Whenever a jealous and/or bitter team’s fans, for example, the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres. When they look at the Los Angeles Dodgers 2020 championship, they call it a Mickey Mouse championship. Heck, when Joe Davis was referring to the Dodgers and their World Series wins, he continued calling it like this, “they’re looking to win their 8th championship.”
Come on. A Mickey Mouse championship? That probably is the hardest championship to win by far! They didn’t play in LA, they didn’t play in front of their fans, and their record in the early stages determined everything! Yet, you don’t call it a valid championship.
Forget about the past, let’s talk present and my “MVP”.
THE DODGERS WIN THE WORLD SERIES!
The New York Yankees vs Dodgers World Series matchup was a dream matchup. We all thought it was going to be the best of the best. Yet, the Dodgers dominated this series. Let me rephrase that. Freddie Freeman dominated the series. With a home run in almost every game in the series (except game 5), a home run in his last six World Series games (excluding game 5), and going 6 for 20, Freeman could not be stopped by the Yankees pitching. Even Aaron Boone said it! Freeman also came in incredibly clutch. So, yes. I’m going to give Freeman the MVP honors on the offensive side, just like the World Series MVP he earned.
On the pitching side, we had some amazing performances from all pitchers. I’m going to focus only on the starters here because this has been the “worst” position for the Dodgers this season. Jack Flaherty did okay, Yoshinobu Yamamoto did amazing, and Walker Buehler did great too. I’m not sure if this is surprising to you or not, but I think Buehler is going to get the best pitcher honors. Flaherty failed in game 5, and it was a really close win. Yamamoto got one chance to prove who he was and he showed it big time. Buehler was the one that just amazed me. He didn’t even know that he would pitch, and he was only on a day’s rest! Take the honors, Buehler!
Sho Me… Nothing?
Look. I love Shohei Ohtani‘s 50/50 season. He had one of the greatest Dodgers seasons to remember.
The problem is the postseason. That’s been the Dodgers’ problem all along, and I will still declare that a problem for the Dodgers. Shohei… Didn’t show up… He had a .230 batting average with 14 hits, 3 homers, 10 RBIs, and 14 runs scored in 16 games in the 2024 postseason. More importantly, the greatest player in the MLB won his first World Series. The tiny problem is that he did nothing. Why is Derek Jeter so famous today? He would still have been a great player if he didn’t do well in the postseason. The stats speak for itself. Kids want to be like Jeter because of a .308 with 200 hits, 20 homers, 61 RBIs and 111 runs scored in 158 games in the postseason in his career.
It’s only Shohei’s first postseason, so we shouldn’t be freaking out, but you have to wonder, shouldn’t his performance have improved just a bit as we progressed through the games? Out of 14 games, he had no hits in 6 of them, including the World Series-clinching one. The pitchers just knew where to throw the pitch to Ohtani.
Who do the Dodgers Target?
I’ll have an article up and running on that one very soon. For now, here’s the basics.
Teoscar Hernandez only signed a one-year deal. Looking at Dodgers X, Reddit, and Facebook, many are in support of Hernandez returning to the team. Meanwhile, the Dodgers are ready to pursue Juan Soto, if he’s ready to come to the West Coast. Soto has always been interested in playing alongside Ohtani. According to me, this has to be the biggest controversy. I actually detailed this exact topic on another site, that you should check out. I’ll detail more about this soon on this site.
The bullpen didn’t fail us, but the more the merrier. We also need a starter. Flaherty was a great addition, but he was on and off for the Dodgers. If we can go out and sign a top free-agent starting pitcher, that would be awesome.
Who do you think the Dodgers should sign? Leave it in the comments below, and I’ll analyze why!
Main Image: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
