The Dodger’s front office may be incompetent, the coaching staff useless and the manager clueless, but the players are really 100% at fault for the club’s season long malaise. They keep making terrible baseball decisions during games when the Dodgers need them to make smarter choices. Case in point was Adrian Gonzalez’s infuriating bunt attempt during the top of the ninth inning of the Dodger’s 2-1 loss to the Giants on Sunday night baseball. That play was so stupid it made my head hurt.
In the top of the ninth inning with the Dodgers trailing the Giants 2-1 Gonzalez led off the frame. With him being one of their few legitimate offensive threats it was imperative that he doesn’t waste his at-bat. Instead he did just that.
Shockingly with the Giant’s infield excessively shifted over to the right side of the infield, Gonzalez tried to bunt to beat the shift. Of course the bunt was poorly placed and he was easily thrown out. Gonzo homered on Saturday night. One swing of his bat could tie the game. With the Dodger’s season sinking like a stone and the offense one of the worst we’ve seen in years wasting a precious out is as foolish as believing in small market mentality in Los Angeles.
We saw Gonzo do this in spring training games, but I don’t think anyone thought he would actually try this in games that counted. It’s one thing to practice it during exhibition games but doing it in a crucial rubber game against your hated rival that you’re chasing in the standings is very dumb.
When asked about it Gonzo said that he had trouble elevating the ball against left handed specialist Javier Lopez and was trying to beat the shift. Ok so you tried it, it failed big surprise, but he wouldn’t be so naïve as to try it again right? RIGHT????
Gonzalez said he bunted vs shift because he has a hard time elevating ball vs Lopez. He said he'd try it again. https://t.co/xWJhzUtV4J
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) June 13, 2016
Oh dear lord.
Adrian Gonzalez, veteran bunter. Maybe Gonzo should stop thinking so much.
Well, that SF series is over. Last thread Mark said we were hitting .232 as a team?? Yikes that’s bad!!!
Tonight battle of aces: Greinke vs Bolsinger. Somehow I don’t see our .232 average going up tonight. Bols better be on!
Let me use one of Mark’s favorite words: stupid.
What is stupid is . . .
The Dodgers have the biggest payroll in the majors, and one of the worst teams. How can this be? Sure, I know, The Trade. But that could have been fix last season.
Last season Turner looked like a great find. This season, his balloon went up. Not what he was last season. He is only part of the problem.
That trade has absolutely nothing to do with where the Dodgers are. To continue to allude to that allows whoever is doing it to completely miss the point. Crawford is gone and the team is just as worse as it was before he left. Carl Crawford is not what is wrong with this team. Neither was Guerrero. The reasons we are currently hovering around .500 have been hashed and rehashed since the deadline last year. If Maeda and Kazmir hold up for the entire year and if all the veterans currently under producing return th their mean, and if Ryu, McCarthy and Montas can contribute …… a lot of if’s, I think the team can indeed compete in the West. We still have the best pitcher in baseball, and that is a good place to start. But honestly, even if all our guys, and it will take ALL our guys, do return at 100%, do any of us really believe they are the best team in baseball? I don’t see it. I see them at best #4 in the NL, (more like #5) and maybe not even in the top 10 in MLB. Current power rankings have them 11th. That’s fair. Too much needs to be done with this club. Too much needs to suddenly go right. What has been done hasn’t really worked, that’s obvious, but I still maintain trading any of our top 10 prospects for a run at it this year is faulty logic.
We pay for that Bugatti that was mentioned, but we are driving a Chevy. And it ain’t a Corvette. It’s more like a Suburban. A vanilla colored Suburban. A 10 year old vanilla colored Suburban. With a weak drivetrain and flat tires.
Greinke vs Bolsinger. Who you got?
I’ll take Bolsinger and ten…
Five game lead is not enough, the Giants are trying to get better.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/06/giants-ryan-braun-trade-rumor-brewers.html
Personally, I don’t like Braun and would not be totally happy if the Dodgers traded for him. I would like to see them get Lucroy because AJ is absolutely finished and the count is still out on Grandal and Barnes. I have little hope for Barnes. AJ is from the Milwaukee area so there might be some interest in Milwaukee in picking him up.
Don’t see the Dodgers or Giants trading for Ryan Braun.
I can see the Giants possibly making a block buster deal with the Yankees for Miller (or Chapman) and Carlos Beltran. Possibly trading Christian Arroyo, Tyler Beede and Mac Williamson to make it happen.
Thanks for the link, Wondering. Few thoughts:
1) Braun defensively would be bad in that big outfield, but his bat would fit really nicely around Pence and Posey. Definitely would lengthen that lineup.
2) He’s owed a lot of money thru 2020; could SF afford that with their other big deals? Maybe Mil pays some of it down and SF sends better prospects.
3) We’ hate him even more then we do now, haha!
4) We ourselves need a big impact bat; ala Puig 2013. Good lord if Puig and Turner would wake up, we’d be more than just fine!
5) Montas and DeLeon hopefully are close to being called up. McCarthy and Ryu may be ready in July
6) No word about Alex Wood? Is he likely gone for the year?
‘If Puig and Turner would wake up….’
They are who they are. Turner has no track record of performing well as an everyday starter so banking on that is a very risky move, hence why someone like Frazier made a lot of sense. Puig has no track record of performing at a high level for any length of time. Referencing his 2013 performance re-emphasizes the fact that the league has figured him out after his first couple of months, hence his performance over the past 2+ years is more indicative of what to expect.
Well, in hindsight Frazier might be better than Turner, but he’s in a bad slump right now: his average is down to .211 and it’s not much better with runners in scoring position. Of course, even adjusting his home-run totals downward for Dodger Stadium, he would still be on a pace to hit 30, but we would not have Thompson or Montas.
Puig was hitting in the first half of the 2014 season before a mega-slump and since then he’s gotten hot for a month here and there between hamstring injuries. I think it was a mistake to bet on both he and Joc having big years, but what do I know?
Good points. Thompson has been a good find….so far. I’m not buying Montas just yet as the knock on him is throwing strikes. And we all know the MLB strike zone is different than in the minors.
I know you can quote the book on what is a strike but I defy you to define a strike from any given umpire on any given day. I don’t know why players put up with it….