Dodgers coming down to the end of their season. They've had a surfeit of outfielders all season, but I can't see that it's helped them.
"We'll go with the hot hand," manager Don Mattingly said, but that hasn't really been true. They've gone with Puig, who sells tickets because of his hot beginning, and Kemp, because yes, he has come alive at the plate, and whoever Mattingly decides to throw in there. Crawford, Van Slyke, Ethier and, of late, Pederson. Choose one.
Mattingly doesn't choose Ethier very often, and I have to wonder why.
Ethier was the regular right fielder for the last few seasons and the starting center fielder this season when Kemp was still hurt. When Kemp healed, Mattingly moved Puig to center, put Kemp in right, and Ethier was the odd man out. He has been relegated to the role of pinch hitter of late, and he's done ok at that, getting on base by hit or walk more often than not.
But I want to see him play.
Hot hand? Ethier, despite very limited playing time, is batting .250. Pederson hits .163. Van Slyke is about .260 and Crawford is .280. Puig is batting .154 in September, and has been ever since he got snookered in the Home Run Derby at the All-Star break.
About Puig: when he first came up, last season, we all saw his strength, his speed, his arm, and his go-all-out style of play. We also saw that he didn't know what a cutoff man was and that he didn't know much about strategy. In short, he played like the best kid on your youth baseball team. But he learned; we saw that too. And during the first part of this season, he looked like he was gonna be ok.
Then he got invited to the Home Run Derby. And failed, completely. And most of us shrugged and said Ok, he's just a kid. (He's just 23.) But I think it shook his confidence, the way it might shake the confidence of the best kid on your youth baseball team if he experienced a failure like that. Since then, his performance at the plate has plummeted and his fielding has reverted to the enthusiastic but untrained style he came in with last season.
He isn't helping the team at this point. Meanwhile, Ethier, who knows all about how to play the outfield and who has a reliable if not super-hot bat sits on the bench.
I really wonder why. He should be out there everyday.
