3 Keys for Success
- Improve the bullpen
If you paid attention to the Dodgers or baseball at all a season ago, you know the bullpen was atrocious—and that’s possibly a kind way to put things. There were worse bullpens than the Dodgers’ though—eight of them in fact.
The Dodgers’ bullpen had a 3.80 ERA, and gave up a .239 batting average against, which is actually fairly respectable. But it had 24 losses to just 18 wins. It blew 14 save opportunities, which again is pretty respectable.
So statistically, it’s hard to be too critical of LA’s relievers. But the blown saves seemed to come at the most inopportune times. Improvement seems in the cards since the arms remained mostly the same, and in fairness they’re all really solid.
Bad luck cannot subsist forever.
- Don Mattingly embraces a more analytical approach to managing
Understandably this may sound odd given the notion we’ve already discussed that the Dodgers embodied such a style in 2014. Truth is the results did, though it sometimes flowed from a mistaken extrapolation of the data.
It is not uncommon. Most former players are not mast wizards. Still, the game’s best managers, by and large, are analytically literate. Hence, why Bob Melvin and Joe Maddon have become revered in baseball circles.
Mattingly’s seeming ignorance towards managing with a mind toward sabermetrics is probably the reason he’s nearly been shown the door in consecutive offseasons, despite his team making the postseason both years.
- Figure out a solid outfield rotation.
In some ways this works in line with the previous point. It’s fine if teams want to carry more than three everyday starting-caliber outfielders.
But if that’s the route a team is going to take it must then figure out a rotation or platoon system whereby each player gets enough at-bats and the opportunity to succeed based on not only matchups but other variables.
Truthfully, it’s a good problem to have. But in the Dodgers’ case, top prospect Joc Pederson is going to be major league ready sooner than later and, as the Cardinals learned last year, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to bring up a player like the now deceased Oscar Taveras only to have him sit on the bench.
It would be better for his development to play every day at triple-A. If Pederson is deemed to be ready at some point this season, that makes five starting caliber outfielders—which makes for an almost impossible platoon system, assuming all five are healthy.
In that situation, one must be traded. Though the contract of Carl Crawford would likely be one the Dodgers would be thrilled to escape, that will be a tough sell to any savvy organization. Andre Ethier may be the easier sell, but would be harder to let go if you’re the Dodgers as he’s the more productive player at this stage in their respective careers.
Next: And the results will be...