People love to argue that the Dodgers are buying things they apparently shouldn’t. Buying a World Series, buying top players, buying top-of-the-line facilities and extremely talented staff to operate within them. On the one hand, isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when you have millions of dollars to fund a sports team? Spend it to help said team win a World Series?
On the other hand—have you seen what all those millions are actually buying? Because after Monday night’s nail-biter of a ninth inning,
I might send the Guggenheim guys my salon bill after I get the damage repaired. I’m sure they can afford it.
It’s been up and down for the Dodgers this year, but sometimes, that cash does come in handy, writes Dylan Hernández at The Los Angeles Times. Despite the ninth-inning theatrics, the Dodgers managed to win a game that included a wacky double play that cost them runs, 11 stranded runners, and the best of the Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen, among other factors that could very well have toppled a lesser team.
And the key heroes of the game—Blake Snell and Freddie Freeman—aren’t cheap, with salaries at $182 million and $162 million, respectively.
Hernández says it best: “Talent wins. The Dodgers can buy as much of it as they want.”
Is that fair? Some argue that baseball needs a salary cap, like other sports, to keep the playing field more even. In reality, baseball is a fickle sport. One minute, your million-dollar-stars are tearing up the field, and the next, they can’t seem to pull it together. Three of the five most expensive teams in baseball are no longer in the playoffs, and the Seattle Mariners, who ranked 16th overall on Opening Day, are showing the no. 5 Toronto Blue Jays how it’s done in the ALCS.
Money is great, but it only gets you so far. Because if you could truly buy a championship, then the Dodgers should have skipped the Wild Card series entirely, swept the NLDS, and coasted through the ninth inning yesterday. Instead, we’ve got high drama and humanity, and honestly, I’m all for it.
Dodgers Notes
Think Snell’s performance on Monday was one for the history books? You’d be correct. Snell is the first pitcher to face the minimum number of batters through eight innings in a postseason game since Don Larsen in 1956—and Larsen was throwing a perfect game for the New York Yankees. Bradford Doolittle at ESPN spoke with Snell about how it felt to throw another nearly perfect postseason.
The Dodgers aren’t quite sure how they’ll deploy Clayton Kershaw this postseason, but they know he’ll take the mound at some point, writes Anthony DiComo at MLB.com. Kershaw is, of course, willing to do whatever it takes to help the Dodgers win another World Series, and he’s ready to shake off his last rough start to do it.
Rowan Kavner at Fox Sports offers a few takeaways from Monday’s game, including whether teams should start rethinking walking Shohei Ohtani to get to Mookie Betts—the strategy has resulted in a walked-in run twice this postseason.
