here; he’s just been a perfect example of how the starters have gone over the last month. Every guy on the team has dealt and been shelled recently and there just doesn’t seem to be one thing anyone can point to. Call them highs and lows, ups and downs, whatever it is; it’s inconsistency.

Kershaw has the lone win during this streak but his start two nights ago showed he still has a little work to do coming back from the injury. I don’t think anyone is worried about him, but there is some concern for the rest of the staff.

To blame this group, though, is again not the right move. For every good start they have, the run support seems to evaporate. For every rough one, the comebacks just don’t appear to be coming to fruition at this time, and not one pitcher in the pen seems to be a consistent stopper.

For the rotation, looking forward, only three or four will start games in the postseason. Kershaw and Darvish are locked in, Wood would have to pitch himself out of the spot, and the last opening will be a battle. Between Hill, Ryu and Maeda, the next couple starts will be critical to determine who rises to the top and in the end consistency will win out.

Speaking of consistency, can we all just take a moment to appreciate Kenley Jansen? Night in, night out, he has got it done for the Dodgers in 2017. The problem is just getting the ball in his hands in a situation that matters.

This is where the rest of the pen comes in. They have been great at times, especially in the first three months of the season, and have been bad, like the last 14 games.

We have seen a lot of new faces on the mound with the rosters expanding and, for the most part, they haven’t fared too well. Beyond top-ranked prospect Walker Buehler, no one that the team has brought up has really shined.

At the same time, the arms that had been getting it done all year have started to falter as well, Pedro Baez more so than anyone.

This all relates to the way that the front office chooses to try and find quality arms in the pen without having to pay the premium price for them. 

I’ll never get over the front office spending $48 million on McCarthy for four years the same offseason they didn’t want to pay Andrew Miller a similar price. He would sign with the Yankees for 4-years, $36 million before being traded to the Indians and becoming a gigantic part of their postseason run as a high-leverage reliever. He’s under contract through next year.

Obviously, they learned a bit of a lesson from this and paid Jansen this past offseason, but the team still hasn’t addressed the rest of the pen in the way they were capable of doing.

That seems to be the only thing in this article that may have some concrete backing when you try and find a reason for all of this, but that is too small of a thing to concentrate on at this time, this late in the year, with the best record in baseball.

More from LA Dodgers News

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• Dodgers ironically sign former all-star to potentially replace Cody Bellinger
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The pitching needs to get better, but it needs a whole team playing good baseball to do so. They certainly can’t be blamed entirely for this streak, but they could be the demise of the team come the playoffs.

One thing I would like to see would be Buehler getting the same type of tryout that Alex Verdugo is getting in the outfield. Although he will start in the future, getting him in some leverage situations out of the pen now, while controlling his pitch count, seems like a good move now and preserves his future. Plus, he’s really, really good and that helps.

To answer the question at the top of how we got here, how did we sink so low? It’s baseball; there really isn’t much more to it than that. This Dodger team has won with their best lineup and their backups; they just aren’t doing that now.

No team has ever had 1-13 stretch in a season and won a World Series, that’s what Ken Rosenthal tweeted yesterday morning about the Dodgers.

Well, no team has ever had the 50-game stretch the Dodgers had this year. No team in recent memory has had as many comeback wins as this Dodger team has. 

Most importantly, no team in the MLB has the all-around talent that matches the Dodgers.

Next: Should Darvish Make Playoff Rotation?

Baseball is weird, this losing streak is weird, but in the grand scheme of things, these 13 games could just be another fun fact in what will be one of the most memorable seasons in the Dodgers’ long and celebrated history.

Submitted September 8th at 2:45 p.m, all stats reflect accordingly.