Baseball update September 5th and 6th, 2012, Bobby Valentine's Gone Crazy

Hello,

While I was watching the Cowboy's game last night, I was flipping back and forth between that and the Braves-Rockies game. It was good to see the Braves pull out that intense 1-0 victory. Mark Minor had a great game for the Braves. He only allowed 1 hit in 7 innings. It seems the Braves liked their 1-0 shutout victory so much that they had another one today. They again beat the Rockies 1-0. Those two victories create a little more room between them and the Cardinals in the NL Wild Card chase. Atlanta is now 3.5 games ahead of the Cardinals. St. Louis doesn't play today.

Meanwhile I knew the Dodgers were in trouble last night once they gave up that fourth run. Predictably enough they ended up losing 4-3. The offensively anemic Dodgers are a team of consistency. They seem to score 3 runs every game. After losing 2 of 3 to the below average Padres at Chavez Ravine, the Dodgers now go on the road to play NL West leading San Francisco. The same Giants who are 77-60 and have a 90.7% chance to make the playoffs. The same Giants that lead LA by 4.5 games. I don't think the Dodgers are going to make the playoffs anyway, but this weekend will probably ensure that.

Josh Beckett will be pitching for the Dodgers Friday night, heaven help us all. The Giants are playing without suspended Melky Cabrera for the rest of the season. Honestly I thought the Giants would be the team that was done. But if anything they seemed to have played better since his suspension.

The Pirates have been able to string together two straight victories, although they have only won 4 of their last 10 games. I'm on the record saying that I don't think they'll make the playoffs either. But it's good to see them playing relatively well this season. If they don't make the playoffs I hope they actually finish above .500. That would be another good solid step forward to the future.

I predict the two NL Wild Card teams will be the Braves and Cardinals. I expect the Braves to finish with the better record and be the home team in the one Wild Card playoff.

There are only 5 MLB games today. The one that is most interesting to me, besides the Braves game, is the Orioles-Yankees game. New York leads Baltimore by 1 game in the AL East and are in Baltimore for the start of a 4 game series. I'd love to see the Orioles win at least 3 games in this series and further continue New York's collapse. Since the Yankees and Red Sox are so intertwined, I suggest that either both make the playoffs or neither make the playoffs. And maybe that's what fate has in store.

I'm not sure why Red Sox brass allows Bobby Valentine to get in front of a microphone. When he has his press conference about getting fired, it would be good for him to get some help on how to present himself. The man is clueless when it comes to public relations, he has no idea how to present himself favorably. I'm all for keeping it real and saying what you think. But one can do that without coming off as an asshole. I've not heard one interview of Valentine's where he has come off favorably. Yesterday he had a complete and utter meltdown, which was bizarre even by his standards. This was just one of the insane things he said when Glenn Ordway asked him if he had checked out on this season.

“What an embarrassing thing to say. If I were there right now, I’d punch you right in the mouth. Ha, ha. How’s that sound? Is that like I checked out? What an embarrassing thing,” said Valentine. “Why would somebody even, that’s stuff that a comic strip person would write. If someone’s here, watching me go out at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, watching me put in the right relief pitchers to get a win, putting on a hit-and-run when it was necessary, talking to the guys after the game in the food room — how could someone in real life say that?”

I also loved how he explained about getting to the A's stadium late. He claims he picked up his son at the airport and ran into a traffic jam. He then showed up later than he usually does to the ballpark for a game.  And that due to a traffic jam, he wasn't late to the ballpark. Huh? So yes he was late, but he wasn't late? Valentine should have just explained his situation, which most people would understand. No, instead he got defensive and made up a really lame excuse. I've noticed when a person gets defensive that's usually an unconscious way of admitting they are wrong.

When I get defensive I basically stop thinking. I start thinking up excuses, and sometimes lies, while whatever happened wasn't my fault. Thankfully I was able to go see a counselor who explained how best to handle situations where I messed up. That's to own up to my mistake, apologize and see what I can do to make sure it doesn't happen again. People have reacted much more favorably to me since I implemented her advice. It has made my life a lot easier. Mainly because of this one common sense change I've been able to hold the same job for over two years and still going. Before I was averaging a new job about every year.

Bobby was defensive about something that he didn't need to be either. Just say he was picking up his kid and he had arranged everything with his coaches so the Red Sox would be fine.

His terrible interview comes the same time as the above cover. The Red Sox need to be careful who they hire as their next manager. With the way they treated Terry Francona, some of their terrible personnel moves they made and the hiring of Bobby Valentine they could be the next Dallas Cowboys. And in spite of their victory last night, the Cowboys have been a mess the last few years. At least John Henry is wise enough not to use any excuse to get on TV. There's also been no video of Henry having a relative cleaning his glasses for him.

themusicaddict

Dallas Cowboys Season Opener: Somehow The Cowboys Won

Hello,

Last night was kind of a weird night for me. My Dallas Cowboys played their season opener and I didn't get emotionally wrapped up in it. I didn't get either too high or too low. Based on their past chokes, and in spite of the score, I didn't expect Dallas to win. I kept on expecting Dallas to find some way to lose or New York finding some way to win. When the Giants cut the Cowboys lead from 24-10 to 24-17, I just thought it was just a matter of time until the Giants took the lead. I didn't feel completely secure until the Tony Romo to Kevin Ogletree completion with about two minutes left in the game. Was that big time completion between the two much maligned Cowboys players a sign for the future?

Dallas went on to win 24-17. Surprisingly the Cowboys are now 1-0 on the season. It was a great win, but needless to say I'm not rushing out to buy Super Bowl tickets yet. I still doubt how good the Cowboys and Tony Romo will be this season. Sorry I've had my heart broken by this core group of the Cowboys too many times. These Cowboys just aren't the Aikman/Smith/Irvan/Moose Cowboys of the past. If anything I think this win could be a prelude to yet another heartbreak.

I have hardly any athletic ability so I know very little about playing quarterback. However I'm a passionate Cowboys fan who has followed the Cowboys for as long as I can remember. My 16 year old son is named after Emmitt Smith. So yeah I'm a big Cowboys fan. It's just that I've had my heart broken by both the Cowboys and Romo too much. Please read the following with that in mind.

I understand the "never played the game" argument. However I still can recognize the difference between good and bad. I don't need someone that has "played the game" to tell me Tom Brady is good and that Tim Tebow sucks. I can see that very clearly. I'm not sure if I'll ever buy into Romo as a great quarterback, even if he wins a Super Bowl. Yes, even then I still don't know if I will. For hell's sake Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl. Does anyone that "played the game" suggest that Dilfer was a great quarterback? Eli Manning has won two Super Bowls, yet I still don't want him on my team. Jerry Jones has won three Super Bowls as Cowboys owner, but I wish that he would sell.

If I had to put money on it, I still think that Romo will meltdown in a crucial situation yet again. Sorry, I just have the memories of his choke against the Seahawks, his horrific pass against the Jets last season and even his ill advised pass to Jason Witten this preseason. The same pass Romo had no reason to throw, the result of which was Witten getting injured. Even though Witten played last night, I don't think that means he's 100% out of the woods. How about the time that Romo went on vacation in Mexico with Jessica Simpson after the Cowboys went 13-3. Then Dallas promptly went out and lost to the Giants at home! Or even the delay of game penalties called on the Cowboys last night. Another bad Romo decision is him wearing his hat backwards in the Sunday Night Football introductions. When is someone going to tell him how much of a d bag he looks like with his hat on backwards? I think that would be a good thing for his wife to tell him. Forgive me if I don't think all of Romo's bad decisions are in the past.

Driving to work this morning, I was listening to Colin Cowherd. He was praising Tony Romo, quoting many of his stats and he convinced me a bit more how good Romo is. But Cowherd doesn't watch the Cowboys with the eyes of a fan. He hasn't been constantly disappointed by Romo's too many ill timed miscues over the years. Romo had a great game last night undoubtedly. He completed 22 of 29 passes for 307 yards and 3 touchdowns. Yes, there's a but coming. He only threw one interception but it was a really bad interception. He hit Michael Boley perfectly with a pass. Thanks to Tyron Smith's superb effort, Boley was prevented from turning that interception into a pick six. But that was just such a bad Romoesque moment that many Cowboys fans have come to expect. Next time Tony, please just throw that ball away. But yes Tony Romo played a great game last night, no matter how hard that is for me to write it.

I'm still expecting Dez Bryant to make yet another bonehead move or the tissue thin Miles Austin to get injured and need to miss 6 games. The offensive line must get better, I believe they had 5 false start penalties last night. They also had a couple of delay of game penalties and came close to having a couple more delays. It did seem they got better as the game went on, of course it helps to have a mobile quarterback.

But that's enough negativity. It was a great victory for the Cowboys, no matter what else happens this season. I just hope it's not their peak. Positives from last night's game include Romo playing a complete game, his mobility was a great asset last night. He also minimized the mental errors, maybe the only one was the interception. Where the hell did Kevin Ogletree come from? Where has this performance been the first three seasons of his career? He caught 8 passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns. Did Jerry Jones pay someone to switch the minds of Victor Cruz and Ogletree? Cruz, the much hyped Giants receiver, had a very Ogletreeesque game last night. I can't believe how many passes Cruz dropped. Both DeMarco Murray and DeMarcus Ware had great games last night. Ware broke the 100 career sack mark, he now has 101.5. Murray rushed for over 130 yards and showed a knack for finding space to run.

Oh yeah, what about that revamped Cowboys secondary? They looked good. I think Brandon Carr is going to be a nice addition to the Cowboys. I didn't see too many of Morris Claiborne's plays. But as he pointed out after the game, if you don't hear a cornerback's name that's a good thing. Cowboys fans heard Terrance Newman's name way too many times last season. Welcome Brandon and Morris!

Finally a couple of notes. I'm so glad Martellus Bennett is no longer a Dallas Cowboy. He played like crap too much of the time and he acted a lot like he didn't care. Even after he caught that touchdown pass last night I was still glad he's no longer a Cowboy. Also can we please not show Jones anymore, he has to be the most annoying owner in the NFL. I did love the camera catching someone cleaning his glasses for him. I was wondering if that was a boy toy of Jerry Jones. According to The Big Lead, via sportressofblogitude.com, the glasses wiper was Jones son-in-law. Jones can't even clean his own glasses? That's such a Jerry Jones thing to do. If you want to watch the exciting video go to this website: http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/2012/09/05/jerry-jones-has-a-personal-glasses-cleaner/

I'm glad the Cowboys won last night, although I do have several reservations still. I would love to be proven wrong though. Go Cowboys!

Finally I thought the replacement officials did a pretty good job. They missed the one play where Orlando Scandrick mauled the Giants wide receiver. But at halftime Tony Dungy said the regular refs might have missed that penalty as well. I say the refs did well in spite of them calling 13 penalties on the Cowboys vs. only 4 on the Giants. But those penalties they were correct on. I thought they might have missed 1 or 2 delay of game penalties against the Cowboys also.

I also loved that the head replacement ref, sorry I couldn't find his name on-line, was a teacher from Boise. Just a regular guy on the huge NFL stage doing a good job. I bet he's the coolest teacher in his school today. And since he's just a working guy, he might have had to be back at his real job today.

themusicaddict

Dodgers, Braves Disappoint 9/4/12, How Will Dallas Do Tonight?

Hello,

Both the Dodgers and Braves lost last night, both lost at home and both teams gave up 6 runs in their respective games. The Dodgers continue their non-offensive explosion. Another disappointing offensive night, they only scored 3 runs. At least they are consistent. Over their last 10 games they have scored 33 runs, an average of 3.3 runs per game. They've only scored 6 runs or more once in those 10 games. With averaging so few runs, it's no surprise the Dodgers are only 4-6 in those 10 games.

Thanks to my friends at ESPN, I watched about the first 4 innings of that game. It was good to see all the Dodgers new players. It was also good to see Andre Ethier hit his 17th home run, he seems to be playing better of late. I hope he'll be able to live up to his contract eventually. Of all the players that the Dodgers have acquired recently, the one that seems to be playing best is Hanley Ramirez. He has 10 home runs as a Dodger. Adrian Gonzalez is still stuck at one home run, which he hit in his first Dodgers at bat.

Another good thing about last night's game is seeing the faces of Dodgers legends. People that were very important Dodgers as I was growing up. I'm speaking of Mr. Tommy Lasorda, sitting next to the money man Mark Walter. Then it's always good to see Davey Lopes, who currently is the Dodgers first base coach. He was an exciting player to watch. I remember one of the electrifying games he played in the World Series.

I'm not sure if the Braves were even aware they had a game yesterday, losing 6-0 to the below average Rockies. I'm probably being a little harsh. That's because Tommy Hanson pitched a decent game. The Braves offense did have 9 hits, but was unable to score any runs. The Braves are only 5-5 over their last 10 games. Other than 3 games against the Nationals, the Braves play a pretty wimpy schedule the rest of the way. It would be nice to see them rip off a 5 game winning streak.

About the only contending teams playing great over the last 10 games are the Orioles and A's. They've both risen to the challenge of a pennant race. Those teams are 8-2 and the Reds are 7-3 over their last 10 games. Even in the hotly contested AL East the teams aren't playing great, other than Baltimore. In the last 3 days Baltimore has gone from 3 games behind New York to being tied for first place. Keep it up Baltimore. Tampa Bay is only 5-5. Meanwhile the Yankees continue their complete collapse, only winning 3 of their last 10 games. (As for my Boston Red Sox, sigh, they finally won their first game on the West Coast road swing. They are now 1-7 on their 9 game road swing.)

I've kept on waiting for Baltimore and Washington to completely collapse all season long, but it doesn't look like either will.

I've probably beat the Cowboys ineptness to death in my blog. So all I'm going to say is to hope they play much better than they have the last couple of seasons. I hope that Tony Romo has finally learned how to play well in big games. And don't kid yourself, this is a big game. It's a division rival. It's also the first NFL game of the season. So a majority of all the NFL football fans will be watching, just to catch some football.

For those of you who are wondering, yes I'm working on a non-sports blog. Hopefully it will be out in the next couple of days.

themusicaddict

Braves and Dodgers Earn Big Labor Day Victories!

Hello,

Yes, I just recently wrote a blog about the Dodgers being done. Although the Dodgers last two wins have been exciting, ultimately I still think it's too little, too late.

The Braves and Dodgers had big wins last night, increasing both teams chances of making the playoffs. The Braves are probably in but the Dodgers need every win they can get. Atlanta went the easy route to get their victory. They took a 6-0 lead after 3 innings and coasted to the 6-1 victory. Atlanta sent the baby faced assassin, Kris Medlen, to the mound. He probably has been the hottest pitcher in MLB the last few weeks. Medlen had pitched 34 1/3 scoreless innings until that streak was broken last night. The Braves now have a little breathing room in the NL Wild Card chase. I know every Brave fan is waiting for the Braves to completely collapse like they did last season. But the Braves scoring 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th Sunday night against Jonathan Papelbon and last night's victory gives me hope. As a Braves fan it would be nice to actually see them do something in the playoffs too. Send Chipper Jones off into retirement with another World Series ring.

Meanwhile the Dodgers apparantally are craving excitement. They completed their second straight come from behind last inning comeback last night. Winning in the last inning two games in a row is certainly exciting, but an easy victory is also nice! Andre Ethier came through with a home run in the 9th inning to tie the game, then in the 11th inning he scored the winning run.

I'm still waiting for the Dodgers offense to finally explode. With their pitching still having some issues, LA's offense needs to score at least 5 runs a game. These two victories by the Dodgers hopefully will be enough to propel them to a nice winning streak. They have big series with the Cardinals and Giants coming up. I don't expect LA to ever catch the Giants, but I would love to see them qualify for the NL Wild Card.

The Dodgers-Padres game is one of two games on ESPN tonight, I hope to catch at least a couple of innings of that game. The first game on ESPN tonight is the Yankees-Rays game. I'm a big Red Sox fan,  by extension that means I'm a Yankees hater. I love that the Yankees have only won 4 of their last 13 games. Also their once 10 game AL East lead has slipped to only one game. They only lead Baltimore by one game in the AL East, the Rays only trail the Yankees by 2.5 games. First of all, who seriously thought that Baltimore would hang around this long? Second of all, I would love to see the Yankees be the team that collapses this season.

Meanwhile the Cubs continue to suck, the Pirates have lost 4 straight games and the Red Sox have lost 7 straight games.

Go Dodgers! Go Braves! Go Pirates! Wait till next year Chicago and Boston.

themusicaddict

Patton Oswalt is a "Big Fan", Another Bad Season for Dallas

Hello,

Thanks to Comcast On Demand's free movies, I watched "Big Fan" last night. The movie stars Patton Oswalt as obsessive New York Giants fan Paul Aufiero. This film blatantly mocks the obsessive sports fan. The 36 year old Aufiero still lives with his Mom and seems to have never moved out. His Mom still does his laundry which leads her to comment on some of his personal habits. Aufiero calls into sports radio constantly, has no real interests outside of the Giants and is just mostly drifting through life. He does have a job, but it's a dead end job. He doesn't have a girlfriend and rarely, if ever, dates. He acts like he has no interest in either. He can't even support his Giants the right way. He goes to Giants games with his loser friend, but they sit out in the parking lot. They watch those Giants games on TV in the Giants parking lot.

Again as you can tell this movie's main point is that obsessive sports fans are pathetic. From the above paragraph, you can see how "Big Fan" hammers home that point home over and over again. Oswalt doesn't even play Aufiero as sympathetic, but he's a complete loser. Aufiero loves his Giants so much that he makes really bad, self-defeating decisions. Even in prison he's more worried about the Giants upcoming schedule than he is about being in prison! Is Aufiero so obsessed that he actually has an undiagnosed mental illness?

Earlier he and his friend stumble across Aufiero's hero, Quantrell Bishop, at a gas station and follow him and his posse to a bar. Aufiero has Bishop's poster over his bed. They sit and stare at Bishop in this dimly lit bar for hours it seems. They also try to send him over a drink, which Bishop isn't interested in. They can't even send over a drink that Bishop will drink. As if they hadn't been humiliated enough, they stupidly go over to meet Aufiero's hero and bad things happen.

"Big Fan" made me feel like a bit like a loser. I'm a 45 year old Cowboys fan who lives with his Mom. However I'm nowhere as pathetic as Aufiero. For one thing, I do my own laundry. I also do my kids laundry when I visit I do their laundry. I had moved out of my Mom's house for a long time. I'm looking for a second job, in hopes of eventually moving out. It's embarrassing to be living at home at my age. I also am very interested in women. Sarcasm alert: For some reason, women aren't real impressed by a man who lives with his Mom. The fact that I live with my Mom is because of the high cost of divorce and how expensive raising kids is. I still love my Cowboys, although they like to make it a challenge, but I'm definitely not obsessed with them. In fact, I'm more disgusted with the Cowboys now than anything.

Speaking of which I predict the Cowboys will lose to the Giants tomorrow night. Yes, the NFL regular season starts tomorrow with the Cowboys visiting the Giants. Dallas has won 1 of their last 6 games against the Giants. How do I expect the Cowboys to handle playing against the Super Bowl defending champs? I predict Dallas will lose by at least two touchdowns. I predict right at the worst possible time  that Tony Romo will choke yet again. (Is it still a prediction if it happens nearly every time?) I know I won't be calling into any sports radio stations after the game. The Cowboys made some nice additions in the offseason, especially at cornerback. However until they get Jerry Jones to go emeritus status or they get a truly quality quarterback, this team will be lucky to be average. Being average is the NFL's version of no man's land. I predict the Cowboys won't be making the playoffs this season..

But you got to love Cowboys fans, we're a hardy and delusional bunch. On an espn.com poll 17% of the people voting still think that the Cowboys are a Super Bowl contender. I can guarantee that nearly 100% of that 17% are Cowboys fans. I love that they think a team that has only went to the playoffs once in the last 4 seasons will all of a sudden rise up and be a Super Bowl contender. Mediocre and greatness are very far away from each other. Green Bay won 15 regular season games last season and they didn't make the Super Bowl!

I would love to be proved wrong and I'll be cheering on the Cowboys tomorrow night. However I'm not expecting a victory tomorrow night or any more than 8 wins this season.

themusicaddict

I Love MLB's Pennant Races! (Go Braves), The Red Sox's Demise

Hello,

With less than 30 games remaining this season, MLB's pennant races continue to heat up. Sadly for the most part my teams continue to melt down. Boston has gone on the road and have been completely embarrassed. They've been swept by both the Angels and then the A's. In those 6 games they were out scored by a tally of 54-15. Of course, that includes Oakland's blasting of Boston 20-2 in one of those games. Boston is in Seattle today, starting a 3 game series against the even worse than them Mariners. In keeping with the tenor of this road trip, Boston is down 4-1 in the 6th inning.

Red Sox owner John Henry is also in Seattle, he says he's on a fact finding mission. He can't figure out what he needs to know from the standings and how the Red Sox have completely fallen apart these last few days? What else does he need to know? This current Boston team has a manager ill suited to the fans of Boston and the Red Sox organization. This team needs to be much smarter in who they sign as managers and players going forward. (I wonder how much regret Henry has that he couldn't get Billy Beane to sign with the Red Sox all those years ago. Although Theo did a pretty good job.)

In reading through the Sports Illustrated MLB preview last night, they have something called the Payoff Pitch. This is basically the best case/ worst case scenario for each MLB team for this season. SI's best case scenario for Boston, which now seems laughable, is that Boston would win the World Series. They were spot on with their worst case scenario for the Red Sox. I wonder if they are surprised with how prophetic they were. This is what SI wrote: "Last year's clubhouse problems carry over. The offense scores plenty, but the rotation struggles again. Valentine quickly wears out his welcome, and the Red Sox are out of the postseason for a third straight year."

When the season review is written for this lost season, SI's prophetic comments should be copy and pasted to it's tombstone. The silver lining in the black cloud for the Red Sox, at least they have no chance of a meaningful late season collapse.

With today being Labor Day, there are basically MLB games all day. Pittsburgh has already played today, they lost at home to the terrible Astros 5-1. Pittsburgh has lost 4 games in a row and 7 of 10. According to espn.com they just barely have over a 20% chance of making this season's playoffs. But with the way they've been playing lately, that seems overly optimistic.

Another one of my teams is the Cubs, who are clearly in rebuilding mode. That Alfonso Soriono signing that looked so good a few years ago, doesn't look so great now. My fourth team is the Dodgers, who seem to be waking up from their late season slumber. I was surprised that they were able to come from behind to beat the Diamondbacks last night. Honestly it's probably too little, too late for them though. Sarcasm alert: it was nice that the Dodgers very expensive offense was able to explode for 5 whole runs! And it was nice to see Gonzalez finally get a big hit. Gonzalez is now 7 for 37 in his Dodgers career, hitting a non sizzling .189.

Out of my 5 teams, the only team that I think has a realistic chance of making the playoffs is the Atlanta Braves, however I'm very worried about them possibly collapsing again like they did last season. It's a good sign that the Braves were able to come back from 5 runs down in the bottom of the 9th inning last night. Especially as it was against hard throwing Jonathan Papelbon. 40 year old Chipper Jones, who seems to be drinking from the fountain of youth, continues his amazing final season. He had that 3 run walk off home run last night. The Braves won earlier today, beating the terrible Rockies 6-1. Chipper Jones earned the day off. The Braves will never catch the Nationals, who lead them by 6.5 games, but it's good to see Atlanta has built a bit of a cushion in the NL Wild Card.

Atlanta now has a 92.6% chance to make the playoffs and I'm fairly confident they actually will. Of course all that gets them is a one game playoff with probably the Cardinals or the Dodgers to advance to the divisional series. What might decide who earns that second wild card spot is the Dodgers-Cardinals series in LA September 13th to September 16th. It seems possible that the September 16th game could be ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball game. It's time for all recently high paid Dodgers additions to finally earn all the money they are making.

themusicaddict

Put A Fork In the Dodgers, They're Done.

Hello,

I've been a Los Angeles Dodgers fan for as long as I can remember. My favorite player growing up was Steve Garvey. I remember that amazing infield that was so good and together for so many years. Those players being Garvey, Bill Russell, Davy Lopes and Ron Cey (The Penguin). I remember afro'd Reggie Smith and Dusty Baker playing in the outfield. I remember the intensity of Fernando mania. (Who knows how big that would have been in the modern social media era?) And who can forget all the great Dodgers pitchers I grew up with, Orel Hershiser, Don Sutton, Bob Welch, Jerry Reuss and others.

And who can forget Tommy Lasorda guiding all those great Dodgers teams? Of course I had mostly "grown up" my most memorable Dodgers moment happened. That of course is Kirk Gibson's improbable home run off of Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

Now let's fast forward 24 years later. Orel Hershiser is working for ESPN, Davey Lopes is back as a Dodgers coach and Kirk Gibson is managing for the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks are in town this week to face the Dodgers. And the Dodgers are being managed by a former Yankee? A lot can change in 24 years.

And I'm not sure what it is, but since the Dodgers made the big 9 player/ Adrian Gonzalez they've seemed to be worse. Since that trade, the Dodgers are 2-5. Even more concerning is how few runs they've scored. They've only scored 21 runs in their last 7 games. But take away the 10 run explosion they had against Colorado, it would only be 11 runs in 6 games. That's less than 2 runs per games, it's not like they are playing the elite teams in the NL either. They've had that 2-5 record against the below .500 Rockies and Diamondbacks. And starting tomorrow they play another below .500 NL West team, the Padres, who they haven't played very well against either. What are they going to do this weekend when they travel to San Francisco to play the NL West leading Giants?

According to espn.com the Dodgers only have a 26.1% chance of making the playoffs at this point. For the Dodgers to remain relevant they probably need to win their next 4 games against mediocre teams. Then they need to take at least 2 of 3 against San Francisco this upcoming weekend. Realistically do I expect this light hitting, ineffective pitching team to win 6 of 7. No, I'd be happy if they won 4 of the games.

In other words put a fork in the Dodgers, they are done. It's time they start preparing for the future. I wish they would have kept Hiroki Kuroda. He didn't have the greatest record, but he did what he could with not having much offense by him. I was sad when Kuroda signed with the Yankees in the off season. Kuroda leads the Yankees with a .304 ERA. This Dodgers team would be so much better if he was one of their starting pitchers. The Dodgers need to add at least one more quality pitcher this off season and find a way to make their current players gel. This Red Sox model of getting a bunch of great players that don't necessarily gel isn't a strategy that works that well. This current Dodgers lineup needs a Kirk Gibson like player to fire them up.

Worse case scenario, the Dodgers are no longer owned by the reality TV drama duo, the McCourts. So even if they don't make the playoffs, they're future looks so much brighter.

themusicaddict