I was looking at the Dodgers depth chart again. I can’t decide which is more absurd. That you could have that many injuries to so many good pitchers. That you could gather that many talented pitchers at once. Or that they would still have enough to win a world series.
Here’s my pitching staff:
SP1 Shohei Ohtani – Do I have to spell this out? You’ve seen him pitch right? Career 142 OPS+. Only starters with a number that good in the past 75 years are Clayton Kershaw, Jacob deGrom, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens and Brandon Webb. Nuff said.
SP2 – Tyler Glasnow – Since 2019 he has been dominating (ERA+ was 128). He’s also a #1, hurt always. He made it through this season with a career high 134 innings, that’s all you need to know. Healthy? I’ll take my chances with him against any #2 in the league.
SP3 – Clayton Kershaw – No respect? What about me? I’m as one as there ever was a one! Yeah ageism here. Dude’s been perfect after his rookie season and he’s 36. Last year, his 17th, he got out 24 times and looked like vintage Kershaw. ERA+ 175, that’s last season.
SP4 – Dustin May – I have some significant inventory here. I’d like to go Tony Gonsolin but May is tough to hit. Wait, so is Gonsolin. May has allowed 144 hits in 191 2/3 innings. (ERA+ 138). Over the last 4 seasons he’s made 20 starts.
SP5 – Tony Gonsolin – In 2022 Gonsolin went 16-1 with 2.14 ERA and 0.875 WHIP. For this he did not finish top ten for Cy Young, He finished 32 innings short of qualifying to win the ERA title. Still no respect, four behind May. Like May he missed the whole season.
Bullpen pretty pretty pretty good
SP6 – Gavin Stone – He was good this year, especially near the end. He’s been excellent in the minors and everybody likes him.
PEN – River Ryan – Emmet Sheehan – Ryan (25) looked at home in 4 starts in LA before injury – (4-1, 1.33) . Sheehan (24) has been a minor league monster (14-4, 2.95, 1.016) with 242 K’s in 146+ innings. Not bad for long relief and ready at 7 and 8 to start.
CLOSERS – Brusdar Graterol – Alex Vesia – You don’t see a closer, I say there’s always a closer around, These two as a tandem could certainly get it done.
The Lefty Vesia was ridiculous, batters hit .148 and slugged .292 in 223 at bats. Graterol (25) has 11 career saves and how do you like 2.78/1.044 in almost 192 career innings?
RP – Connor Brogdon – He was darn good before this season with career ERA+ of 118, not bad for an 11th guy.
Sure that’s only 11 pitchers and the team is going with 13 in the NLCS but I’m positive the Dodgers are capable of finding a couple more really good injured pitchers.
