Dodger reality for the young and/or delusional

   

Note to the delusional or just very young Dodger fans that can use that as an excuse for not knowing better…

The Dodgers will win the West. They have as good a chance as any to win it all. They have three very strong starters (assuming Ryu comes back healthy and Greinke shakes off his recent malaise (for him anyway), so that means they can beat anyone the days they pitch. They have superstars up and down the roster, most of who have underachieved in 2014 but could wake up in the post-season. The team has won in spite of never truly being hot. They’ve won with subpar years from many. They’ve won with Donnie. They’ve won with a partial bullpen. They’ve won with no offense at all from catcher. They’ve won with poor defense. They’ve won even though they’re 0-44 in games they’ve trailed through 7 innings. They’ve won without fans seeing the games on TV. They’ve won with a leader – Stan Kasten – who clearly is more into stadium WiFi and other “big picture” things than tweaking a $235M “win now” payroll club. They’ve won without calling up any prospects of note. They’ve won while coasting through the spring and summer. They’ve won with dugout and on field dancing. They’ve won with bubble machines. They’ve won with young fans not watching the games even while in the park – snapping selfies and posting them to Twitter so their friends might be envious. They’ve won with Hanley being hurt most of the time. They’ve won with skinny Kemp modeling and going through prolonged periods of not putting up any numbers. They’ve won through Ethier’s self-imposed/still in uniform retirement. They’ve won with CC doing nothing. They’ve won with A-Gone disappearing for two months. They’ve won with pitchers that should be on the waiver wire. They’ve won through 5 or 6 announcers few like or watch or listen to. They’ve won through bad pre-game concerts. They’ve won through MLB trying to appeal to young fans rather than market a product young fans should be drawn to. They’ve won through morons claiming to be Dodgers fans cussing out those who actually are. They’ve won through a weak division making it easy.

All this said, the Dodgers have yet to really click on all cylinders for a prolonged period of time. It’s quite possible they will do this at the right time – as the season nears an end – and take that momentum into Oct. It’s all possible they’ll finally get hot and Donnie will bench everyone, play the nobodies on the bench, thus nullifying said momentum and the Dodgers will enter playoff ball cold as ice. Or it’s possible they won’t truly get hot at all. Again, 0-44 in games they’ve trailed through 7 innings and outside of Kershaw, only Dee standing out as having something of a career year.

Baseball is mediocre. There are few teams that look very scary. The Dodgers could win it all. They could also be exposed and battered in Oct and be out before the selfies are even snapped. It would be just like the Dodgers to win with a team like this one. A team without television coverage, and many obvious problems. But then, the youngsters and faux fans wouldn’t care. They don’t know much about baseball or the Dodgers rich history. They say they like Vin but are actually more interested in Bieber, Chris Brown, the Kardashian/Jenners, Miley, etc., etc. So snap those duck lipped selfies and tweet gangsta style nonsense. Make sure to act like a dumb ass and attack fans that actually know baseball and appreciate said rich history of the Dodgers and are concerned this 2014 team is pretty far away from the great Dodger teams of the past. As I said, they have as good a chance as any to win it all, but don’t fool yourself, this isn’t a good team. #delusional