ocram23 wrote: ↑November 4th, 2025, 8:19 pm
GoldenRam wrote: ↑November 4th, 2025, 7:32 pm
Consider this .. the Dodgers have won back to back World Series titles and they have hit for an average .208 our UNDER in each series.
Who, exactly, has been playing with the juju beads the last two seasons????
it is crazy for sure. If you look at their lineup you can argue they need to get 4 new position players.
They definitely need a LF, 2B, CF (if Pages is really not going to progress) 3B, not really happy about either backup C, since I don't think either showed anything.
C - Smith, but we need to start looking forward, and at least find a backup that can hit his hat size when he plays
1B - Freeman, but again, need to start looking, he's starting to get a little long in the tooth
2B - Kim? or get someone on the free agent or trade market
SS - Betts, they will run him back one more year at least, but this guy needs to work on his bat offseason
3B - ? My best guess is they run Muncy back one last year while they search for a long term replacement. If I could contact this guy I would STRONGLY suggest that is he is coming back, he spends the offseason working on an OPEN batting stance. His closed stance isn't really working and the open stance should help him see the ball better, maybe get a few more contact hits. One thing about Muncy is hidden value. His TotA is .867 and has been .918 and .917 last two seasons. Freeman, for example has been .879, .862 last two. Muncy also has a career .433 SecA, with .456 and .444 last two seasons. This is where his walk numbers comes into play.
LF ? I've seen Kyle Tucker suggested to the Dodgers, but I don't know if I want to pay what he's looking for, which is suggested to be in the $400 million range. Not sure he's worth that. Failing that, Bellinger is back on the market, but his non Yankee Stadium OPS SUCKED. Guess the best thing is see who hits the market and who we want to spend the money on, but I doubt they go for anyone with a large contract
CF - Pages/Edman platoon for now I guess. Pages COMPLETE failure in the postseason though is SO concerning. I mean Muncy hit .214, his career is .216, but the Dodgers are 13-4 in postseason series with Muncy, he has hit 16 bombs with 37 RBI (not fantastic, but at least modestly productive) 65/93 walk/SO ratio, which is not horrendous and a .381 OBP with an above average .817 OPS. Pages in TWO seasons is a combined 8-70 .114 BA 2HR 5RBI and a 0/17 walk/SO ratio with a .151 OBP and a .365 OPS. Hell that last one doesn't even qualify as SUBPAR it's so bad, let alone the OBP being just flat out abysmal. Yet they are 6-0 in series he played, but outside on defensive play, I think we can agree he hasn't contributed much 1-16 in this series, including a weak ass grounder up the middle in crunch time AB. He regular season is better but still below par .310 OBP and below average .747 OPS. His TotA is .692 and SecA .242 If you aren't a good hitter, you gain value in SecA. Pages does not do that. TotA above .300 is good and SecA .350-400 is good, above .400 is excellent and denotes the best offensive contributors. Ohtani for example is 1.047 and .479 and has been .542 and better each of the last 3 years, though the numbers have declined over the last two
RF - T. Hernandez He is playable, some of his numbers go up in the postseason, his BB/SO ration is better, OPS worse. My biggest issues are his regular season BB/SO ration and his OBP. It's all or nothing and and outside last years .339m which is still not all that good, his numbers have been in decline the last 4 years and considering that 4 years back it was only .316, he hasn't been good at finding his way on base for a bit. He doesn't flash enough power to ignore those numbers, at least for me.
I could see a whole new outfield next season, but suspect they'll stick with Teoscar, MAYBE give Pages one more look, but we've tried Outman and now Pages, and both have pretty much shit the bed. I do see a new 2B, but suspect Muncy comes back at third.
IN the end you could be correct, with 4 new bats and possibly 5, my best guess however is 3, 2B, LF, CF. There is also a possibility they look for a bopper at 3B and shift Muncy back to 2B if they keep him. I think much of that depends on who is available to them at those relative positions.
Priority guess? LF, 2B/3B whichever they find better value at, CF, RF.
Also, HAVE to shore up that bullpen and find and ACTUAL closer if the Dodgers are not going to bludgeon teams into submission, which they so far do not. Edwin Diaz, now that he's on the market would be a nice get, but would cost big money. They could try and go with Roki, but at the end of the day, I think they send him back to the rotation, especially with Kershaw out of the mix. (Though if I hear Kershaw has taken up throwing the Javelin in the offseason, I'd be looking for an UNretirement notice from him!) At the end of the day the man DID go 11-2 with a respectable 3.36 or so ERA. Biggest issue was losing the pop on the fastball, and struggling a bit with command. Needs to get Verlander's magic juju. He did, however, mostly keep them in the games he started, though he was essentially a 5-6 inning starter. I see Yamamoto, Snell, Ohtani, Glasnow, Sasaki. Sheehan could get a look, also Stone who was their best pitcher for a while. Those last two could have some value on the trade market for a hitter/bullpen guy. We got some value for Pepiot, and both those guys are better, and pitching is still at a premium
JMO .. for what it's worth
