Dodgers Looking Good for 2018

There was an article in the LA Times where it was implied that the Dodgers missed out on Yelich. I think our outfield is the least of our concerns.

Dodgers enter '18 with sky-high expectations

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Don't know how. some say this year's opening day team is worse than last year's. Even with the addition of bellinger, taylor and kemp and the loss of mccarthy and agon.

I think what Taylor did was no fluke.  He has always been a good hitter and there is a reason for his increased power numbers.  Love him in CF and at leadoff.

March 26, 2018 3:31 pm
Dodgers' Yasiel Puig: Could bat third to begin season
by RotoWire Staff | RotoWire
Manager Dave Roberts is considering batting Puig third to begin the year while Justin Turner (wrist) heals on the disabled list, Doug Padilla of MLB.com reports.
Puig responded well hitting out of the three hole Sunday, cranking his third home run of the spring in the Dodgers' annual Freeway Series against the Angels. If Roberts' recent lineup cards are any indication of his plans to begin the year, the 27-year-old will slot in third against righties with Matt Kemp moving into that spot against southpaws. Puig broke out for the second time in his career last year while batting eighth for the majority of the season, so beginning the campaign in the heart of the order could result in higher counting stats to compliment his power and speed contributions.
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March 24, 2018 2:51 pm
Dodgers' Enrique Hernandez: Looking to improve against righties
by RotoWire Staff | RotoWire
Hernandez has made an effort to improve his approach against right-handed pitching this spring, Pedro Moura of The Athletic reports.
Known for his lefty-mashing ways (.270/.364/.518 career triple-slash against southpaws), Hernandez has showed a significant improvement against righties this spring, smacking all four of his exhibition home runs off of right-handed pitchers. While he is still considered a regular against lefties this season, the super-utility man's improved approach against same-handed hurlers could result in more than a platoon role at the keystone if Chase Utley struggles out of the gates while the infielders combine to fill in for Justin Turner (wrist).
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March 24, 2018 1:09 pm
Dodgers' Yimi Garcia: Could begin year on DL
by RotoWire Staff | RotoWire
Garcia (elbow) may open the season on the disabled list, Ken Gurnick of MLB.com reports.
Garcia is still working his way back up to speed from Tommy John surgery that he underwent in October of 2016. The 27-year-old was able to appear in five Cactus League games for the Dodgers this spring, posting a 5.79 ERA in 4.2 innings of relief.
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March 23, 2018 2:39 pm
Dodgers' Andrew Toles: Outside looking in
by RotoWire Staff | RotoWire
Toles usage off the bench recently suggests that he will miss out on making the 25-man roster in favor of Matt Kemp and Joc Pederson, Ken Gurnick of MLB.com reports.
The 25-year-old opened the 2017 season as the Dodgers' starting left fielder before suffering a torn ACL last May. He has made good contact this spring (13-for-44 with two home runs), but his deployment off the bench in lineups featuring starters suggests that he is no longer being considered for the starting left field job. Add in Joc Pederson's increased usage over the past week and it is looking more and more like Toles will begin the year with Triple-A Oklahoma City.
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March 23, 2018 2:35 pm
Dodgers' Joc Pederson: Appears to have won roster spot
by RotoWire Staff | RotoWire
Pederson's increased usage suggests that the Dodgers plan to carry him on the 25-man roster over Andrew Toles to begin the season, Ken Gurnick of MLB.com reports.
The 25-year-old went 0-for-2 with a walk while serving as the club's designated hitter against the Angels on Thursday. With center and right field settled and Matt Kemp leading the race for the Dodgers' left field job, manager Dave Roberts would likely use Pederson as a fourth outfielder and bench power bat if the current configuration holds true. A backup role hurts his fantasy value, but the slugger would likely be the first man up should an injury (or a slow start from Kemp) open up a starting spot.

Man, I really like Taylor, cool customer, I don't think anything will rattle him. He's very calm,focused and motivated. Perfect attitude it seems to me.

Why the Dodgers are good enough to justify their boring offseason

BY Bradford Doolittle
ESPN Staff Writer
5:00 AM PT

LOS ANGELES -- At some point, you just have to get over it. Many or maybe all of us have survived a "threshold" moment. In a literal life-or-death situation, it's called the quietus -- that moment when the living ceases to exist in this realm and moves on to whatever comes next.

Every team in every baseball postseason series goes through a moment of quietus, when the raised fist of an umpire tells everyone that the last out has been made. Game over. Series complete. It's one of the uniquely great things about a clockless sport like baseball, where the most optimistic among us can keep hope alive for our team, until we can't.

"We've been in the process of turning the page," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said on Opening Day. "A lot of good things happened last year. Now, as 2018 starts, I know our guys are really looking forward to this day."

The quietus struck the 2017 Dodgers on the first night of November, when Corey Seager grounded out to kick off the Astros' celebratory melee at Dodger Stadium. That ended what had been a glorious seven-month quest for the Dodgers, marked by 104 regular-season wins and the club's first pennant since 1988.

The quest ended one step shy of Valhalla. Their pennant drought had ended, which we were reminded of again on Saturday when the Dodgers held a ring ceremony to commemorate their National League championship. But their title drought extended yet another year, reaching 29 seasons. An entire generation of Dodgers fans has grown up without knowing what it's like to win it all.

"In the industry, the media and the fans, until you start the new season there is going to be talk [of last year]," Roberts said. "That's just kind of the way it goes. Certainly it's in our minds. No doubt. It's always going to be in our minds. But I think our guys are doing a very good job of understanding that we can't change it and looking forward."

This season marks the 30th since the Dodgers last won, and the 60th year since the franchise picked up and moved from Brooklyn to L.A. During their first three decades out west, the Dodgers won five World Series. If the Dodgers don't win it this season, their title drought will have extended to half the time the team has played in California.

If not for that result on Nov. 1, 2017, we wouldn't be having this conversation. To come so close seems like it would be paralyzing. When pitchers and catchers reported for spring training, everything rolled back to zero. For the Dodgers to get back to the same moment will take months of work, work that they all but completed last year.

How do you recover from a near miss at that level? How do you stop looking back, and return to the same levels of intensity and focus that marked last season?

"I almost think it would be harder to get back to the grind if we had won Game 7," said Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi. "This organization is still so hungry to get over that hump. We obviously got as close as you can without getting there. I think the hunger and motivation is very much there."

Teams recover, of course. The 2014 Royals lost a Game 7 with the tying run on third base when the World Series ended. They were so traumatized that they won the title the very next season. The 2016 Indians lost one of the most epic Game 7s ever, in extra innings, and like the Royals had the tying run on base when the Series ended. The Indians didn't win the title last year, but they did win 102 games.

"We have to be over it," first baseman Cody Bellinger said. "It's a new season. Time to move on."

You do it because you have to. The baseball world moves in one direction: forward.

"We're very much a glass-is-half-full organization," Zaidi said. "We feel great about what we accomplished last year. But there was no panic [in our offseason]. We believe in our process and our talent."

Here's a portrait of spring training with a team that was one win from a World Series title:

It's a lazy late-winter morning in Arizona and nothing much is happening. Dodgers camp has been dull. Most of the players in the clubhouse, the ones destined for the 40-man roster, were in the organization at the end of last season. The most notable new face is familiar -- outfielder Matt Kemp, a former Dodgers All-Star reacquired for reasons that had little to do with his remaining on-field ability.

The most dramatic thing that had happened in camp to that point had been an outbreak of illness that swept through the team's facility at Camelback Ranch. Players and staff were sent home early one day when that happened and the entire facility was decontaminated.
The lack of excitement is why this particular day carried with it a whiff of anticipation: Kenley Jansen and Corey Seager were playing. It was just a "B" game, but neither Dodgers cornerstone had been playing in games. Seager was being protected because of the elbow soreness that plagued him last season. Jansen had turned up with a tight hamstring. Their maladies were the closest thing to drama.

Spring training "B" games are amazing, played on a back field surrounded by chain-link fences, and the dugouts are contraptions that you'd expect to find at a small high school. The rules are lax -- Seager batted leadoff each inning to get in extra work. No one seems to keep score.

Seager had two fielding chances, both of which resulted in routine throws that he executed with no apparent difficulty. He also swatted a home run during his first at-bat, reminding everyone why we care so much about his elbow in the first place. He was fine and in his soft-spoken way, he fielded questions afterward.

"I wasn't really worried about [the elbow]," Seager said. "I was just more worried about getting into some games and into the flow of things."

Oh wait: Here's some drama, if you look hard enough. That morning, Roberts was asked if he might give Seager some extra days off during the season.

"If there is a day after night game, or we're running him out there too much," Roberts said. "We'll manage him week-to-week."

Seager doesn't want days off. Or won't admit it, if he does. When asked whether he was on board with Roberts' plan, Seager said, "No." He paused as if to elaborate, not something he's prone to do. Then he said, again, "No."

That's about as much conflict as there was in Dodgers camp, with the possible exception being the team's clubhouse doubles pingpong tournament.

www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/22982464/why-dodgers-good-enough-justify-their-boring-offseason

Anyone feeling that they drank the kool-aid right about now?

The Dodgers lackluster offseason is the cause of this slow start, IMO.