Like Yogi said, “If people want to stay away, you can’t stop 'em.”
Point is, a very large part of the baseball fan base in Florida came from somewhere else and brought their allegiances with them. It’s easy to go see your team when they come play the locals. The indigenous expansion teams need a few more generations to build much of a fan base of their own, and they can’t do it by losing. Either the Marlins and Rays put a consistent good product on the field over a number of years or things stay where they are.
The Marlins ballpark is pretty cool; pity it’s in a rough neighborhood. The Rays’ park is cool in a different way but it’s a long way out there. Neither problem can be fixed but both can be overcome.
Were just under 4 weeks from the end of the season, with most teams having about 24 or 25 games left to play.
There’s potential for some excitement in the Wild Card races, but barring a Boston 2011-style collapse by a leading team, most of the division races are pretty much sewn up. Only the AL East and the NL Central are likely to provide some tension.
In four divisions, the number one team has a lead of ten games or more. I just went back through the last ten seasons, and this is by far the largest number of 10+ games leads at this stage of the season. The most in any prior season was 2 divisions, and in quite a few seasons, there were no 10-game leads in early September.
Quick question that the Brandon Phillips trade to Anaheim made me think of:
Let’s suppose I’m the GM of a team. I get a trade offer for a player with a 10/5 NTC. Can I ask him to waive it and accept the trade, not saying that we hope to bring him back in the off-season, but to say, “I know that you want to finish your career here, so if you accept the trade, we will resign you once the season ends?”
Seems like it’d be a quick way to gain a prospect or two (even if they’re low-ceiling), but I’m not sure if it’d be collusion. It’s not tampering, since the player is currently under contact with my team. If I tell the player that I’m willing to overpay a little bit for the inconvenience, is there anything preventing me from guaranteeing that I’ll bring him back? It may be unethical, but is it against the rules?
On August 19th, amidst one of the most amazing runs by a baseball team in recent history, the Dodgers decided to tinker, to “improve.” They had no real compelling reason to do so, having been on fire for months. “Unstoppable”, they were called.
But tinker they did. They sent Joc Pederson, who was admittedly not hitting the ball at all, down to AAA to work out his swing. They signed Granderson to take his place. The result? As of August 19, we are 5-11. We have lost our last 9 out of 10. We can’t find a run to save our lives.
Look, I understand that the moves all make sense numbers-wise. I understand that Granderson has contributed 4 home runs since his arrival. I understand that Joc, despite his exceptional defense, was rarely coming through. I get it.
5-11
There are intangibles in baseball, little things that can disrupt chemistry, things that don’t always show up in the stats. If the team was flailing at the time, then sure, make some changes. But when you are losing on average once a week, you don’t tinker, you don’t disrupt. Not until there is a damn good reason to do so.
I doubt the changes came from Roberts. I suspect this is the handiwork of Andrew Friedman, who has shown much love for tinkering in the past. Either way, I think the magical team I was watching is gone now and it’s a damn shame. Overdramatic? Perhaps. Maybe we will find our mojo again soon, but I’m not seeing a hint of that at the moment. I’m watching us get worse before my very eyes, with every night out-sucking the night before.
Yeah, I’m not sure why teams want to tinker around when they are winning. For example, the Nationals had this thing where Teddy would never win the Presidents’ race. But then they changed it up and let him win. Now the Nats will *never *be playoff winners. You screw with tradition and you, in turn, ensure that you get screwed.
Jeez Louise, Dodger fans are some paranoid cats. No, you didn’t lose your mojo or chemistry with Joc freaking Pederson. In fact, Granderson is one of the best clubhouse guys in the game.
The Dodgers weren’t as good as their amazing run, and they’re not as bad as this slump. Just get everyone rested and healthy for October and you’ll have a better shot than most. The sky is definitely not falling.
Well, one of the best clubhouse guys in the game has 5 hits since we got him over two weeks ago. He’s doing an outstanding impression of Pederson. And I suspect you haven’t watched many of the games recently, because our mojo is rock bottom right now. It is glaringly bad and has been since August 19th.
Above all though, I remain hopeful that you are right and I’m wrong.
I tuned in to MLB.TV in the 7th, with Baltimore down 6-5, but hung around until the 9th to see Manny Machado crush a two-out, two-run walk-off homer to beat the Yankees 7-6.
Boston also walked off, in the 19th inning against Toronto, winning the longest game of the season.
People want to see winners. If you provide a winning team in a nice ballpark, they’ll come out as long as you don’t deliberately tank the following year.
Yeah, I know attendance is bad there, but, seriously, the team has spent a quarter century telling its fans to fuck off. WE won the World Series, we’re gonna tank. Look, now we’re serious, we got Carlos Delgado, oh no we traded him. “Fuck You” has been the message of this franchise since 1993, and new flash; that is not a winning strategy.
The Marlins are exactly the sort of team poised to be a champion. They have a young, talented lineup. There’s not a regular player older than 29, and the team salary is quite low. This isn’t a team to tear down; there is no problem with payroll. No one is overpaid. If you aren’t willing to move forward with this set of players, you are never, ever willing to move forward with any set of players.
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But tinker they did. They sent Joc Pederson, who was admittedly not hitting the ball at all, down to AAA to work out his swing. They signed Granderson to take his place. The result? As of August 19, we are 5-11. We have lost our last 9 out of 10. We can’t find a run to save our lives.
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Honestly this means nothing. Every team has a bad run, even great ones. If after a terrible run your club is 92-46, that’s not a good team, that’s an AWESOME team. If you’re gonna have a bad run, now is the time to do it. These games don’t count for much, since the division race is basically over, and the playoffs are four weeks away. 5-11 looks horrible but it’s precisely 3 wins from you didn’t even notice anything was wrong.
There is no “mojo” problem. The team is fine. They’re professional baseball players, still managed by the same man, and they still do their best whether it’s Joc Pederson or Curt Granderson out there. Everyone on the team would laugh at the notion the change is why they’re in a slump, and they’ll all be right.
The Giants saw two team records set last night, Joe Panik, with a 5-for-6 night picked up 12 hits in a 3 game series, best in team history. And Pablo Sandoval is now 0 for his last 38, breaking the streak set by Johnnie LeMaster in 1984.
And the Giants won 11-3, meaning that they’re still in the Wild Card chase!
