#brandon morrow

Christ Taylor is leading the Dodgers to potential immortality

Hello, all! My name is Drank. I used to write blog posts about the Dodgers on this very tumblr site. It was a good blog, in my opinion. Probably among the top 5 blogs I’ve ever done. Also, probably the worst blog I’ve ever done. It’s not as bad as the podcast I once did, though.

But alas, Drank has been on hiatus, mainly because of a lack of time, and a desire to do other things that that did not revolve around the gut-punch of Dodger baseball. When Drank last wrote in this blog at the beginning of the 2016 season, baseball was not great: the Dodgers were ‘tevs and filled with injuries, while the vomit-inducing Giants were BABIPing their way to, perhaps, their own historic season (lest we forget, the Giants finished the 2016 first half with a better record than the Cubs. Don’t ever let your Giants friends forget this fact).

But, at some point, something changed. It is like the Dodgers players all started to miraculously hit their physical prime at the exact same time--despite the fact that Corey Seager is still about 6 months old. Yes, they ripped our hearts out with another excruciating playoff exit. But the foundation for success was set. The Dodgers headed into 2017 knowing that they had few question marks, that were likely addressed with a few fortunate offseason deals.

But holy crap, I don’t think any one of us was expecting this.

The Dodgers are good. They are really, really good. I think I remember the exact moment when I thought the Dodgers were, in fact, really, really good: 

That day was May 17th, when Drank attended a ballgame at AT&T Park, and witnessed a Dodgers victory over the Giants, somehow.

“No fucking way,” I remember thinking. “This team just ended the 9-game losing streak I’ve had in this series. This might just be the greatest team of all time.”

And, just as I suspected, I was correct. Because since that day, the Dodgers have only lost 14 games, and merely won 55. Since that day, the Dodgers have only lost 1 series, while sweeping 11 series (they are going for #12 against the Metropolitans tonight). An organization that has been so dysfunctional against American League teams in its inter league history has decided to go a soft .800 against them.

And how have they done it? How have they done it with a surprisingly lengthy track record of disappointments? Consider that Kershaw’s back is hurt, Julio Urias might be dead, Andrew Toles tore his knee, and Logan Forsythe has been bad for the price the Dodgers had to pay to get him. Any one or two of those unfortunate circumstances would cripple and destroy 20 baseball franchises. The Dodgers? They are just drawing comparisons to the Golden State Warriors. That is really silly, but it is something we can be amazed at.

Yeah, we knew about Clayton Kershaw and Corey Seager and Justin Turner and Kenley Jansen. But let’s note some other key reasons why the Dodgers are in the place they are today:

1. Cody Bellinger

We got a sense that this might be coming, when the Dodgers repeatedly refused to include Bellinger in trade deals for the likes of Ryan Braun and Cole Hamels. Just kidding, we had no idea at all.

In an era of the juiced baseballs, Bellinger has elected to barrel each and every one of them to stardom. Him getting comps to Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez quickly thrust him on the national stage, and he has arguably become the face of the franchise overnight (yes, over Kershaw, Seager, Turner, etc.). We, as fans, love dingers. And Cody Bellinger is hitting dinger after dinger after dinger, and it makes my heart warm.

2. Christ Taylor

See the picture above. I am doing drugs and writing a tale in an effort to make Chris Taylor immortal.

Remember that before the season, Taylor was in a losing competition to be the team’s right-handed utility guy to Enrique Hernandez. Then he volunteered to do outfield things, and elected to become the greatest utility player of all time while hitting grand slams once every 2 starts. The man is silly, has a generic name, has a mechanically long swing, and is on pace to get some MVP votes. What a fucking deal, making me thank the gods that we drafted Zach Lee in that dreadful 2010 season.

3. Alex Wood

The worst Dodger deal ever made has finally come to fruition, as LA showed why you should always take on good, cost-controlled talent who has put up good enough numbers that he might turn into a superstar once he hits his prime.

Wood’s dominance and funky delivery have smoked-and-mirrored his way to being one of the elite pitchers in the game. The declining fastball velocity is... something to monitor. But, the bigger deal is that Wood seems to be leaving his breaking pitches up more in the zone in his last 2 starts. Just give him some rest, Dave.

4. Brandon Morrow

The Dodgers are so good, they managed to turn a Cal graduate into some elite reclamation project. All of a sudden, Morrow’s repertoire has proven to be nasty and hard, especially against left-handed pitching. For a minor league deal, this was a lottery ticket that had more potential than most, and it’s paying dividends beautifully.

5. Austin Barnes

Austin Barnes--backup Dodgers catcher--has a higher WAR total this year than Yadier Molina. That’s pretty silly.

Also, for all catchers with 100 minimum PAs, Barnes has the highest wRC+ at 149. Buster Posey--who by the way plays for the worst team in the National League West despite the fact that they were projected to be a playoff team--is second at 138.

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Drank mentioned earlier that Drank had to take a hiatus because the Dodgers were ripping my soul apart early in 2016. Let it be known, that the probabilities state that the 2017 Dodgers are more likely to rip my heart out in more painful fashions this October than in years past. That when game 1 of the NLDS rolls around, Drank is going to be cowered in far underneath a Snuggie, drinking scotch and scotch and scotch. It’s going to be miserable.