The 2016 Dodgers season officially kicks off later today with a strange mid late afternoon start against the Padres at Petco Park. The Dodgers start the season on the road this year. They’ll play a three game series at San Diego Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before heading into the lion’s den to play a four game series against the Giants starting Thursday and going through the weekend.
We learned what the Dodger’s opening day roster was when the club announced it on Sunday afternoon. Not a whole lot of surprises. Although only having one left handed reliever in the bullpen is really going to hurt them in the late innings. Unfortunately J.P. Howell is the only reliable lefty reliever the club has right now. Luis Avilan and Adam Liberatore clearly suck, so the Dodgers will stash them in the minors to start the season.
Dodgers Lineup @ San Diego
Utley 2B
Seager SS
Turner 3B
Gonzalez 1B
Puig RF
Crawford LF
Pederson CF
Ellis C
Kersaw P
Game time- 4PM- tv-SNLA-ESPN
Today’s game will see Clayton Kershaw battle right hander Tyson Ross. This has got to be at least the sixth consecutive time that Kershaw opens the season for the Dodgers on opening day. The record is seven set by Don Sutton, so Kershaw needs one more to tie. It’s always nice to win the first game, although it doesn’t mean the season is over if you don’t. So let’s not get too upset if they lose. If the Dodgers do win this afternoon they’ll have a perfect record. Honest to goodness guys they will.
It’s been so long since I actually wrote a pegame. I’ve missed it. Consider this the first pregame in Ladodgerreport history. You can expect one of these every day before every Dodger game. You can also expect Kershaw to pitch very well against the Padres. Which he always has throughout his career. Kershaw has a 12-6 record with a 2.57 ERA in 27 starts against the Show Pads. Now I’m starting to talk like Jerry Hairston Jr. At Petco Park Kershaw is 4-2 with a 2.13 ERA in ten career starts.
The current group of Padres has done little against Kershaw. The new Padres are hitting .250 (20 for 80) with a .616 OPS against.
Padres vs. Kershaw
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SH | SF | IBB | HBP | GDP |
| Jon Jay | 16 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | .154 | .250 | .231 | .481 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Yangervis Solarte | 13 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | .182 | .308 | .273 | .580 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Derek Norris | 11 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .273 | .273 | .364 | .636 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Wil Myers | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | .000 | .100 | .000 | .100 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Melvin Upton | 10 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | .200 | .200 | .200 | .400 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alexei Ramirez | 8 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .625 | .625 | .750 | 1.375 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Matt Kemp | 6 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | .400 | .500 | .600 | 1.100 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tyson Ross | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .400 | .400 | .400 | .800 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Adam Rosales | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .500 | .667 | .500 | 1.167 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Christian Bethancourt | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Drew Pomeranz | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| James Shields | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Travis Jankowski | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cory Spangenberg | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 90 | 80 | 20 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 31 | .250 | .303 | .313 | .616 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Ross has pitched well against the Dodgers, but has yet to actually get a win versus the boys in blue. The tall right hander is 0-6 with 2.67 ERA in ten games against the Dodgers. The current Dodgers haven’t done much against Ross either. The Dodgers are hitting .255(26 for 102) with two home runs against Ross.
Dodgers vs. Ross
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SH | SF | IBB | HBP | GDP |
| Adrian Gonzalez | 26 | 24 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | .250 | .269 | .333 | .603 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Carl Crawford | 22 | 18 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | .500 | .591 | .722 | 1.313 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Yasiel Puig | 19 | 17 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | .235 | .278 | .471 | .748 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A.J. Ellis | 14 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | .091 | .231 | .091 | .322 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chase Utley | 11 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .273 | .273 | .364 | .636 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Justin Turner | 9 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .333 | .667 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Clayton Kershaw | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joc Pederson | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .000 | .400 | .000 | .400 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Scott Van Slyke | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alex Wood | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 115 | 102 | 26 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 23 | .255 | .319 | .392 | .711 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Will Chase Utley get the start at second base with a right hander on the mound? Who will start in left field? Who will Dave Roberts bat lead-off? Will A.J. Ellis catch Kershaw? There are a lot of questions that are going to be answered as the Dave Roberts era kicks off in a few hours. Check back over here after the game for our recap. Don’t forget to tune into our postgame zcast as well.
Opening day and Dodger Baseball make me feel like…..
Go Blue!
Well here we guys – will be tuning in tonight from Lanzarote, Spain where I’m on holidays with the family.
Looking forward to the season and hopefully the Boys in Blue will prove me wrong and have me eating humble pie before September is out.
Bobby, as stated before I have us at 81-81 with Utley as our MVP
I have had a couple of beers & been in the sun all day!
C’mon boys – lets get off to a flyer
Cheers mate!
And Go Dodgers!
Right on, Watford! Are you enjoying some of that world-class Spanish ham?
That stuff is delicious.
To those who thought Doc should “protect” Seager. NOT! Roberts realizes this kid is MVP-Quality.
I believe the Dodgers will win 90 to 95 games. I can’t get much finer than that.
Like several other teams, they have a shot at winning it all… how the season plays out will determine it.
Mark Cory was batting lower, and he did fine. I was one of those people. But I will say that Cory really impressed me, in those last three games, against the Angels. He adjusted after all of his early at bats, and got at least one hit, in every game. And he had only been back, for a minute.
This is the line up, I believe.
Utley
Cory
Turner
Agon
Puig
Crawford
Joc
AJ
Kershaw
The Franchise is batting 2, right where he should be, for the next 10 years
There has been some debate about where in the lineup the best hitter should be. It seems like the #3 spot is no longer automatic for the best hitter and the #2 spot for the best hitter is getting more popular. Bobby, is that why you put The Franchise in the #2 spot?
You got it. I never saw Seager as a Carlos Correa type power guy, I saw hen more of a left handed jeter with a bit more pop. Hence bat him 2nd
Decent lineup.
W, 81-81, Utley as MVP. Classic. No prediction will beat that one.
not even if I were to suggest that Crawford would be the MVP?
For those of you who think we need another LHP in the BP, consider: Yimi= .156 vs LHB and Hatcher, yes Hatcher for the past two seasons is .208 (31-149)=.208 vs.273(59-216) vs RHB.
Scott so the question is: how many times will you be moving like that during the regular season? Watford says 81. I’m on record for 85. Mark gave a range, so at least 90. Not sure where Badger landed.
So how many?
Im hoping for 100 times, plus 11 more in the postseason
90+ is my guess and if I were to go with a plus/minus it would be 92 ∓ 2
How many hits are the Dodgers going to get today?
10
I’m on record – 88 wins. Kershaw gets maybe 34 starts and the Dodgers win 25 or more of them. That means that the rest of the rotation has to win 63 out of 128. (49%) That seems doable. Last year, famously the team won 50% of the games not started by Kershaw or Greinke and won 92.
I’ll stick with 90…
Watford my man, I’m jealous as always… Once got stuck by a 10 day pilot strike in North Ireland, so the little woman and I went to Mejorca!!! Thank you Aer Lingus…
Anybody watching the Rangers game. Hamels started. The guy in their now, who came with Hamels, Diekman, is a tall left handed reliever who throws 100 mph with a nasty slider to go with it. 8th inning guy. Dang.
I haven’t picked a number yet, just the under 92. With this current bunch? I’ll say 7. There will be a few changes before we get to 8 wins. A few more before we get to 20, and another one before we get to 30. Then we go 5 without any changes, then we have changes and after the changes we cruise up into the All Star break without any more changes. Then at the deadline we make some more changes. We might have about 44 wins by that time, but I think we make more changes then. So much depends on who is in there after the changes. So, over 81, under 92.
How’s that?
Former Dodger closed out the game for Texas.
Dodger wins – 87
Here we go guys!
It takes just a single little thing one way or the other being the difference of a win or loss. And here we go! Thanks again for being there, Uncle Vin! Of coarse I’m influenced by the moment! I KNOW IT”S NOTHING LESS THAN 110 WINS!
That puts Crawford batting 9th and Puig batting 8th behind the pitcher batting 7th in my book.
A good first inning. What I liked most was Turner’s at bat. Moving Seager to third with one out.
Idahoal I loved Turner’s first at bat. Maybe the others saw that even Turner, a really great hitter, gave himself up, for the team. And maybe things will change.
I thought the exact same thing
That should of been no outs when Tuner was batting. Badger, the home plate umpire looks like a rookie umpire in Class A.
Don’t know what is going to happen for the rest of the game but the ball that landed in front of Crawford that he never saw probably could have been caught instead of being a hit.
With Puig’s hit, everyone in the starting line up, now have a hit, and Thompson just got his first hit, of the season. And Bum ten was close, but we don’t mind if there is more!
Bum you really think so?
Didn’t see this coming. A laugher on the road opener.
W, Utley will likely lead the league in hitting tonight. In the running for MVP.
The Dodgers were just waiting for the bell to ring.
To those of you who thought they couldn’t turn it on when they needed to – yes they can!
You grumpy old men and one grumpy young man are soooooo going to be eating crow.
Injuries? The Dodgers have another guy… and another. Now, it’s not all going to be perfect, but these guys are going to play. I have been trying to tell you!
Depth is when you have 10 on the DL and still have a two touchdown lead!
I find it pretty funny those who just basically wrote off the Dodgers entire season because odd three lackluster exhibition games.
Although not every game is going to be like this one, at least it counts. Truther is going to crawl back in his hole until the team loses a couple, in which case he’ll make his predictable appearance.
It’s one game.
Most runs scored in an Opener – 16 in ’83. The Dodgers won 91 that year. They lost in the NLCS to the Phillies. I don’t believe that particular history will repeat itself.
What a FAZtastic Dodger game!!! Loved it.
Anybody know how much the DBags paid Greinke for his 15.75 opening day ERA?
I do.
It requires some long division. You up for it ?