The Dodgers led the major leagues in average-earning run last season.
They shed three of their starting heads in the winter. Of their projected five starters this season, one has been chosen out of concern about coronavirus, and two others have been injured.
That, of course, led the Dodgers to the majors ’average-earned run this season.
The Dodgers talk a lot about depth, to the point that it may sound like a buzzword, but there is a strategy behind the strategy. Each team subscribes to the theory that you can never have too much pitching. The Dodgers Addendum: Going Deeper by Getting Younger.
The three starters the Dodgers leave: Rich Hill (40), Hyun-Jin Ryu (33) and Kenta Maeda (32).
The current six-man rotation includes none older than 32: Clayton Kershaw (32), Ross Stripling (30), Walker Buehler (26), Tony Gonsolin (26), Julio Urías (24) and Dustin May (22). Awaiting Activation: Alex Wood (29).
“We took a little leap in terms of less established depth, but we felt really good about the talent of the pitchers we had in our organization,” said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers’ president of baseball operations.
‘We showed it a little earlier than we would like, but to their credit Dustin and Tony really arrived. We see how Julio develops into a really good premier class starter. ”
Of those six, all but Wood were originally signed by the Dodgers. Lineed up behind them, and ready to pitch this season: Mitchell White (25), Victor Gonzalez (24) and Josiah Gray (22). White and Gonzalez were originally signed by the Dodgers; Gray was one of two prospects gained in a deal with Cincinnati. The other prospect, infielder Jeter Downs, was later included in the package that was traded for Mookie Betts and David Price.
The difficulty with building depth through free agency is that a pitcher’s talent is enough to win a job in the starting rotation of one team probably would not take a small supply of leagues from another.
“They don’t want to sign up to start pitcher No. 6 or No. 7,” Friedman said.
“Truly, the only way to maintain high quality depth is to maintain a system development for players that calls for really good pitching prospects.”
It was no coincidence, then, that a team that transitioned last winter from a trio of veteran starters that Wood could leave this fall and Kershaw could leave next fall, gave priority to college pitching in this year’s draft – in the words of Friedman: “Three arms of great talent with our first three picks having a chance to be here sooner rather than later.”
The Dodgers play the Angels this weekend, whose team ERA is 22nd on the 22nd among the 30 teams. The Angels’ current rotation includes one homegrown starter, 24-year-old Griffin Canning.
The Dodgers have not been outside the top 10 in ERA since 2010. The Angels have not been in the top 10 since 2011.
The Angels’ last pitcher to win 12 games and win 150 innings in a season was homegrown: Jered Weaver, formed in 2004.
Bad boys and bubbles
Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Zach Plesac throws against the Chicago White Sox on August 8th.
(Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)
On April 3, with his team shut down and half of the roster infected by the novel coronavirus, Miami Marlins boss Derek Jeter reports that players went out drinking and clubbing in Atlanta.
“We had boys go out to get coffee, to get clothes,” Jeter said. “A man went away to eat at a teammate’s house.”
The MLB lesson wanted players to learn: Leaving the hotel for any reason puts you in the community, thus increasing your risk of catching the virus and then spreading it among your teammates.
The league also ordered teams to add an additional monitor for road trips. Five days after Jeter spoke, the Cleveland Indians monitor again caught pitcher Zach Plesac returning to the team hotel late at night. The Indians later learned pitcher Mike Clevinger had been out with Plesac.
In an Instagram video posted Thursday, Plesac said the two met at a small group of friends for dinner and then returned to a private home. He said everyone in the group was tested and that he did not consider his behavior reckless.
“Things are inevitable,” Plesac said. ‘You’ll see people. You will be social interacting. You can not sit in a room all day. That is the truth of the matter. ‘
The Indians were angry by the video, which has since been deleted. After a team meeting Friday, the Indians selected both pitchers for the roster of the premiership. It’s easy to make a statement with a middle relief, but Plesac finished third in the American League with a 1.29 ERA. And since 2018, Clevinger’s 2.92 ERA finished fourth in the American League, beating only Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Blake Snell.
Plesac’s comments reflect why MLB is strongly considering a postseason bubble. The league tried to play on the honor system, with players asking to go nowhere near home, hotel and ballpark, but it was only one or two players out of 900 to trigger an outbreak. It is, to use the word of Plesac, inevitable.
The bubble planning is in its preliminary stages, and the league has not assigned it. But, with October weather as a factor, it is expected that any bubble format would be played out in part or in full in Southern California.
The team that has won the World Series has played twice on the field at Dodger Stadium in the last three years, but none of those teams were the Dodgers. Third time is the charm?
Fight enemies
We’re three weeks into this 60-game season, but we’re also one-third of the way through the season. We also play with a field of 16-team postseason, giving Fangraphs all six teams a 95% or better chance of making the playoffs: the Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays.
The National League team with the next-best odds? That would be the San Diego Padres, who split a four-game series against the Dodgers this week. Fangraphs gives the Padres an 84% chance of winning a playoff key, which would be their first since 2006.
Bring back the brown and gold uniforms, and glory follows. But shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., the NL leader in home games, also helps.
