Having gone into the 2016 season with a new boss, in the form of Dave Roberts, it proved to be a decent season for the LA Dodgers. Hampered by an injury crisis, they still managed to win the National League West division championship for a fourth successive year, before falling to the Cubs during the National League Championship Series. They will be hoping to build on this in 2017, but how is the current season shaping up for the Dodgers?
Having started the new season with an encouraging opening series win against the San Diego Padres – which concluded with an emphatic 10-2 victory in the final match, the Dodgers then suffered a couple of disappointing defeats in their next couple of fixtures versus the Colorado Rockies and the Chicago Cubs.
Of course, losing to the latter side is not necessarily anything to be ashamed of, as the Cubs are the current World Series champs, but it still showcased weaknesses that fans will have hoped might have been addressed during the period between the end of the last season and the start of this one.
Before the season got underway, both the bookmakers and the pundits had the Dodgers as firm favorites to win the National League West for the fifth time in a row and they appear well on course to live up to that at the moment – sitting on top of the division, albeit at an early stage of the season.
It was also predicted that Yasiel Puig would emerge as a star player for the team this season and, so far he has been living up to that billing. Having experienced an underwhelming last couple of seasons after first signing for the Dodgers, Puig has been far more consistently effective at right field this time around – including playing a key role in that thumping win over the Padres, where he provided two home runs. He now has 16 home runs in his last 84 games for the Dodgers, with an average of .251/.324/.453 – making him an important part of the bright start the team has enjoyed.
He is not the only one in being a standout, as this has proven to be a breakthrough season for Alex Wood. When it comes to whether the Dodgers can go further in the National League playoffs, it will be down to whether regular season star performers like Clayton Kershaw can finally replicate that form in post-season.
Certainly their loyal fans will be betting on both of these things happening and gambling on that baseball is something many fans like to do to add a bit of extra spice to proceedings. However, there are also MLB baseball themed slot games on offer at online casinos, such as Hot Shot, that can provide a fun alternative to this and according to the Gambling Insider’s reviews of online casinos operating in Canada they are widely available wherever you are.
You could have the chance of winning the Hot Shot jackpot and picking the winner of the World Series this year, which would leave you almost as rich as an MLB star.
I guess I’m some kind of hard head, that post didn’t do a thing for me. I prefer our own in-house writers, they’re better….
The NL should adopt the DH.
Better yet, both teams adopt a 4 man Taxi Squad for each team, the 4 players are activated as needed to replace players on the main roster, who are then on the Taxi Squad until again needed. Smart way to handle it would be to have your starting pitchers on the squad, and activated in turn as needed. Four additional players could be added to the main squad, say two relief pitchers and two pinch hitters, or maybe a third catcher. Make the games more exciting. The four players added would all likely be minimum salary players.
How is that different than expanding the gameday roster by 4 spots?
Would time spent on the taxi squad count against your arbitration years? Would you be paid MLB salary or Minor League salary? Would they have to be on the 40 man roster? What’s the difference between the “taxi squad” and being on the 40 and in AAA.
“Yes” to all. Really no different than roster expansion to 29. But it’s a starting place, MLB and MLBPA could negotiate the number up or down. A blank message box is a vacuum and you know how nature feels about that…. Or a graffiti artist to a blank wall. It doesn’t cost anything to write a message here, use it or lose it.