The game was very disappointing for obvious reasons.
Maddux did not bring his game. At his age, I don't think his performance warrants a contract renewal.
Beimel screwed the team by skipping curfew, getting drunk, and destroying his pitching hand, then lying about it. I can't imagine any team picking him up now.
Furcal and Lofton were weak. Drew flopped.
Broxton, a rookie, was leaned on too heavily in the bullpen.
There is no cleanup hitter on the Dodgers. Ethier crapped out so badly in September, one has to wonder if he'll be back next year. He was rookie of the year candidate in August, and now suddenly it looks like Oakland got the better part of the Milton Bradley trade.
The Dodgers left 21 men on base in the game.
Kent worked his ass off to be a one-man team tonight but little-league errors embarrassed the team.
Julio Lugo is a crybaby who should be released.
Nomar still has injury problems. Even though he won COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR, I don't think he'll be a Dodger next year. He'll want a 3-year contract at about $10M/year, and his past injuries do not warrant that. The Dodgers have a very talented rookie in James Loney who is ready to take over for him at first. It's a shame, I think Nomar could be a franchise player for the team, but they need somewhere to put him, and he needs to be realistic about a contract.
In the off-season, the Dodgers need to retool the starting rotation. Lowe is probably the only starter we can be sure of. Billingly is looking good too, but he's still a rookie. Kuo is a maybe. Penny was great in the first half, but now he has back problems, after last year's biceps problem. Hendrickson was a mess, but seems to be better out of the pen.
They need to look for a cleanup hitter.
The bullpen is in the best shape, but they need another consistent lefty. And I think Tomko and Sele are toast.
Grady Little made mistakes, especially in handling the bullpen. They could have left Repko off the roster and carried another lefty like Stultz or Hamulack. Kuo should not have started against Glavine, he should have started game 1 or 3. Penny should never have been used in relief. Little should not have put Broxton in so early in the game tonight. (If they had won today, what bullpen would they have left tomorrow???)
The good: the crowd was AMAZING, especially considering how badly the team played. It was a record crowd. It was fun to be at the game, but not fun to see the outcome.
Thankfully there was good news: I was completely wrong about the Tigers, they beat the Yankess and will move on to play Oakland in the ALCS. I'll be rooting for them.
All said, I had a great time with baseball this year, and I'm sorry my teams are all done, and I won't be seeing any more games in person. I went to 34 games total this year, including Dodgers, Angels, USC, and exhibition. That's considerably more than any other year. I'll miss it.
I have tickets for the USC-UCLA game, so at least I have that to look forward to.
In football, USC won, but only by 6 points over Wahington. However, Arkansas upset #2 Auburn, so USC should move up in the rankings to #2 in all polls.
Tomorrow in the NFL, New England is favored by 10 over Miami, and Buffalo must play the undefeated Bears, who are also favored by 10. New England should beat the spread easily, but Buffalo has their work cut out for themselves.
2 comments:
I went to the USC-UCLA game my freshman year, which was the season SC broke the streak. That was insane. I wouldn't go anymore because I don't want to get beaten on the head by police on horseback.
I do have tickets to USC-Oregon though. That'll have to do.
Well, we saw at least two fights at the Dodgers-Mets games, and we were there three years ago when there was a shooting in the parking lot at a late-season Dodger-Giant game.
But those events are pretty rare.
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