July 5th, 2013 at 6:07 am 
by Ron Cervenka There is no kind way to put it, but Brandon League is bad – and I don’t mean good bad, I mean bad bad. He is not simply going through a rough spell or a bump in the road, he is broken – both mechanically and mentally. The guy is a wreck and needs help; help that he cannot get on a major league baseball field in live game situations – $22.5 million notwithstanding.
According to Eric Stephen over at True Blue LA, in addition to League’s horrible 6.37 ERA, opposing batters are hitting .322 against him with an OBP of .378 and a SLG of .471. If a hitter put up these kind of numbers over his career he would be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Yes, Brandon League is that bad.
If Dodger manager Don Mattingly honestly believes that only using League in low pressure situations such as lopsided (one way or the other) games is going to fix Brandon League, he is sadly mistaken. Not only will this flawed logic fail, it will destroy what little confidence League has left – if any.
I respect Mattingly’s loyalty in allowing League to try to work through his problems in live game situations, but it simply isn’t working and it’s time to send Brandon out for repairs.
(Photo courtesy of ESPN.com)
Bringing League into Thursday night’s game with one out and a runner on second in the 5th inning when trailing 5-2 at Coors Field is not exactly my definition of a low pressure situation; the game was still very winnable at that point. Why on earth would Mattingly even think of bringing League into this situation? Does he honestly believe that League somehow suddenly morphed into a good pitcher again? The results were painfully predictable – League allowed the inherited runner to score and allowed two additional runs of his own after issuing a walk and two singles before finally recording an out. The game was now out of reach and League suffered yet another devastating blow to his confidence.
Please don’t get me wrong, I like Brandon League. He is a great guy… I mean a really great guy. He always interacts with fans at Dodger Stadium during batting practice and thoroughly enjoys doing so. But even being the nicest guy in the world won’t help you throw strikes; and the strikes that League is throwing are flat and right over the middle of the plate – again, the results are predictable.
Brandon League needs a break, and by that I mean a break from the Big leagues. He needs to be placed on the disabled list and sent out for repairs. Where this occurs doesn’t really matter, although my recommendation would be Double-A Chattanooga. Lord knows sending League to the launch pad at Triple-A Albuquerque would do little to help his severely damaged confidence. Lookouts pitching coach Hector Berrios has done wonders with his young pitchers over the years and perhaps a fresh set of eyes on League might spot something that Dodger pitching coach Rick Honeycutt and bullpen coach Chuck Crim might have missed.
The bottom line is that trying to fix Brandon League’s problems in live game situations, even so-called low pressure situations is not going to work because League’s confidence is fried – thus every appearance is a high pressure situation for him.
It’s time for Mattingly (and even more so Ned Colletti) to look beyond League’s insane contract and start focusing on trying to save his career and restoring his confidence. If they do not, they will destroy Brandon League and flush $22.5 million down the toilet in the process.
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You are absolutely right about that, his confidence has taken a beating, I hope they do try and get him fixed in the minors soon. I also hope he doesn’t try and refuse to go down if they present that idea to him. I don’t trash our players, but he is horrible and I hope that they get him the help that he needs.
RT @Think_BlueLA: New post – Brandon League is broken – http://t.co/NbRGJkTy0o #Dodgers #Dodgerfam
As far as I’m concerned he can take Crappy with him too.
It’s far easier to say ‘Get rid of him’ rather than identify and fix the problem, Mike – too easy, in fact. We are all disappointed with Brandon League but I can assure you that there is no one more disappointed than Brandon himself.
No where in my article did I suggest that the Dodgers should dump League or give up on him and I guarantee you that for $22.5 million the Dodgers aren’t about to do so; likewise with Chris Capuano and his $6M contract for 2013 with an $8M mutual option for 2014 (or a $1M buyout – and I’m good with the $1M).
When Brandon League is on his game he is unhittable. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been on his game at all this season and perhaps he never will be again, but removing him from the Bigs (via the DL – the only way they can do so) and working with him to try to fix whatever it is that is wrong with him should be a top priority for the Dodgers rather than just dumping him.
That being said, if Brandon can’t be fixed, please pass Stan Kasten, Mark Walter and Ned Colletti the salt because they will have to eat League’s insane contract.
As you know I was never in favor of the League acquisition based on my years of watching him as a Blue Jay and his inconsistency. There never was a question about his stuff but one about his command of it. There was also the question if he has the make up to be a closer.
However, once he is in the ranks, then all must be done to help him return to at least being a useful member of the bullpen. It must be done to try to make maximum use of the investment the team has made in Brandon and also because the team has a responsibility to help all their players become the best they can as individual players.
Those pictures of a dejected Brandon League certainly are hard to ignore without feeling sympathy and in fact empathy with Brandon. The same goes for Juan Uribe when he struggled and Luis Cruz. Failure in front of the world must be very difficult to handle.
You are absolutely right. Brandon needs a time out to try to right the ship at a place other than the Dodger 25 man roster. Can’t he be waived as Marmol was if he agrees. I suspect no team will take him off waivers and if they did he would get a new start somewhere.
In my opinion there is no way that League would ever agree to being waived.
If Marmol hadn’t agreed to being waived, he would be out of the game. There is no doubt that an agreement was reached between the Dodgers, the Cubs and Marmol before the deal was struck that laid out the entire chain of events. Carlos had no choice but to accept the deal or roll the dice that some other team would pick him up. Since he cleared waivers, his gamble would have failed.
League’s situation is entirely different, as he is under contract through 2015 and the only way to get rid of him would be to DFA him and pay him the entire $22.5 million.
I also believe that if League agreed to being waived (which he won’t) he would be claimed off waivers in a heartbeat by any one of half a dozen teams (or more).
That was just a bad decision last night by Mattingly to use him in that situation and in Colorado of all places. They game wasn’t totally lost and he has shown no signs of being reliable. He is throwing a very flat ball with no movement right over the heart of the plate. Recipe for disaster. There is no real way to hide him anymore except eating up innings in mop-up duty. The “phantom injury” to get him on the DL would be nice if they pull it off.
A very good article Ron, I’m sure something positive will happen with League, one way or the other and the sooner the better.