Monday, October 20, 2025

Copyrighted by Sarah Morris, 2025

The Los Angeles Dodgers don’t know which team they will face in the World Series yet.

After their sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers that had the best record in the major leagues, the Dodgers feel good, but they are working at Dodger Stadium.

People say that the Dodgers are ruining baseball. After the Dodgers clinched the pennant, Dave Roberts said, “Let’s really ruin baseball. Four more wins!”

To be serious, the Dodgers are not ruining baseball. Their large payroll didn’t let them beat the Brewers in the NLCS. It was their experience from Dave Roberts and down.

During the NLCS, Pat Murphy, the Brewers’ manager, tried to be cute with openers to get a left-handed opener to face Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Teoscar Hernàndez/Freddie Freeman. The Brewers didn’t have their ace Brandon Woodruff available. However, the kid in their bullpen who the Dodgers couldn’t hit if their lives depended on it, but Murphy didn’t start in a game. That kid was a starter during the regular season.

The young Brewers expanded the strike zone. They couldn’t do that against Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, and Ohtani. When the Brewers scored only four runs in four games, they won’t win many series.

The Dodgers had three players – Snell, Yamamoto, and Ohtani – who had games of their lives and in baseball history. This is what enabled the Dodgers to sweep.

No matter what game the Dodgers are playing, their stars are doing the pregame work. The superstars on other teams are lounging in the clubhouse. Hard work breeds success. Nothing improves when a player is lounging in the clubhouse unless he is injured.

Andrew Friedman is an excellent scout according to ex-manager Joe Maddon. He put together this Dodger team. In 2017, Max Muncy was contemplating returning to Baylor University after being released from the Oakland Athletics when the Dodgers signed him to a minor league contract. Any team could have done this.

The Boston Red Sox didn’t want to pay Betts, so they traded him to the Dodgers where Betts signed a massive contract.

Will Smith is homegrown Dodger and signed a long-term contract.

Teoscar Hernàndez bet himself and signed a one-year contract to prove himself. After he did, he re-signed with the Dodgers.

Tommy Edman came to the Dodgers in a trade from the Saint Louis Cardinals when Edman was injured.

Kiké Hernàndez came from the Red Sox when he was struggling because of an injury.

Andy Pages signed a $300,000 minor league contract in 2018.

Yes, Ohtani has a ridiculous contract, but he is deferring 90 percent of it, so the Dodgers could get good players around him.

The Atlanta Braves didn’t want “old” Freddie Freeman, the face of their organization. The Dodgers said, “Thank you very much! Welcome, Freddie!”

The Dodgers’ ownership is investing 73 percent of their revenue in their team. This is important, and the Dodger fans are loyal and highly motivated to support their team. Most other baseball teams are investing 35 percent of their revenue in their teams, and fans want to pay their hard-earned money to see players whose their names they know.

If the Dodgers are ruining baseball, I am proud to call myself a Dodger fan.