Man…I’m at a bit of a loss. A weird thing about rooting for a team like the Dodgers, who have been good / competitive for the last 10+ years, is that as a fan you build an expectation that it’s just going to continue forever and ever. So even when the team is doing well, currently sitting in 2nd place in the NL, long stretches of mediocrity feel like the sky is falling. Over the last 43 games, the Dodgers have gone a ho-hum 22-21, which is about as mediocre as you can get. Our lead in the NL West still sits at 7.5 games, but feels much closer than that.
And in some aspects Dodgers fans have to choose. Does the regular season matter or not? Is it truly WS or bust in the sense that we shouldn’t worry about the games in July & August and only worry about September & October? Because that is the overarching narrative that we hear. “All that matters is the postseason.”
Personally, I don’t see it that way. Baseball is too random in the postseason to pin all of your enjoyment on the season, based on the outcome of the playoffs. Matchups, hot pitchers, hot batters, and just plain bad luck are the biggest parts of who wins it. And it almost requires a lot to go not go wrong, more than for things to go right for your team to win. So I think the regular season matters, and that’s why it’s so frustrating to see the Dodgers sputter through it.
Of course there are circumstances to consider that give reason to why the Dodgers are where they are. Below you will find the list of players that are on the IL / have had to get optioned:
- Mookie Betts
- Max Muncy
- Tyler Glasnow
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto
- Walker Buehler
- Brusdar Graterol
- Bobby Miller
- Jason Heyward
- Shohei Ohtani (Pitcher)
- Joe Kelly
- Clayton Kersahw
- Dustin May
- Emmet Sheehan
- Tony Gonsolin
What a freakin list. You got Cy Young candidates, MVP candidates, best player in baseball type of names. So there are legit reasons why we are struggling. But it just feels…different.
Maybe it’s because the young guys that we drafted and brought up are not killing it like they’ve done in years past. Maybe it’s the fact that we took excellence in the regular season for granted. Or it’s maybe the impending doom we feel, knowing what awaits us in baseball. Head in hands. Disappointed faces. Not lifting up the WS trophy.
We are here on July 11, 2024, with a LOT of baseball and a LOT of opportunity ahead of us. The trade deadline has not passed and we are getting reinforcements, eventually. So consider this a snapshot into the Dodger nation psyche. It feels dark, but we know that all our goals are still in front of us.
Let’s get it done Dodgers!