Dodgers Analyst Slams Mookie Betts, ‘He Should Be Embarrassed’
Bill Plaschke is a very good storyteller. He has made quite a career for himself as a columnist, and even now, 35 years into his career, he is still very good at the storytelling aspect of his job.
As a baseball analyst, though, Plaschke leaves a bit to be desired.
After Saturday’s loss to the Padres, Plaschke and his fellow Los Angeles Times writers Jorge Castillo and Jack Harris took to YouTube to be grumpy about L.A.’s season coming to an abrupt end. It’s how most Dodger fans were feeling, and everyone deals with grief in different ways.
Plaschke, though, showed why he’s not nearly as respected as an analyst as he is as a columnist when he decided to turn his rant into singling out one L.A. player who struggled in the series.
“One guy who’s not leaving but he should be embarrassed is Mookie Betts. Mookie Betts gets treated with kid gloves. The highest paid player on the team didn’t show up. Mookie needs to show up bigger than he showed up the last couple years.”
Here’s the problem, Bill. Before this series, Mookie had a .305 postseason batting average with an .835 OPS in the postseason with the Dodgers. In 2021, he batted .319 with a .782 OPS, including .450 with a 1.055 OPS in their NLDS win over the Giants.
Mookie had a poor 2022 NLDS. According to Plaschke, he should be embarrassed, and the media should harass him about it. But Bill sees a pattern where there is no pattern. Sometimes people have a bad series, and unfortunately for Mookie, his bad series came at the same time several of his teammates had a bad series, and now Bill Plaschke is mad.
Someone should be embarrassed for sure, Bill, but it’s not Mookie Betts.
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Although JT hit a home run on a wild card last year, but has shown nothing since then. His eyes have lost focus and each time his head has gone down. His batting at the nlds was poor, but he was guaranteed a starter and made the game lose momentum. last two years, when he received 34 million, he recorded OPS.417.467 each in the playoffs, and his solo home run was the only RBI
It is time for JT to hang up his cleats and take a bench/management position.
La bought a retirement player without any responsibility or CONSEQUENCES for lazy play… enjoy the next 10 years of retirement play and superwages … suckeredthe fans
The bowler Mookie should be embarrassed. But then again the whole Dodger team, Front Office included, should be embarrassed! Note to Jeff Snider. I enjoy your writing, but you should be embarrassed yourself. You write for Dodgers Nation and are criticizing a guy with a proven 35 pedigree who writes for the LA Times? It makes you look small and petty. Just saying.
Maybe it’s time for Bill to retire. His writing has become boring and repetitive. He lacks objectivity and seems to think that writing a hit piece on Mookie Betts is in some way a journalistic feat. This is a terrible piece of writing done by someone who has become lazy and complacent inn what he does.
One problem with your argument is following the NLDS victory Mookie had a subpar performance in the NLCS against Atlanta, which the Dodgers also lost. The poor 2021 NLCS performance followed by the poor 2022 NLDS performance should not be ignored.
Look ive been dodgers fan all My life i’m work here in San Diego it sucks right now man just another suckie playoff year for the Dodgers Bad coaching decsions what else new we got lucky wining world series in 2020 cuase. Of COVID Best record in Baseball what to show for it nothing
I agree, as I’ve been a Dodger fan my whole life too. Biggest move is we need to send Roberts packing but unfortunately Friedman signed him through 2025.
Plaschke is just trying to be more bombastic and rude than Dylan Hernandez. Plaschke used to be the biggest jerk in the L.A. Times Sports Department until Hernandez came along. He’s just trying to regain his title.
The only person who should be embarrassed is Dave Roberts. His inability to manage a pitching staff in postseason is becoming an every year habitual pain in the Dodgers side. Take a guy out who’s throwing a two hit shut out after five innings with a pitch count in the 70s? This is the problem. He needs to be replaced.
What’s with the readers of this blog, that constantly want to blame and hate on Roberts? It’s utter ignorance. Was it up to Roberts to hit with risp? Or to do some situational hitting? You guys are pathetic, and wrong.
The Dodgers lost the series cause they didn’t hit and score runs, not the manager’s nor the pitching staff lost the series!
I am more disappointed in our cleanup hitter Will Smith, who repeatedly came up in games 3&4 with the bases loaded and pretty much DID NOTHING. He was also an automatic out with multiple chances to score having runners on base and nothing. Maybe he should not be our cleanup hitter when he was an automatic out.
As far as Mookie goes, I believe he had checked out from an exhausting year. He went on a late night tv show and actually insinuated that its a long season. But at least he got to bowl a 300 game on his birthday. Talk about a complete lack of focus.
Mookie is a front runner. When things are going well he’s all giddy, but when the Dodgers lose or are trailing he has an empty look to him. How about being a leader?
Considering how much is coming off the books, try to sign Trea, Judge and Arenado. Max can DH. Pitching next year with Anderson will be better with Hudson and Treinen healthy. Add Outman as a power lefty and we are clearly better in my book. With a lineup like this, slumps or just poor yearly performance at the plate quickly diminish.
Plaschke writes his trash for attention. He has a history of writing hit pieces on local players. I cancelled the LA Times. Hopefully Plaschke will be unemployed someday soon.
Slump proof offense?
Betts
Turner
Freeman
Judge
Arenado
Muncy
Thompson (Outman)
Smith
Lux
Bench: Taylor, Barnes, Vargas,
Dodgers can shed enough payroll to make this happen.
Arenado isn’t leaving St Louis. Trea will go to the Phillies. Bogaerts would be a better SS. Have CT3 at third. Everything else is fine.
Maybe Mookie is more suited for Late night television than playing baseball.
As with even “team” tennis, MLB is a “team”, sport. Therefore no player or manager can entirely be at fault. SD Padres played all out, w/ a lot of emotion & drive throughout the series, I saw the Dodgers show emotion maybe 3X.
Did the Dodgers think the Padres weren’t up to their level– & play accordingly? Were they expecting the Padres to lie down & take a beating, or worse to bow down to their runaway regular season record?
No telling. I grew up a Dodgers fan, lived 7 mi South of the Stadium. Once the big $$ started meaning more than developing talent internally I got on the 20+ yr, slow ride w/ the Pad’s.
Padre’s finally started to buy talent, with a plan. Not sure how I feel about that, but I am happy that after all of the futile years SD has a Team to cheer for!!
Go PADRES!!
The team took 3 x games off during the meaningless Rockies series, during which, they lost their edge. Here’s a team that bought into their own hype. These faults are on the players and ultimately mitigated by an astute manager. As a team, no one deserved entitlement until they won a world series ring. The Padres brought more energy to the field, and for that, they deserve to be playing on. When our guys take games off, I only wonder if the tickets should free of charge.
you new to baseball or what? dummy…you didnt even watch the series!
Dude , your a bone head , first off the dodgers didn’t bring they’re bats !! Further more. The pitching rotation was a Roberts call and the lineup , SO , combined that with the stupid errors and you get a big FAT loss .. A HOLE TEAM LOSS idiot !!!! Maybe you should actually know baseball before writing to the grown people ya dig !!!! Picking on mookie like you know something .. I know a few high schools can use a writer in training
Maybe someone should check what Mookie’s batting average was last year in playoffs against Atlanta. It wasnt just this year.
100% right…why are we paying these guys big money ? To CHOKE in the playoffs ? Sure seems like it. Any Superstars left anymore ?
I waited on BP years ago near the Burbank airport. Dudes a jerk, but his daughter colored the kids menu very coolly..
One player does not loss a game nor series. This is not all on Mookie Betts!. Everyone has a job to do. However when no one is producing and you have a idiot manager making bonehead decisions at critical moments, unfortunately this is the outcome. The Dodgers front office should be embarrassed for keeping Roberts on the payroll after all of his camp snoooy, goofy, and big bird shanagians!. High school coaches manage better than Roberts, heck my grandsons little league coach does better managing than this guy!. So don’t try to make Mookie Betts the scapegoat for this titanic disaster!!.
Yea Smith did nothing. Trea Turner popped up with a guy on 3rd and 1 out . Trade Bellinger and Chris Taylor. Bring up some hitters from the Minors. Do the Dodgers have a farm system anymore.
He is 1000% accurate, mr kid gloves also went on Kimmell the night before the series started and proclaimed he was “burnt” out, film/scouting tapes were useless and was obviously (stated) enamored with his bowling and could not wait for upcoming tournaments!
Sorry but that is NOT a leader and I’m sure this pathetic, toddler tantrum attitude bleeds over into the club house, He Should Be Embarrassed! If this is what $30 million a year gets you from this SOFT LA Dodger……TRADE HIM and get someone who APPRECIATES what has been given him, 65 year old dodger fan and I’m done with this “softie”, try pllaying PISSED OFF instead of trying to be a PR guy, it’ gets sickening!
PS : try concentrating on hitting instead of rearranging your jewelry…..Mr may/august!
Mookie should be embarrassed, he’s the highest paid player so he’s the unspoken leader. He’s talented and fun to watch but he has the personality of milk toast when the clubhouse gets down or socked in the mouth. He’s not a dawg. Mookie is not a Bryce Harper or a Manny Machado, he’ll sell a lot of jerseys, he has a great smile, does great interviews and clubhouse celebrations and he photographs well but when the teams back is against the wall and you need someone to change the energy, I don’t see Mookie making that happen.
Posted a comment critical of mr kid gloves and it bas yet to appear?
Ditto..my comment has yet to appear!.
Absolutely
Mookie may be overrated, but if so, not by much. He’s an exceptional player, and seems to be a good guy too.
Nobody is on, every day, every series. In spite of what the analytics think. Did he have a good series, no. Name me a Dodger who did?
It’s not the players that are at fault, it is the manager. Dave Roberts had a team that could not be beat 3 weeks pryer to the end of the season. He decided to rest them and get others into play to see them in action. This is a classic tortoise and the hare story.
It has nothing to do with Mookie’s performance. The Guggenheim group has been running the Dodgers like a criminal activity. The flagrant abuse of the DFA to Injury list is an egregious abuse of the rules of Major League Baseball. Everyone hates the Dodgers. Any team can be motivated for a short series, to play above and beyond statistical expectations. We see it all the time. Guggenheim Group is only interested in getting butts in the seats and selling their merchandise, they can care less if the Dodgers win a championship. It’s obvious when they continue to think Dave Roberts is good manager. He under preforms on his managerial analytics. Guggenheim is going to continue to steal your good health if you follow the Dodgers. They will continue to lose championship series, especially since they lie about the condition of their starting pitchers. Forearm strain. Have noticed that every pitcher diagnosed with forearm strain soon wounds up with Tommy John Surgery? The only one who hasn’t gotten TJ is Clayton Kershaw, who missed the end of 2021 Season with a forearm strain. I’m now an ex-fan of the Dodgers.
If one looks carefully over the long career of Bill Plascke one may find a pattern of Plascke singling out black players more harshly than white players. His attacks on Barry Bonds, one column ignorantly repeating myths about Babe Ruth, lies really, as a contrast to Bonds was truly awful. Just add this one to the list.
As a competitor and a former baseball player growing up all and High School I would definitely be embarrassed if I was the LEADOFF BATTER OF A 110 WIN TEAM. I get it, he had a poor series at the wrong time. It happens. But my thing is and it zeros in on Mookie for the fact that he didn’t realize he’s not getting it done the way he was before this series started and he should have thought “ok, I gotta grind and be creative with my at bats when the Padres have us down in an elimination game”.
His job as a leadoff batter/mvp caliber player should have switched gears and immediately started to mix up his at bats with putting down a bunt or taking the first pitch. Force the infield to earn outs and make the pitcher have to go after you instead of quick at bats. His job should’ve been for him to be scrappy at the plate and to be as much of a pest on the bases.
I’m almost sure that Mookie would admit that he didn’t do that.
PS. Dave Robert’s needs to be fired.
When you are on the ropes and are desperately in need to get out of the inning and know the lineup you are facing are all capable of continuing the inning then you have to make sure to give your teak an opportunity at plays when they arrive like when Juan Soto came up with runners on 2nd and 3rd and we needed a double play to stop the crowd and bleeding. Sure you hate facing a Manny Machado who is having a good series but you play for outs and that means you have to walk Juan Soto to load the bases and go to the bullpen and bring in a right hander like maybe ummm Dustin May to make it a better match up. But you don’t pitch to a player who was just offered $450 Meeeelion only to turn it down because he’ll make u pay and guess what Dave Robert’s????
He fu**ing beat you on that dumb decision.
Sorry Dave but you need to go!
Please ?
Also, how are so many missing what I see as the most obvious issue that led to the Pads beating the Dodgers in the short series? That is the problem of relief pitching. it was a problem all year, but too often, Dodger bats were so strong, too many did not want to notice how the relief staff gave up multiple runs in late innings. Tyler Anderson shut out the Pads in game 4 for five innings, and the Pads exploded for five runs, most with no outs, two innings later. That is partly the result of injuries, but it is partly Front Office, not the bench. There is an argument going around, though, that Roberts’ big error was taking out Almonte mid batter, but even that is not enough, as the Pads had already roughed up the previous pitcher, and Almonte had already been hit, too. The Dodgers’ offense and starters are what made the 111 wins, which hid the rot of the bullpen. In short series against playoff teams, that was the Achilles’ Heel.
HALLELUJAH!, finally someone speaks the truth!. Thank you!!!.
100% correct – Roberts has to go
He is a horrible coach. He has the best talent in baseball almost every year and has nothing to show for it except a 2020 summer league trophy. He pulled Tyler Anderson out way to early in game 5. He tinkers with the pitching even when guys are locked in. We hired Dave to win championships not have good regular seasons. He is not meeting the job expectation.
IMO, the entire Dodger Organization should be embarrassed!!!!. Furthermore more the last time I checked baseball was a team sport, and one player does not lose a game, nor series!. When bats are not on for your big hitters, then others including the manager need to step it up!. Let’s be real, It doesn’t matter how much money MB or any other player makes when you have a manager that continually makes bad decisions during crucial moments, and the front office backs such nonsense. My previous comments were not posted..lets see if they block this one as well!.
The only way the Dodgers are ever going to win another World Series is for MLB to cut the season in half and have another pandemic.
How unfair of you all to treat mookie this way
He is human just like all of us and played really hard all through 111 won games.
The dodgers also broke several records this year. Us true dodger fans focus on that !
Your Sox didn’t even get on the board this year …. Everyone choked all season
Bitter much ?
Totally agree about your comments re: Bill Plaschke. . .
The truth is that Mookie Betts has missed a lot of timely hitting, especially when the dodgers needed his offense the most, during critical runs needed moments, and not just during the NLDS, although it showed up most obvious for all to see then. Betts biggest offensive prowess seems to be getting a walk. His failing to produce timely at bats has not been just relegated to this post season. This has been an ongoing concern with him. One can point out his numbers and say how good they are, but it’s his inability to get the timely hits that have injured dodger chances when it mattered most. I’ve seen it time and time again. Others have had to step up and come through when he hasn’t. Freddie Freeman is much better than Betts when it counts and the dodgers have needed runs at critical junctures. I came to count on Betts not coming through in a lot of big moments, especially with runners on base.
Sox fan here….Mookie has nothing to be embarrassed about. He’s one of the best players in the game and has more then earned being the highest paid player on his team. Despite what some may say, a championship is a championship and Mookie was apart of that. Don’t make the same mistake the Red Sox did and think the rest of the team is better then this guy….because they aint. Straight up.
Agree, but Padres pitching get at least a tip o ‘da hat!
Stop being a Mookie apologist, Jeff. Tell me other then the shortened 60 game season when has Mookie shown up for the playoffs. Let’s see, last year, nope. This year with a stellar .143 BA, yeah nope. Superstars on other playoff teams are showing up like Machado, Harper, to name a few. But Mookie, NO. Finally, there is one person telling the truth and it isn’t you, it’s Plaschke. And then you have the audacity to shame him.
We can sit on the side and say alot about the Dodgers but they didn’t win this time we will be back and stronger and will win it all . You can’t put it on mookie Betts it’s on the whole team !! So now we dust are selves off and get back to work getting ready for next year because this season is in the past
Bill Plaschke You should be embarrassed for even writing that foolishness. You love criticizing people. You should do the same about your crappy articles! You should be put out to pasture old man. You aren’t Worthy to tie Mookies shoes.