Your Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers honked out of three in a row against the Padres going into the All-Star Break.  That sucked from every angle but their 60-32 record was still the best in Major League Baseball so it's far from emergency time.

All of earth knows that the kryptonite for the 2019 Dodgers is 4.08 ERA the bullpen has barfed up.  There are all kinds of rumors attached to that (Matthew Boyd from the Tigers, Amanda Whurlitzer from the Bad News Bears).  It really looks like the pieces are there though.  Joe Kelly looks like he figured it out.  We have learned that you can't bring Scott Alexander in to get a lefty out.  Caleb Ferguson is back in Oklahoma City but he looks like he is also closing in on being legit.

All the winning has been fun to watch but they have done plenty of winning over the last 7 years.  That Guggenheim group had its first full season in 2013.  The Dodgers are 625-440 since.  That is a .587 Win percentage.  They have won the NL West every year since 2013.  That's great but it's time to win the World Series.  Seriously.

OK let's get optimistic

92 games into 2017 The Dodgers were 63-29 hitting .257 scoring 476 runs and striking out 808 times.  When the 2018 Dodgers were 92 games in they were 50-42 hitting .243 scoring 438 runs and striking out 771 times.  From that angle things are really looking up because here in 2019 they are 60-32 hitting .263 scoring 480 runs and striking out 726 times.  Here are couple of other ways to look at the improved offense.  These numbers are all 92 games into the season.

The 2017  Dodgers had 36 games where they struckout 10 or more times.  In 2018 they had 33 games with 10 or more strikeouts.  In 2019  they have struckout 10+ times in 26 games.  That's an improvement.

How about games where they hit under .200 as a team 92 games in?  In 2017 they did it 26 times.  In 2018 it was 30 times.  In 2019 they have stunk it up at that level only 23 times.

This offense is clearly better than the 2017 and 2018 teams that couldn't win the World Series.

As long as we are looking at things this way let's look at the ERA for starting pitchers after 92 games.  2017 3.24.  2018 3.34. 2019 3.07.  Look!  More improvement!

So the question is if this is good enough to overcome the 4.08 bullpen ERA or if there is a move out there to get that on track.  Oh and the bullpen ERA was 2.95 in 2017 and 3.85 in 2018 so that should bring the concern into focus.

So far it's been fun.

Let's get a dog and a beer

Oh Hey!

Well it's been a while.  Most of these blogs have been written on Sinaloa burner cell phones and those have become scarce with El Chapo in the clink.  There were a few things that really should have been in here so even though the moment has come and gone, let's go ahead and put 200 games of Peter in here. 

In his 200 games of unstoppable greatness Peter batted .747 with 471 RBIs.  He hit 89 Doubles, 30 Triples and 81 Home Runs.

Nobody is surprised by any of that.

The other thing that should have been in here is Natasha leading THE TEAM to a 4th Championship.  There was a detail in that journey that was certainly memorable.  THE TEAM lost in the playoffs to La Seleccion by one run but it turned out they used a non-roster player so they had to forfeit.  There were a lot of wild guesses as to who the ringer was.  You would think if a team was going to cheat they would want to wrangle up a cocaine fueled Darryl Strawberry or something but whatever.  THE TEAM moved on the Championship game and opened up a can on Ctrl Z for 22-8 win.

Ancient history

THE TEAM 2019 split a doubleheader.  The rumor was that THE TEAM hung a quick 10 runs on Killustrators and hung for a 13-11 victory.  Jimmy hit a Home Run in that one.  That's true.

The second game was a tough one against Imma Beast.  Jack hit a Home Run and a Triple with 2 RBIs.  Natasha went 2 for 3  with an RBI.  Overall THE TEAM hit .483 with 5 Doubles and a Home Run.  THE TEAM never struck out so that's good to see.  Natasha struck out 3 pitching a complete game.  Too bad those Imma Beast people were pretty good at softball.  They turned 4 Double Plays and beat THE TEAM 9-5.  I think the website says 9-4 but the website lies.

In the second round THE TEAM is 3-1 and finishing the season against My Hittas.  They are also 3-1 so if THE TEAM wins, THE TEAM goes to the playoffs.     

GO THE TEAM!!!

100 Games of Dave

During the magic that was the Summer 2018 Season Dave played in game number 100 with THE TEAM.  I'm sure he played in another 100 games when he was pitching for The Flappers but zero of the those seasons made him a champion.  Dave is actually a 3 time champion.  He did it by hitting .551 with 95 RBIs.  He has hit 25 Doubles, 5 Triples and 4 Home Runs.  He is a lot of fun because he is having a lot of fun.  Did that make sense?  Well good job Dave.  And Good Morning!

First Round Leaders

This is way too late but it seems like there should be some loose form of continuity in these things.  We all know how this season ends and that's great but right now, let's look at the first round.  THE TEAM finished 1-4 so it was no afternoon stroll through the butterfly pavilion.  Let's get on with it

Batting Avg Gentlemen

.875 Jack
.706 Peter
.650 Lou

Batting Avg Ladies

.692 Kelly
.526 Natasha
.429 Katie Mae

RBIs Gentlemen

9 Peter
8 Rick
6 Jimmy

RBIs Ladies

4 Natasha
4 Dora
4 Melody

Doubles

5 Lou
4 Jimmy
2 Kelly
1 Dave
1 Dora
1 Melody

Triples

1 Peter
1 Dora
1 Jimmy
1 Jack

Home Runs

1 Lou
1 Peter
1 Jack
1 Rick

Overall THE TEAM hit .519 with 11 Walks and 2 Strikeouts.  Is that good?  Who can remember.  The first round ended long ago.

GO THE TEAM!!!

THE TEAM = Winter 2018

Now that all that adolescent shitheaderry is complete there are couple of things that never made it in here and they should have.  Jimmy pitched a complete game and won.  There was that game that ended on an unassisted double play by Peter.  There was that game were Dora made something like a thousand outs catching strong throws to home and gloving foul balls behind the plate.

A couple of offensive records were broken this season.  Of course it was Peter and Lou who broke them.  Peter drove in 39 runs this season breaking the record of 32 set in the Winter 2012 season.  Lou broke his Summer 2012 record of .900 hitting .944 this season.  Is anybody surprised?  Yeah that's about as surprising as finding out there is no radio edit for Last Call by Outkast.

Overall THE TEAM went 5-5.  THE TEAM hit a best ever .660 and scored a best ever 171 runs on the season but the defense was kind a roman candle of errors so...  5-5.

Your effort paid off

1 Katie Mae played in 8 games.  She hit .231 with 2 Walks for an OBP of .286.  She really got the hang of it in the second round hitting .416 with an RBI.

3 Lou played in 10 games.  He hit .944 with 23 RBIs, 4 Home Runs and 2 Walks.  He led THE TEAM with 11 Doubles and led THE TEAM with 3 Triples.

4 Lauren played in 2 games.  She hit .875 with an RBI, a Double and a Walk.  THE TEAM is better with her.

5 Kelly played in 8 games.  She hit .636 with 8 RBIs a Double and a Walk

7 Natasha played in 8 games.  Our fearless leader hit .679 and led the ladies with 19 RBIs.  She also led the ladies with 5 Doubles.  She also handled it all.

22 Dave played in 9 games.  He hit .520 with 10 RBIs, 2 Doubles and a Home Run.  His show was really good

23 Melody played in 10 games.  She hit .457 with 4 RBIs, 2 Doubles and 5 Walks.

24 Peter played in 10 games.  He hit .771 with 369 RBIs, a Double and a Triple.  He led THE TEAM with 5 Home Runs.

25 Dora played in 9 games.  She led the ladies hitting a career best .710.  She had 8 RBIs, a Double and a Walk.

33 Jimmy played in 9 games.  He hit .815 with 16 RBIs, 5 Doubles and 2 Home Runs.  He is also the most versatile defender on THE TEAM

38 Jack played in 8 games.  He hit .741 with 24 RBIs, 2 Doubles, a Triple and 4 Home Runs.  His Home runs were crazy missiles that he made look easy.  What does that guy eat?

As long as we are talking so friendly, Peter got his 500th career hit this season.  Guess who the only other person in the 500 hit club is?  That's right! It's Outkast.  Jimmy joined the 100 RBI Club.  We can look at those hits if you want.

Here is everybody with over 100 hits for THE TEAM

539 Lou
508 Peter
332 Rick
277 Dora
225 Natasha
202 Doug
195 Victor
188 Melody
183 Kelly
176 Jimmy
143 Dave
104 Aerial

That's 12 players and 9 of them are still on THE TEAM.

GO THE TEAM!!!

THE TEAM - The First Round of Winter 2018

The offense sure got it together for that last game.  THE TEAM hit .722 and scored 17 runs.  There were no strikeouts!  Lauren dragged her sick self to the game to go 4 for 4 with a Double and fried up a base runner with a perfect snap throw to first.  Dave hit his first Home Run of the season.  He should be shirtless, oiled and carrying the flag of Tonga for the next game.

The defense made a lot of errors so THE TEAM lost though.

Oops

That was the First Round.  Here are your leaders:

Batting Average Gentlemen

.941 Lou
.824 Peter
.769 Jimmy

Batting Average Ladies

.875 Lauren
.778 Dora
.750 Natasha

RBIs Gentlemen

19 Peter
11 Lou
11 Jack

RBIs Ladies

12 Natasha
 6 Kelly
 6 Dora

Doubles

4 Lou
2 Natasha
2 Jimmy
2 Melody
2 Rick

Triples

2 Lou
1 Peter
1 Rick

Home Runs

3 Lou
2 Peter
2 Jack
1 Jimmy
1 Dave

Overall THE TEAM hit .656 with a +23 Run Differential.  THE TEAM did other stuff

GO THE TEAM!!!

It's True

Things are looking up for THE TEAM.  After The Sucks there was a 30 to 15 win against the LA River Yacht Club.  Get this: Jimmy and Jack both hit Grand Slams in that game.  

Are you out of your f**king kidding me?

It's true!

The next week THE TEAM swept a Doubleheader.  That hasn't happened in a while.  In the 20 to 17 win against The Ding Bats most of those runs happened on 2 out rallies so that's keen.  Katie Mae got her first hit of the season in that one.

Sweeping a Doubleheader would seen impossible without Jack and Lauren.  If Natasha is the Heart and Lou is the Hustle and Peter is the Brain then winning without Lauren and Jack is like winning without the endocrine system or something.

Natasha driving in 9 runs in the two games also helps cover for not having an endocrine system.

Hey here's something people seem to be curious about.  THE TEAM has been around forever.  This is how many seasons you have been around:

Lou - 30 Seasons

Rick - 30 Seasons

Peter - 28 Seasons

Melody - 22 Seasons

Dora - 20 Seasons

Natasha - 17 Seasons

Kelly - 13 Seasons

Dave - 12 Seasons

Jimmy - 8 Seasons

Lauren - 5 Seasons

Jack - 2 Seasons

Katie Mae - 1 Season 

That's 188 Seasons of highly charged softball experience.  No wonder THE TEAM is awesome

GO THE TEAM!!!