Steve Webb
Comparing Preseason Grades to Reality
LOS ANGELES — So here we are, Dodgers fans. 81 games in, 81 games to go. The Dodgers are now 50-31, which is a solid foundation to build on for another run at the World Series. Since the internet is forever, if you scroll back far enough, you can see all my pre-season grades that I bestowed upon the Dodgers at each position. Let’s revisit each of them to see how I did with my predictions, and see if any of these marks need any mid-season adjustment.
Starting Pitching
Preseason Grade: A+ / Mid-season Grade: A
By and large the starters have lived up to advanced billing so far in 2021. Of course, the big blow was losing Dustin May to season-ending surgery in the middle of that awful road trip at the beginning of May, but the Dodgers were able to paper over things pretty well until Tony Gonsolin got back into the rotation. I’m surprised that Jimmy Nelson and David Price haven’t gotten more opportunities to go deep into games in May’s absence, but it didn’t happen.
Still, right now, the Dodgers starters are first in baseball in average against and WHIP, and second only to the Mets in ERA. Of course, events of this week in Pasadena have thrown the rotation upside down at the moment, so we might need to be buyers come the trade deadline. We will see.
Middle Relief
Preseason Grade: B- / Mid-season Grade: C+
This is the part of the Dodgers staff that has been absolutely decimated by injuries this year, most notably Scott Alexander and Corey Knebel. Knebel hurts especially hard because at the time of his injury, he was pitching his way toward being a very high-leverage piece in the bullpen.
With those injuries, we ended up having to pitch guys who just aren’t ready for the big time yet: Alex Vesia, Mitch White, Dennis Santana. This led to way too many middle inning meltdowns in games that should have been blowouts. However, Jimmy Nelson has been a nice surprise, and Phil Bickford is pitching lights out in his role. Hopefully, the middle innings will stabilize in the second half and it won’t be quite such an adventure to get from the sixth to the eighth.
Late-inning Relief/Closer
Preseason Grade: B-/C+ / Mid-season Grade: A-
This category is the most pleasant surprise of the year. To be honest, after the adventures with Kenley Jansen of previous seasons, I had lost faith in the big man from Curacao to nail down wins late in the game. But he has proved all his haters wrong so far this year. His ERA is a microscopic 1.38 and he has converted on 20 of 22 save opportunities. There is still too much wildness in his game, and too many times the tying or go-ahead run has been walked in the ninth inning, but somehow Jansen has survived it all and come out looking almost as good as vintage Kenley.
Victor Gonzalez has taken a step back this year, but still is pretty solid as a seventh inning guy. Blake Treinen has had a couple of adventures as well, but is generally a solid set-up man for Jansen. I still might like one more bullpen piece for the end of the year, so that might be a high priority item once the trade deadline rolls around.
OVERALL PITCHING GRADE: A-
