The Los Angeles Dodgers are the proud owners of the pitcher who might be the best statistical pitcher in the history of baseball, and they may have a team built around him to go all the way. Many thought this was the case last season, but the Dodgers came up short to the Cardinals in the NLDS. Many faces have changed this off-season for the Dodgers. The question is whether or not the changing of the guard for guys like Hanley Ramirez, Matt Kemp and Dee Gordon will end up benefiting or hurting LA this season.

Notable additions and subtractions this off-season

Additions

  • Jimmy Rollins
  • Howie Kendrick
  • Brett Anderson
  • Brandon McCarthy
  • Yasmani Grandal
  • Chris Hatcher
  • Hector Olivera
  • Chris Heisey
  • Joel Peralta
  • Sergio Santos
  • Brandon Beachy
  • Juan Nicasio
  • Austin Barnes
  • Enrique Hernandez
  • Joe Wieland
  • Buck Britton
  • Elliot Johnson
  • Mike Bolsinger
  • David Aardsma
  • Shawn Zarraga
  • Peter Lavin
  • Kyle Jensen
  • Adam Liberatore
  • Ben Rowen
  • Chad Gaudin
  • David Huff
  • Ryan Buchter
  • Matt Carson
  • Randy Fontanez

Subtractions

  • Hanley Ramirez
  • Matt Kemp
  • Dee Gordon
  • Josh Beckett
  • Dan Haren
  • Chris Perez
  • Brian Wilson
  • Jamey Wright
  • Paul Maholm
  • Roberto Hernandez
  • Kevin Correia
  • Chad Billingsley
  • Dustin McGowan
  • Zach Elfin
  • Tom Windle
  • Tim Federowicz
  • Miguel Rojas
  • Drew Butera
  • Matt Magill
  • Ryan Jackson
  • Greg Harris
  • Jose Dominguez
  • Onelki Garcia

Biggest Weakness – Bullpen

Losing Kenley Jansen was not helpful news on this front as the Dodgers were already looking pretty thin with their pitching in general. They did, luckily, pick up Chris Hatcher and Joel Peralta this off-season, and those are probably their best two bullpen arms on the team with Jansen on the DL. We have seen what a mediocre bullpen can do to top-of-the-line contenders as the Tigers have dealt with this for a few years now, but hopefully the Dodgers can get Janssen back soon and avoid this problem. When the trade deadline comes around this year, the Dodgers are a likely candidate to look for some relief pitching.

Biggest Strength – Front of the pitching rotation

Sitting at the front of the rotation, L.A. has two elite leel aces in Clayton Kershaw and Zach Grienke, both of whom have Cy Young awards in their back pockets. Kershaw has three to go along with an MVP award from last year. Both pitchers have been a staple of consistency when it comes to pitching at an elite level. 

Kershaw is the best statistical pitcher in the history of baseball through his first 1000+ inningsm and he is just now entering his prime years at age 27. There is no reason to expect anyone other than Kershaw to win the Cy Young each of the next few seasons just because he is that much better than everyone else.

Grienke is still very close to being a top 10 pitcher in the league as well.  His Cy Young came in 2009 when he was pitching in the AL for the Royals. Ever since, he has stayed dominant and is sometimes overlooked just because he is the second-best guy at his position on the team. He comes into 2015 with two consecutive seasons with a sub 3.00 ERA, and last year he threw 202 innings with a K-to-9 rate over 9.00 and a walk rate under 2.00.

Both of these guys should approach 20 wins this season and need to carry an otherwise questionable pitching rotation.

Something to keep an eye on – the infield

The Dodgers are loaded with guys who are worthy of starting on their bench and in the Minors. Right now, Juan Uribe is looking like he will start at third base, but that job is hanging by a thread. With guys like Cuban Alex Guerrero and fellow Cuban 30-year-old rookie Hector Olivera lurking and ready to take over at any minute, who knows what this infield might look like by the time the season fully kicks in to gear. 

Guerrero is actually a shortstop who was expected to take over at second last year before Dee Gordon suddenly learned how to get on base. Guerrero is capable of playing any infield position if there is an injury or poor play. Olivera is likely just being primed for a short time in order to take over the hot corner when he is asked to. Overall, this infield will look great with whatever look they want to go with, but it will be interesting to see what it ends up looking like.

On a side note, they also have Justin Turner and Scott Van Slyke sitting on the bench this season. If Van Slyke is to ever get every-day at bats due to an injury to Adrian Gonzalez, he might take over as one of the better offensive players on this team.

Potential Lineup - * = Lefty, ^ = Switch hitter

  1. Jimmy Rollins – SS^
  2. Yasiel Puig – RF
  3. Adrian Gonzalez – 1B*
  4. Scott Van Slyke – LF
  5. Yasmani Grandal – C^
  6. Joc Pederson – CF*
  7. Howie Kendrick – 2B
  8. Juan Uribe – 3B

Potential Bench

AJ Ellis

Carl Crawford

Alex Guerrero

Andre Ethier*

Chris Heisey

Potential Rotation - * = Lefty

Clayton Kershaw*

Zack Greinke

Brandon McCarthy

Brett Anderson*

Potential Bullpen

Chris Hatcher – Closer

Joel Peralta

Pedro Baez

JP Howell*

Sergio Santos

Paco Rodriguez*

Juan Nicasio

Starting season on DL

Hyun-Jin Ryu

Kenley Jansen

Brandon Beachy

Chris Withrow

Brandon League

Fantasy Bargain – Joc Pederson

This is the first time we should see Pederson at the Big League level for a full season, so there is definitely some uncertainty about what to expect from him. The fact of the matter is that Pederson is the only guy not named Rollins and Puig who is capable of a 20/20 or even 30/30 season like he just did in AAA last season. It is not smart to expect a 30/30 season from anyone, much less a rookie, but he is one of very few who can even be on the “it’s possible” list. 

Pederson does have strikeout problems as he is still in developmental years, so understand that he might not be helpful with average going into the draft.  At the end of the day, Pederson should probably be compared to guys like Carlos Gonzalez and George Springer, and they are getting drafted pretty close to 50 overall. Pederson is going closer to 150, so if he is around after pick 100, he is worth taking.

Overvalued Fantasy Player – Yasiel Puig

Puig is currently being taken high second round or low first round in drafts. Does he deserve to go that high? Mabye. The point of this blurb is to temper expectations for Puig. He is clearly one of the most-talented players in the league, and he might deserve to go that high, but he is also a definite injury risk, and he still has some plate discipline issues. On top of that, he posted only16 homers and 11 stolen bases last season. 

Puig hit a lot of doubles and scored a lot of runs, but for a first-rounde power hitter, expect at least one 20-home run season on record, and Puig does not check out on that criteria. Overall, this opinionist thinks Puig should be taken in the third or fourth rounds instead of the first or second.

Conclusion/Prediction

This team looks good, not quite as good as last year, especially with the DL stints to begin the season from Ryu, Janssen and possibly Puig. The offense is a little less sexy without Hanley Ramirez, Matt Kemp, and Dee Gordon spicing things up as well. Joc Pederson is a good replacement for Kemp, but the middle infield likely regressed a little offensively. Pitching depth is a question mark both for the starters and relievers. Overall, this team is probably still good enough to win 90 games or so and take the N.L. West, where the Padres look like their only competition this year. 

Tyler spoke with Alex Markle @ChavezRavining about the Dodgers on the radio.  Hear what Alex had to say

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