Howdy, it’s been some time, so it’s time to make amends for fascinating stuff I’ve been studying. A bunch of it’s associated to the World Sequence, which I’m positive you received’t thoughts reliving that a lot.
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Defector: David Roth talks about for all of the frustration relating to the success of the Dodgers, it’s by no means fairly so simple as having the very best workforce in baseball, and it actually was by no means a forgone conclusion that they’d win. And that’s sorta what makes this sport superb.
However even at their most inexorable, the concept the Dodgers had by some means completely and even quickly solved baseball was by no means actually very convincing. The sport doesn’t work like that, and the form and scale of the postseason makes it much more chaotic. The roundnesses of the bat and ball simply don’t match collectively cleanly sufficient to create a sufficiently sheer floor, and haven’t because the sport was dragged out of its feudal period. Greater than that, the sport simply has an excessive amount of wildness in it to be dropped at heel. What was objectionable concerning the Dodgers got here all the way down to the concern that sufficient cash and experience actually would possibly clear up each unsolvable factor about baseball, or simply make all of it a lot much less enjoyable. Because it turned out, the Dodgers received all of it for the second consecutive 12 months. If you happen to watched the World Sequence, you already know that there was nothing inevitable about it.
He summed issues up fairly properly right here:
What units the Dodgers aside isn’t that they’re higher in any respect that than different MLB groups, a lot as it’s that they do extra. They’re richer, but additionally they’re making an attempt more durable—scouting and evaluating extra successfully, teaching extra comprehensively, being the place different golf equipment aren’t, after which additionally spending in ways in which different groups can’t or simply don’t. They aren’t at all times proper, their prospects and reclamation tasks bust identical to each different workforce’s do, however they know sufficient to have an opportunity, and are decided sufficient to attempt. That these industry-leading practices have resulted in industry-leading big-league groups isn’t shocking, however the way in which through which these groups have been nice displays each the excellence of the group and its limitations: They’re ok to make a variety of further possibilities and redeem a useful quantity of these, however not practically ok to take away the factor of probability from the equation altogether. The sport can not actually be made simpler; the distinction is in what number of alternatives you may create for your self, and in addition in making it more durable for the opponent.
Defector: This text by Barry Petchesky is about how Blue Jays followers won’t ever recover from the loss, however as a Dodger fan who has been there, I discovered it weirdly becoming for coming to phrases with our previous failures as nicely.
You’re screwed. You’ll by no means recover from this. You’ll by no means totally get well. The sharp ache might age to a uninteresting ache, however it can by no means go away. You’ll go hours, then days, then weeks with out fascinated by how shut you got here—after which one thing will remind you, and it’ll harm once more. Who you had been final week shouldn’t be who you can be for the remainder of your life. You’re ruined; you’re a ruined human being. One thing that was complete and good in you is irrevocably damaged now.
How will you not love baseball?
That is why it’s genuinely insane to me when on social media folks speak about how 2017 was so way back. In sports activities phrases? It’s like yesterday, particularly for one thing no one’s gonna ever neglect. Like I nonetheless maintain a grudge towards Joe Kelly for hitting Hanley Ramirez, and nothing was even near assured about that workforce. Shit hurts eternally, and that’s what makes sports activities compelling.
The Verge: A narrative about how this World Sequence actually uniquely put baseball within the nationwide and worldwide limelight.
MLB has taken the adapt-or-die mindset to coronary heart, taking a sport that feels historical (complimentary) and tweaking it for a contemporary viewers. Early indicators level to MLB’s new methods paying off. A lot of what elevates a pastime into big-C Tradition comes from how the general public engages with it: the critiques and evaluation, the fan edits, the memes, the stay reactions, the packed stadiums and watch events and look-alike contests and parades in cities below assault. We had been really spoiled by this postseason, and I already really feel these tinges of nostalgia that may deepen as time passes till I’m the traditional one telling the children concerning the 2025 World Sequence.
An all-timer for positive, and now baseball must not damage that momentum.
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FanGraphs: Jay Jaffe tried to have a look at the place the Dodgers match amongst baseball’s best dynasties. They find yourself means up there … arguably twice throughout the similar window.
Whereas I may have tried to provide some final rating of expansion-era dynasties by weighing the championships and pennants with the Z-scores, that felt too subjective for this set of goal measures (which nonetheless did contain some subjective decisions). I feel this rating illustrates that it’s very powerful to keep up regular-season dominance over a stretch that features a number of championships, and that the Dodgers of latest classic are at or close to the highest of the combo because of the way in which they’ve backed their consistency from April via September (give or take just a few days on both finish) with what they’ve accomplished in October. It’s fairly clear you could’t win ’em all, however this Dodgers dynasty can stand with the very best of the growth period.
The factor about this Dodgers run is that they merely lacked the World Sequence trophies for a lot of it. They constructed absolute juggernauts however had been unable to attain the final word purpose. Now that they’ve gone back-to-back, it solely is smart that this run has been validated in its entirety.
Baseball Prospectus: A tribute of types to Miguel Rojas by former Marlins worker Bradley Woodrum.
The Miggy I knew—the Miggy who sat on my workplace sofa to speak about analytical instruments and introduced rookie Isan Diaz to offer him an opportunity to voice an opinion too, the Miggy who mentored younger gamers on the advanced on hitting and fielding approach, who led encouraging and career-focused displays for the minor leaguers, doing his personal contemporaneous Spanish translations—clearly cared concerning the subsequent technology of gamers.
Price a learn to get a way as to why he was at all times going to stay round in some capability.
The Athletic: Joe Maddon talks about Andrew Friedman and the way he makes the wedding between stats and humanity work.
He was at all times open-minded. He by no means thought he was at all times proper. He appeared to know that he didn’t know every part, and that’s a very essential a part of progress.
His method permeated the tradition. I’m not shocked he’s accomplished the identical with the Dodgers.
I feel early on within the sabermetric revolution, this was mainly a lacking element. They thought being proper (true or not) was sufficient, whereas those that had been really clever knew that being proper meant nothing for those who couldn’t get buy-in for implementation with gamers (and coaches).
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Baseball Prospectus: The one massive transfer the Dodgers have made to date is the signing of latest nearer Edwin Diaz, and the consensus appears to be that it is smart … no less than for the Dodgers, notably as a result of income from Shohei Ohtani permits them to take photographs they usually wouldn’t.
The Dodgers’ bullpen was awful in 2025. Díaz is without doubt one of the finest closers in baseball. Given LA’s willingness to offer a contract like this so quickly after being burned by Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, it’s all of the extra evident that Guggenheim makes a lot cash from Shohei Ohtani alone that the majority value tags aren’t actual for Andrew Friedman (they usually’ve had big playoff income the final couple years, too). May they get burned once more, even signing somebody with as sterling a popularity as Díaz? Positive! Relievers are bizarre and we’re solely a 12 months faraway from a turbulent 2024 for Díaz himself. Unlucky to lose a pair draft slots and worldwide bonus cash, too. However this isn’t a tough transfer to parse from LA’s finish. He’s a lower-variance arm at a high-variance place.
FanGraphs: That mentioned, as with paying most relievers, there’s some concern he may pull a little bit of a Tanner Scott.
The yellow flag I’m really fearful about with Díaz is his quality-of-contact numbers. The factor that made him the very best reliever in baseball in his prime was not simply that he missed extra bats than a homesick vampire; Díaz additionally had terrific high quality of contact-suppression numbers. However a 97th-percentile hard-hit charge in 2024 changed into a 57th-percentile hard-hit charge in 2025 — not precisely alarming, given the still-elite whiff charge, however price monitoring.
That quantity would’ve dissuaded me from providing Díaz one other $100 million contract, however the Dodgers didn’t have to try this. Ben Clemens predicted a three-year, $75 million contract; our median crowdsource estimate was 4 years and $84 million. To get Díaz for 3 years and $69 million looks like a tidy piece of enterprise for Los Angeles.
Nonetheless, even when it comes to paying a better, it looks like a stable deal.
MLB: Talking of the Scott comparisons, there’s clearly motive to be extra optimistic about Diaz, as he has gotten whiffs at a historic charge for an extended time frame.
Even when it comes to pure whiff charge, Díaz is chugging proper alongside. Within the pitch-tracking period, which dates again to 2008, Díaz’s 39.8% whiff charge is second amongst all pitchers with no less than 1,000 swings towards them, solely trailing the 40.6% clip from Devin Williams, who will exchange Díaz with the Mets. Final season, Díaz posted a 41.5% whiff charge, comfortably above his profession common.
Compared to Scott, who was an elite bat-misser in his personal proper earlier than his powerful 2025 season, the left-hander “solely” owns a profession 29.8% strikeout charge and a 34.4% whiff charge. In his platform 12 months in 2024, Scott had a 28.6% strikeout charge and 32.7% whiff charge, nicely under the marks offered by Díaz this previous season.
Moreover, his two-pitch arsenal is way more balanced.
Díaz and Scott each come at hitters with two-pitch arsenals: a four-seam fastball and a slider. The primary distinction, although, is Díaz has significantly better variations of these pitches and fewer year-to-year variability.
Relievers will likely be relievers, however the Dodgers had cash burning a gap of their pocket and addressed their largest concern with the most effective within the sport.
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Techer: A characteristic on Grace Peng and Ryan Casey from the Dodgers analytics division, specializing in their affect on the workforce and what they do.
He recollects an occasion from the 2016 season. Dodgers middle fielder Joc Pederson would persistently play shallow on protection within the outfield. “We informed him someday, ‘You’ve simply received to play means deeper and also you’ll catch all these fly balls which can be going over your head,’” says Casey, a developer within the workforce’s baseball programs unit. Within the subsequent sequence versus the Arizona Diamondbacks, the outfielder ended up making quite a few catches on the warning observe—catches he possible would have by no means made had he been taking part in as shallow as earlier than. Pederson appeared shocked. “Oh, you guys are proper,” he informed them. Casey says it was one of many first occasions he noticed his work impacting in-game outcomes.
Joc point out!
Particularly, the positioning playing cards are because of their efforts.
Peng and her analyst teammates have created, for example, the spray charts that result in fielding suggestions—the place defensive gamers ought to stand on the sphere based mostly on a batter’s historic tendencies. These are maybe the obvious day by day reminders of the significance of what Peng and her collaborators do. “Everybody has a bit card of their hat that tells them the place to face,” she explains. “Anytime a brand new pitcher comes on and there are defensive shifts taking place on the sphere, it’s cool to see.”
Casey agrees. “The teaching workers loves to make use of our 42 web site to investigate each potential batter-pitcher matchup of the evening, to see stats and challenge the place and tips on how to assault each single opponent,” he says. “I do know that my software is contributing to no matter technique we’re using that evening.”
The Dodgers have been the most effective in baseball at positioning, in order that they’ve actually been doing their job nicely.
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There’s really lots to make amends for, so the subsequent replace will come quickly (hopefully) and have a variety of the prospect stuff.
