Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke is a very interesting guy. To put it mildly, you either really really like him, or you really really don’t. He is, hands down, among the greatest antagonists of all time. He is also an award-winning journalist who does not pull his punches.

After Thursday morning’s 2018 season wrap-up press conference at Dodger Stadium, I once again really really like Bill Plaschke – for now, that is. However, after said press conference, there is an exceptionally good chance that Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman really really does not.

Allow me to digress.

For 24 minutes and 24 seconds, Friedman and Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi fielded a variety of questions from a large contingent of television reporters, beat writers, and even a few bloggers in a packed interview room located next to a now deserted Dodgers clubhouse. During the (near) half-hour long presser, the two Dodgers executives defended their well-documented and insatiable use of analytics throughout the season and postseason which, of course, ended with a second consecutive Dodgers World Series loss; this time to a far superior and better managed Boston Red Sox team (a clue).

Like many Dodger fans, a large percentage of the media at Thursday’s end-of-the-season press conference weren’t buying the analytic goods that Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi were selling … especially LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke. (Video capture courtesy of Dodger Blue 1958)

From the word go, you could sense that the gathered media was thinking “Yeah, right” to F & Z’s veiled (and failed) attempt to justify what nearly every Dodger fan on the planet knew did not work – their 100 percent lefty-righty matchup use (etc.) of analytics – at least not when they needed it to work the most on MLB’s biggest stage.

Granted, there is no disputing that when used properly and in unison with the so-called “eye test,” analytics can be a very valuable tool, especially when it comes to positioning players for a defensive shift. But there is also no disputing that analytics is not the absolute be-all and end-all that Friedman and Zaidi are 100 percent convinced that it is.

When Dodgers Senior Director of Public Relations Joe Jareck called “time” on the press conference, it was blatantly obvious that there were many in the audience who still had many questions to ask of the Dodgers brain trust. As a result, a group of reporters hurried to the exit door where they intercepted Friedman who, to his credit, stopped and answered another 15 minutes worth of questions. In fact, at one point, he kidded (sort of) with Jareck “Why didn’t we just keep going up there (on the interview stage)?”

It was during this sidebar mini press conference that the most important yet most avoided issue was raised by … you guessed it, LA Times antagonist Bill Plaschke.

…and it was GREAT!

Here is the 30-second exchange between Plaschke and Friedman verbatim:

Plaschke: “What happened in the [World] Series? Is that a failure of the players or of the system?”

Friedman: “I don’t know what that question means, really.”

Plaschke: “I mean, the fans are looking for… (interrupted by a very visibly annoyed Friedman).”

Friedman: “So, it works for a regular season, it works for the DS (Division Series), it works for the CS (Championship Series), but then in the World Series it’s a failure. That’s a great question (sarcastically).”

Plaschke: “No, what I’m saying… (interrupted by Friedman).”

Friedman: “I don’t know how to answer that question. I really don’t. I don’t know how anything works for a regular season, a DS, a CS, but then doesn’t work for a World Series…(interrupted by Plaschke).”

Plaschke: “That’s an answer.”

Friedman: “Yeah, I don’t know how to answer that.”

Bravo Bill Plaschke!

Even though we still do not know Friedman’s and Zaidi’s logic behind their exclusive use of analytics (and we apparently never will), at least Friedman is now fully aware that like many Dodger fans, the media is also not buying their “horse fertilizer,” as the great Vin Scully might say.

Well played, Bill.

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(Author’s note: Here is Plaschke’s LA Times column from Thursday’s press conference. An on-line subscription to the LA Times may be required to view it):

Dodgers’ front office remains tone deaf on what went wrong