May 10th, 2013 at 6:03 am 
by Ron Cervenka Who would have ever thought that a three-game weekend series against a weak-hitting last place team would be a team’s season defining moment, yet this is exactly what the Miami Marlins will do this weekend.
Wait… did I say the Miami Marlins? I meant the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It has come to this, Dodger fans – the NL East last place Marlins will bring their 10-25 record into Dodger Stadium on Friday night to begin a three-game weekend series with the NL West last place Dodgers and their 13-20 record for a battle in which even with a series sweep one way or the other will probably result in no change in the standings for either team. But as insignificant as this series may seem against a last place non-division rival, the Dodgers need to sweep the Marlins or they can pretty much kiss their 2013 season goodbye.
How can a measly three-game series against a team that is expected to finish dead last in the National League (now that the Astros are in the American League) be the defining moment for a team that was supposed to challenge the defending World Series Champion Giants for the NL West title? The answer should be obvious – if you can’t beat the teams that you are expected to beat… teams that almost every other team has either already beaten or are also expected to beat, then your team is destined for failure.
Coming out of spring training the Dodgers were thought of as the team to beat. Little did they know.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
Now granted, anything is possible in the game of baseball and any team can beat any other team on any given day, but when facing teams that are as bad as the Marlins and even the suddenly hot Padres, you must sweep these teams (or at least take the series from them) to remain competitive for a playoff berth.
Even though beating a team as bad as the Marlins is no big deal in the grand scheme of things, it is monumental for a team that is mired in a season-high seven-game losing streak, as are the Dodgers. And while it is impossible to ignore the fact that the Dodgers have had more players land on the DL in the first six weeks of the season than any other team in all of baseball (13 to be exact), the bottom line is that injuries happen to every team and the teams that can adjust to these adversities are the teams that end up crossing the finishing line to the post-season first.
Although the Dodgers have struggled mightily against teams within their division (a pathetic 5-16), they are 8-4 against teams outside of their division. Unfortunately, the Dodgers will be unable to accumulate the 95 wins that it will most likely take to capture the NL West title without significantly improving their record against their division rivals simply because they play more games against them than they do against non-division rivals. In other words, there aren’t enough games scheduled against non-division rivals to get to 95 wins.
Another hurdle the Dodgers now face (four actually) is that they must now jump over all four of their division rivals to get to the top of the division. Doing so will be difficult enough during head-to-head play against each of their division rivals, but the Dodgers must now also win when their rivals lose in non-division play – something that is entirely out of their control but something that they must take advantage of at every given opportunity – especially against teams that they absolutely must beat – say… like… the Marlins.
For those who are prone to say that there is still a lot of baseball left to play, consider this – with each passing day and with each additional loss (regardless of who it is against) that finishing line to the post-season gets a little farther away.
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I wish the team saw this as a defining moment, but I don’t think that is the case. With so many injuries, a constant juggling of the lineup and then tossing in Mattingly’s comments at least he feels that they are still competing and not morally defeated. They have lost a lot of one or two run games. I don’t know if upper management feels the same way as Mattingly but that is the feeling I get. Recent roster moves are not that of a team dealing with an urgent situation but just filling spots.
Right now, I have to admit that I am not real excited about watching the games myself. I can’t blame the casual fan for not going to the games to watch the team on the field right now. It would be nice to have blindly loyal fans in LA as in other markets but that is just not the one they are in. It is not very interesting and the same script keeps repeating itself, ending poorly. Here’s hoping for some success against Florida, but if they lose, get swept, ouch! Where do you go from there?
As I’ve said on the forum, I’ve lost all hope(faith whatever) in the Dodgers making the post season and I’ve one hope left and that is the hope that I’m wrong. Things usually don’t turn out the way they look to me, so I’m clinging to that.
It’s not that they’re that far out in the standings it’s more that they don’t seem to be playing competitively, at the moment, that’s got me thinking negatively. They look to me (but possibly not to others), that they are trying as hard as they can to win, but are not succeeding.
This could all change, as it has in the past, but they’ll just have to play it out and we’ll see what unfolds.
To say that the Dodgers are not that far out in the standings makes no sense to me at all. Nearly every year, division races are won by three games or less, with occasional exceptions, of course.
As I’ve mentioned several times, it’s not just being 6 games out that is the problem, it’s having to (now) jump four teams to get to the top. This means that not only must the Dodgers begin winning (and a lot), but the teams ahead of them in the standings must lose when the Dodgers win – so in essence, being 6 games out is like being 12 games out, and so on.
I also believe that your frequent comment that the team is playing too hard or doing the best that they can is baseless. Professional baseball players cannot play too hard, but they most certainly can not play hard enough – which is what I am seeing with this Dodger team.
Case in point: Every time Matt Kemp or Andre Ethier come up with runners in scoring position, they continue to try to hit the ball into the next county instead of trying to shorten up their swing and slap the ball for a base hit (which would score these runners).
Matt Kemp needs to come to grips with the fact that he will never again be the power hitter that he once was and needs to start being a better team player than trying to win a batting or MVP title, as does Ethier to a lesser degree. These two guys have the best role model in the game batting directly in front of them or behind them in Adrian Gonzalez. If you have been watching AGon closely this season, you have noticed that (aside from his first swing in each of his at bats), he has shortened up his swing and is driving the ball to left field instead of trying to pull it to right. This is what Matt Kemp needs to do in every at bat. To his credit, Andre Ethier has been doing more of this lately and the results speak for themselves.
I think it is safe to say that you are probably the only person who frequents this site who has given up on the team; I know that I certainly have not. My point of contention these past six weeks is that unless the Dodgers make some very significant changes, they will dig themselves into a hole from which they will not be able to escape. If they have not turned the corner by June 1, then I will agree with you that their playoff hopes are pretty much gone.
Why Luis Cruz is still on the team is beyond me. Never before have I seen a major league baseball team hang on to a third baseman who has spent more time below .100 than above it. He has taken the game to an all-time low. It used to be the Mendoza line where a player was cut, now it isn’t even the Cruz line – at least not for the Dodgers.
As he has done throughout his entire tenure as the Dodger GM, Ned Colletti absolutely refuses to even look to his minor league affiliates for a possible solution. He currently has Alfredo Amezaga, a proven major leaguer at Triple-A knocking the crap out of the ball and C.J. Retherford at Double-A who is an absolute masher. (You even witnessed him hit a home run during a spring training game – if you were paying attention, that is). These are the guys that Colletti should be looking at to fill the void at third base, not a guy hitting .090 who pops out in almost every at bat. Luis Cruz needs to go, it’s as simple as that.
I agree that the team, Mattingly and upper management do not see their current predicament as critical, nor do they see this three-game series against a last place non-division rival as a defining moment, but it most certainly is – whether they want to acknowledge it or not.
In my opinion, I think that they actually do see it as critical but they will never admit or acknowledge it – at least not publicly.
I read a tweet yesterday that said that the Dodgers probably will not make any major changes to the roster (or management) until they see how well (or poorly) the team performs after they get most of their players back from the DL. In my opinion, this is flawed (and dangerous) logic, as won’t happen until mid June at the earliest, and by then it will be too late (as opposed to “still early”).
This brings to mind an old (and wise) baseball saying: “You can’t win the World Series in April, but you can lose it in April.”
What perplexes me more than anything else are the roster moves and failure to use the DL properly to get fresh bodies in the lineup. Bringing up Herrera and Federowicz is puzzling to me. That is the biggest indication that they don’t think things are going poorly yet. Herrera was probably one of the lightest hitting options they could have brought from AAA to add to our strange collection of bits and pieces. Catching is being handled just fine by Ellis and it would be great to have Fedex instead of Hernandez (who doesn’t seem to have much left in the tank) but having 3 catchers these days on a roster is bizarre when the team is not getting much run production. I hope they actually use Fedex who was batting around .500 in the rarefied air of Albuquerque and dispense of Hernandez opening up a spot for a heavier hitting outfielder or a corner infielder. Bring up Pederson, Puig, Van Slyke, anybody who is hitting the ball and give them a chance while the walking wounded are still wounded. Maybe they can even win a few games in the process and see what they have got on the farm.
Van Slyke has been called up. As such, I assume that either Adrian Gonzalez has been placed on the 15-day DL or that Billingsley or Tolleson were moved to the 60-day DL to make room for SVS on the 40-man.
… or, if we’re lucky, Luis Cruz was DFA’d?
SVS will replace Elian Herrera, who was sent back down.
Hahaha!! Is Ned reading reading my comments?
“Matt Kemp needs to come to grips with the fact that he will never again be the power hitter that he once was…”
I don’t feel this is the case with Kemp. True, he still might be a bit tentative with his swing. Even Gonzalez mentioned that it wasn’t until June of last year when he finally felt like he was able to “let it go”. This isn’t to mean that Kemp is injured, but it’s safe to say that Kemp’s still working his way back. You are right though, until then, Kemp needs to shorten his swing as the count gets deeper. Same goes for Andre as you mentioned… but at this point, I’d be happy with Ethier being the fourth outfielder. Yep… it’s that time. Trade deadlines be damned.
“Why Luis Cruz is still on the team is beyond me.”
Luis Cruz was the Cinderella story that was supposed to be reminiscent of the second coming of Fernando Valenzuela. It never worked out, but Ned has kept up the faith, almost as if he’s doing A-Gon a favor for keeping the kid on the team. It’s not a secret that the two of them have grown to be close friends over the Winter. And it certainly didn’t help matters any to have Luiz Cruz’s most important Spring Training of his career cut short due to the WBC. It was his decision and it was a poor one at that. Now, I think it should be Gonzalez who cut’s the umbilical cord on the “Cochito” Cruz experiment. When it was that Cruz ever thought it was okay for him to swing for the fences on every single pitch is beyond me.
He got to go.