NFL
By: Joe Cardoso
Every guy and girl has had that one person they wished they could date. You see them around school, work, and town and they always seem to be the life of the party and you are jealous. Sometimes when the stars and the moons align you get your shot to see if the hype is real, and most times it isn’t worth the effort of stress. That has been the Los Angeles Dodgers the last 10-15 years, during the regular season they are the hot girl/guy and the postseason is the date lame, quick and uneventful. This year’s team is on pace to win over 100 games and have a legit superstar in Cody Bellinger, by the way, can we send him his rookie of the year award now? I have called the Dodgers the Yankees of the west coast minus the rings, and with a no fear front office and ownership group which includes Magic Johnson. The boys in blue also have the BEST pitcher in the game who always brings it, but has had a so-so postseason career. Clayton Kershaw has stuff that all pitchers would give their non-throwing arm for and has left it all on the field for the Dodgers every year good and bad.
Yesterday was the MLB trading deadline and no way this team wasn’t going to get into it and make a splash and oh boy did they. By giving away a quality young player and some minor leaguers, Yu Darvish comes aboard from the Rangers. A legit number two starter who WHEN he is locked in is just plain nasty. Yes, his season this year has been shaky but playing for a contender can change a man just ask anyone who went to the Yankees post trade deadline. Adding Darvish along with the current rotation and the bullpen help they acquired yesterday things look Good. But sports aren’t played on paper and since winning the world series in 1998 the Dodgers postseason record is 17-31, let this sink in a bit 24 of the OTHER 29 teams have won a pennant SINCE then. Talk about a mind-blowing stat! In an age where everyone and their mother predicts wins and losses, Magic Johnson has predicted the Dodgers are going to win the World Series, but the Nationals out in D.C. will have something to say about that but this team is stacked. Certain teams being good are just plain good for the leagues they play in and the Dodgers do that for Major League Baseball.
By Adding Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani both lefties with one mission, to make things hard in the postseason for Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy. Hard to disagree that the Dodgers have the best bullpen in the NL and this is icing on the cake.
All of these moves are all well and good, but come October the REAL fun begins and we will see if this is the YEAR the Dodgers make it back to the fall classic. It will come down to the Nats and Dodgers for a shot to represent the National League in the fall classic. The Nats can’t be forgotten they added Brandon Kintzler from the Twins. People say baseball is dying or even dead, with the willing and dealing yesterday I would say maybe check those “death” stats again.
