Dodgers Opening Week in Review
- Updated: April 11, 2016
Record: 4-3 (Mon-Sun)
3-0 vs the Padres, 1-3 vs the Giants
Things we’ve learned
- Starting pitching is real
This isn’t a stretch to say when your #1 is the best pitcher in baseball, but I think the real surprise this week has been the strength of the rest of the rotation. Scott Kazmir and Kenta Maeda had dynamite starts against the Padres, both throwing shutouts and going 6 innings (Kazmir allowing 1 hit & Maeda allowing 5.) Whether this is a result of just their dominance or the futility of their opponents (the Padres didn’t score all series) remains to be seen – and as I type this, Kazmir has allowed 6 ER against the hated Giants. He’ll have to have success against good teams as well as bad to fill that Zack Greinke-sized hole, and only time will tell if he can. He’s been both up and down in his big league career, so hopefully the Dodgers have him in an up year. Despite the hype, Maeda is the wildcard in the rotation and he more than showed his potential on Wednesday, showing multiple pitches (two and four-seam fastballs in addition to sliders, curveballs, and a change-up) from different arm angles. Not entirely different from what we’ve seen from Japanese pitchers in recent years, but it’s always good to see new free agent signees do well in their first few starts. Curious to see how he does against better teams as well. Next week he’ll have the Dbacks and Giants so those will be tests.
Much has been written about young Ross Stripling’s major league debut Friday night against the Giants & the 7.1 no-hit innings he threw and Dave Roberts’ decision to pull him (correct, in my opinion) so we won’t go into that here, but Stripling stepping in to that 5th starter role with success is huge. We weren’t sure who was going to fill that spot in Spring Training, but with Brett Anderson, Brandon Beachy, Hyun-jin Ryu & Brandon McCarthy still up in the air, Stripling got the call and he was terrific. Often times pitchers in their debuts can get through the batting order once, but those 2nd & 3rd times are where the inexperience shows. Stripling looked great the 2nd time through, and was effectively wild the 3rd time through (in a heavy rain I might add), but was laboring and not hitting his spots as crisply as before, resulting in his removal. If he can continue to keep the Dodgers in his games through 5 or 6 innings, it will bode well for the season. Alex Wood had a rough outing in the lone bad start this week, but again, we’ll see if he can find that consistency they’re looking for from him. 5 earned runs in 5 innings from your #4 guy every time out is not going to cut it.
2. Offense – so far so good.
The Dodgers set the tone for offense this week in their season opener, pounding the Padres 15-0 and getting 17 hits, including 2 doubles by Justin Turner & a triple by Yasiel Puig. Puig continued his hot hitting against the Padres, delivering another triple and a home run against them in that series, and hitting .455 in the very early going. Chase Utley played a lot more than expected, but with the injuries to Howie Kendrick and how well he hit this week, one has to imagine he’ll be in there a lot moving forward. He hit .348 through the week and delivered timely doubles and triples against the Padres. What can be said about Adrian Gonzalez that hasn’t been said before, but he was as consistent as ever, and even Kenta Maeda hit a homer this week for the club. One of the bigger question marks for the offense this season is Joc Pederson and he had 6 hits this week, including 3 doubles and a homer, batting .313. With the injuries stretching the offensive depth of the team, hitting consistency has gotten that much more important.
3. Bullpen – up in the air.
Granted the season is early, but the over 5 ERA the Dodgers’ bullpen has right now is not good. Evidenced by Chris Hatcher‘s giving up the 2-run shot to Trevor Brown to tie Ross Stripling’s would-be no-hitter, three of the losses to the Giants in San Francisco resulted from Dave Roberts bringing in his pen to put out a fire, and instead Dodger relievers poured gasoline all over it. Thursday’s 4-0 lead became a 12-6 drubbing after Yimi Garcia & J.P. Howell allowed multiple runs each, including Hunter Pence’s grand slam that put the game out of reach. Friday was the Stripling game, and in addition to Hatcher’s meatball down the middle, Joe Blanton served up the game-winning homer to Brandon Crawford in the 10th. Sunday’s game had the pen come in to maintain a 6-6 tie, but J.P. Howell & Yimi Garcia gave up 3 runs in the 7th to give up the lead. Granted the Giants are the main rival (and they’re good), this is something Roberts has to figure out for any kind of hoped success. Especially considering the strength of the rotation.
Questions to be answered
Can the Dodgers overcome all the injuries?
I don’t think anyone expected there to be this many so early in the season. The Dodgers’ depth is being tested in so many ways. Andre Ethier is on the 60-day DL with that broken leg, Howie Kendrick & Yasmani Grandal both started the season on the DL (and both should be back this week), and on Saturday, Carl Crawford, was back where he has spent much of the past 5 years it seems, on the 15-day DL with lower back stiffness. Offseason pickups Trayce Thompson & Micah Johnson both played on Sunday (Thompson delivered a 2-run single) but neither are major-league starters, at least not yet. Charlie Culbertson gave Justin Turner the day off on Friday, and he delivered 2 doubles, including the go-ahead in the 10th. This kind of production the Dodgers would be thrilled to receive, and hopefully they can continue to get it, but really how long can it last? I wonder what kind of moves Andrew Friedman & Farhan Zaidi have up their sleeves in the early going to address this.
Will the TWC SportsnetLA situation resolve itself this season?
A lot of saber-rattling happened in the last week of Spring Training with social media getting ramped up due to the start of Vin Scully’s last season behind the mic, but despite the hashtags & sour comments made by LA Times’ columnists, nothing has changed. The Charter takeover should happen in the first half of this season, but will that only affect the two cable companies, or can the rest of LA have any hope to experience Vin one last time? I truly hope so, but I’m not optimistic.
Madison Bumgarner has hit 2 homers now against Clayton Kershaw, really??
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