The Dodgers

[voodoochile]

The Dodgers are having one heck of a season. They lead the majors in BA, OBP, SLG and obviously OPS. In fact they lead the second place team by almost 30 points in OPS and are pushing .800 AS A TEAM. They also lead the majors in ERA at 2.86 - a number that is the smallest I've seen since 2012 at least for team ERA - and WHIP. They've given up the least amount of hits, the second least amount of walks and third least HR.

They are 50 (FIFTY!) games over .500 with 38 to play. They have almost a 20 game lead over the second place Padres and stand a chance to break the record for wins in a season - thought they'd have to go 30-8 to get there. Even so 100 wins is all but guaranteed and 110 is likely. Even with Walker Buehler out for the season Kershaw is due back next Thursday.

Their run differential obviously leads the majors at 279 - nearly 80 more than the second place Yankees. It's Not like they play in an easy division either.

Time will tell whether they can carry it over to the playoffs. Some great and surging teams in the NLE and of course there's likely the Yankees waiting for them in the Series if they can get there. Still it's been an amazing season already.

[voodoochile]

The one thing that may derail the Dodgers is their SP. Buehler is already out and they just placed Tony Gonsolin on the 15-day IL with a "right forearm strain" (cue horror film music). Kershaw is due back this week, but right now they have two HUGE holes in their rotation.

[LITTLE NELL]

Keep your eyes open for pitcher Bobby Miller, Dodgers #1 pick a few years ago. He is the grandson of my best friend when I was growing up in Rogers Park in the 50's and 60's.
Unfortunately my friend went to Vietnam like I did but came back a mess with PTSD and died about 17 years ago and will not be able to see his grandson when he eventually plays for the Dodgers. I'm sort of surprised they didn't bring him up with the Sept. roster expansion.

[voodoochile]

Keep your eyes open for pitcher Bobby Miller, Dodgers #1 pick a few years ago. He is the grandson of my best friend when I was growing up in Rogers Park in the 50's and 60's.
Unfortunately my friend went to Vietnam like I did but came back a mess with PTSD and died about 17 years ago and will not be able to see his grandson when he eventually plays for the Dodgers. I'm sort of surprised they didn't bring him up with the Sept. roster expansion.

Probably because he just got to AAA late this season and has only made 3 starts there so far. He's the Dodgers' #2 prospect.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=miller003bob

[LITTLE NELL]

I knew that he was moved up to OK City from Tulsa just a few weeks ago but everything I had read was that he was going to be brought up with the Sept. call ups.

[Chez]

I knew that he was moved up to OK City from Tulsa just a few weeks ago but everything I had read was that he was going to be brought up with the Sept. call ups.

Roster expansion/September call-ups ain't what they used to be. Basically a team can only add two extra players to the active roster on Sept. 1. . I'd be for expanding it to 4-5.

[LITTLE NELL]

Roster expansion/September call-ups ain't what they used to be. Basically a team can only add two extra players to the active roster on Sept. 1. . I'd be for expanding it to 4-5.

I knew there was some kind of change but didn’t know the limit is now 2 players.

[Zakath]

Time will tell whether they can carry it over to the playoffs. Some great and surging teams in the NLE and of course there's likely the Yankees waiting for them in the Series if they can get there. Still it's been an amazing season already.

Braves are getting hot at the right time and have now chased the Mets down. New York looks to have a slight schedule advantage over the Braves the rest of the season, but the two do have a series left in Atlanta right at the end of September/beginning of October.

The Dodgers' issue might be that they really won't play a meaningful game for a month. They'll probably clinch the West next week, and probably home field the week after. The division series probably won't start until around October 11 or 12, so that's a long time to be "sitting." The Dodgers won 106 last year, but they were fighting the Giants the whole time and actually ended up with the wild card, which cost them home field and led to the Braves beating them in 6. Getting home field this time might get them over the hump, but man, that's a long time to be waiting.