Troubling trends from last year

[duke1861]

As Smed said, its early.....very, very early.

However, three things that seem to have carried over from last year at this point that bother me.

1. Not hitting with RISP.
2. Bullpen performance
3. Beating the bad teams, losing to the good teams.

The bullpen is just inexcusable. With the most payroll in the game and we continually have a bad bullpen. I am getting used to it at this point. With 6 GMs, somebody in that front officer has to have a brain and realize that this pen has not and cannot get the job done.

Its early, but you can clearly tell that not much has changed.

 

[duke1861]

Eric Stephen ?@truebluela 2m2 minutes ago

Dodgers starters have allowed 14 runs in 49 1/3 IP this season.

Dodgers relievers have allowed 16 runs in 21 2/3 IP

 

[Villain]

Dodgers relievers have allowed 16 runs in 21 2/3 IP

Since this post the Dodger bullpen has thrown 6 scoreless innings with 1 hit and 1 walk.

Troubling trend, indeed.

 

[LASports96]

Dodgers bullpen currently 12 consecutive scoreless innings

 

[Villain]

Dodgers bullpen currently 12 consecutive scoreless innings

This is a very troubling trend.

 

[Villain]

[double post]

 

[Villain]

Spoiler

 

[Villain]

@duke1861 Why would you dislike a positive stat about the Dodgers? Because you're wrong?

 

[Villain]

I think duke is waiting for the bullpen to have another bad game before he posts in this thread again.

 

[lasportzphan]

My apprehension lies with the bats. If the team does not hit, they will not succeed. The other pieces are sufficient.

 

[Smed55]

I agree lasp! Even with the bullpen sucking so far, I think they will be ok. The hitting, I'm not so sure about? I think we have the potential to be a decent offense, but I'm not liking what I've seen so far!

 

[duke1861]

I think duke is waiting for the bullpen to have another bad game before he posts in this thread again.

Is it your goal in life to troll message boards and harass people? If you disagree with people, leave it alone. You literally sit on these boards all day hitting the refresh button to see who you can antagonize for the day. Pretty sad!

While the pen has been better, it is still a weakness on this team. If you don't like my opinion then leave.

I have never seen a more attention starved person on an internet board in my life. Lets just agree to "block" each other and be done with it. I am tired of arguing with you.

 

[Villain]

Is it your goal in life to troll message boards and harass people? If you disagree with people, leave it alone. You literally sit on these boards all day hitting the refresh button to see who you can antagonize for the day. Pretty sad!

While the pen has been better, it is still a weakness on this team. If you don't like my opinion then leave.

I have never seen a more attention starved person on an internet board in my life. Lets just agree to "block" each other and be done with it. I am tired of arguing with you.

My goal on this board is to discuss baseball. There are plenty of thicker-skinned members on this board - even fans of other teams - that I get along with better than you. These are often members who I very strongly disagree with at times. We can argue and poke fun and call names. We're "adults" (LOL) talking about a game on TV. You take yourself way too seriously.

I haven't been singling you out, you've just been making yourself a target by saying outlandish things that I disagree with.

Look at the posting history between me and @lasportzphan - I don't think I've had debates with anyone on this site more than I have with him. But, if you look more recently, we've seemingly been on the same page so we haven't gone toe to toe. If I were the troll you said I was, I would've found some nitpicky thing he mentioned and blown it into a hailstorm of senseless strawman debates.

Your recent posts have all been about what the Dodgers do wrong and what needs to get fixed and yadda yadda yadda. Well, ironically given my argumentativeness, I try to be positive about the Dodgers and the Front Office so if there's a positive light to be shined on an under-performing player, I like to focus on that. You're a negative Nancy, you can't look at empirical evidence without inserting your own bias (or ignoring it outright), and you follow tired narratives a la Bill Plaschke (I can't stand that guy).

I'm going to keep posting here. I'm going to keep rooting for the best out of the Dodgers' moves. And I'm gonna keep arguing with posters whom I disagree with.

Look at the irony. You're making a thread that is putting forward a non-existent narrative (Hatcher sucks!), you're asking rhetorical questions that have real answers (Why is Hatcher around?), and then you're crying foul when I bring up any points that contradict you.

The Dodgers bullpen has been pitching very well for the last week or so (yes, that's a small sample, just like the small sample that you used to start this thread), and you're clicking "bullshit" on all the posts of mine because why? Because I disagree? Because I wasn't polite when I said you were wrong? Because you want the bullpen to fail so you can be right and I can be wrong?

"If you don't like my opinion then leave." <---That's what you said.

How childish can you be? Who's the one that's really trolling here?

You accused me of being a Giants fan for Christ's sake! Why? Because I can discuss baseball with fans of our #1 rival? Isn't that proof that I'm not on here to troll? Guess what, some of them are dumber than you! Some of them are funny as hell. Some of them are silly girls who can't count. It doesn't matter. We're talking about a game. I'd rather go out for beer and baseball with a funny and friendly Giants fan than a bitchy, chicken-little Dodgers fan.

Anyways, I'm not going to block you. I think there's hope for you, yet. If you want to block me, then please do. It's a free country. But please, if you're going to disagree with me, try not to get your panties in a bunch every time I say something you disagree with.

 

[duke1861]

Goodbye Hatcher....

Please front office, end the experiment now.

 

[lasportzphan]

Villian is an extremely optimistic fan that tends to provide the benefit of the doubt if it fulfills his narrative. Having said that, we are all guilty of the latter.

When Hatcher implodes, duke posts. When the bullpen is performing, we hear nothing.

I'm a bit of a pessimist in that I do not believe this team can hit. Come playoff time, they can shorten up the rotation and the 'pen to be very competitive (if they make the playoffs). However, this team continually failed to hit well in the playoffs and often survived on solid pitching throughout the season.

Villian know his stuff and understands that it's April.

 

[Villain]

Villian is an extremely optimistic fan that tends to provide the benefit of the doubt if it fulfills his narrative. Having said that, we are all guilty of the latter.

When Hatcher implodes, duke posts. When the bullpen is performing, we hear nothing.

I'm a bit of a pessimist in that I do not believe this team can hit. Come playoff time, they can shorten up the rotation and the 'pen to be very competitive (if they make the playoffs). However, this team continually failed to hit well in the playoffs and often survived on solid pitching throughout the season.

Villian know his stuff and understands that it's April.

I.... uh.... I agree with everything you said.

And I don't deny that I have my own narratives. My #1 narrative this season is that the bullpen is underrated.

Things that worry me:

-The offense - lots of if's in the lineup. Joc Pederson keeping it up, Grandal living up to hype, Gonzalez, Utley, Kendrick not getting younger, Puig living up to hype. If it all clicks, that offense is a murderer's row. If it doesn't, well, the team has lost 5 in a row...

-The rotation - Wood will get better, Stripling will get worse, Maeda will get worse, etc. How will Hyun-Jin Ryu be? Brandon McCarthy? Is Urias going to get rushed to the bigs in desperation? Which Kazmir do we have? Is this notion of more depth with less star power at the top going to work?

So yeah, I'm worried and I recognize the potential for failure, but I'm not one to beat the end-of-the-world drum. I like to think that I understand the rationale behind the way this roster was constructed and, in my amateur way, I agree with it and support it. This front office hasn't been perfect in every move, but I like the thinking behind their moves and the direction that they're pointing. Therefore, I'm happy to see the brighter side of things and I have convinced myself that there are logical reasons to be optimistic.

If I was a fan of the Diamondbacks I'd be shitting my pants because their front office is ridiculous. I don't know if I could stomach watching it.

 

[duke1861]

Villian is an extremely optimistic fan that tends to provide the benefit of the doubt if it fulfills his narrative. Having said that, we are all guilty of the latter.

When Hatcher implodes, duke posts. When the bullpen is performing, we hear nothing.

I'm a bit of a pessimist in that I do not believe this team can hit. Come playoff time, they can shorten up the rotation and the 'pen to be very competitive (if they make the playoffs). However, this team continually failed to hit well in the playoffs and often survived on solid pitching throughout the season.

Villian know his stuff and understands that it's April.

Thats why I said there is a trend of us not hitting with RISP. It continues.

While we failed to upgrade the pen, I don't believe every pitcher in the pen is awful. I just get tired of the Hatcher apologists who are fascinated with his fastball. He has literally been linked to 5 of our 12 losses and cannot be counted on. I can see he has potential but he is costing us games. Either have him figure it out again in AAA or lets please move on.

 

[OutlawImmortal]

I've noticed that you are no longer on the Blanton hate bandwagon. Guess an ERA under 1 will do that.

 

[lasportzphan]

I've noticed that you are no longer on the Blanton hate bandwagon. Guess an ERA under 1 will do that.

Blimpy really trimmed down. If he can chew up innings, great signing.

 

[Villain]

I'm a bit of a pessimist in that I do not believe this team can hit. Come playoff time, they can shorten up the rotation and the 'pen to be very competitive (if they make the playoffs). However, this team continually failed to hit well in the playoffs and often survived on solid pitching throughout the season.

Dodgers Digest / Dodgers’ offensive struggles tied to lack of homers, launch angle