When I headed off last Tuesday on a business trip where I wasn't going to be watching much baseball, the Dodgers were 11-10. They had two games ahead of them against the Marlins, and four against the Giants, supposedly inferior teams. It looked like they were about to ride a massive hot streak and become the team they were supposed to become at the beginning of the season.
Now I realize that 11-10 was the season's high point. They lost five of six of those games. In two of them, the bullpen gave up a late lead, and in one of them, Clayton Kershaw walked a half-dozen and got shelled.
Meanwhile, Yasiel Puig went on the disabled list. Dave Roberts benched Cody Bellinger, his best player, for not trying to stretch a double into a triple in a game the Dodgers trailed by four runs. And then, yesterday, it was announced that Corey Seager is going to have elbow surgery and will miss the rest of the season.
Last year, the Dodgers were the best team in the National League. This year, they're a cursed and unwatchable disaster, a deeply-dispirited bunch that other teams want to see on their schedule. Everything has gone wrong. Upper management clearly didn't see fit to address this team's flaws in the offseason. The roster isn't "deep," it is terrible. Max Muncy and Austin Barnes don't comprise the recipe for a World Series infield. Kershaw looks more than mortal. Kenley Jansen is serving up meatballs. Hyun-Jin Ryu has been the team's best pitcher, and he's only been above average.
Dave Roberts has been making poor decision after poor decision. He deploys the wrong pitchers at the wrong time. And his benching of Bellinger was the definition of scapegoating. Cody responded to that benching by playing a terrible game last night in Arizona. We haven't even begun to see "lack of hustle" yet. Wait until late July and the Dodgers are 17 games under .500.
Every other team's fans are always so happy when the Dodgers suck. This season is going to bring them joy unseen in 20 years.
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