Hello,
Sunday was the last game in the Dodgers-Rockies series, Colorado won the game 3-1. It was another low scoring game in the dispiriting and boring series. The combined final score of all 4 games was 7-7, fittingly the series ended with both teams winning 2 games each. This series was a stink bomb for the Dodgers after what had been an exciting few weeks. The sooner both teams put this series behind them the better.
The All-Star break starts on Monday and every team has to have at least one All-Star, I'm not sure who's representing LA. I'd prefer players like Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig and Carl Crawford to get rest than to be in the World Series. I'm much more interested in LA winning the World Series than the National League winning the All-Star Game. LA doesn't play again until Friday when they open a 3 game series against the struggling Washington Nationals.
Hopefully LA used the rest of Sunday and then Monday through Thursday to completely rest and get healthier. I hope that Puig gets as much rest as possible and gets back to as near as full health as is possible for this time of the season. I hope he learns how to take things a bit easier. I know this is a long shot but I'm hopeful that Crawford will use this time to rest and recover from his incredible assortment of injuries. I wonder how much longer until LA just puts Crawford on season ending DL, where he can join Chad Billingsley and Josh Beckett. I ask again is there something LA can do that's better than the oft injured Crawford? The All-Star break will give Kemp 4 more days of rest with him missing no games. Plenty of rest is a good thing for the lately oft injured Kemp. Is Crawford rubbing off on him?
After LA only had 14 hits over their last 3 games, it's a good time for all Dodger players to get a mental break. Again it seems that LA needs Puig in the lineup to score runs. Puig didn't start today's game, but he came in about a third of the way through the game. He was 1 for 3 and is hitting .386. On Puig's only hit, Adrian Gonzalez drove him in. Puig scored the only Dodgers run.
LA is 25th in MLB in runs scored, they been in the bottom third of MLB all season. It seems they can't move into the top 20. If the Dodgers could get to about #15 in runs scored I believe they would have a great chance to do well in the playoffs. They have a very solid starting pitching staff.
Hanley Ramirez was 0 for 3, but did walk once. He's hitting .386 and has a .444 on base percentage. Gonzalez is hitting .297. Gonzalez is not going to overwhelm anyone with his explosive numbers ever again. He's that constant veteran presence in the clubhouse who you know what you're getting from him every night.
LA ends the first half of the season at 47-47, in second place and are 2.5 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks. While this isn't what anyone expected with this Dodgers team after all the money that was spent on the roster, things could be much worse. LA and their fans should be very grateful that this team still has a 28.4% chance to reach the playoffs. In the topsy turvy NL West the Dodgers are still very much in the race to win the division. Of course so is Arizona, Colorado and the wily, veteran San Francisco Giants.
One of the things that holds the Dodgers back is how much dead weight they are carrying. The usual suspects Beckett, Crawford, Carlos Marmol, Ted Lilly and Brandon League. Even though Crawford still plays and sometimes even plays well, he's dead weight. If LA could dump him and his albatross of a contract they would. How much better could LA be if they didn't have to overcome the effects of the questionable 2012 trade with the Red Sox.
I realize that the Carlos Marmol signing has very little to do with him and is more about getting more money for the international draft. I still don't understand what that means exactly. But if it helps to get another Yasiel Puig then I'm all for it. Since LA traded for Marmol I haven't heard much. The latest I was able to find is that Marmol is in Albuquerque. Maybe when the rosters expand he'll come back to LA. However I think in the offseason LA will quietly let him go. I wish they could do the same with Beckett, Crawford, Lilly and League without ever having to pay any of them another undeserved cent.
Too bad that $20 million going to Lilly and League couldn't be spent elsewhere, like on a player who is both effective and healthy. I didn't know much about League when LA resigned him to a 3 year deal, but I remember at the time many baseball experts questioned the deal. I can see what they were talking about. At least the trade with the Red Sox is understandable as LA was taking a chance. I can't see any reason LA would resign League. Ned Coletti should've been tipped off by League's high school award. He was most likely to blow a save. In a series of many bad Dodger deals, the League 3 year contract extension could be Colleti's worst move by far. (Well maybe it's Andre Ethier's contract, he's getting close to being dead weight now.)
Go Dodgers!
themusicaddict
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