It’s March already! And while many people are focused on setting up office pools for March Madness, baseball fans are already thinking about their potential fantasy rosters and are refreshing themselves on all of the latest off-season moves that have been made as we roll into Spring Training. After all, Opening Day for the Blue Crew is on March 29th at Dodger Stadium against a McCutchen-wielding Giants squad. So let’s do a quick recap before we look at what the season has in store for us:
We have just about the entire roster returning. We are minus one Yu Darvish and Brandon Morrow. Both are righties and they both headed for Chicago. Brandon McCarthy and Scott Kazmir both took off to Atlanta (righty and lefty). Luis Avilan LHP, left for the Chicago White Sox and LHP, Tony Watson has been left an unsigned (he signed with the Giants recently) Free Agent (along with, Andre Ethier OF. Adrian Gonzalez 1B, went over to the Mets and Charlie Culberson is now with the Braves.
But we still have Bellinger, Turner, Seager, Wood, Kershaw, Jansen and we picked up right-hander, Tom Koehler, Lefty Scott Alexander, and Matt Kemp off the Braves to kick daisies in the Outfield. We also have Walker Buehler, a top RHP prospect to keep an eye on.
All in all, Las Vegas and online outlets love how the Dodgers handled the off-season and also love our chances of winning the World Series in October.
The only team with better odds of winning the Fall Classic is the Houston Astros. So with that in mind, we could very well see a rematch and wouldn’t the revenge be sweet?
But I’ll have to reel it in a bit because this article isn’t about the Astros or the fact that the Yankees are highly favored as well. No, it’s about where the Dodgers stand in the NL West. So let’s dig in!
Betting odds are always a very good indicator of the approximation of how things will unfold. And when we check the odds at Bookmaker, we can see that the NL West is basically a one-horse race.
The Dodgers are the heavy favorites at -245. If you are unfamiliar with odds in this format, a minus sign indicates the amount that you have to wager to win a hundred bucks. A plus sign indicates longer odds, so it is the amount you would potentially win by placing a hundred bucks down.
The closest to Dodgers on the odds-boards are the Giants at +530. But as you can see, that difference is a good quarter-mile back. Next are the Colorado Rockies and the dastardly Diamondbacks —someone should cut the head off with a shovel and bury it in the sand like any other rattler— both at +550. Lastly, is the lowly Padres. You have to feel a bit bad for San Diego. Their NFL franchise took off to hang out with us … and they are left with a bottom of the barrel baseball team with the creepiest mascot perhaps in all of sports and World Series odds of +4500.
But what about wins, you might ask? Well, the Diamondbacks are lined out at 85.5 with 75% of the public thinking they go UNDER that number. The Rockies are at 82.5 wins with 56% of people thinking the Coors drinkers will go OVER that number. The Pads are listed at just 70.5 wins and are getting some love with 87% of folks thinking they will break that threshold. The Giants are lined-out at 84.5 wins and 61.8% don’t believe that the Gold-Diggers will win that many. And the Blue Crew is way up there at 96.5 wins on the season.
Notice the discrepancy up there? The Diamondbacks are listed to win more than the Giants, but the Giants are favored over the Diamondbacks to win the West. Man … the rest of the competition is screwed! There will be three barely over .500 teams, one sub-500 team and then the Dodgers who stroll into the playoffs.
Bring it on 2018 season!
I think everyone is putting the cart in front of the horse. I have little faith in the rotation being as good as it was last year, I expect Buehler to get knocked around since I think the kid needs more seasoning in AAA. Wood changed his windup, Maeda has looked good in spring, and Hill made his first start today. Ryu has yet to start an A game. The only pitcher who has looked like himself is Kershaw. The bullpen should be good. Not sure if they will be as good as last year. They WILL MISS Morrow. Koehler is not going to be a factor. So we will see if some of FAZ’s pick ups can pick up the slack. Garcia has not yet appeared in a game. So I am not depending on him. Chargois has looked ok so far, but an injury risk. Venditte has looked good, but a bunch of those non roster guys, not so much. And I think everybody is counting out teams who want to do nothing more than beat the Dodgers. The Rockies bullpen is going to be much better. The D-Backs lost one of their power guys, but still have a lot of good hitters on that team. The Padres and the Giants should both be improved. The Dodgers have 22 games with the Giants and D-Backs before the end of May. I will wait until I see the final 25 man roster before I make any kind of assumption as to how good the Dodgers will be. The core is there, that is true, but every year is different and for the Dodgers to leave the west in the dust, all those players will have to be as good, if not better than last year, and that is no where more important than the starting rotation. A drop off there and the team could be toast. I do not think the Dodgers have improved all that much. I think they stood still for the most part…..
If I’m manager I go with a 9 man rotation:
1. C. Kershaw
2. R. Hill
3. A. Wood
4. K. Maeda
5. H. Ryu
6. R. Stripling
7. B. Stewart
8. W. Buehler
9. J. Urias
Mix it up, lots of rest, 10 Day DL rotation, everybody stays injury free and the top of rotation is fresh for playoffs.
Clayton Kershaw lifetime ERA progression:
2008 – 4.26
2009 – 3.36
2010 – 3.17
2011 – 2.88
2012- 2.79
2013 – 2.60
2014 – 2.48
2015 – 2.43
2016 – 2.37
2017 – 2.36
Amazing!!
Kershaw ERA in 24 post season games – 4.35
Maybe this is the year.
In the postseason that’s actually not terrible. Methinks it’s trending better too …
YF
I hope your right, and Kershaw changes up how he pitches in a short series, in the post season.
Because Badger is right, what Kershaw does in the post season is the issue, not the regular season.
But Darvish doesn’t have good numbers in the post season, so I don’t know if the Cubs are much better with Darvish, in the post season.
That is impressive! (Kershaw’s ERA #’s)
That has the makings of a good trivia question.
Those numbers are interesting to me because year by year it has gone ….. down, up, down, up, down, down, up, down, up. And frankly he hasn’t had a great post season series in 12 of them. 7-7 with a 4.35 ERA. GREAT regular season pitcher. First ballot HOF. World Series Hero? Nope. Not yet.
“After all, Opening Day for the Blue Crew is on March 29th at AT&T Park in San Francisco ”
Isn’t Opening day at Dodger Stadium?
Yup, it’s a typo (proudly takes a bow) (and blows kisses) (and girates hips into air) ( and plays air guitar)
That’s okay there Scott…..I play a real guitar when I screw up!