Dave Roberts: ‘I Don’t See Any Weaknesses In The 2019 Dodgers’
It’s the time of year for hope – and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is providing plenty of it. Roberts spoke with Bill Plunkett of the OC Register, and there are plenty of quotes that should get you excited.
Let’s examine the headline grabbers on as the Dodgers report to spring training at Camelback. Moreover, it’s clear that if you’re a member of the Dodgers clubhouse; the eye is on the prize of reaching a third consecutive World Series.
#Dodgers head to #SpringTraining aiming for another World Series trip, this time with a different ending, and Dave Roberts’ optimism is already in mid season form:
“I just don’t see any weaknesses with this ballclub”https://t.co/aAHuQPeLw2— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) February 11, 2019
Above all, Roberts feels that this group has what it takes to make that happen.
“I think this team is just as talented, for me,” Roberts said, citing one of the deepest groups of starting pitchers in baseball and a bullpen fortified by the signing of Kelly. “And I think in practice it’s better because it’s a more balanced ballclub. Pollock is a big part of that. Now on any given night, regardless of who we’re facing, it’s going to be a tough offense to navigate.
“I think getting arguably our best player from two years ago back healthy is something that’s a big deal. … I just don’t see any weaknesses with this ballclub where last year you could argue if we faced a lefty we could be exposed a little bit.”
Of course – that best player – is sneaky MVP candidate Corey Seager. Mentioning of Pollock and Kelly as additions that strengthen the whole are key. While the Dodgers didn’t bring home the prized free agent, they’re going to win ballgames at regularity because of additions like that.
Moreover, Andrew Friedman feels that the key is consistency.
“I think the team last year was the most talented team I have ever been around. But for a host of reasons, some bad luck, some real, we weren’t as consistent. And I think a big thing for us is to avoid the games where we score zero, one or two runs. As often as we can, score three or more and we will win a lot of games doing that, especially with our pitching staff.”
If the Dodgers win the 2019 World Series, they would be the only team in baseball history other than the 1923 Yankees to lose back-to-back appearances before breaking through in the third try. Roberts says this is the team without any weakness, and his boss says last year’s squad was the most talented under his watch.
The answers to the questions will be scribed about in a short while, with meaningful clues to the conclusion along the way. Do you agree with Dave Roberts’ assessment of the 2019 club? Why or why not?
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Catching? Two .200 hitters with minimal power isn’t a weakness?
The biggest weakness is the manager. No weakness. Lets see. 2B, Catcher, SS(no one knows if he is healthy), Outfield(CF a player who hasn’t finished a full season in a while, RF/LF a rookie who has not faced a lot of ML pitchers and a 3rd year player who had a great first half of rookie season and has regressed from that. Unless the Dodgers learn to play as a team and not swing for the fences on every pitch you have a big problem. A HR gives you 1 run and unless they can put runners on its still only 1 run. Rather have a player who hits 10Hrs and doesn’t lead the majors in S/Os. Then you have 1B. A 2nd year player who is not proven and a 30+ player that has seen his best days. Hope I’m wrong but I see a lot of holes here.
I agree with you, Ed in everything you posted here. Let’s also not forget a pitching staff that has served up a total of 363 HR’s over the last 2 years and if it were not for the HR’s Dodgers hit themselves, we don’t get deep or make the PS at all.
Ed, I think Roberts needs to get a pair of strong glasses. I see the same things you and PaulDodgerFan1965 see, and I wear glasses most of the time. I love my Blue Crew to the point of going overboard, but I try to be a realist. The catching is very weak; pitchers with long injury histories;
center fielder who is injury prone; and a closer who has heart issues. What Davey sees is beyond me!!!! As I have said til I am Blue in the face, we are not that strong, and certainly less so than 2018. Go Blue Crew!!!
Ed I have a strong hunch that a lot of the dumb decisions Robert’s makes are because that buffoon in the front office whispering in his ear. As a player Dave was big into bunting runners along, hit and running and playing smart baseball.
Ed I’ve seen you post before so no offense but……..How is CT3 a weakness? He’s one of the best defensive players in all of MLB. He was also just ranked in the top 10(7th) of 2b in all of baseball also. I agree he strikes out WAY too much, but he’s far from a weakness. Do you know much about Pollock or just read about him? I assume just read, and aren’t aware of many facts. He’s an elite CF’r, with range, speed, power, and an above avg arm. If you call a guy injury prone because he breaks a finger diving for a ball, or gets hit by a pitch and breaks his hand then I guess he’s injury prone. That make Turner injury prone also missing time twice for being hit by pitches. You also doubt Verdugo who’s consider an elite OF prospect. His arm and speed are equal to that of Puig which so many compare him too. His defense is superior to Puig’s, like AJ’s. He’s hit nearly .300 as a professional. Most fans would be excited about such a stud 22 year old player, but fans want to worry/complain? Sorry to Dodger’s fans who aren’t happy w 6 straight division titles and 2 WS appearances. Dodger’s fans you are starting to act like Giants fans. Quit your whining!
Is it just me or does being a manager sound like being a politician? There’s a line from “The Hunt for Red October” where the security advisor to the president Jeffrey Pelt says to Jack Ryan(Baldwin’s character) “if I’m not kissing babies, then I’m stealing their lollipops.” I think every team has a weakness. It’s just if the team can overcome that weakness.
It’s definitely like being a politician especially in this organization where you have to cover things up by being a shill so the sheep dont stop supporting
This is a funny comment. Liked it.
I am not a Dodger manager or a major league coach of any kind but I do know the last two world series, the Dodgers where apart of, they should have won. The only hole the players have is Roberts. he does not know which players go where. I was so confused as to who plays what the last two seasons. why would a ball club keep a manager like him. I’m not scared to 5o say that I could have done a better job and brought home the world series. wake up L.A. we are in for another rlet down by Robert’s with no one to fire him for not doing his job RIGHT.
It’s a solid roster IF they stop the homerun or bust strategy. Take walks, get hits, have heads up base running, the homeruns will come but don’t try hard to force them, just win by any means. That’s what championship teams do.
And platoon guys less?!
Yes certainly need to platoon less
another season and upper management has put together a team that they think is competitive…….and then we have a rookie wannabe manager who has shown to be the teams worst enemy……..he compounds the weaknesses of the team and doesn’t know how to bring the team to the next level…..use the world series as an example….maybe there should be focus on having new ideas and some experience on dealing with players
Exactly! And how about Roberts taking hot bats out of lineup because of the handedness of the opposing pitcher relying totally on analytics and platooning to excess.
The over-dependence on Sabremetrics is going to be the end of the game as we know it!!!! And, unfortunately, we have bought into it hook, line and sinker. Put your best players out there, and barring injury, illness, or a terrible stat line against an opposing pitcher, let the best play until they deserve to removed. Go Blue!!!!
BLUE LOU! Concur and even PD Jr. chirps in agreement with you, LOL
Thank you Paul and PD Jr. Its going to be a long season!!!!
Ahem………Beg to differ there Dave…I love our team BUT……no true second baseman………weak hitting catching corp………..suspects unknown to setup for Jansen (still have not replaced Morrow)……..still do not know if Jansen is Jansen…….but solid everywhere else. Let’s be real Dave.
Hey bluz1st! If I even tried all day long, I could not say this better than ya just did. SPOT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Paul!…….Yea……..Dave is smoking rock again!. The thing that stands out the most as I wrote that comment, for me anyway, no one is talking about Kenley……….I just have not seen him be THE Kenley for a while now…….kinda like when the wheels fell off Broxton years ago……Broxton could never regain his dominating form once he started to falter……..I would like to think Jansen’s problem were his heart rhythmic problems like everyone else is, but his aura of armour was cracking even before the cardio diagnosis. Then add in the loss of Morrow……the back end of our bullpen appears suspect to me now. Now if Jansen does rebound and Joe Kelly can do a Brandon Morrow imitation, maybe my fears will be allayed. Caleb Ferguson and Julio Urias could also be the sleepers that save our bullpen this season…….you never know. But saying “I don’t see any weaknesses”……our manager must be wearing a blindfold.
Bluz1st, I just cannot understand Dodgers simply handing the RF job to verdugo, yet another LHB. And for the most part RF is a POWER position and people can say what they want about Puig, but in the past 2 years Puig has hit 51 Hr’s. Correct on Jansen and the key for him, as you may know is keeping the baseball in the yard.. In fact i see that as a huge key for this pitching staff because if they can do a better job of keeping the ball in the yard, then Dodger hitters won’t have to hit 235 HR’s as a team to win it. Here is a killer stat for you and all here: In 1988, the last Dodger WS Championship, that team hit a TOTAL of 99 HR’s all year…….go figure.
Hey, bluz1st, read what PaulDodgerFan1965, a stalwart Dodger fan, has written. He is correct in agreeing with you; and I agree with him. This could be a long season!!!! Go Blue Crew!!
I agree with most of the previous comments. The dodgers are hoping Barnes can come back to 2017 season averages, they are hoping Pollock can play a full season, and they are hoping that Seager returns to his pre-injury level. And more hope that a rookie can become just as good as Puig in the outfield. That is a lot of hopes for a team that has no weaknesses.
It’s a very strong team. But I’m pretty sure that he sees weaknesses. Part of the manager’s job is to turn a cold eye to his lineup and see what can be improved. At the least he has to look at his lineup as an opposing manager would. If he sees no weaknesses, then he better not pull Hill or anyone else too early this year
waiting for 3 years……talk cheap…..no improvement…..team getting outplayed and out coached and the players show and know that too
Clint, hello there and let me say at the outset that I COMPLETELY DISAGREE with Roberts on his thinking that there’s no weaknesses. Despite having Pollock here Dodgers are still vulnerable to LHP and will see that for themselves when we face a lot of them at the beginning at least. And if Dodgers do that platooning thing to an extreme again, it is partly because of weaknesses in players who are marginal for only being able to compete against one side of a pitcher..LH or RH. Muncy defensively anywhere he plays, Verdugo in RF being expected to replace those RHB we lost to the Reds, a pitching staff that plays half the games in ‘pitcher friendly’ DS while 8 or more teams in the NL allow fewer HR’s and so on.
You are on a roll this afternoon, my very good friend. How do we replace those runs lost by a rather poor trade with the Reds? Having Kemp hot for half a season might be better than not having him at all. Puig’s defense alone merits his inclusion on the team, and his stat line is fine with me. Handing a position to Verdugo makes less sense to me because he has not proven anything at this stage : he is an untested commodity. How come we see these things and Roberts does not? Go Blue!!! Hi, PD, jr.!!!!!
LOU, Good question on how we see things, as we watch every game for the most part. But most likely he was ‘coached’ to say these things because I would guess that many of us here as well as some of the team members themselves don’t see what Roberts is trying to put out there. Verdugo is just another plethora of LH batters on this team and if it were me at the very least I woyuld get Harper to play RF before I would hand the position to Verdugo. I must ask you this…how do ya think we all would react if we saw Harper sign with the rival Giants ?
I can only figure that the Giants are attempting to drive the market for Harper; i.e. try driving his price upward. The Dodgers IMHO do not want to see Harper sign with our dreaded Gnats. But Harper is a fine example of the tail wagging the dog, and that cannot be allowed. Go Blue!!
I think if a team doesn’t have a weakness, a weakness will be exposed eventually my friend. There are too many dollars riding on the opposition to do so. Do you agree? Thanks as always for the read and stopping by, Paul
Ah yes Lou-Dodger but we need to remember that Friedman acts like the money spent is out of his own personal pocket. I was unaware that addition by subtraction makes the team better.
LOL!!!! Its a new principle of mathematics, I am afraid. Go Blue!!
Good ol Dave Roberts. Did you expext him to be honest? No, Dave Roberts is the king of positive. Even when he should be apologizing for failure. Backing up Darvish after the Houston World Series after he was a disaster. Even though Darvish ditched the Dodgers to rob the Cubs. Fact is Dodgers are a worse team than when they lost the World Series. They bargain shop a d that will never beat the Astros, Red Sox or Yankees. Roberts can spin it however he wants. Kershaw is a year older and they needed to add a major piece and they didn’t. All they care about is profit and doing the minimum to sell tickets.
Good day folks! Before my post here right now I count 32 comments and NOT 1 of them thinks what Roberts is saying has any real merit at all.