Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES — Dave Flemming, longtime Giant play-by-play man, inserted himself in the middle of baseball’s most heated rivalry this summer with his comments on a recent radio broadcast. He went on the air on Bay Area radio show 95.7 The Game’s “Morning Roast” and insinuated that the in-season crackdown on pitchers using sticky stuff has “changed” the Dodgers’ pitchers.
“I’m not accusing anybody,” Flemming said (which is what people say right before they accuse somebody). “This isn’t a controversial statement, but the rule change about the sticky substances, that changed the Dodgers team.”
Fleming continued, “They’re still good, still really really good, (but) Walker Buehler can no longer throw a fastball one after another by the Giants. Julio Urias can no longer blow the Giants away with pure stuff. It changed those guys, it did. That, to me, changed this season. The Dodgers have been impacted by that more than anybody.” (If you want to listen to Flemming make his case, it’s at about the 19-minute mark of THIS BROADCAST.)
Flemming cites as evidence the fact that after the rule change, the Giants took seven of ten games from the Giants. Okay. This is BS on several different levels. And it is typical of the nonsense that comes out of Giants’ homers like Flemming. Let’s look at the facts, shall we?
Fact One: Giants’ wins were not caused by pitching problems from starters
Yes, the Giants won more games later in the season, but it’s not because the Dodgers didn’t have the starting pitching. They didn’t win because of errors late (Trea Turner, Cody Bellinger) , a lack of timely hitting, or bullpen meltdowns. Walker Buehler throws one clunker and suddenly Flemming has the whole staff struggling.
Fact Two: Dodger pitching is actually BETTER since the crackdown
For your information, Dave Flemming, the Dodgers team pitching has gotten BETTER since the MLB ruling in early June, or haven’t you noticed? Right now, nearly three months into the sticky stuff crackdown, the Dodgers’ team ERA is the best in baseball, and in fact, it is better than the Dodgers’ MLB-leading ERA before the All-Star break. Before the break, the Dodgers led baseball with a 3.17 ERA. Post-ASB, their combined ERA went down; the Dodgers have pitched at a 2.67 clip since then. So unless when you say they have “changed”, you mean “got a lot better”, then maybe, you just need to shut the pie hole.
Fact Three: Puh–lease!
And finally: Anybody who works for a team that employed Barry Bonds better think long and hard before running his mouth about cheating.
I think he meant to say Padres
I wonder how the Giants have gone from a 75 win team to a 105 win team and old guys like Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford have put up numbers like they have. Better get a couple of urine tests on these guys MLB.