It's been a rough couple of weeks for the Dodgers. It didn't feel like it could get any worse after their disappointing loss to the Padres in the NLDS, but it somehow did.
Following their loss, reports came out that the team didn't make any in-game adjustments. Dodger insiders David Vassegh and Jerry Hairston Jr. both separately heard about that report from opposing scouts in the league. When Hairston Jr. joined the guys on AM570, he doubled down on the report.
"This has been a thing I guess among scouts throughout Major League Baseball," Hairston Jr. said. "I have heard this the last couple years…but this year a couple scouts that I know pretty well that are on other clubs kind of brought that to my attention that it’s pretty well known. And then when David Vassegh, who I didn’t talk to him about it, brought it up on a show we did this week, I was like ‘You heard that too, huh?’ and that’s what I’ve been hearing."
This report makes the Dodgers look very bad. But it's also a big statement to make. So Hairston Jr. gave a little more context on what it exactly means, and how it gave the Padres a huge advantage in the NLDS.
"The Dodgers do an incredible job of scouting," Hairston Jr. said. "They have the incredible department with that. You scout players throughout the course of a long season — 162 games — and that’s what you have to go on. What teams do, is, on the flip side, they scout our players. They know their players and how they play the style of play, and they kind of flip the script."
Hairston Jr. gave some examples of what this means.
"Let's say the Dodger player is looking for [a] particular pitch that [an opposing pitcher] would throw in the regular season," Hairston Jr. said. "They’re going to flip the script and throw the different pitch at a different count. So that’s what you can do in a short series. They can make adjustments on the fly, as opposed to, what I have heard in the past, the Dodgers would stick to their game plan, and this is what they have over the course of a long season, and they’re going to go with the percentages."
The Padres were able to adjust the way they played against the Dodgers, while LA just played San Diego like they have all season long. The Dodgers didn't adjust to the different style of play San Diego threw at them, and for that reason, they're currently at home on their couches.
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