Forget past failures of October

Phil Gurnee ♦ October 11, 2017 ♦ 6 Comments

I was thinking about something Jon Weisman tweeted yesterday

I remember the euphoria after the Dodgers’ NLDS sweeps in 2008 and 2009. It’s sobering to recall what came next. Hoping 2017 is less cruel.

— Jon Weisman (@jonweisman) October 11, 2017

and it made me realize the only way to really enjoy this upcoming NLCS is to block out our past failures and simply concentrate on 2017.

• This team does not have Jonathan Broxton it has Kenley Jansen
• This team does not have Joe Blanton it has Brandon Morrow
• This team does not have George Sherrill it has Tony Cingrani
• This team does not have Pedro Baez it has………oh shit it still has Pedro Baez

The new shiny things we have in 2017 we did not have in previous Octobers in the 21st century:

• This team has Cody Bellinger at 1st base, and as he showed in game three of the 2017 NLDS, he can beat you numerous ways. Cody has only been in one postseason series and is 1 – 0.
• Austin Barnes and Yazmani Grandal are the best backstop duo in baseball. Barnes did not shrink from his first starts in the postseason and is now 2 – 0 in games he has started in the postseason.
• Out of nowhere, Chris Taylor became the Dodgers dynamic center fielder who much like the other two players mentioned above can beat you in different ways.
• Yasiel Puig is not new, but this version of Puig looks completely new compared to the version Dodger fans have seen in October since he arrived in 2013.  The one thing Puig did not do was put on a defensive clinic against the Diamondbacks, expect that to change in the NLCS.
• Granderson is new, uh for now, that is all I got. He’s new.

Except for Granderson, the key to the newbies is that they are multidimensional baseball talents. They can all hit, hit with power, patient, defend, and run. Even the catcher Austin Barnes can run.

The newbie pitching:

• Have to start with Yu. One start in, he looks like what the doctor ordered.
• Brandon Morrow has been the best offseason cheapie signing the Dodgers have done since Justin Turner. Or maybe since Chase Utley. Whatever, he be awesome.
• Tony Cingrani had all the skills and none of the results when the Dodgers traded for him. Now he’s all results.
• Tony Watson can almost do anything Cingrani can do
• And of course Kenta Maeda. Bullpen Kenta is a brand new key so shiny and sparkly.

So, my advice to myself is to forget about the past and enjoy the present as the Dodgers head to the NLCS with the World Series in their headlights.  As good as this team is, they may not make it. We may see some new heartbreak,  and baseball being baseball we are going to see something we never expected.  But instead of looking for the next heartbreak, I’m going to look for the next Mickey Hatcher moment.