Three no brainer moves that Mattingly refuses to make

[Blitzville]

MATTINGLY. I have bee a supporter because I find much of the criticism from the heart and not the brain. Relievers: Overuse is poison. You can see Jansen regressing a bit. Peralta and Johnson have good credentials, so they have to be used. There's no other choice. You guys and gals, surely remember Eric Gagne and Jonathan Broxton. Great until they started to fail. Broxton now, being shifted from pillar to post. Pederson: My big criticism of Donnie Baseball was keeping him too long at lead off. But there are 8 starters on the field. All must contribute. Every team has a couple of non-producers in the lineup, but the rest have to produce. Our guys are way too inconsistent; all of them, even Gonzalez.

Statistic-wise, it seems the Dodgers are "up there", but it certainly doesn't feel like it. Ethier has been good lately, but Puig, Rollins and Collaspo are "eh". I only trust Hendricks, Turner and Grandal. Now the outfield other than Joc, are Ethier, Puig, Crawford and Van Slyke. Who do you like in centerfield?. Joc is the best of all. Center is THE position out there. I bet his defense has saved some runs where the others could not have. That is part of the equation. Hernandez was out there, Heisey was out there, but no real run producing from them either. It appears you have to go with Pederson and hope something good happens. In reading the comments on Joc you would think he's to blame for all their losses.

What about the other guys who do not contribute timely hits. Some of you will say "but Pederson never does." Sure but again others have to lift him up with their bats and live up to their expectations (Rollins, Puig, Collaspo anyone?)

I'm not discussing here the relationship between manager, his coaches and the front office. Mattingly had a great teacher in Torre. How many titles did the Dodgers win with Joe Torre? Bad manager? I don't think so.

Please don't tell me your heart doesn't skip a beat when Jansen comes in now. Or even Baez.

 

[Villain]

Only one player makes my heart skip a beat:

I only trust Hendricks

 

[Smed55]

MATTINGLY. I have bee a supporter because I find much of the criticism from the heart and not the brain. Relievers: Overuse is poison. You can see Jansen regressing a bit. Peralta and Johnson have good credentials, so they have to be used. There's no other choice. You guys and gals, surely remember Eric Gagne and Jonathan Broxton. Great until they started to fail. Broxton now, being shifted from pillar to post. Pederson: My big criticism of Donnie Baseball was keeping him too long at lead off. But there are 8 starters on the field. All must contribute. Every team has a couple of non-producers in the lineup, but the rest have to produce. Our guys are way too inconsistent; all of them, even Gonzalez.



Statistic-wise, it seems the Dodgers are "up there", but it certainly doesn't feel like it. Ethier has been good lately, but Puig, Rollins and Collaspo are "eh". I only trust Hendricks, Turner and Grandal. Now the outfield other than Joc, are Ethier, Puig, Crawford and Van Slyke. Who do you like in centerfield?. Joc is the best of all. Center is THE position out there. I bet his defense has saved some runs where the others could not have. That is part of the equation. Hernandez was out there, Heisey was out

there, but no real run producing from them either. It appears you have to go with Pederson and hope something good happens. In reading the comments on Joc you would think he's to blame for all their losses.

What about the other guys who do not contribute timely hits. Some of you will say "but Pederson never does." Sure but again others have to lift him up with their bats and live up to their expectations (Rollins, Puig, Collaspo anyone?)



I'm not discussing here the relationship between manager, his coaches and the front office. Mattingly had a great teacher in Torre. How many titles did the Dodgers win with Joe Torre? Bad manager? I don't think so.

Please don't tell me your heart doesn't skip a beat when Jansen comes in now. Or even Baez.

Ok don't get all bent out of shape, but in my opinion Torre was possibly the most overrated manager EVER!
He managed for 29 years, in 12 years with the Yanks he won more than 90 games 11 times! In his other 17 years he did it ONCE, ya ONCE! I think if I was in the Yank dugout I could have said, hey Jeter why don't you go to short, Bernie, take Center, and on and on, Yanks always went out and bought a solid pitching staff, and of course he had the tough decision of who to bring in in the 9th inning, a guy named Riveria!

As far as J? Broxton, Torre destroyed his career! I remember when it happens and still do! Look it up, June 27 2010. The Dodgers were playing the Yankees, going into the game Broxton was an AllStar that year, Torre let him throw 48 pitches in 1 inning, you don't do that with a guy that just throws heat like Broxton did. Broxtons stats before and after that game are:


Innings. BB. SO. ERA

Before. 32.3. 5. 48. 0.83

After. 29.2. 23. 25. 7.58

Now you can say what you want, but Broxton was never the same after that game, you don't let a flamethrower throw that many pitches in 1 flipping inning, obviously he didn't have his best stuff in that game, and any "good" manager would have seen that and pulled him waaaaaay before he did!

So I guess you can say that ya Mattingly learned from Torre, that's why Mattingly isn't all that either!

 

[Villain]

Oh and my on-topic response is that pretty much every fan hates their team's manager. Nobody is perfect and Mattingly makes boneheaded decisions all the time. With that said, I think Mattingly has been better than Torre was, or other past managers. He does a great job managing the attitudes and he seems like a great "players' coach." That has always been one of his hallmarks. What has impressed me (and I'm sure I'm in the minority here) is how much he has been embracing the new regime and taking advantage of advanced statistics like exit velocity, spin rates on pitches, and so on. The Dodgers seem to be completely ignoring batting average (yay!) and focusing more on OBP (yay!) and other percentages. That's how you get a guy who's never hit .300 to be your leadoff guy for so long and it worked.*

*Obviously, It stopped working and Joc has been fired from the leadoff spot, but I think that's temporary and I'd chaulk it all up to "rookie struggles." I'm sure lots of people would agree with me. Time will tell.

For the rest of the staff, I'm pretty sure everyone agrees that Honeycutt is an outstanding pitching coach. Mattingly appears to be a good leader in general and basically has the added advantage as being a third batting coach with Mac and Valentine - who have also been impressive. Most teams only have one official hitting coach and the Dodgers have two - I love that. Wallach is pretty much a spare Mattingly. Davey Lopes is the best 1B coach in baseball and if you disagree then you're wrong. If you don't like Davey Lopes then idk what kid of Dodger fan you are. Steve Yeager is a great coach for Ellis, Grandal, and co.

In all, I think this is a pretty decent crew and I have a lot of esteem for them. If I had to pick a weak link, it's probably Bundy at 3B but that's really, really hard to quantify so it's not something I'd lose sleep over. Bundy seems like a great dude, but then you only ever hear about a 3B coach when he sends a runner that gets tagged out or something. Hard to get love that way.

On your post, you seemed to be highlighting that the players almost all seem to be "inconsistent" - which to me means "human" - especially given the names you listed (Gonzalez... really?). Here's a great way to visualize how the players have been this year:

Dodgers 2015 season in thirds: The middle 54 games - True Blue LA

There's a great table at the bottom that shows everyone. How much of that is Mattingly's fault? Did you notice that the Dodgers W/L record for the first third of the season and the second third of the season are exactly the same? If the final third matches that trend, the Dodgers will be 93-game-winners.

For the Giants to win 93 games, they'd need to go 39 and 12 for the rest of the year. That's a 76% winning percentage. They have a 54% winning percentage on the season. They've lost 3 games in a row.

 

[Smed55]

Well for those of you watching this Pirate beat down of us, look at Donnie Baseball every time they show him, he looks lost and doesn't know what to do!
True Villian, all fans complain about their managers, that's just what we do, but this game started to unravel in the 5th inning, a good manager or pitching coach would have told Wood to worry about the guy at the plate, not the runner at first with a 5-1 lead that guy is meaningless!
As far as Honeycutt and Big Mac being good coaches, I'm not so sure, Mac has done nothing for our offense, we had 4 guys out of 8 hitting .233 or less tonight. Puig and Pederson have struggled big time. Honeycutt has the luxury of 2 Cy Young winners on this
staff,a couple of other guys have been fine, the rest of the pitching has struggled!

Donnie B relies to much on the book, he starts some weak ass lineups way to often. That's fine if you want to play the righty lefty matchup, but sprinkle in a couple guys, don't put in 4 of your more or less "backup" guys, that's half of your lineup and doesn't give you the best chance of winning! Crawford and Either have both hit lefties fairly well recently, Grandal is ALWAYS a better option than Ellis.

 

[LASports96]

Dodgers have the best league adjusted offense in the National League. Lol

Obviously the bullpen is the issue with this team.

 

[Smed55]

Dodgers have the best league adjusted offense in the National League. Lol

Obviously the bullpen is the issue with this team.

Part of that is because we played really well in the beginning of the season, our offense is not playing well at all "right now"

Donnie B is at it again though, that lineup does not give us the best chance to win. I understand that Howie is hurt and Gonzo needed a day off, and having Turner hurt doesn't help, but come on, 6 out of 8 starters are hitting less than .250, and another only .257. That's fine if you want to sprinkle some righties in against a lefty pitcher, but Grandal is always a better option than Ellis, especially when you already have a bunch of other weak hitters in the lineup. Crawford has hit lefties pretty well in the past, let Either face some lefties, he would have just as good a chance as what we have in there.
I'm not saying don't play these guys, just don't throw them all in there at the same time, it just doesnt give us a good chance to win.
And if we want to beat good teams you have to let our better players(Either, Grandal, and Gonzo) hit against lefties to give them some at bats against them.
The Cardinals sure didn't sit Carpenter, Adams, and Wong against Kershaw, and those three guys are what killed Kersahw in the playoffs!
This righty-lefty matchup is BS, play your best players period!

 

[OutlawImmortal]

I have expressed my displeasure for Mattingly here in the past but he's clearly doing something right. The fans may not like his lineups everyday but the players sure do. He gives everyone a chance to play relatively regularly and it seems as though the clubhouse is responding very positively. He is utilizing the depth that the Dodgers' possess, there's nothing wrong with that and it will keep most of our players fresh and insures decent production if one of the starters goes down.

I don't blame Mattingly for leaving Kershaw out 1 inning too long either, I think any manager would have done the same. I found his benching of Puig mind-boggling though and some of his choices with the bullpen could have been better but there weren't many options last year honestly. The pen wasn't great, thus throwing Baez into the fire in Game 1.

The players love Mattingly, but if he doesn't win at least 1 series in the playoffs this year then I wouldn't mind going in a different direction. He deserved at least 1 more year.

 

[Smed55]

I have expressed my displeasure for Mattingly here in the past but he's clearly doing something right. The fans may not like his lineups everyday but the players sure do. He gives everyone a chance to play relatively regularly and it seems as though the clubhouse is responding very positively. He is utilizing the depth that the Dodgers' possess, there's nothing wrong with that and it will keep most of our players fresh and insures decent production if one of the starters goes down.




I don't blame Mattingly for leaving Kershaw out 1 inning too long either, I think any manager would have done the same. I found his benching of Puig mind-boggling though and some of his choices with the bullpen could have been better but there weren't many options last year honestly. The pen wasn't great, thus throwing Baez into the fire in Game 1.




The players love Mattingly, but if he doesn't win at least 1 series in the playoffs this year then I wouldn't mind going in a different direction. He deserved at least 1 more year.

I don't like Mattingly, but agree with you that I would give him this year to make something happen. I also didn't have a problem leaving Kershaw in last year, you go with your big dog and win or lose with him! As far as his lineups this year,i don't like them, I'm all for giving guys rest and playing other players, but you don't rest 3-4 of your best players in the same game! It's bad enough to start Ellis who's hitting under .200, but than you throw in a couple other guys that aren't hitting either, and that doesn't give you your best chance to win!

We have solid "bench" players that are very capable of filling in here and there, but you don't throw 3-4 of them into the same game!

 

[OutlawImmortal]

I don't like Mattingly, but agree with you that I would give him this year to make something happen. I also didn't have a problem leaving Kershaw in last year, you go with your big dog and win or lose with him! As far as his lineups this year,i don't like them, I'm all for giving guys rest and playing other players, but you don't rest 3-4 of your best players in the same game! It's bad enough to start Ellis who's hitting under .200, but than you throw in a couple other guys that aren't hitting either, and that doesn't give you your best chance to win!

We have solid "bench" players that are very capable of filling in here and there, but you don't throw 3-4 of them into the same game!

You have a point there in terms of resting too many players at once but I'm okay with that in the regular season. If he does this in the playoffs then I won't be happy. I wanted him gone after his occasional blunders the past 2 postseasons but I'm willing to see if he's shown that he's improved as a manager. I said before this season that I saw him on the hot seat, if he doesn't show improvement this year then I would love a new skipper.

 

[Smed55]

You have a point there in terms of resting too many players at once but I'm okay with that in the regular season. If he does this in the playoffs then I won't be happy. I wanted him gone after his occasional blunders the past 2 postseasons but I'm willing to see if he's shown that he's improved as a manager. I said before this season that I saw him on the hot seat, if he doesn't show improvement this year then I would love a new skipper.

I'm not so sure I even like it in the regular season! A couple of losses here and there because of it can make the difference between winning the division or not making the playoffs, because the Wildcard will not come out of the west!
Hopefully even though I don't like Donny, I hope he's still here next year, because that probably means we won the WS, or at least made it there!

 

[OutlawImmortal]

MATTINGLY. I have bee a supporter because I find much of the criticism from the heart and not the brain. Relievers: Overuse is poison. You can see Jansen regressing a bit. Peralta and Johnson have good credentials, so they have to be used. There's no other choice. You guys and gals, surely remember Eric Gagne and Jonathan Broxton. Great until they started to fail. Broxton now, being shifted from pillar to post. Pederson: My big criticism of Donnie Baseball was keeping him too long at lead off. But there are 8 starters on the field. All must contribute. Every team has a couple of non-producers in the lineup, but the rest have to produce. Our guys are way too inconsistent; all of them, even Gonzalez.

Statistic-wise, it seems the Dodgers are "up there", but it certainly doesn't feel like it. Ethier has been good lately, but Puig, Rollins and Collaspo are "eh". I only trust Hendricks, Turner and Grandal. Now the outfield other than Joc, are Ethier, Puig, Crawford and Van Slyke. Who do you like in centerfield?. Joc is the best of all. Center is THE position out there. I bet his defense has saved some runs where the others could not have. That is part of the equation. Hernandez was out there, Heisey was out there, but no real run producing from them either. It appears you have to go with Pederson and hope something good happens. In reading the comments on Joc you would think he's to blame for all their losses.

What about the other guys who do not contribute timely hits. Some of you will say "but Pederson never does." Sure but again others have to lift him up with their bats and live up to their expectations (Rollins, Puig, Collaspo anyone?)

I'm not discussing here the relationship between manager, his coaches and the front office. Mattingly had a great teacher in Torre. How many titles did the Dodgers win with Joe Torre? Bad manager? I don't think so.

Please don't tell me your heart doesn't skip a beat when Jansen comes in now. Or even Baez.

The only comparison you can make between Broxton and Jansen is their size. Jansen has MUCH better stuff, there's no comparison really. Broxton just tried to overpower hitters with his fastball, eventually you will regress if that's all you have. Jansen probably has one of the best cut fastballs in the league, you know who else made a living off of the cutter? Mariano Rivera, you know, the guy who is considered the best closer of all-time.

 

[Smed55]

Wow! Donnie Baseball finally makes a smart "non" move! It only took until September! If he would have left Kershaw in a few more games earlier in the year Kershaw and the Dodgers would both have more wins. You don't have to be that smart to realize not to pull Kershaw, who in your bullpen is better than him? Donnie pulled him way to many times earlier, when any one knows you go with your best option , and that would be Kershaw!

 

[pete6835]

Mattingly needs to be FIRED

 

[Villain]

Mattingly needs to be FIRED

Why?

 

[pete6835]

Why?

Why put Johnson back in?

 

[Villain]

Why put Johnson back in?

To throw baseballs?

 

[pete6835]

To throw baseballs?

and to give up home runs.

 

[Villain]

The Dodgers are on the verge of winning the division for the third straight year for the first time in franchise history. They've been in 1st place all season. You want to fire the manager because a reliever just gave up a home run and the team lost its first game after sweeping the Giants and winning 8 of the last 10 games.

K.

 

[Villain]

1. Start Alex Guerrero at 3rd over a Uribe.
2. Permanent call up Adam Liberatore.
3. Call up Zack Lee and put him in the rotation.

Isn't it funny to see these three things being terrible ideas?