Alexander: Are the Dodgers Darth Vader’s team?
The world according to Jim:
• I can already predict one of the main storylines for the National League Championship Series, and it will resemble the same drumbeat we’ve heard every offseason the Dodgers have made a significant free agent signing. (Which is, pretty much, every winter.)
“They’re bad for baseball,” the refrain goes. “They’re destroying the game … they’re signing everybody … they spend too much money.” …
• We will hear it again this week. We’ve already seen it on social media, where lots of those folks who have no dog in the fight have suddenly become Milwaukee Brewers fans for a series.
The plucky, semi-anonymous Brewers and their estimated $75 million end-of-year payroll, 24th in the majors according to Cot’s Contracts, go against the Dodgers’ superstar-laden roster and their $252.3 million end-of-year payroll. (Which, incidentally, was second in the big leagues to the Mets’ $274.9 million.)
Yeah, the storyline writes itself, and I’m fully expecting TBS to hit the Evil Empire angle hard. Darth Vader wearing a Dodger cap in the intro? Wouldn’t surprise me. …
• Yet this is what the “bad for baseball” crowd forgets. Yes, the Dodgers do play in a large market. Yes, they do have a mammoth TV contract – and keep in mind that when Mark Walter and his group bought the team from Frank McCourt in 2012, baseball people thought they’d drastically overpaid at $2.15 billion. Then they landed an $8.35 billion deal with what was then known as TIme Warner Cable (now Spectrum) for their own TV network.
And yes, they have the largest stadium in the big leagues and fill most of it every night.
But is it the Dodgers’ fault that while they put their profits back into the product because they care as much about winning as their fan base does, so many other teams and so many other owners think small and hoard their resources instead? …
• So, Dodger fans, if your team is going to be characterized as the game’s new villains, you might as well lean into it. (And maybe Dodger Stadium organist supreme Dieter Ruehle should play John Williams’ “Imperial March” before Games 3, 4 and 5.) …
• I’m also sure that the other narrative we will hear, as Commissioner Rob Manfred and a significant cabal of owners gear up for another lockout this winter – their latest attempt to impose a labor-unfriendly salary cap – is that any economic disparity is all the Dodgers’ and Mets’ fault.
I don’t buy it, nor do I buy the premise that a salary cap (even with a salary floor) will magically restore checkbook parity. …
• Speaking of parity, when’s the last time a team repeated as World Series champions? A quarter of a century. How many different champs have we had over the last decade? Eight: The Dodgers and Houston twice apiece, Texas, Atlanta, Washington, Boston, the Cubs and Kansas City once each.
And how many repeaters from last season’s LCS are in this year’s final four: Just you-know-who. Welcome to the party, Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays (sixth on the year-end payroll list at $226.2 million) and Seattle Mariners (14th at $135.1 million). …
• A reminder: Last year, in addition to (and because of) their payroll, the Dodgers paid some $103 million in “competitive balance taxes,” all disbursed to the have-nots. This year that number will probably be somewhere in the $140 million range. How much of that money do you suppose the recipients spend on player salaries?
And if the Dodgers come out of this October with another championship, I can’t think of a fan, employee or member of ownership who wouldn’t say all of that money spent was worth it. …
• Consider the alternative: Journalist/author Molly Knight quoted a team official from the McCourt years who requested anonymity thusly: “His thinking since he bought the team was: ‘This isn’t the AL East. Why would I spend $150 million to win 98 games when I can spend half that to win 90, if that’s all it takes to make the playoffs in our division?’ “
In those days, $150 million was near the top of the payroll list. Adjust the number, and fans in certain markets – think, for example, Pittsburgh and Colorado – should relate. …
• The executive that first came up with the “Evil Empire” description of the George Steinbrenner Yankees? That would have been Larry Lucchino, then the Boston Red Sox’ president, in 2002. After the Yankees had signed Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras for four years and $32 million – and hiked their payroll to a then-unthinkable $158 million – Lucchino was going to refrain from comment but then thought better of it.
“No, I’ll make a comment,” he said. “The evil empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America.” And a meme was born, well before any of us realized what a meme was. …
• Seeing Pat Murphy’s success with the Brewers – he could be the NL Manager of the Year for the second year in a row – and the way his team maximizes its advantages – is heartening given his first stint as a major league manager.
He got his first chance with the 2015 San Diego Padres, the team’s Triple-A manager promoted to the big club after Bud Black was fired in June (and some guy named Dave Roberts went 0-1 as the fill-in manager for a game). Murphy was taking over a team of veterans – Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, James Shields, etc. – and I always got the feeling he was the equivalent of the substitute teacher trying to maintain order while the students in the back of the classroom were sailing paper airplanes.
Good for Murph. He deserves this. …
• That said, how much should we read into Milwaukee’s 6-0 sweep of the regular season series with the Dodgers?
Those were two three-game sets within a couple of weeks in early July, during a stretch in which L.A. lost 10 of 12, averaged 3.0 runs a game (and 2.66 in the six games against Milwaukee) compared to its season average of 5.09, and started to show the cracks in its bullpen. If the Dodgers had played better in that stretch, they’d likely have had home advantage this week.
Now? If they can (a) get Shohei Ohtani producing with the bat again and (b) avoid too many of those late-game relief meltdowns, I’ll go along with my colleague, Bill Plunkett: Dodgers in six.
jalexander@scng.com