Dodgers notes: Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, Dave Roberts

This Saturday is suddenly more busy than we were expecting, what with the Dodgers playing the Marlins for two games instead of one, trying to get ahead of bad weather coming Sunday.

So we’ll keep this one brief with a few notes from the last few days.

Freddie Freeman’s baserunning was appreciated by Esteban Rivera at FanGraphs, including several specific GIFs of the Dodgers first baseman making astute decisions on the bases.

“There aren’t many runners in the league like Freeman; consistently making the right decisions on the basepaths is not easy!,” Rivera write. “But he makes it look simple and is as instinctive as they come out there, and it’s become one of my favorite trends to track throughout this season.”

Max Muncy’s defense has improved since the beginning of the season. He was below average by Defensive Runs Saved, Outs Above Average, and Total Zone Rating, and still is on the latter two. But thanks to stellar glove work since the All-Star Game, Muncy has clawed back to exactly average in DRS by being one of the best defenders in the sport for the last five weeks.

Joe Posnanski in his newsletter wrote about the red-hot Dodgers, and manager Dave Roberts:

I’m not saying that Roberts is the REASON for the Dodgers’ success, but he has to be a huge part of it. I don’t think it’s easy at all to pilot talented teams with championship expectations in one of America’s biggest cities. Roberts carries it well. Yes, he has had some postseason disappointments, and there continue to be questions about his individual game management. The Dodgers will not go into this postseason as the favorite, not with the Braves playing the way they’re playing, but they’re very much in the conversation. They always are with Dave Roberts managing. He’s either the luckiest manager who ever lived or he’s actually really good at his job.