Dodgers News: Dave Roberts Believes He Been Guilty of One Thing Over His Postseason Managerial Career

I agree with your comnent John. Roberts has played Clayton Kershaw not with the eye test Commen Sense reactive approach to remove him when it’s so Ddamm obvious to Dodger fans who really follow the team enough to know Roberts and Kershaw’s relationship and the way Roberts trusts his players differently under different standards that are puzzling and frustrating to say the least! On one hand he was very short with Tony Gonsolin, taking him out relatively easy when he would all of a sudden lose his fastball command, give up hard contact as opposed to previously observed weak contact; walks, and some wildness that put men on base, created traffic and some runs.. but NEVER have I’ve recalled Dave Roberts giving Clayton Kershaw the hook when similar circumstances arised. And often in the playoffs, especially since 2017 a year into the realm of Roberts’ managerial career with the Dodgers, have seen Save Robert erroneously leave in Clayton Kershaw allowing him extra batters to face to fix his pitching messes he’s created by allowing walks, hard contact, and long high pitch counts that fall in favor of the hitters because Kershaw likes to throw strikes and if he’s not making pitch location, Kershaw like Gonsolin struggles to strike out batters and leaves his secondary pitches over too much of the home plate where they get hammered because batters will keyhole him and not get caught swinging at an identified edgy 87-89 mph slider or his 78-83 mph curve balls that are not on a similar plane off his 4 seam 88-92 mph fastball? I think Kershaw is the Kryponite of Dave Roberts, he has allowed him slack that has left Kershaw in far too long where the damage, the game is done, he’s given up multiple runs, the lead, and left men in scoring position for a Reliever to get him out of his self implosion of a jam thanks to Dave Roberts’ player trust with Kershaw to I’m sure attempt to correct his damaged post season historical record that is an Ugly unfortunate scar of Kershaw’s otherwise Hall of Fame ‘regular season’ career statistics that are the point of nearly 2 1/2 X as ugly of an ERA in the postseason, as compared to the regular season’s ~2.50. As reported after this latest postseason debacle, he now is 13-13 .500 with an ERA over 5+ and if you go back to Roberts’ tenure, these implosions are in significant moments such as this important ‘Ace Pitcher’ game 1 start of the NLDS, or in clutch relief implosion as in the 2019 loss at home to the eventual World Series Champions, the Washington Nationals serving up multiple home runs in the 7th inning that gave up the Dodgers’ lead and crushed the boisterous Dodgers home crowd, the team’s entire game control & momentum, thanks to serving up a loud home run to 2B Howie Kendrick after one to his teammate the at bat prior…Again, Roberts ignored the hard contact “eye test’ gave too much trust to Kershaw in a different standard he applies to other pitchers, and its snake bit him, ruined the team’s game and season post season goalso in order to give Kersgaw the chance opportunities to redeem his post season record and recent failures, redeem him over the media’s continued pressure to explain away what happened again in this post season implosion that he has no excuses, no explanations that are not unfamiliar to us fans.
Dave Roberts’ double standards, going against just managing the game as what’s actually happening in the game, and not wishful thinking and prioritizing instead of saving and rescuing Clayton Kershaw’s postseason record and failures that keep – unfortunately to longtime fans, his teammates – keep popping up at the most inopportune times and Dave Roberts is still on his hands not acting in the best interests in the moment, using Statcast analytics and the very observable game time ‘eye test’ managerial player moves necessary to save runs, the game, and trust others to pitch better than Kershaw in the moment – at the costs & unfortunate strategic moment & game situation demise of the team’s game that he has allowed to go up in flames while Roberts stays stuck in his Kershaw Crush trust dilemma – placing this priority of serving Kershaw’s legacy repair act over just getting back to the damm basics of straight up just managing the game in the real time, and protecting the remainder of the playoff series – putting the team first istead, over this failure of a obvious continuation managerial move of giving extra player deference to Kershaw over others for an opportunity for this veteran players’ career legacy redemption act makeover attempt!
If Roberts learned anything from Kevin Cash’s error treating Blake Snell as if he was getting hit hard and running out of steam in the 7th inning to tbe Dodgers’ 2020 World Series delight when he mysteriously pulled Snell out after he reached his pre-set pitch count, instead of letting him continue on in a obviously no-hit career best pitching effort in the biggest moment of his career that baffled the Ray’s and Dodgers’ fans beyond belief, beyond the most obvious learned astute eye tests that said “what the hell are you doing!?” Well we even saw Dave Roberts repeat that same error with his pitcher Anderson against San Diego in the pivotal game 4 game versus San Diego when tbe Dodger pitcher was baffling the Padres for 5 plus innings in a tight game the Dodgers led that if they held on, would of took the series back to Dodger Stadium with Julio Urias starting and the Dodgers having won and with momentum to energize the crowd and push them over to the NLCS vs the Phillies. But instead, as Dave Roberts showed, he doesn’t make the wisest decisions, and ignores yet again game time reality eye tests, analytics in tbe key moments. He either gives Kershaw too much postseason vereran player deference to better his postseason legacy of late, or he erroneously removes pitchers when they are humming along just because as he said the 3rd time through the batting order was coming up and before Anderson could prove it pitching if he still was effective and dominant in tbe game as he was, he destroyed the Dodgers’ game rhythm and excited the Padres’ crowd and players by removing a very dominant and effective Anderson and yanked a 2 year Rookie Yency Almonte in his very first postseason away game appearance in a stressful late inning vital game, took him out of the bullpen to repeat the Anderson dominant pitching game performance and the game’s positive leaning Dodger-led game rhythm, he disrupted it stopping the game mysteriously pulling A Derringer, allowing the Padres to take a sigh of relief, recoup some fan energy that was also excited and pumped Anderson was removed foolishly by Roberts, and the Padres and theue fans rabidly took advantage of the moment as soon as a positive thing occurred off Almonte that just created a feeding frenzied opportunity for the Padres to engorge themselves off Dodgers performance ineptitude that affected the player’s moods that was evident and lost the game & playoff series by the time the Dodgers got out of the inning! Roberts’ moves yet again took the game away from the team as Kevin Cash did to the Ray’s in that Blake Snell moment, and its the look of the moment and career legacy of the Dodgers’ failures in the mostrecent disappointingly in the postseasons despite the great regular season’s they’ve had in their 4 straight MLB record 100+ win season’s. Its these Roberts’ moves that are the lowlights that stand out as the main debacles in managerial errors that have overridden the players’ performances that placed them in the situations to begin with, ruling the game’s rhythm, dominant performances, and or prioritizing player legacy and trust over the team’s goals and strategies that have backfired and out the team in more stressful situations unnecessarily early or in the game situations that they have to overcome when they’re ñalready with enough added high pressure of playing success just playing for the Dodgers in Los Angeles – where Championships are the standard, not the exception!
If we lose this year in the postseason, especially to these weaker Arizona Diamondbacks whom we went 8-5 and took tbe last 5 games of the season series by sweeps, and yet again we see them choke in the NLDS and have this 1000 mile quiet disappointing blank dugout stare of another postseason failure AGAIN, I’m going to be very frustrated, very disappointing in this ‘best team, most enjoyable team of Dave Roberts’ tenure and we came up short AGAIN garbage! Something seriosly would have to be considered in figuring out Dave Robert’s managerial style/leadership game time baseball decision making skills, and FIX IT FAST, or fire him and promote within the organization to get us over the hump because there’d be some kind of obvious issue preventing the team at the most opportune time from getting better, performing in the post season at their basic potential shown in the regular season that keeps them from higher levels of success in what it all comes down to ultimately, post season success, World Series Titles we are missing out on in tbe prime of these top players’ careers in the limited shrinking prime windows of the playing careers of Freddy Freeman, Mookie Betts and others and it’ll be wasted and a reboot within 5 years might ha e to happen with new stars if these players cannot continue to replicate these top seasons and perform every year of their prime years of their cutrent expensive ontracts, and or that of these younger crop of pitchers and fringe key players thar surround them like Max Muncy and JD Martinez, Will Smith, Chris Taylor, etc.. their best years will be wasted as well of Dave Roberts doesn’t figure it out, get the team over the hump and have been given all these great resources and backing of the club’s top brass, yet come up short everything? I’d expect moves on Jim, and one last opportunity regardless of his regular season record of success and division titles etc. What really is the goal is Titles, not wins totals and moral victories that satiate fans for a regular season to fill the stands of ever more expensive game tickets and concessions, the team needs titles eventually to keep this up, and what’s the solution to this post season conundrum of wasted opportunities year after year with all the Dodgers resources and roster makeovers, free agent moves and minor league development? Come on Dave Roberts, figure it out! The players can do their jobs and that’s ine thing, but there’s something to be said going on, changing and not translating to the postseason success as equal as the regular season. Falling is only padre of the learning process for finding solutions, but repeating mistakes, managerial game time decisions are on the spot make it or break it moment you cannot do over, it works or it doesn’t so if you’re already making bad decisions as in the past, the results will replicate most likely to the same failures and disappointments, unexpected exit to a lesser team that you dominated and had easily beaten & have a better roster and record over that leads us to chose you as the favorites every year and a top to be feated challenger to the top peers of MLB for a World Series title!
So is it this year!? Hmm?? First game was a total white flag wasted opportunity and the worst playoff game I’ve seen the Dodgers play ever! The game was over by the 1st inning! We had no one step up to fight, show something, start something after getting punched in face multiple times, but only a late 2 walks and a triple by Smith showing of anything.. very flat & late game response. The pitching bad, the defense very poor off the first play of the game. No energy, but stoicism and a deer in the headlight look swinging and misses of hittable pitches, and men left on base yet again when aby opportunity arised. No Mookie Magic, JD power hitting, Freddy dance by Freddy,, nor Muncy mashing, but 4 scattered hits, a few walks that was all that answered!
So who is going to step up?!
If anyone does, it’ll be the youngsters fighting back first if anyone, and then maybe the Vets will loosen up a bit, get their butts going and live up to their stats in the regular season!?? I hope!! Its getting tired and late! Robert’s managerial mistakes shouldn’t bring the team down if the players have a say in it!! So that’s what I want to see! Take matters, into their own hands! Performance on tbe field to VICTORIES, A TITLE!! No EXCUSES!! GET IT DONE TODAY!!