Dodging the Bullets
The Los Angeles Dodgers had to start the year without their All Star closer Kenley Jansen after undergoing foot surgery early in Spring Training. This left a massive hole to fill in their bullpen. Hyun-Jin Ryu has yet to throw a pitch this year and was just transferred to the 60 day DL with no timetable for a return. They lost newly signed Brandon McCarthy after just a handful of starts to Tommy John Surgery. Clayton Kershaw has been a shell of himself. Both corner outfielders have found themselves on the shelf with Carl Crawford sustaining a bad oblique injury and Yasiel Puig a nagging hamstring injury that he just re-aggravated. Jimmy Rollins is starting to see more time on the bench than ever in his career as he’s hitting a lowly .171.
In spite of all this, the Los Angeles Dodgers currently sit atop the NL West by 5 games and have the second best record in all of baseball at 21-10 and .677 winning percentage. As shocking as that seems, it is the truth, and we should all expect the Dodgers to only go up from here. But how in the world have they done this well to this point in the season?
The biggest question circulating the Dodgers after letting Hanley Ramirez walk and trading Matt Kemp was, where will the power come from? Behind the 9 home runs each by Adrian Gonzalez and star rookie outfielder Joc Pederson, the Dodgers are LEADING the league in home runs. Another surprising stat is the Dodgers .830 team OPS leads all other Major League teams by 50 points!
Now, as the Dodgers sit atop the NL West, they are slated to get Kenley Jensen back closing games this weekend. At some point Yasiel Puig will return, and we all know Clayton Kershaw will hit a groove. If this is what the Dodgers have done so far without the main cogs of their roster going on all cylinders, the rest of the league should be afraid. Very, very, afraid.
(Base)ballin' on a Budget 