Dodgers ruin baseball | Baseball Prospectus

Transduce Por Fernando Battaglini

Before the start of the season we come across several to ask y Opinions Centered that when the Dodgers ruined baseball. The question was never very reasonable, but it came out again and again, because after his victory in the World Series the club did what was considered a wave of free agents in these slow winners of the rhythm. They have signed new contracts with Blake Snell” Tanner Scott” Kirby Yates” Michael ComfortEnrique Hernández, Clayton Kershaw” Roki Sasaki And Teoscar Hernández. If that is not convincing at the moment, baseball always punishes arrogance. And that is why the team can ruin that baseball to the worst full season since 2012.

The team that started the season with the appearance of the Monstars, if you don’t remember, is the monster team in the film SpacecraftHe has lost all his talent. Clearly, Shohei Ohtani It will probably win a new prize for the most valuable player, but the disease of Mookie Betts At the start of the season it seems to have long influenced the bat, Max Muncy long periods have been lost, and Tommy EdmanImportant piece of the late season, a large part of the season is absent or limited. Maybe Michael Comfort is one energy campier?

But every repetition of this series of more than a decade has had to deal with important injuries (the team is built to resist them) and, to varying degrees, with low performance. It is not difficult to remember how much freedom the club gave Craig Kimbrel In 2022, before it was finally left out of the NASISASENSENBENLOON. And if everyone who follows me on social networks, they used repeatedly Joe Kelly. That is why the constant presence of comfort in the alignment and continuous use of Tanner Scott in pressure situations is not exactly a surprise.

The difference between this season and that of Kimbre is that the Dodgers had sufficient advantage within the division, so that every experiment they wanted to perform during the season was in principle irrelevant. That is what can be done without causing problems when 111 games are won and the season ends with 22 discount races at the nearest competitor. It is less attractive when you place Scott in two consecutive games, with the bases full and a single race above, in the middle of a series of four losses and in full division competition … while you try to save what 8 and ⅔ entries from a game without hits were. [Actualización: Dave Roberts recurrió a Scott (y Blake Treinen) en las últimas etapas de otro juego sin hits el lunes por la noche, solo dos juegos después].

But it is the similarities that cause the biggest problem. In both situations, Roberts and Dodgers just don’t seem to care too much. It is clear that his preference is to win; Do not explain what they have only spent to win in the late season, but also to be good enough to sell many tickets and advertisements throughout the season. Maybe a lifelong -falling young children from sports, like a little pleasure extra. But we know, through the search for Ohtani by the team, who do not consider a successful division title without a World Series, while they will certainly consider a World Series without a division title as a championship with one.

There is nothing strictly bad when prioritizing a World Series; It is where the competition and its culture have come, hand in hand. But the impact of adopting the broadest possible perspective at any time is unquestionably in a watered product in the field, as we have seen with the competition in general. It is indisputable that Tanner Scott was the best, or even a good option for Dodgers in that Saturday game, given the conditions: a game of a race, with the entire bases and a well -produced Slagman who is about to be in the box, and not to mention the benefit of the small division that the Dodgers currently maintained. But Roberts is happy to help players with difficulties to restore rhythm and restore trust. That was his motivation to resort to Scott, to rectify him for when things really matter. And it is the same logic behind the refuge of Scott in Monday’s game, as soon as he fails in a similar situation.

And that kind of thought can be logical. The competition has devalued to win the division, especially if you are not classified between the first two. The Dodgers probably see the benefits of the third classified winner of the division compared to the fourth classified as the first wildcard and … they clean his shoulders. Anyway, it is the advantage of a local in the Commodines round, so why do you press? And that is exactly the problem. Stimulings, as is known, are not mandates, so this is not exclusively on the competition. Roberts and Dodgers also have part of this. His insistence on a sort of long -term utilitarian vision in the pursuit of a championship has become a disadvantage of the product in the field, and perhaps crucial, of the results in the field. The product can be influenced when the results are there (see: Kimbre, Craig), but when both are diluted, it becomes a big problem. However, the club is at least a symptom and a cause. If the teams show a minimal interest for the regular season and its consequences, it threatens the entire project.

The insatiable wish of the competition for obtaining guaranteed profit in the late season is clear, thanks to the indifference of the Dodgers to something other than the same late season. We wonder how long the rest of the competition takes to follow the same approach, only with less excessive costs. And when the MLB teams follow the example of Los Angeles, they wonder what the regular baseball season will make. After all, the NBA has been dealing with this problem for years with the pretext of load management. Basketball has no solution for the stimuli that motivate the teams – and baseball would not have it – what the competition has made to make Complex rules So that your regular season is visible. The difficulty remains. Why would we attend the matches of the regular season or subscribe to ever -expensive packages to see them? Why not coordinate when the eliminatory competitions arrive? That’s what it’s all about, right?