Love him or hate him he’s here to stay. The Dodgers announced that they’ve locked up manager Dave Roberts to a four year contract. They had previously picked up his option year for 2019, so this is essentially a three-year contract extension that will keep the skipper in Dodger blue through the 2022 season.
The Dodgers are the midst of another Andrew Friedman type winter where they’re “rumored” to be in on almost every player under the sun and nothing happens. But the rumors of Roberts getting a long term extension was one rumor I figured to be true. I admit that Roberts is not the greatest of tactiticians or strategists, his strengths lie elsewhere.
To me he seems like a natural leader, and able to control the clubhouse with a steady hand. Don Mattingly couldn’t do that, but all of the players uniformly love Roberts. He’s that kind of manager. Yes he made a ton of bonehead moves in the World Series, but here’s hoping he learned from those in both times the Dodgers have made the fall classic over the last two consecutive seasons.
His accomplishments are nice though. In the four seasons as manager Roberts had won four NL West division titles and guided the Dodgers to consecutive National League pennants. The Dodgers have also made three consecutive NLCS appearances as well. Roberts won the manager of the year in his first season at the helm in 2016.
Talk amongst yourselves about this. I’m sure there will be plenty of opinions on this. Here’s the Dodgers official press release below.
The Los Angeles Dodgers today announced that Dave Roberts has agreed to a four-year contract to manage club through 2022. The announcement was made by Dodger President, Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman.
“Keeping Doc as our leader on the field was a top priority this offseason and now that we’ve accomplished that we are excited to collectively shift all of our focus to doing all we can to bring a World Championship to our passionate fans,” said Friedman.
Roberts, 46, has piloted the Dodgers since 2016, leading the club to three consecutive National League West division titles and back-to-back NL pennants in 2017 and 2018. Following his first season managing the Dodgers in 2016, he was named the National League Manager of the Year and last year became the first Dodger skipper to lead the club to the World Series in consecutive seasons since Tommy Lasorda in 1977 and ’78. In 2017, the club won 104 games, tying the franchise record for victories in a season. Since joining Los Angeles, Roberts is 287-200 (.589) overall and his 287 wins are tied for the fourth most all-time among skippers in their first three full seasons. He is also the first Los Angeles Dodger manager to lead the club to the Postseason in each of his first three years.
“When I was hired to lead this team three years ago, I said at the time that managing the Dodgers is truly the opportunity of a lifetime and I feel the exact same way today,” said Roberts. “We’ve worked hard to develop a team and culture that will put us in position to win the World Series every season, but we still have yet to achieve our ultimate goal and that is what drives me each day. I want to thank Andrew, Stan Kasten and our outstanding ownership group for believing in me and keeping me in Dodger Blue, a uniform I’m so proud to wear.”
Roberts, who is of African-American and Japanese descent, became the Dodgers’ first-ever minority manager and the 10th manager in L.A. history on Nov. 23, 2015. He is the fourth L.A. Dodger manager to play and manage for the franchise, joining Tommy Lasorda, Bill Russell and Glenn Hoffman. As a player, Roberts was the Dodgers’ starting center fielder from 2002-04, but is best known for his dramatic steal of second base in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS for the Red Sox against the Yankees, which ignited Boston’s historic comeback from a 3-0 series deficit.
Roberts grew up in the San Diego area and graduated from UCLA, where he played baseball from 1991-94 and became the Bruins’ all-time stolen bases leader (109). He and his wife, Tricia live in Southern California with their son, Cole, and daughter, Emmerson.
Contract extension well deserved.
My only hope is that Roberts stop relying on ANAL-ytics so much, and stop doubting his players abilities. I’m sure when he was a player he wanted to play as much as possible, and never wanted his abilities to be guestioned by his Manager. If Roberts had any negatives, the one that really agrivates me the most is to assume his pitchers cannot pitch more than 99 pitches, cannot get a lefty or righty out, cannot pitch a complete game, or cannot finish a shutout or no-hitter, or his batters cannot hit righties or lefties, cannot bunt or sacrifice, or cannot steal bases.
I know it is a lot to ask of Roberts, who has to answer to his “helicopter” boss, Friedman. He needs to rely on his baseball instincts, not those horrid spreadsheets. Have the guts to defy his boss in critical situations, and use common sense. He does not have to go to Jansen in every single “save” situation.
Package is probably on his way to the intensive care ward after this news. Personally, I think Doc is a good manager of personality’s and like Scott said, pretty weak on strategy. I also think that the front office has way to much input as to who they want on the field. And they rely on their analytics. As a fan, I hope they keep winning, as an observer, I do not like most of what I am seeing. This is their big deal of the winter.
Pretty much concur on what ya said here as far as strategy and all. and the Dodger’s L-R-L-R approach to an obsession aggravates me as well. It appears we may be in for the same, but unfortunately, it doesn’t help this team when it matters most. If one is a LHB especially, he pretty much knows if he’s a member of this organization, he most likely won’t get much chances at all to show if he can handle LHP or not.
i guess we will not be champ for 4 more yrs..he make bad move all the time..good luck to you dodger fans.
Oh Shyte!
The FO got the guy who does what they want him to do. This isn’t going to work.
Roberts is a nice guy, such a nice guy, in fact why the FO hired him, they will get no pushback at all from Roberts. This seriously pisses me off.
Interesting thread from Kyle Boddy who runs Driveline, the baseball development company:
Most – if not all – MLB teams drastically underestimate just how far behind they are the Astros when it comes to a unified scouting and player development system, especially the latter with regards to investment.
It is staggering how far behind the median MLB team is.
The Dodgers are probably #2. They spend untold amounts on R&D staff and analysts, and yes, “computers.” This kind of spending is not subject to the salary “cap” and for some reason MLB teams haven’t yet figured out that they should divert payroll to these efforts.
Players asking for data to get them better and coaches not having it.
Players asking for data to get them better, getting it from an intern, and getting yelled at by a coach.
Coaches who think bat sensors measure launch angle.
Improperly calibrated Trackman units.
Best path forward: every player should have a plan from the org that details how they can contribute to MLB roster, no matter how small the chance is. When you tell your uncle, he says “duh, of course.” When you tell a baseball insider, they say “lol no chance.”
This makes such obvious, obvious sense to the average fan and you probably all assume it exists. Literally maybe 2-3 organizations have a plan like this and the rest have no fucking idea why anyone gets better.
Commitment to Mediocrity.
Tim Brown and Jeff Passan report on Harper:
https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-landing-lebron-magic-johnson-travels-dodgers-officials-court-bryce-harper-050324678.html
According to what I read this morning it is nothing more than doing their due diligence. At the end of the day, unless they trade a couple of outfielders they have and seriously decide that they will pop the tax, this means nothing. Magic also denied doing this. Until I see him in a Dodger uni at a press conference this crap is all smoke and mirrors.
Bringing the band back together. Ryu. Kershaw. Roberts. Oh shit. Josh Fields offered arbitration? Savior. Maybe Cingrani is the missing link? Lmao.
More firepower for finishing runner up again. The goal.