It is time for the Dodgers to move on from Dave Roberts.
There is too much talent and money spent every year on the Dodgers roster to be losing as much as they do.
Looking at their past rosters it is hard to believe that the Dodgers have only one World Series win since Roberts has been the manager.
A lot of the poor decisions Roberts has made as manager have either been ignored by fans or made up for by the pure talent of the Dodgers.
The Dodgers have the highest payroll in baseball. It is embarrassing that they continuously cannot get it done year after year.
Dodger fans should not be satisfied with their 2020 championship. A shortened year with no fans does not count in my book.
Until the Dodgers can get it done in a real year with fans in the stands and the pressure on, the 2020 championship isn’t enough.
There is no one else to blame besides Dave Roberts. Year after year he constantly puts the Dodgers in bad situations.
This year during the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves was a prime example of Roberts’ mistakes.
All throughout the season Roberts was changing his lineup game after game. This trend continued in the NLCS.
There are certain spots in a lineup that certain players should be in and Roberts does not seem to understand that. It is difficult to catch a rhythm as a hitter when you are constantly getting moved around in the lineup.
Poor pitching decisions were also vital during the series.
Instead of starting Tony Gonsolin, who is a starter and pitched multiple times throughout 2020’s World Series run, he started reliever Cory Knebel.
Knebel struggled and Roberts decided to bring Gonsolin in the fourth and he got hammered. The Dodgers ended up losing.
Game two was single-handedly lost by Dave Roberts.
Max Scherzer started game two instead of Walker Buehler, who was a lot more rested than Scherzer.
To no one’s surprise Scherzer struggled and had to be removed in the fourth due to arm problems.
Along with an already shortened pitching staff, Cy Young candidate Max Scherzer did not pitch the rest of the series due to being overworked.
The Dodgers were up by two in the eighth when Roberts decided to bring another starter in relief.
Instead of keeping in the dominant Black Treinen who had just cruised through the seventh, Roberts went with Julio Urias who is a 20 win starter and had not relieved all year.
Although Urias had a career year, he had not come in relief at all throughout the season. So why would he be put in that situation now?
Of course Urias struggled and the Dodgers ended up losing again.
It was evident that this pitching performance took a toll on Urias. He started game four and looked terrible. The Dodgers lost that game as well.
He did not look like the Urias Dodger fans had seen all year. Urias lacked confidence in all of his pitches.
Roberts had made questionable decisions series after series, year after year. The 2021 NLCS is just one example of his mistakes throughout the years.
He is to blame for the lack of World Series wins the last few years.
As long as Dave Roberts is the Los Angeles Dodgers manager, do not expect any real World Series wins any time soon.
Allen Forsythe • Nov 19, 2021 at 4:56 pm
Although Roberts is not managing the way I thought he would manage when he was hired, I believe your well written article is unnecessarily harsh and relies heavily on hindsight. Even if Roberts resigned or was fired, either of which is very unlikely, who would the Dodgers choose to replace him? Whoever eventually replaces Roberts could do worse, the same or better, so the odds are 2:1 that there would not be any improvement in the Dodgers’ performance. Welcome to the world of big league modern day baseball.