Jim Cella
Welcome to the Grateful Dead Season
After the opening weekend, one thing is for sure – the 2020 MLB season is going to be one long, strange trip. From Covid outbreaks with the Marlins and Phillies to a possible league shutdown, to cutout fans catching fly balls there will be no normal summer for any team. The strangeness isn’t confined to off the field news as the play on the field has also been unique. For the first time since the 1950’s there isn’t an undefeated or winless team through three games. If the season ended today a list of the divisional leaders would include the Orioles, Tigers, A’s, Marlins, Cubs and Padres. Congratulations to anyone who bet on those teams before the weekend. You can now cash out and buy your own “baseball island”. Through the numerous medical news releases to watching games with no one in the stadium, diehard fans will just have to remember to keep on truckin’ through the next four months.
No Home Fan Advantage
The home teams in the first weekend of the year posted a combined 22-21 record. It might be too early to call, but actual fans in the stands might have more to do with home field advantage than insiders give credit. Nowhere was that more evident than at Chavez Ravine. The Dodgers, who are used to playing in front of a packed house every game, no longer have the luxury of using the screaming faithful to pump them up when things go bad. They used their new-season energy to hammer San Francisco in the first two game by a combined total of 17-2 as the play on the field looked more like an intrasquad scrimmage between starters and prospects than an actual MLB game. That all changed on Saturday when Los Angeles played like they had lost interest and stumbled into a 2-game losing streak. The Dodgers looked around for the best fans in baseball to get them energized but they were nowhere to be found and the boys in blue seemed lost without their 10th player.
Th entire season is going to be one big learning curve for all the teams that are used to filling the stands on a nightly basis. The teams that get used to playing in front of 70,000 empty seats the quickest will be the ones that have the best chance to get a top seed in the playoffs.
Let the Kids Play
The Dodgers’ starting pitching rotation will most likely be a mystery all season long but if it takes a turn towards the youth movement it could get very exciting. The first three pitchers who were scheduled to start heading into the year were all in, or close to, their 30’s. While it would be nice to think that future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw will be healthy for the rest of the season after missing Opening Day with a back strain, the reality of back problems is that they can flare up at any moment. Ross Stripling posted the best outing of any Dodger starter over the first four games but he has hovered around .500 the past two seasons. Alex Wood stumbled in his first start and the 29-year-old is coming off a 1-3/5.80 ERA season with the Reds last year. He hasn’t shown signs of his all-star 2017 season for a while and every time he takes the hill it’s a coin-flip at best.
The backbone of the starting rotation could be very interesting if management decided to cut the kids loose. If you keep Kershaw in the equation you could have a staff that includes Walker Buehler, Dustin May, Julio Urias and either Tony Gonsolin or Josiah Gray (I know that both pitchers aren’t on the current active roster but they are in the 60-man pool and could be called up). In a season like this, it might be easier to bring along the young pitchers since they don’t have the ability to gain experience from playing in the minors. Whatever happens, one thing is certain – the future of the Dodgers’ starting rotation is very bright.
Mr. Consistent
How could a player be reaching the 1,000-hit milestone, leading a team in almost every batting category still be underappreciated by the national media? If you play on a team with a pair of league MVPs, a future Hall of Famer and a former Rookie of the Year it can happen. The Dodgers had three of their first four games televised nationally and all of the broadcasters, not named Joe Davis, went on and on about Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger and summer camp star Corey Seager. Meanwhile, Justin Turner just hits…and hits…and hits. He is the only Dodger player who has hit safely in all four games and has multiple-hit games in three of the four. He is batting a team-best .467, leads in OPS (1.289) and on-base percentage (.556). His average and on-base numbers are in the Top 5 of MLB and his OPS is seventh in the National League.
Turner has had at least an .850 OPS and .290 batting average in five of the six seasons he has played for the Dodgers. He also has 990 career hits. Game in and game out, Turner shows up and delivers.
The Bullpen Could Be Scary Good
One thing the opening weekend taught us is that 2020 will once again be the bullpen’s world. Even with the new relief rules to cut down on the number of changes in a game, managers will still try and push the match-ups in their favor by using multiple pitchers. The Dodgers used 16 relievers in the four games while the gamesmanship Giants trotted out 24 total pitchers in the series. Los Angeles’ relief crew features a pair of pitchers who can step into triple digits on the radar gun (Joe Kelly, Brusdar Graterol) and may have picked up one of the best off-season relief options of the year (Blake Treinen). The Dodgers’ bullpen has pitched 16.2 innings this year, has a 0.78 WHIP and has only allowed three earned runs. If the season comes down to bullpen success, the Dodgers are in good shape.
