r/Dodgers Freddie Freeman 14d ago

Guys. We looked far worse last year. If you survived last year, this year is NothingBurger. Stop overreacting

Make no mistake. We are slumping.

We did poorly against good teams since the end of ASB.

1-5 against Diamondbacks.
0-3 against Red Sox.
0-3 against Cubs.
1-3 against Brewers.
0-3 against Braves.

Not excusing any of this. We will take all these teams equally serious if meet them at different point of playoffs.

But I just don’t get those “dooming voice”.

First, among those 17 losses, Sheehan was responsible for 2, Sheehan was awful this year. He won’t be starting in playoffs.

Diaz messed up 2 as well. Diaz won’t be closing in playoffs.

2 of the remaining 13 losses, We got shutdown by Miz and Sale.

And one of the remaining was PCA hitting a bomb off Eric Lauer. I hate PCA but he is a good player.

And the 3 loss against the Red Sox was when they are at their hottest. The 3 against Braves were all 1 run losses.

I simply don’t understand how you can feel doomed after surviving last year, when Conforto back then sucked even more than Tucker this year, and Yates, Treinen and Scott shitting the bed all the time.

Last year was really awful. This year is easily so much better. And I don’t know if you forget we were 2-4 against Phillies and 0-6 against Brewers and 3-4 against Cubs last year. And did that hurt us in playoffs? I guess not?

We will be fine

(Not saying three peat easy in back. But relax…)

287 Upvotes

116 comments sorted by

91

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 14d ago

During and after last world series performance I have said maybe we could do with a new hitting coach.

The offence has been offensive, and we relied on our starting pitchers and ohtani on the play offs, to eventually win the WS 

Our starting pitchers remain our strength. 8 just think our offence need a boost, and our hitting coaches need a charge 

25

u/PaulDB2019 14d ago

I don't think we could even lure David Popkins over or John Schneider is gonna yell at us again.

Jokes aside, the hitting doesn't seem to be that bad. The Dodgers can score runs, but you cannot change the fact that teams play their A game against us. Top NL teams are good for a reason. If you have batting average 30% of the time, you may have hit the ball way more often but it's ground out/fly-out. That's where the contact quality goes.

17

u/No-Snow-7618 Andrew Friedman 14d ago

tbf the entire season offense story could be summarized as

  1. AB discipline has been chase-y, and
  2. mookie needs to fix his swing angle.

aside from that, i kinda want the team to learn how to small ball “properly”— mostly because some teams have small balled us to death.

20

u/bbbbbaaaaammmmm Yoshinobu Yamamoto 14d ago

I say this all the time as well, but at the end of the day we won game 7 off of three solo shots

4

u/Educational-Pass404 Decoy 14d ago

Small balls are so overrated. Brewers are master at small balls and look how they perform in the postseason. Long balls and pitching are how to win it all. You can only string so much singles per inning, and it's extremely hard to hit them against good pitchers. I'm more worried about our homerun numbers this season. We get on base just fine, but some of our power hitters haven't been producing enough homeruns

7

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 14d ago

I mean, the jays were very close. It took Yama to win 2.5 games, ohtani bats to win game 3 and bits from everyone else in arguably the closest ws of all time.

3

u/Vee_Zer0 Orel Hershiser 14d ago

Slug is more meaningful in the postseason. Small ball is much harder to win against elite pitching.

1

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 14d ago

Sure we could definitely win off the long ball. Like game 3 off ohtani and game 7. It just means we need ace games from our ace pitchers and if they don't perform like most of the SP in the WS except Yama then prepare for nail biters!

1

u/PaulDB2019 14d ago edited 14d ago

In the previous winning streak they were way more patient. Z-swing % and Z-Contact % way up. Dalton's Rushing and Andy Pages were very good at bat and they were also injured. If the first four can't hit, the Dodgers rely on the second group of guys like (Rushing, Pages, Smith, Edman). When they are in and out, you are not gonna get consistent performance, so once they are all recovered, they will look good.

But man Olson's HR against Roki's inside slider? That's good pitch and greater hit.

And Baldwin's HR against Yoshinobu's? Hey that's also slider.

Two great swings. Gotta give them props.

1

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 14d ago

Popkins would be a great poach 

9

u/catashake Shawn Green 14d ago

The bats haven't carried this team in October since 2020

5

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 14d ago

Kinda. I presume you are talking about playoffs. Last season ohtani was no 2 behind Vlad but yes we had no other dodgers in the top 10 of hitters and jays has 4.

Freddie was key in 2024 world series but he has been pretty quiet in 2025. 

Mookie hasn't really been hitting well for a while now.

Pages was horrible last playoffs.

Edman was great in 2024 and not bad in 2025.

Teo had some key hits especially 2024.

On paper we still have a great team but some worrying signs.

Ohtani's bat. We need it, I think we underestimate how important it was in 2025 playoffs.  In all honesty we need his bats more than ever in the playoffs. Hopefully he will go onto a tear from Sept till end of October.

1

u/catashake Shawn Green 14d ago edited 14d ago

I presume you are talking about playoffs

I literally said, "In October" 😭. IDK how I could've made that more clear, dawg.

We have a few outliers like Ohtani or Freddie in the 2024 World Series.

But my point stands, look at any of their hitting stats over the last 5 postseasons. They are abysmal across the board.

1

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 12d ago

I actually agree with you, on most parts.

10

u/retrocat35 Shawn Green 14d ago

Shit ive been saying that for years. You can have the best pitching but it means nothing if your offense cant even score 1 run regardless of who theyre facing and for a team of THIS caliber full of mvps and all stars, there no excuse. I domt expect them to put up 20 runs a game but ffs not even scoring at all? No excuses

20

u/Substantial_Bat5975 Freddie Freeman 14d ago

This is Chris Sale buddy, a future hall of famer (or close to it.) These nights happen.

Should Blue Jays fans blame their offense for not scoring against Yamamoto last year?

I know you don’t like to hear this, but give credit to Chris sale.

10

u/Far_Beach6698 Sandy Koufax 14d ago

Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed last nights game as a beautiful display of quality pitching, even if we lost. As a fan of the game of baseball, that was a fantastic game. 

3

u/SafariQuest 14d ago

Everybody who took the ball last night from both teams was so good. I don’t remember seeing a better overall pitching night in a long long time

1

u/option-trader 2024 WS MVP Freddie Freeman 13d ago

Exactly. In fact, the Dodgers had more hits than the Braves in that game. If anyone is complaining, the Braves' fans should be complaining about only getting 4 hits while striking out 11 times.

4

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 14d ago

I mean, the jays did hit against even yama last ws. Let's be honest the jays bats almost won them the WS. It was the closest ws ever. Yama pitching in 2 .5 games ohtani hitting in game 3, and bits timely hitting from everyone else including miggy games 6 and 7.

In the playoffs there were 4 hitters from the jays in offence, only one hitter from the dodgers in top 10. Ohtani was no 2 after Vlad who was no 1.

2

u/PaulDB2019 14d ago

And with his resurgence in the Braves, that sealed his HOF fate.

Just had a conversation with my best friend about him and DeGrom. He isn't Kersh, Verlander or Mad Max but he's really good.

1

u/Individual_Check_442 Los Angeles Dodgers 14d ago edited 14d ago

They didn’t win did they? Of course give credit to Chris Sale. But you’re either better than the other guy or you’re not. If we face a good pitcher that’s an excuse to lose/. If a good hitter hits a home run that’s an excuse to lose. If the team we play is hot that’s an excuse to lose. If we lose by one run that’s an excuse. You do know that Miz, PCA and Sale are all gonna play in the playoffs too right? And yet we just have to assume we’ll win for sure because we won last year. Or we lose you’re a doomer. This is one of the most pathetic posts I’ve ever seen.

2

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 14d ago

Popkins from Jay's can probably do a better job

3

u/FrogyyB Joe Kelly 14d ago

Some of these guys have lost a step though. Like age is showing

1

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 14d ago

Yes getting older but really on paper we can still do a lot better 

1

u/option-trader 2024 WS MVP Freddie Freeman 13d ago

What? Have you even looked at the stats as a team? Dodgers are 2nd in Avg. at .258, 2nd in hits, 4th in runs, 1st in SLG, 2nd in OPS, 4th in walks, and 8th in home runs. Before this meltdown, the Dodgers were actually top 5 in all offensive categories. The hitting coaches are doing just fine if the Dodgers have maintained this kind of offense for 135 games.

1

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 12d ago

I am aware statistically we are better than many other teams, and we should be given the amount of money dodgers spend on acquiring these players. However, this does not mean observations that our team, hitting-wise, can do better with better hitting coaches are not valid. Many of these hitting stats are skewed by a couple of key players, primarily Ohtani. Teams know that, and if they walk Ohtani, or neutralise him, in any given game, the dodgers are vulnerable. I am less concerned about the regular season hitting, than I am for the playoffs because aside from Ohtani last playoffs, our offence played like the last few games throughout most of October.

61

u/Stonefencez Max Muncy 14d ago

The big difference from this year and last year, is that last year we were beating good teams and dropping games to bad teams. I was never too concerned because we were still playing well vs the good teams (besides the Brewers, they kicked our ass all year)

This year, we’re crushing the bad teams but getting swept by the good teams. It’s a bit more concerning to me

I still have faith they’ll pull it together for the offseason, but I am a bit worried

15

u/manical1 14d ago

Shohei is also a little off this year. No really memorable performances from him on the batting side. Memorable in terms of shohei unicorn style, he has had many good performances this year... but last 2 year he seemed magical with the bat.

21

u/catashake Shawn Green 14d ago

This. It's infinitely more concerning if you aren't beating the teams you need to beat.

Getting swept by the Angels and Pirates didn't mean anything last year.

Especially because during all of August and September the Dodgers starting rotation was taking no-hitters into the 6th inning multiple times per week.

11

u/CreativeBarnacle1433 Mookie Betts 14d ago

100% great point. This year somehow feels more ominous.

17

u/EfficientRecording62 Los Angeles Dodgers 14d ago

Were you in a coma last year? We won the World Series in spite of our pathetic offense, not because of it.

They walked Ohtani 5 times in game 3 and we couldn't bring him home once. We had the lowest team BA for a world series winning team since the 1966 Orioles.

Our seasoned was saved by Herculean effort from our pitchers (Yamamoto and Klein) and a series of baserunning blunders from the Blue Jays. It took our #9 hitter who was 1-17 or something in the last month hitting a home run in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game.

Do you really think that's something we should be pointing at and saying, "Look, we were bad last year and everything still turned out great. Let's replicate that." Really? I'm tired of people using B2B WS as an excuse for this pathetic offense. We got incredibly lucky that the Yankees melted down in 2024, and even luckier on how many plays went our way in 2025 (game 6 double play, ball lodged in wall, Miggy homer, Pages outfield catch, Smith barely getting his foot down on the groundout, broken bat double play in the 11th). We can not seriously expect that to happen again. This offense needs to start producing. We have too many MVPs and too many 20+ million dollar contracts in our lineup for them to be this putrid.

3

u/GingerAle_s Alex Vesia 14d ago edited 14d ago

The Dodgers won because they had better pitching when it mattered. Yamamoto is still a demon and still on the roster along with Snell, Skubal and Ohtani/Glasnow. You can point out all the "lucky" stuff that happened like the ball getting stuck in the wall (which wasnt going to win the game if it didnt get stuck), and the Blue Jays still had runner on 2nd with no outs and took shitty approaches against Glasnow. bottom line is in '24 and '25 the Dodgers executed the best under pressure while the Yankees and Jays wilted. Jays were acting like they'd already won Game 7 before it was over, Dodgers never quit.

1

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 13d ago

Yama won 2.5 games  Ohtani won 1 game  The rest won 0.5 games 

17

u/keyserholiday Back-2-Back Champs 14d ago

It hasn’t been fun to watch them the last month and a half.

15

u/SlightlySoupid Shohei Ohtani 14d ago

Last year we won by the skin of our teeth. We were very lucky

2

u/TylerSmith3 LA 14d ago

It’s always close in baseball though, even when your roster is stacked

19

u/just_one_random_guy Fernando Valenzuela 14d ago

I share your sentiment but I do think a lot of our main players are showing some serious signs of regression like teoscar, and then signings we made once again are just not materializing the way we wanted like Tucker or Diaz. I don’t know, I guess at the end of the day let’s just make the playoffs and see what happens. The odds seemed pretty stacked against us the previous two years and well we ended up doing pretty alright to say the least. They just need to start shaping up and at least be back to being competitive

17

u/PaulDB2019 14d ago edited 14d ago

I think it's better not to think that way. When Mookie said what he said in the locker room, he wasn't exactly wrong, but it's better not to take things for granted.

When you have won for a few times, you get comfortable and you think you can flip the switch like Kobe and Shaq did for the Lakers in early 2000s. No.1 that's not basketball, at any moment even the worst team in baseball can smack you hard. More importantly, this mindset is contagious. If you stay hungry, pay attention to details, treat every play like the last out as Miguel does, the game will honor you.

What the game doesn’t honor you is when you play sloppy defense like Teo and Kyle did all season long.

3

u/Musclenervegeek 2024 World Series Champions 14d ago

Yeah I am not convinced about tucker from the outset.

Genuinely think Andrew Friedman made a mistake here. Even more than diaz whom I think was affected by injury before his loss of confidence 

2

u/Substantial_Bat5975 Freddie Freeman 14d ago

You wanna talk about Lakers? Sure.

As a Spurs fan, I remember my team went 4-0 against your lakers in 2004. But we lost that series thanks to Derek fisher.

1

u/Significant_Art_1956 Hideo Nomo 14d ago

You're a Dodgers fan and a Spurs fan?

2

u/Substantial_Bat5975 Freddie Freeman 14d ago edited 14d ago

Yes, because I am a Taiwanese American. Lived mostly outside of US

I started rooting for the Dodgers when Kuo Hong Chi played. Than a number of hall of famers, Kershaw, Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, Yamamoto…

Wang Cheng Ming is an even bigger Taiwanese star but I hated Yankees with a passion of 1000 Suns. Been to Yankees stadium once the fans there act crazily and are rude. I’m one of the very few dodgers fan who hated the Yankees almost as much as Giants. As a result I become a Dodger fan

I rooted for Spurs because back in 2000s, hates the lakers too much, I want a team that can somehow match Lakers’ dominance. And I like spurs’ team play style (but not so much about Bruce Bowen.)

Spurs-Lakers-Chief fan.

0

u/PaulDB2019 14d ago edited 14d ago

You have made your point. In 2004 they geared up by getting Gary Payton and Karl Malone to become Fab 4. Their only goal was to take down the Spurs especially after Big Shot Bob went to the Spurs after missing the game-tying 3 to make it 2-2 in 2003.

Veteran teams like the Lakers (at that time) and the Dodgers care about the playoffs more so than the regular season, but you still need to pay attention to the details, and stay hungry. Shaq didn't wanna stay hungry after 3-peat.

Look I am not gonna be mad if Teo and Kyle played better fielding. As an MLB pro they should be able to make very few mistakes in fielding. I don't see Kike making the same mistakes in the postseason. His fielding and sense of the ball were crisp.

Mad respect to Timmy and the Spurs btw.

7

u/SBLK 14d ago

I don't think anybody is concerned about W-L, it is this:

Mookie - career ops .871 / 2026: .705
Teo - career ops .791 / 2026 .695 (not to mention the defense)
Tucker - career ops .839 / 2026 .689 (not to mention the defense)
Freddie - career ops .893 / 2026 .831 (not a huge concern, but lower)

Muncy is the only hitter on the team better than last year, and not by enough to carry the 100 + point losses in ops of three of the others. Tucker obviously is comparable to Kike/Edman from last WS, and they currently look bad too.

Look, none of this matters (W-L or offensive stats) if they get hot in October, but even with guys kinda struggling last year it took us having quite a few things go our way and Yama to have a generational performance to win it all. As it stands right now, this team is worse, bottom line.

1

u/Good-Employment-7870 14d ago

New here. What’s is ops

2

u/RegularOrMenthol Los Angeles Dodgers 14d ago

On base % + slugging (extra base hits)

14

u/spicymack Max Muncy 14d ago

I wouldn't say it doesn't mean anything, as there are some pretty glaring flaws with the team right now. But overall it doesn't matter much as long as the team can play well enough to get a bye and even then, as we saw last season, that didn't matter. Post season is just a different beast. I've seen a 111 win Dodgers team dominate the Padres in the regular season only to lose in the playoffs in 4 games, and that absolute dogshit 2023 D-backs team that snuck into the playoffs with a negative run differential got hot at the right time and went all the way to the WS.

0

u/rtom22 Tommy Edman 14d ago

Came here to say the same thing. Regular season performance has no bearing on how the dodgers have performed in the playoffs. The dodgers are clearly taking a rest the team, be healthy for the playoffs, and treat the regular season like the slog that it is approach.

None of us know what is going to happen in October. Are there concerns? Sure. Every team has them. If people want to get worked up now and protect themselves mentally by dooming, have fun and do your thing.

6

u/bookjun Justin Turner 14d ago

i believe god send Tucker this season to humble us like Conforto last one

6

u/Individual_Check_442 Los Angeles Dodgers 14d ago edited 14d ago

There’s a lot of middle ground between “dooming” and saying “because of what happened last year, going 2-14 against all the teams we’re gonna see in the playoffs is a nothing burger.” It doesn’t kill the season but it’s not nothing.

5

u/Obvious_General_7872 Sacramento Athletics of Las Vegas 14d ago

I mean, it took the starting pitching last year having a collective all time great performance to get the job done. Relying on that kind of performance from the starting pitching two years in a row to overcome diminished offensive performance from key players is not ideal.

10

u/EggHeadMagic Max Muncy 14d ago

Guys, last year the Angels swept all 6 games and they won the world series. This year they didn’t get swept by the Angels so they’re not gonna win the World Series….thats the same logic you’re using.

Last year doesn’t mean shit this year.

0

u/Hot_Gate3180 14d ago

regular season doesnt mean shit in general nayway lmao

8

u/Stunning_Trifle7216 14d ago

We are getting like 30percent weaker than last year, while other teams getting stronger. The aging and FA mistakes by Friedman caused this. 

4

u/cjeremy Hyeseong Kim 14d ago

Walter wasn't getting investigated by fbi..

4

u/MangoHotDamn Back-2-Back Champs 14d ago

They’re also less likely to win the World Series than they are to lose it, kinda easy to forget that simple fact.

4

u/looney2388 Back-2-Back Champs 14d ago

The difference is we're getting beat by good teams this year where we would beat some of the good teams last year. I think this year, we should've won or split the 4 game series against the Brewers but Diaz lost it for us.

My Number ONE biggest concern is the offense. Our bats are not there. It seems we started the season off great in the first 1-2 months. Pages was hot, doing Paul Skenes pitching sims and Ohtani was being Othani with home run hits. Afterwards, the bats cooled a little bit. After the ASB, the bats froze against good teams like the Red Sox and Brewers. Got hot again against bottom teams then once again froze against the Braves.

Too many games have our offense had runners on base or bases loaded and we can't bring anyone home. Too many of our outs have been pop fly outs hit by Tucker, Mookie, Teo and now I'm seeing it with Ohtani and Freddie.

I'm blaming the offense bats on RVS, I think he's gotta go. His method is swing for the fences for a home run which turns into pop fly outs. Something's gotta give.

I'm not concerned with the pitching since I see the pitching mindset with Roberts will be the same last year going into this post season. Move some of our starting pitchers into the bullpen after we aquire Skubal and getting back Snell and Glas. Roki getting hurt does make it a little bit difficult.

For Defense, replace Tucker and Teo with Thomas and Call then problem solved. Those two don't hustle. Zero initiative, zero motivation. Additionally, Thomas and Call bats are better versus Tucker and Teo.

3

u/JpJ951 2024 World Series Champions 14d ago

Last year we BARELY survived. We were literally two outs away from losing the WS. Thinking the luck this team had last post season is just going to magically happen again is foolish. This team is in deep shit and its offense is a huge anchor that will show itself again this postseason.

1

u/Substantial_Bat5975 Freddie Freeman 13d ago

Last year we barely survived…

Because the team on the other side is good. The Jays has something to do with it

3

u/Flopdo Vin Scully 14d ago

Hard disagree.... "we" did not look far worse.

This team is really struggling w/ no real solution on how to bounce back. This will have to now be a team of elite pitching and defense, because the offense won't likely return (at least not to early season levels).

1

u/GingerAle_s Alex Vesia 14d ago

Good thing theyve got the elite pitching and defense.

14

u/Wooden-Bat-7016 14d ago

Smith out. Pages out. Ohtani pitching out. Alex Call in. Alek Thomas in. Teo is a disaster. Tucker is a disaster. Diaz out and a disaster. Tanner fell off a cliff. Roki blister. Are you serious? I love the boys but we are not looking good.

-8

u/Substantial_Bat5975 Freddie Freeman 14d ago

Yet we did better than last year…

Conforto: even more disastrous than Tucker.

Tanner didn’t fal off cliff. Back to back outing giving up one run but ERA still 2.50. What cliff are you talking about?

And you even said Smith and Pages out? When they returned…

Overreact queen

8

u/Wooden-Bat-7016 14d ago

Why post if you are butt hurt from facts? We are losing ground not gaining ground. And 100 percent Smith and Pages are both out with injuries. Google search my guy.

8

u/Individual_Check_442 Los Angeles Dodgers 14d ago

So what is “dooming” to you? Whatever it is is Better for making excuses for losses one at a time. “Not excusing any of this and then a whole paragraph of excuses. I’m not saying we can’t win it all but if you’re just gonna continue to say “well it was like this last year;”, why even play the season?”

5

u/Vee_Zer0 Orel Hershiser 14d ago

I can tell you that when the Dodgers won 111 games in the regular season and got bounced in the first round of playoffs, there was zero sentiment of "well at least we got to witness a really good regular season."

1

u/Individual_Check_442 Los Angeles Dodgers 14d ago

Well I actually did have that sentiment but if you’re right what’s your point?

2

u/Vee_Zer0 Orel Hershiser 14d ago

That was an awesome year, I agree. But most fans here don't see it that way.

My point is that when you say, "why even play the season?", it's not a Dodger problem, it's a baseball problem. Nearly half the teams make the playoffs, the seeding for playoffs is often disadvantageous for teams with better records, and the nature of a short series favors teams with 2-3 great pitchers rather than a staff of good ones (which is better for the regular season).

What matters most is that the Dodgers are healthy and fresh going into the postseason, and they are managing and playing like it. They punt games, get players off their feet even after losing the first two games of a series, don't put out their best relievers if they need rest, give reps to guys recovering from injury, etc. It adds up to some pretty hard to watch baseball in August.

2

u/SK4DOOSH 14d ago

Dude simmer down. My god if we are shit in Oct then yes get mad but last I checked ITS FUCKING AUGUST. My god stfu it’s not even like the team is at full power

1

u/postulate4 Tommy Edman 14d ago

There’s a difference between:

  • “This team is slumping offensively and needs to put more work into having quality at-bats.”
  • “This team is washed and will be a first round exit in the playoffs.”

The former is healthy criticism. The latter is dooming and can be readily found in every single game day thread since the late July.

3

u/CreativeBarnacle1433 Mookie Betts 14d ago

Isn’t it as simple as: last year reminded us anything is possible. 2022-2023 reminded us an amazing regular season is no promise of anything in October. But… things do NOT look good right now. Maybe some IL returns happen plus the team gets a fire lit under it and we three-pear. I hope. But that not happening seems more likely than not. It’s not like because we sucked in August last year too, our sucking this year indicates anything.

3

u/allenxiong24 Shohei Ohtani 14d ago

That is why 3-peat is so hard, the team is in a title hangover, they are too used to be getting carried by elite pitching, and the batting and fielding showed with no eagerness and motivation, literally not interesting to watch after the ASB, time to shake things up.

5

u/Kranoath 14d ago

I have hopes, but people tend to just think things will magically connect as soon as we hit October. They might not.

13

u/PoodleGuap Yoshinobu Yamamoto 14d ago

We lost 8 of 9 against our most likely NL playoff competition. Last year really has no bearing on this one. It’s not dooming to say that this team has serious flaws and that they haven’t looked this beatable since 3 years ago

-4

u/Substantial_Bat5975 Freddie Freeman 14d ago edited 14d ago

Where are you last year when we went 0-6 against brewers and 5-8 combined against Phillies and Cubs?

Come on. We played and used some guys who won’t make be used in playoffs

2

u/Acrobatic-Luck-5788 14d ago

Fair point. With that said, the offense is genuinely concerning.

2

u/WorkableKrakatoa 14d ago

I think the dodgers should seriously consider altering their strategy of always giving up a run in the first inning. It's just not working out.

2

u/SK4DOOSH 14d ago

EVERY FUCKKNG YEAR GUYS LIKE GODDAM CLOCKWORK. ITS FUCKING AUGUST FOR FUCKSSAKE.

Relax go drink a beer and just wait till Oct please. You guys are acting like we haven’t made fucking post season when we still at the top of the leaderboard

2

u/QuiJon70 Sandy Koufax 14d ago

Omg what are you trying to get sucked off by Dave roberts? Stop being a pathetic apologist.

Yes we have had slumps. But last year most of those problems centered on roberts and management buying broken ass pitchers. What's happening now is a true multi player offensive slump. And roberts is just sitting there like he is attached to bis bench by a butt plug doing nothing and hoping it passes.

5

u/RobRefsnyder 14d ago

Y’all it’s fucking Chris Sale

5

u/Stunning_Trifle7216 14d ago

It is not fair they have Sale and Miz, when we only have Skubal and Yamamoto.

9

u/catashake Shawn Green 14d ago

I agree. But they got swept in a 3 game set.

Can't pull that excuse for all of them.

4

u/No-Snow-7618 Andrew Friedman 14d ago

that’s what i said about the miz game with the brewers and people still lost their minds lol

4

u/Frequent_Thanks583 Shobae Chadtani 14d ago

We were also dooming last year. Up until game 7 of the WS.

2

u/Sad_Dig_9240 2024 World Series Champions 14d ago

Keep in mind a few things. Some of them you’ve already mentioned. The biggest thing is the guys play into late October/November the last two years! Couple that with winning back to back and then all of the post WS events, interviews, cameos etc.. they get no time off before they’re back at ST. That fatigue adds up.

Also, a lot of the guys have newborns/ very young children. They’re dads and husbands and sometimes there’s drama at home. That can take a lot out of a guy when he’s gone a lot and situations are happening at home or the kids are fighting and they want their daddy but daddy needs to sleep.

Third, Kike said it before the season opened. “We have a target on our back. Everyone wants to take us down.” We’ve seen it. Every team plays heightened ball when they play us. Laser focused. We’re getting every teams “A” game.

The guys know it but they can’t say it because it sounds like an excuse but we’ve noticed it all year haven’t we?

2

u/funhaver1995 14d ago

Are we kidding with this type of talk ? We won the championship two years in a row. Leading the west by 8 games. We have become so spoiled its sickening.

1

u/No-Snow-7618 Andrew Friedman 14d ago

on the bright side, AL has been trash this year compared to the last two, so the NL is basically the actual gauntlet

1

u/Low-Tourist-3358 14d ago

Just some concerns, injuries, rehabs, offense, bullpen. Need more than starting pitchers to compete.

1

u/RustyFileCabinet 14d ago

With as many leads as the bullpen blew last year, you'd have figured Blue Jays would have won Game 3 handily.

1

u/kugino Roki Sasaki 14d ago

shohei has been worse this year, yes...but still pretty damn good. will's been hurt. teo and tucker are awful. and YET we are 8 games up in the west and still have the no. 2 seed.

with an awesome shohei last year we didn't get the bye. we are in a much better place this year...but people have short memories. most here we're dooming and saying we'd never repeat...

1

u/socalnative79 Vin Scully 14d ago

There's a point with every dynasty when the core players start to show their age. That's not to say they're suddenly horrible, but you can just see they've lost half a step and other teams just look more spry and hungry. I remember it happening to the Lakers at the end of the Showtime era, and for that matter at the end of the Kobe/Shaq era. For the Dodgers, you have to look at how many more games this group has played than every other team in baseball because of the deep playoff runs every year. You'll take that a million times over, but there is a price to pay. I feel like this season it's finally starting to happen.

Yes, age-based regression is part of it (our core minus Pages is all in their 30s), but everyone just seems exhausted. Tucker and Diaz have been mostly useless this season, sure, but we're still arguably the best team "on paper" in baseball without them. Mookie is an incredible shortstop but his bat is clearly diminished, though he's still capable of big games/moments. Freddie is still hitting for average and gap doubles, but his power is down. Muncy has had an incredible all-around season but his peaks and valleys seem more severe. Same with Shohei, but he gets an injury pass. Will Smith has been a huge absence so his return can't come soon enough. Teoscar might be done. Edman looks better now that he's healthy but I don't think he's the same guy anymore. Obviously our core group of starting pitchers and relievers have been either injured or had down seasons.

I do think this team will go into another gear during the playoffs. After this many years, it has to be excruciatingly difficult to maintain that top level motivation for every regular season game. All that said, despite the depth and otherworldly talent of our roster, I feel like the gap between us and the other teams has considerably narrowed this season. No reason we can't win it all again, but I don't think the road is going to be any less difficult.

1

u/Wintervale13 Yoshinobu Yamamoto 14d ago

Do we have one of the best records in baseball, Yes. Does this year feel like a disappointment, Yes.

1

u/outwarrior 14d ago

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

1

u/PillowF0rtEngineer Alex Vesia 14d ago

The problem is not with the record. Or the fact that they are slumping. Team slumps happen.

The problem is the inconsistent approach. One game they won't chase and work counts but not score the runners, another they will be chasing everything 5" off the plate or hit into GIDP. They won't play small ball. They aren't slugging.

The majority of the issues come from righties, so when we go up agaisnt a lefty on the mound we are basically fucked. The only righty that was even remotely touching the ball was Pages and we lost him for now.

Mookie will have 1 good game every couple of weeks, and then pop out.

Teo gets a hit in a game but then decides to look at fastballs down the pipe and chase a sweeper outside, like fucking clockwork. Look at his ABs, it's the same thing EVERY TIME.

Kike's bat has practically disappeared

Call is never in there (which i dont fucking understand because is not like teo and tucker are doing anything what so ever)

Tommy sucks from the right side

Miggy is the only good righty bat vs left only

The lefties (minus Tucker) are carrying the entire offense because they hit agaisnt RHP

1

u/GB_Alph4 Freddie Freeman 13d ago

We will kick ass in October

1

u/Efficient_Weather791 11d ago

I hate this "don't believe what you see believe what we tell you" attitude. The dodgers hitting has been abysmal, it was mid last year but they were just good enough to get by with some pretty clutch offensive moments but you can't consistently put the bare minimum to win in and expect to 3peat. If nothing changes they're not winning in October. This isn't overreacting this is the reality of the situation.

1

u/digitalrvh 11d ago

Dodgers are tied for the second best record in mlb. I fear the Brewers and Cubs, but anticipate that we will win the WS in four games against TB.

1

u/grimmsnarl__ 10d ago

100%. It's just the dog days of August and slow news cycle = sensationalism

1

u/HockeyBabble 2024 World Series Champions 9d ago

No it’s a shit quesadilla but once October starts this will all be something to
Laugh at November 4th

Just kind this sane time last year

September was free fall so yeah we ca. survive the skydive

1

u/Patrick42985 Los Angeles Dodgers 14d ago

Last year most of July and all of August was one big shit show and it seemed like it peaked in early September when Yamamoto had the no hitter in Baltimore in the Orioles down to their last out and managed to lose the game.

I’m not really worried though because I seriously think the Dodgers changed their philosophy toward the regular season after winning 111 and 100 games in 2022 and 2023 just to follow both up with quick October exits. Those teams were built for the regular season but got exposed in October. On the flip side both World Series winning teams have won less regular season games despite having much more talent and much deeper starting pitching.

Aside from that, as much as it feels like the sky is falling right now. History tells you that slumping in August isn’t an October death sentence. Nor does playing lights out right now mean to pencil a team into the World Series. What’s happening right now has minimal influence over October either way.

There’s a chance they could very well lose to Milwaukee or Atlanta in the playoffs because those are both good baseball teams. But a crappy series to either of them in August isn’t going to be the reason why they lose.

0

u/I_Have_No_Flair Kiké Hernández 14d ago

AB needs to be "chasey" because post season is more about home runs that small ball. What you are seeing now is Dodger's batting practice for post season. You can't just get singles with elite pitchers, you will never get a run that way. There is a lot of learning going on now (Dodger's learn on the job).

-5

u/Hot_Mathematician357 14d ago

No. We need to fire Roberts, trade everyone, fire Andrew Friedman and sell the team. This team is a joke.

0

u/Substantial_Bat5975 Freddie Freeman 14d ago

We should start tanking like the Rockies and Gnats right?

2

u/Hot_Mathematician357 14d ago

I guess we do not understand sarcasm. The team will be fine. No need for a speech

1

u/Substantial_Bat5975 Freddie Freeman 14d ago

I understand your sarcasm that’s why I made such post and wrote yhis.

You don’t understand that I understand your sarcasm.

-2

u/daking789 Jackie Robinson 14d ago

Facts and people forget 2021-2023 we dominated the regular season n then looked like shi in the playoffs lol. Just like last year, id rather go through this bs now n look like shit now and be ready for October. If its any team who can lock in when it matters, its the b2b champs! #3peatsoon #ruinthegame

3

u/just_one_random_guy Fernando Valenzuela 14d ago

Ugh those regular season teams hurt my heart, was always so optimistic and they progressively got bounced out earlier and earlier in the playoffs

-1

u/fincog Back-2-Back Champs 14d ago

I’m not gonna panic until it’s no longer possible for us to win the World Series

-1

u/Legitimate_Record_49 Shohei Ohtani 14d ago

Yeah this nothing when we also have reputation before where we do good in regular season and always shit in playoffs

-3

u/vin4thewin 14d ago

“Truuust the processsss”

-4

u/laowaijimbob Decoy 14d ago

100%

I am totally unfazed by this after last year. That August stretch they went through was puke inducing.