Isn't it at least partially a mentality issue?

[Turning2]

The Dodgers are in the Brewers head in my view. At least somewhat. It happens. The Packers have (some might say "had"?) owned the Bears for decades. The Yanks owned the Twins in the early 'OO's. No doubt, LA's favored MLB son status allows them to spend on talent with impunity. That can't be entirely overlooked nor entirely blamed for their cat and mouse toying with MIL. 

However.... its not just the illegitimate "competition" which MLB Inc and the Players' Union foists upon small market fans. One star player on a team with no spending limits may make 3-4x what a star player on a small market team makes. That does not mean that the one guy is 3-4x as talented. At some point, it comes down to not only talent, but heart, determination, mental fortitude, and pride. They could use a little more leadership, more emotion driven by competitive indignation now and then. That's not a clubhouse cancer. That is a guy fed up with settling for being "the bridesmaid but never the bride" so to speak. This team does not have a leader everyone looks to and can count on to produce and spur the others when the chips are down against the elite payrolls. They were beat last night after the Tucker triple and Pages HR. The team has grit. That is indisputable. They can come back from that kick to the competitive balls by the Cubs, Padres, DBacks etc... but not L.A. Sure, there might be an exception here and there on that.

The Dodgers have the best All Star pitching staff money can buy. They have a bevy of the best hitters money can lure. It's insulting and ridiculous. It's the reality of today's illegitimate MLB structure.

But you can't tell me that L.A.'s roster overall is 3-4x more talented. I doubt it's even twice as talented overall. The Brewers' Goliath conundrum with L.A. is at least partially mental. When they can't dictate the flow of the game by "drag'em" at bats, often resulting in weak infield dribblers aided by speed, bunting, forced errors and timely hitting, followed up by top defense, and solid pitching.... they are cooked.

That is overcome by pursuing a couple of reliable veteran power bats that have come from a different clubhouse culture. That requires a front office willingness to sacrifice what you can afford to sacrifice - namely... prospect capital, Milwaukee's default is to resist the age old wisdom of "a bird in hand is better than two in the bush". They have an obsessive preference with their young talent in the minors over proven, "better than mediocre" quality MLB players. They know full well that most of their supposedly deep farm system will not become above average to star major leaguers. But they can afford them. They use them to tease us fans along with their potential. This is how we end up with the "meh" rosters of over hyped prospects like Mitchell, Frelick, Black etc. It's effective enough to keep fans emotionally invested ("entertained"). It sells tickets, merch and overpriced concessions which keeps the ownership investors in the black and MLB INC healthy. It makes suckers out of small market fans who expect a level playing field but continue to bend over and take it because they love the game. 

We have no power or choice other than to divorce our financial support from the game that many of us love and still want to believe has integrity. Drug cartels profit handsomely, live in opulence by leveraging addiction against their clients too. 

To sum up.. the Brewers aren't mentally tough enough, are fighting an insulting set of financial tied competitive circumstances, and the unholy alliance of the MLB investors AND the Players Union laughs all the way to the bank while taking us all for the addicted suckers we are in small market America. 

[adambr2]

I think the Dodgers are just really, really good. 

We’ve had some success against them in the regular season so it looks like we *should* be able to compete against them (and we can, but a lot of things have to go right).  Unfortunately, they’re a team that can kind of just put it on cruise control in the regular season and turn it up a notch in the playoffs, and I think they do.

[SF70]

I’ll take Misiorowski-Harrison in the first two playoff games vs the Dodgers no matter who they throw at us. I’ll probably take Woodruff in game 3. 

We have the overwhelmingly dominant starting pitching that can shut that team down. 

If anything, the thought of the Dodger hitters facing our top 3 starters might mean we are in their heads.

[82brewcrew82]

The Dodgers are basically an all-star team and any weakness they have will be addressed by aquiring and all-start level talent.  Under the current rule s the Dodgers are just going to be the best team in baseball.  I don't put much stock in the series that just finished relative to a playff series but yeah, they are just better.  Doesn't mean the Brewers can't beat them but everything would need to line up right.  The Dodgers have more than enough to win even if things are set up less than ideal for them.  Suck but it is what it is.

[RobDeer 45]

Brewers swept the Dodgers last year.  They have way more resources and their team is just better.  We can compete but it's a tough mountain to climb.

[Frisbee Slider]

In the playoffs, I don’t anticipate Henderson, Gasser and Sproat getting the ball very often. In a real way, each are mostly AAA pitchers this season..

Milwaukee had an opportunity to win game two last series against the Dodgers until Hall and Woodford collapsed in the late innings. 

Game three was competitive until the one blowup inning, too.

The Brewers played well enough given that we threw mostly B team pitchers the entire series.

[igor67]

I would expect Sproat and Henderson are both options. First Sproat may well develop during the season and second both he and Henderson have been very effective early in their starts,so whether it is as opener's or just 1-2 inning options they certainly look like they could wrack up some important time.

[tmwiese55]

Right, it all depends on how the rest of the year goes and on injuries, and I agree both of those have great potentiall. I think the initial point was more around that we faced LAD with our bottom 3 starters, or maybe better phrased as 'without using our top 2' guys.  So considering that winning 1 and being in both of the other games prior to one blow up inning is understandable.

Mostly though these recent posts reminded me of something I've been thinking lately. Which is come playoffs I hope they continue to play and manage game pitching generally the same way they do through the year. Rather than going wild with openers and planning to use 8 relivers, etc. Rather use the general normal starting pitcher for 4-6 innings based on results, then use your relivers in the same roles/spots they've been used all year. 

[adambr2]

On 5/25/2026 at 6:50 PM, SF70 said:

I’ll take Misiorowski-Harrison in the first two playoff games vs the Dodgers no matter who they throw at us. I’ll probably take Woodruff in game 3. 

We have the overwhelmingly dominant starting pitching that can shut that team down. 

If anything, the thought of the Dodger hitters facing our top 3 starters might mean we are in their heads.

Unfortunately they also have a Miz and their Miz is also a better hitter than anyone in our lineup.

When the Dodgers signed Ohtani that was probably the biggest disruption to the balance of large market/small market in a long time.

How the Angels managed to accomplish nothing in all their years of trotting out both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani has to be studied. I guess they are just that incompetent.

 

[markedman5]

Logan Henderson has a 1.7 WAR for his career in 48 innings to go along with 63 strikeouts and a 1.01 WHIP.

He is doing one heck of an impersonation of a really good major league starter for a AAA pitcher.

[sveumrules]

29 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

How the Angels managed to accomplish nothing in all their years of trotting out both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani has to be studied. I guess they are just that incompetent.

There are a couple things (besides the Angels undeniable incompetence) that limited Trout/Ohtani from having more success.

The first was that it took Ohtani awhile to get going. From 2018 to 2020 while Trout was the best player in baseball with 1449 PA of 179 wRC+ for 19.4 WAR, Shohei was still figuring it out with 967 PA of 124 wRC+ for 4.3 WAR hitting plus 53 IP of 102 ERA- | 90 FIP- for 0.9 WAR on the mound.

Then the injuries started for Trout with only 241 PA in 2021 while Ohtani was having his first breakout season notching 8.9 combined WAR.

Trout bounced back for his last good season in 2022 with 499 PA of 176 wRC+ for 6.0 WAR while Ohtani registered another 9.8 combined WAR.

Shohei followed up with 10.4 combined WAR in his walk year, but Trout was hurt again with only 362 PA.

So of their six years together Ohtani wasn't OHTANI yet for the first three, then Trout was mostly injured once Shohei started his run of dominance.

[liveforoctober]

#Sveumbomb

Can I officially request we add two more emoticons to the 5 we currently have? On top of sad, disagree, love, like, and WHOA SOLVDD ... I would like a picture of Dale Sveum's face so I can click it and summon the professor to come answer/fix another poster's question/misunderstanding.

.. and secondly a picture of Eeyore so whenever a grump is vomiting unnecessarily on other's happiness we can take out our frustrations on them with a donkey emoji click. (Adambr2 this is not in reference to your Angels' comment)

[tmwiese55]

Also, Ohtani barely pitched in '18, '19, 20' as he was getting his feet wet and then got hurt right way.  so he was only the two way juggernaut in three years 21-23, and he get hurt at the end of '23 (if I remember correctly)

[Frisbee Slider]

55 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

Logan Henderson has a 1.7 WAR for his career in 48 innings to go along with 63 strikeouts and a 1.01 WHIP.

He is doing one heck of an impersonation of a really good major league starter for a AAA pitcher.

That’s fair. At the same time, he has spent most of his time in Nashville. To your point, probably unnecessarily.

[CheezWizHed]

Saying the Dodgers have more talent is fair.  Saying 3-4x is way over the top.  

We just played a toe-to-toe series while throwing out our #4, #5, and #6 SPs at them.  Yes, last year's sweep still stings, but they were also healthy and we were not.  The reverse happened mid-season (maybe that was the Dodger's plan?) and we swept them.  

Is there a gap? Yes.  But it isn't as big as people think. 

[adambr2]

58 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

Saying the Dodgers have more talent is fair.  Saying 3-4x is way over the top.  

We just played a toe-to-toe series while throwing out our #4, #5, and #6 SPs at them.  Yes, last year's sweep still stings, but they were also healthy and we were not.  The reverse happened mid-season (maybe that was the Dodger's plan?) and we swept them.  

Is there a gap? Yes.  But it isn't as big as people think. 

I am not saying that the core of all this premise is wrong, but I do believe that meeting a Dodgers team for a series in May or August isn’t the same as meeting them in October even if the roster is similar. 

Call it playoff experience, call it intangibles, call it just finding another gear, I don’t really know what it is. But I think there’s definitely a difference.

[CheezWizHed]

46 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

I am not saying that the core of all this premise is wrong, but I do believe that meeting a Dodgers team for a series in May or August isn’t the same as meeting them in October even if the roster is similar. 

Call it playoff experience, call it intangibles, call it just finding another gear, I don’t really know what it is. But I think there’s definitely a difference.

Yeah, I don't mean that the intensity or focus of the playoffs is the same as 6 games mid-season.  But if you compare the health and availability of players on both teams during those two times, and you will find a big difference.

They walked into the playoffs healthy and in a good state.  Woodruff was shelved.  Priester was fighting his wrist (ultimately TOS) issues, Contreras hit a wall with his broken finger and playing nearly every game that season. 

It was a pretty big swing for both teams.  

[formerlybis]

To the original question, I think the Dodgers are in our fans’ heads - I certainly think it’s true for me. But the rest of the thesis of the author is pretty thin sportstalk bloviation. As a small market team fan in the current configuration of circumstances, expectations should be managed. Once in a great while, a Kansas City sneaks a title (or a Leicester in the EPL), but the smart money is on those with the highest payroll. More bites at the apple is meeting my expectations and probably exceeding them.

[Turning2]

1 hour ago, formerlybis said:

To the original question, I think the Dodgers are in our fans’ heads - I certainly think it’s true for me. But the rest of the thesis of the author is pretty thin sportstalk bloviation. As a small market team fan in the current configuration of circumstances, expectations should be managed. Once in a great while, a Kansas City sneaks a title (or a Leicester in the EPL), but the smart money is on those with the highest payroll. More bites at the apple is meeting my expectations and probably exceeding them.

LOL, yes I can get long winded. True, we are stuck with managing expectations. That doesn't address the mental aspect of the players involved though. Rightly or wrongly, fans can reach the "just glad we made the playoffs" submission mindset. I don't want the guys I cheer for to adopt that perspective, however. Maybe they don't. Sure looks like it sometimes though.  

[MrTPlush]

They are better and by a lot for a variety of reasons. They can carelessly spend money to fix problems, we can’t. They have a better ability to drop prospect capital to fill holes. With all that money, they naturally have better depth in general.

Also, the top versus bottom offensively is quite a bit different. We have 3 sub .600 OPS hitters and none that are close to a .900 OPS (within say .020 OPS). The Dodgers have zero sub .600 hitters taking major ABs and two that are close to a .900 OPS. We have black hole free outs to get them out of jams…they don’t have that in their lineup. That’s just a huge difference.

We may have some true TOR guys better than we have in awhile…but they still have a really strong rotation that is better than ours, likely. Their bullpen is as good or better.

We need to play incredible baseball and get some luck…that’s tough facing the Dodgers. Unfortunately we get one stab at it per year…so even if we succeed 3/10 times…that’s not very often in the grand scheme.

[yourout]

If we can stay healthy and it's a 5 game series we have a punches chance. 

If it's a 7 game series or we have injuries the Dodgers would be heavy heavy favorites.