Dodgers: The End of Season Awards have Finally Arrived

Justin Turner

After taking Kendall Graveman’s fastball off of his left wrist, just ten days prior to MLB’s Opening Day, Justin Turner indeed suffered a fracture in lieu of the most optimistic expectancy of a bone-bruise or a deep contusion.

No one, not the Dodgers’ front office, the fans, nor the players, wanted to hear those dreaded words: “broken wrist.”

For any or all baseball players and especially hitters, a broken wrist is one of the worst injuries, short of a season-ender, a player can sustain.

Even after the fracture healed, Turner and Co. had to simply wait out the time it would take for Turner’s pain to alleviate. And no one knew when that would be.

Fast-forward to May 15th, nearly three months after getting nailed by Graveman, Justin Turner made his long-awaited return to the Dodgers’ lineup. Almost immediately, Turner’s presence was felt.

The term “presence,” in sports, can often fall into cliché. In Justin Turner’s case, however, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Though JT himself, would admit that his performance at the beginning of his return from the fractured wrist wasn’t near-par for the course, no one can argue that having his presence in the (near) everyday lineup, at third base, in the clubhouse, around the guys, pre-game batting practice, whatever, doesn’t help the Los Angeles Dodgers immensely.

The guy brings a number of intangibles not usually seen in professional sports.

With a work ethic that rivals anyone throughout baseball, Turner never stops working on a comprehensive list of his game.

Whether it’s watching video of his swing, making sure that the strike-zone is to his liking in between at-bats, or countless hours of BP, I personally, have never seen a player work harder and focus so intently upon even the tiniest nuisances of his game.

The best part is that these virtues are contagious.

When a leader leads the team in work ethic and “through example,” he immediately raises the expectation for everyone around him. How could a veteran the likes of Justin Turner outwork the new rookie?

You don’t want to be that guy. This is exactly why Justin Turner is the Dodgers’ Most Valuable Player. He makes those around him better while consistently performing at the highest level.

Walker Buehler

This was an instant no-brainer. Coming into the 2018 season, Walker Buehler was the boy-wonder from collegiate powerhouse, Vanderbilt, with top-shelf stuff, pedigree, and the goods to back it all up.

To say that the expectations were “high” for Buehler coming into this season, would be an utter understatement.

However, no one sets expectations higher for Walker Buehler than, Walker Buehler.

The kid-turned-man through the course of Game 163, is the perfectionist’s perfectionist. Dodgers’ legend-turned analyst, Orel Hershiser, speaks to Buehler’s elite-level makeup quite often.

In an article written by Jim Alexander of The Press Enterprise, titled: “Dodgers’ Walker Buehler the Ace-in-Waiting? Why not?” Hershiser says, “The most impressive thing about him, not the stuff, is his arrogance when he’s on the mound but his humility to learn and take in as much as he can off the mound.”

Hershiser continues, “I think his learning curve has been a lot faster than others’, but I don’t think people will recognize it because they will attribute it to the great stuff.”

Orel Hershiser knows a thing or two about pitching in MLB, we all know that. However, I think he hits at a very strong point with regard to Buehler’s inherent ability to make adjustments quicker than most pitchers in MLB.

He went from (in 2017)-being a prospect with incredible stuff who throws the ball incredibly hard and makes hitters miss because of his incredible stuff-to now, honing-in upon how to attack certain hitters with that incredible stuff that, on its own, has gotten him this far.

Due to the recently enhanced, more cerebral approach that Buehler takes with him now, onto the mound, combined with his purely dominant stuff, Walker Buehler has promptly asserted himself as the Alpha in the Dodgers’ rotation.

This assertion was made clear by his must-win start in this year’s World Series. On a stage no bigger, Buehler was a buzzsaw, slicing straight through the highly-touted Boston Red Sox’s lineup.

By the end of his outing, Buehler walked off the field with a confident swagger saying, “okay everybody, I’m here and I’m here to stay” to the rest of Major League Baseball.

Because of the impact he made across the regular season, Game 163, and the World Series this season, coupled with his ascension into the top-flight academy of Aces across baseball, Walker Buehler is easily the Dodgers’ 2018 Cy Young Award Winner.

The scariest part is, we’ve only had the privilege, thus far, of seeing the very tip of the iceberg otherwise known as, Walker Buehler.

Until only a night ago, I had never heard the term: LVP before. For the rest of the world apparently, it stands for Least Valuable Player.

Whether we like to admit it or not, there’s always a least valuable player on every team, throughout every sport, regardless of political correctness.

Professional sports are not only team oriented, but they’re businesses, big businesses.

As with any business/team and regardless of its role, if they plan on being successful in the next business year/season, they must address their shortcomings and fix them prior to the next year.

The Dodgers need to address their problems at catcher, formulate a plan, and find a solution before the start of 2019 Spring Training.

Yasmani Grandal and Austin Barnes have, even if unintentionally, led to one another’s struggles.

After the 2017 season, Barnes (and most Dodgers’ fans) assumed that he’d be the starting catcher come to Opening Day, this season.

However, a strong Spring Training from Grandal mixed with a sub-par Spring from Barnes actually resulted in Yasmani and not Barnes, ultimately winning the starting catcher’s position.

Fast forward to now, and it’s obvious that something went drastically wrong at throughout the course of the season.

Yasmani Grandal-

The LVP is co-owned this season because between Barnes and Grandal, both of their seasons appeared to be under the ownership of opposite versions of themselves.

Grandal had yet another productive regular season, leading all NL catchers in home runs and RBI’s, but let’s face it, the postseason version of Yasmani was not the same Yasmani the Dodgers had been accustomed to.

After also compiling a very strong defensive season behind the dish, Grandal virtually disintegrated right before our very eyes, almost as abruptly as the regular season had ended.

Defensive Woes-

Through only 7 games started at catcher in this year’s postseason, Grandal managed to accumulate three passed-balls, two errors, three wild pitches and allowed one stolen base.

Of course, technically a “wild pitch” is a stat against the pitcher, however, wild pitches can very easily result from a pitcher’s lack of confidence in his battery-mate.

Entirely too many instances of Yasmani losing complete control of his ability to defend his position occurred throughout the postseason. In fact, at times, it literally looked like he was lost out there.

I understand that he’s stated on record that he hates playing at Miller Park, yet this is the postseason, and his blunders didn’t stop once the team departed Milwaukee.

On the postseason as a whole, Yasmani managed to give up at least 1.5 runs as a direct result of passed balls, errors, and the stolen base which he allowed.

Additionally, who’s to say how much damage was done through the residual effects of his trouble at the dish.

I’m sure that there were moves made by Dave Roberts that didn’t fit into his grand scheme, in attempts at solving Yasmani’s defensive mysteries.

These moves resulted in starting Austin Barnes at catcher. In fact, Barnes started more games during the postseason than Grandal.

Due to his defensive woes, Grandal forced Doc’s hand, resulting in the insertion of an ill-hitting and surely cold, Austin Barnes, who, at a moment’s notice, had to take over the starting catcher’s job in the most important time of the season.

Postseason Struggles at the Plate-

Not only was Grandal a changed-man behind the dish, but he also completely folded in his postseason AB’s as well.

In totality, Yasmani was dead-last in RBI’s for the Dodgers (with 1), he hit only 1 HR, scored just 2 runs, had just 4 hits, 1 double, 5 BB, and 15 strikeouts through just 29 at-bats.

All of which, were either at the bottom or very near the bottom of all of the players’ individual numbers.

Lastly, with regard to Yasmani’s strikeouts on the postseason, he ended with a team worst, 52% strikeout rate.

Combine those dismal offensive number with his equally abysmal defensive numbers and we’re left with one of the worst playoff performances of all time.

Yes, Yasmani had another productive regular season. But when the chips are all in and the season is on the line, this is typically the point when great players excel, not decline. It pains me to write this, however, it is what it is.

Austin Barnes-

Unlike Yasmani, Barnes did not have another productive regular season. He played in a total of only 72 games, compiling only 200 regular season AB’s.

He hit .205 AVG on the season, with a .619 OPS, and only managed to hit 4 home runs on the year.

Coming into the season, Austin Barnes was primed for a breakout year.

No, he didn’t win the starting job outright when Spring Training ended, and I can’t imagine how frustrating that must’ve been, however, as professional athletes it’s every player’s job to be ready whenever your number is called.

The 2017 version of Austin Barnes was ready for the starting gig at catcher.

Unfortunately, the imitation of “2017 Austin Barnes,” otherwise known as 2018 Austin Barnes, appeared aloof throughout most of the games he played in and his numbers do nothing but back up that suspicion.

After 2017, I was probably the biggest Barnes’ supporter out there. And I truly do hope that he comes back and plays the way that we all know he can and should.

However, Barnes’ performance in the postseason and the regular season were both equally disappointing and again, I hate to write this but, he was a major letdown on the whole.

The best part about sports: there’s always next year. The Dodgers have a plethora of talent in their farm system right now with tons of young talent simply waiting for their number to be called.

Will Smith, the offensively gifted catcher who was promoted to AAA prior to the conclusion of the Minor League Regular season, could, if all the stars and planets align at the same time, make the big league club at some point during next season, however, he’s still a ways away.

Keibert Ruiz, currently holding his own as a recently turned 20-year-old the Arizona Fall League, has all the talent in the world and should be our long-term fix at catcher.

Unless something majorly unexpected happens next season, Ruiz is still probably a year away.

Lastly, Kyle Farmer could, maybe upon a torrid Spring, make the club next year and may even win the starting gig if moves are made to offload Yasmani and/or Barnes.

It’s not all gloom and grey, however, because if there’s one thing the Dodgers do have, it’s loads of young talent which will always play-up in MLB.

Until next year everyone. Go Blue!