Well, here we are…. September. If you’re reading this, you obviously like baseball, and if you like baseball, you should be excited. If you’re not excited, get excited, because there are plenty of reasons to be. On the morning of August 24th, I took a look inside the NL Wild Card Race, later that day, the landscape in the National League changed with news first being reported of a blockbuster trade.
Now assuming you haven’t spent the last week or so locked up in solitary confinement, I’m sure you’ve heard that Dodgers GM Ned Colletti took it upon himself to take advantage of a dysfunctional family environment in Red Sox nation. By acquiring Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto from the Sox in exchange for James Loney, a handful of talented minor league prospects and a large wad of cash, Colletti has provided the Dodgers with the ammunition needed to come from behind and make the playoffs.
As far as trades go, not too many involve one team receiving so many important components. A proven middle of the order bat, a front line starting pitcher, a speedy outfielder who can hit and a quality utility guy.
Now a couple of these guys have had “off” years but there are many factors. First of all, Boston has had in-house problems since last September (at least). A change will give them all a refreshing reset. However, this isn’t just any change. There is something to be said about going from the American League East to the National League West. For a pitcher like Beckett, relocating from AL to NL means facing less fearsome line-ups just by the nature of the rules. In the AL, pitchers have to address a full line up consisting of nine big league hitters. Not so much in the NL. Take away the DH (a hitting specialist) and replace it with a pitcher who now has to hit (or bunt more likely) for himself. Now because the pitcher is hitting, quite often this means that one can avoid surrendering good pitches to the hitter who happens to be up before the pitcher in the line up. That’s two less hitters in a nine hitter lineup who have to be taken seriously in a National League lineup. This phenomenon will give Beckett a chance to have a strong finish. Let’s face it, Beckett may be struggling, but he has high quality stuff. This makes things easier for him and we should look for him to have a strong finish to the season. He struggled in his first start but consider how difficult it must be for a pitcher to throw in Colorado for the first time – terribly frustrating! He was light’s out in his second start against Arizona.
As for Gonzalez who is already a proven hitter there are several reasons that tip us off that he will perform well down the stretch-run. Gonzalez has already had success in the NL West during his time with the San Diego Padres. This is familiar territory for him. Second, with Shane Victorino, Hanely Ramirez, and Matt Kemp all hitting around him, he will have plenty of protection and RBI opportunities. For most of the starting pitchers he will be facing, this month will be the first and only time they will face him this year. Advantage Gonzalez – not much reference material for opposing pitchers, catchers and coaches to put together a game plan. Adrian has already gotten off to a quick start homering in his first game and a walk-off knock September 2nd against the D’backs.
Nick Punto will provide the Dodgers with some more quality depth. In the NL where player substitutions are much more frequent, it will be nice for Manager Don Mattingly to be able to look down to the bench and call on players like him, Juan Uribe, Adam Kennedy or Juan Rivera. A deep bench will provide an advantage in these late season, must-win National League games.
Crawford will not factor at all in this year’s race, but it’s still a good pick up for the future once he recovers from Tommy John surgery. A high-end athlete with a great bat, and lets face it, he didn’t have a great arm to begin with so arm surgery isn’t really anything to worry about with him.
Down the stretch there are a few key series to look forward to that I think will really help to determine the playoff picture:
Sept. 6th – Sept. 9th
Dodgers @ Giants
The Giants currently sit 4.5 games up on the Dodgers in the NL west. LA could significantly close the gap here. They’ll have to cross enemy lines to do so.
Sept. 13th – Sept. 16th
Cardinals @ Dodgers
The Cardinals are currently sitting in a wild card spot but only a game and a half up on the Dodgers. A four game series in LA could be one of the most exciting regular season series of the year!
As stated earlier, If you are a baseball fan (and we know you are), this is going to be a great September. Get your popcorn ready.
