Diamond Doubles
By Peyton Schultze
Despite the second best record in the National League, not everything has been easy for the Dodgers in the past two weeks (via CBS Sports).
Just over a quarter of the way through the season, things are starting to get interesting on the diamond out on the shores of Southern California.
With the Angels and Dodgers both dealing with some recent on-the-field turmoil that has brought some developing concern to both ends of the table, there are storyline galore in the Los Angeles baseball scene. Whether it’s the Angels finally jumping the gun on letting go of veteran manager Joe Maddon or the recent struggles from former All-Star Walker Buehler on the mound, there is plenty to talk about as the grass gets greener, the weather gets warmer and baseball officially turns from spring into summer.
With an added and updated look at the Men’s and Women’s College World Series below, we present some of the top stories across the Major League Baseball scene in Los Angeles.
Heading West to a Mine of Gold
Led by the versatile talents of star players such as Trea Turner, the Dodgers still look like the team to beat in the National League (via Federal Baseball).
35 wins and first in a stacked National League West and it has been a… disappointing start?
The Dodgers are one of the few teams who can claim to be 17 games over .500 through June and still feel like they have not hit anywhere near their peak. That’s what happens when you put together a lineup that features three potential 2022 NL All-Stars with Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Trea Turner, while consistently being helped out in the lineup by the consistent presence of Justin Turner and Will Smith. While Cody Bellinger has produced some very nice moments this season and Gavin Lux has joined Chris Taylor as consistent names in the Los Angeles lineup, manager Dave Roberts still has the tough job of keeping this group together over the course of the season. The Dodger offense still looks like a group that has not hit their stride based on some decreased home run stats and the fall of Max Muncy, which could signal a script reversal over the next few months and October nears closer and closer.
However, that is not to say that there is not some major concern for the Dodgers. Chief among them is the competitiveness of the National League West, where the San Diego Padres look like a looming giant waiting for the return of Fernando Tatis Jr. and the San Francisco Giants remain the baseball pest that just refuses to go away. Both teams present real challenges to the Dodgers in the division and in the National League, especially with how deep both teams continue to be in the starting rotation.
In addition, the starting pitching remains a work-in-progress to the date. Not many could have predicted that the two starters carrying the Dodgers’ rotation to this point would be Tony Gonsolin and Tyler Anderson, yet both pitchers have contributed at a high level and look like potential All-Stars. While Julio Urias has been surprisingly inconsistent from game-to-game and Clayton Kershaw looks like he is on the way back to the mound after a great start to the season, the concerns from the right-arm of Walker Buehler can not continue to be ignored. Outside of a complete game start against the Diamondbacks earlier this year, the Dodgers’ ace posts a 4.50 ERA this season in ten starts and has appeared extremely vulnerable early in games throughout the year. Buehler needs to turn things around quickly for the Dodgers to remain the top threat in the National League, and it will be interesting to monitor his diminished velocity over the course of the season.
In any way, it has been a magnificent start to the season for the Dodgers. Posting the best road record in all of baseball while ranking near the top of the league in nearly every pitching category helps build the case that this Los Angeles squad has the makings of a title contender once again, but things will not be easy by any means. Teams like the Padres, Giants, Brewers and Mets loom as real threats that have their eyes set on taking out the mighty Dodgers, which should make for a thrilling summer as the sun begins to rise on the peak days of baseball.
All Betts are Off
After a slow start to the season, Los Angeles outfielder Mookie Betts surged to the top of the league leaders in May (via Sports Illustrated).
It was only a short time ago when Mookie Betts was reeling at the plate. With a slow jump out of the gates in April that had many Dodger fans concerned over their star right fielder’s health and overall production, Betts was starting to look like a player who may have had his best days behind him.
Then, he proved that his best days were yet to come. Tearing off a two-month stretch that unquestionably re-elevated his superstar status among the top talents in Major League Baseball, Betts produced arguably the best stretch of his entire career, pulling in diving grabs, throwing out runners left and right and driving in runs at an exceptionally high clip for a leadoff hitter who has only hit over 100 RBIs twice in his young career. Now Betts is on pace for career highs across the board on offense, pacing the way for the National League in runs scored and home runs while remaining in the mix for the batting title and the RBI champion. In any context, it has been a miraculous stretch for Betts, and Dodger fans should be very excited for what may be a magical season for #50.
Betts was arguably the best player in all of baseball during the 2020 season in his first year in Dodger Blue, but was passed over for the NL MVP award in favor of his now-current teammate, Freddie Freeman. Then Betts went through some major ups and downs throughout the 2021 season, dealing with a season-long hip injury that limited his power numbers and saw an increased strikeout rate. Yet the former AL MVP found his rhythm late in the year and continued his streak into the postseason, leading the way for the Dodgers at the top of the lineup before ultimately falling to the Braves in the NLCS. Things started slow this season, bringing up concerns in terms of his nagging hip injury, but the Gold Glover has once again brought title hopes right back to Dodger Stadium with his recent play.
There was certainly some worry if the Dodgers’ long-term investment had hit its peak in the very first year of his record-breaking contract, but the last two months have been nothing short of ridiculous. While the stud right-fielder will certainly have to fend off efforts from Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, Paul Goldschmidt and Pete Alonso in the National League, Mookie looks like the odds-on favorite to take home the NL MVP award, making him only the second player in the history of the sport next to Frank Robinson to win the MVP title in both leagues. Don’t take your eyes off of the Dodgers’ right fielder this summer, especially as he continues to display his five-tool talents each and every night up in Chavez Ravine.
Maddon’s Folly
Amid a brutal 12-game losing streak, the Angels parted ways with veteran manager Joe Maddon on Tuesday afternoon (via DraftKings Nation).
It has been a truly eventful three-year stretch for former World Series-winning manager, Joe Maddon.
From the ups and downs of a shortened 60-game season in 2020 to the sights and sounds from one of the most sensational seasons in Major League history by Shohei Ohtani in 2021, Maddon has seen plenty of action in his three years inside the usually-friendly confines of Angel Stadium.
Yet things finally came to a crashing end on Tuesday, when the Angels surprisingly announced that they had “relieved” Maddon of his duties as the skipper of the ballclub. Amid a terrible 12-game losing streak that tied the longest-mark in franchise history (1988), Anaheim owner Arte Moreno and general manager Perry Minasian simply had too much on their plate and decided to officially part ways with the veteran manager around noon on Tuesday. With an added playoff team for the 2022 season and the all-world talents of Mike Trout continuing to be held out of postseason play, the Angels’ front office will now turn toward turning their season around with so much stacked against the deck in an American League that has seen recent surges from borderline playoff hopefuls such as Boston, Chicago and Cleveland.
The former Tampa Bay and Chicago manager now enters an uncertain future at 68 years old and without much left to prove in terms of his baseball legacy, but the Angels will quickly turn over the keys to interim manager Phil Nevin. Drafted by the Dodgers in 1989 and later becoming a traveled journeyman infielder who produced some very solid professional seasons in the prime of his career with the San Diego Padres, Nevin will look to immediately end Anaheim’s disastrous June stretch and get the Angels back on track in the American League standings.
Luckily for Halo fans, their season is far from over. The Angels not only jumped out to an excellent 27-17 start to the season, but have at least been able to stay relatively healthy in terms of their superstar talent with Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Patrick Sandoval and Noah Syndergaard staying on the field and producing at a high level. The Angels will surely need Anthony Rendon back in the lineup as soon as this weekend, and are surely reeling from the loss of early-season breakout Taylor Ward, but signs point toward nothing but a step up in the near future as the Angels look to move past the Maddon firing and get rolling into the dog days of a California summer.
Turn Toward the Skies
Despite a recent cold stretch, Mike Trout has once again shown his true offensive prowess at the plate throughout the 2022 season (via The New York Times).
Even though the Angels have shown some much-improved pitching on the mound throughout the 2022 season, their key to a renewed success belongs to their offense. Ranking 5th in all of baseball in home runs and 9th in runs scored with 247 to the date, the Angels’ offense certainly has the ability to carry this ballclub near the top of the AL West when healthy and into the American League playoffs.
But what has happened in recent weeks with this sudden drop-off? It really hurts that outfielder Taylor Ward continues to miss time with a hamstring injury after an unreal tear to begin the season (.333 BA, 10 HR, 26 RBI), but the lack of any sort of positive impact from usual suspects such as Andrew Velazquez, Matt Duffy and Tyler Wade has really been tough to overcome. While first baseman Jared Walsh has continued to perform at a high level for the Halos amid their recent losing streak, other key names such as Brandon Marsh and Anthony Rendon have either slowed down on their steady pace or dealt with nagging injuries. The Angels need some type of change in the lineup in a hurry (which explains why they re-called Jo Adell to MLB despite a rough stretch in Triple-A), which helps provide even more context to the recent Maddon firing with Anaheim’s concerning lack of depth.
But even the Angels’ superstars need to up their game at the plate. It is certainly unfair to blame one player for any sort of losing-streak, but if recent play is any sort of indicator, the Angels will go just as far as Mike Trout can take them. Although Shohei Ohtani has been performing well at the plate with high slugging numbers and helps to form one of the deadliest offensive duos in all of baseball, there is no doubt that Trout remains the best player in the world when healthy and in the right mindset. An uptick in strikeouts and a slightly decreased walk rate has revealed a rare weakness in the box for the future Hall of Famer in 2022, and Trout will look to overcome a very rare slump to turn the Angels’ fortunes around.
Our future prediction is simple: the greatness of Trout will find a way to overcome his recent bad habits in the box, Ohtani will continue to slug, and the Angels will get hot once Ward and Rendon are mainstays in the lineup again. When that time will come remains to be seen, but in a long 162-game marathon, patience may be required for Angel fans in the long-run of this everlasting sprint to the finish.
College World Series
It has been a great start so far in the Women’s and Men’s College World Series (via Sports Illustrated).
Women’s College World Series
It’s been a classic run in the Women’s College World Series thus far.
Delanie Wisz, Maya Brady and local powerhouse UCLA entered the fold in Oklahoma City, joining the seven other teams in the mix between Arizona, Florida, Northwestern, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon State and Texas. Yet after 14 total games featuring some clutch moments, phenomenal pitching and the rise of softball heroes that will go down in history, the stage is set for a best two-out-of-three scenario between the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns.
The Sooners have been a complete juggernaut all season long, slugging their way through the Big 12 and entering the WCWS with their bats on a roll. Led by the superstar bat of Jocelyn Alo (the hero in the team’s do-or-die game against the Bruins with two huge home runs), Oklahoma can out-hit nearly any softball team in the nation. Yet the Sooners have reached this point in the WCWS because of the arm of Hope Trautwein, posting an unimaginable 0.17 ERA and helping to fill the void left by the team’s ace in Jordy Bahl (forearm injury), who may end up playing a key role in the finals. That trio on both sides of the diamond compliments the rest of the Sooners’ lineup featuring All-American talents such as Tiare Jennings and Grace Lyons, and if the Sooners are able to cap off their unreal season, it will officially put the finishing touches on one of the most dominant seasons in the history of Division-1 softball.
Yet the Longhorns present a tough challenge for the Sooners. Dancing with danger several times in the College World Series, Texas officially became the first unseeded team in the history of the WCWS to reach the finals. Although Texas does not provide nearly the type of power that Oklahoma does at the plate, starting pitchers Estelle Czech and Kelly Maxwell have shown flashes of greatness over the past two weeks and are capable of rattling off two straight wins even against the might of the Sooners. Texas has played clean softball time and time again in the World Series, finding a way to capitalize on other teams’ mistakes late in games before driving in runs in clutch scenarios. If that trend continues, and Oklahoma uncharacteristically struggles at the plate again in the same fashion they did earlier in the series against UCLA, there could be a major upset on the horizon in the softball edition of the Red River Rivalry.
Men’s College World Series
With one more round to go before eight teams officially head toward Omaha for one of the most classic events in baseball, the Super Regionals are next on the radar for the Men’s College World Series.
Sixteen teams remain in the mix, although many top teams have been dealt some serious blows or escaped with narrow victories in previous rounds. Tennessee and Stanford lead the way as the two highest ranked teams left in the tournament, and will take on Notre Dame and UConn, respectively. The Texas Longhorns hope to make things happens in both softball and baseball this weekend and will take on the East Carolina Pirates, while Oklahoma meets Virginia Tech and Louisville battles with Texas A&M on Friday. The Saturday slate heats up even more with two key battles between Arkansas and UNC, while Ole Miss takes on a scrappy Southern Mississippi team that has Cinderella dreams. The top matchup of the weekend certainly belongs to Auburn and Oregon State in a battle of title hopefuls, and it will be interesting to see of the Beavers once again find a way to sneak back into the College World Series for the eighth time in program history.
Tennessee remains the clear favorite after Stanford was forced to pull off a magical late-inning comeback against Texas State, but three teams to keep an eye on are East Carolina, Louisville and Southern Mississippi. The Cardinals played spoiler last round against the Michigan Wolverines despite some controversial calls, while the Pirates and Golden Eagles both rolled through the tournament with some under-the-radar names that could become World Series heroes at the collegiate level. It has been a great run so far in the MCWS, and baseball fans can only hope for more anticipated excitement as Omaha nears in the distance.