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The Dodgers dropped to 9-10 on the season, which no one is happy about, but there have been some great moments this week, highlighted by Clayton Kershaw getting his 200th win.

Frustrations

The Dodgers haven’t won back-to-back games since April 3rd and 4th when they finished that home stand with 2 wins over the Colorado Rockies. Another frustrating aspect to Dodgers play recently is that they went just 2-4 over the home stand, so Dodgers fans got to see more losing than they did winning with their own eyes. 

Pitching

Julio Urias leads the way in ERA for the Dodgers at 1.90, followed by Clayton Kershaw at 2.52, Dustin May at 3.00 and Noah Syndergaard at 4.91.

The bullpen has been uncharacteristically leaky as Alex Vesia has posted the worst ERA on the team to this point at 11.12, and Yency Almonte has also gotten off to a slow start. The rest of the pen has been “good”, and Evan Phillips, other than 1 outing, has been his typical dominant self. 

The Dodgers have led the league in ERA the last 4 years and have been either 1st or 2nd in the league in ERA every year dating back to 2017. 

That’s not the case so far this year though. 

This year the Dodgers have the 16th best ERA overall in the league, which is middle of the pack, which parallels a record that has hovered around .500. 

Offense

Max Muncy leads the team in Home runs with 7 and RBIs with 15. Will Smith leads in OPS at 1.058, and Freddie Freeman leads in batting average at .311 and runs scored at 16.

Although he is 2nd on the team in runs scored, Mookie Betts is noticeably absent from leading the club in any of the offensive categories. Betts is a catalyst for this team, and, although he’s hitting .266, OPS .843, and is 2nd on the team in runs scored, all marks that are good, he has more in the tank, in my opinion. 

And, again, in my opinion, I think the Dodgers need more from him. 

Betts is the guy that can do a little of everything and not only be the best offensive player on the team, but also the most exciting and the one that creates the most amount of energy for his team. 

The Dodgers are 2nd in the MLB in Home Runs with 33 and are tied for 4th in the league in Runs Scored with 99. But, they’ve had 8 games that they have scored 3 runs or less and 5 games where they have scored 2 runs or less. 

On the contrary, the Dodgers offense has produced 6 games where they have scored 8 runs or better, so there has been a good amount of all or nothing for this years offense to this point. 

Part of that might be the cold hard facts that, in yesterdays lineup, the last 5 hitters are hitting .200 or below and the 6th is Muncy who is hitting .237. And, despite what some that are slaves to analytics might think, batting average still matters. 

In Tuesday’s game, every hit was claimed by the top 5 spots in the rotation, as none of Miguel Vargas, David Peralta, Miguel Rojas, then Luke Williams, and Austin Barnes collected a hit. That’s a tough stretch to go 5 spots in a row that come up empty. It’s also the type of situation that, although the Dodgers scored 5 runs and won the game, the longevity of that situation would eventually catch up and make it tough to score run consistently. 

On The Farm

The AAA OKC Dodgers are 12-5 on the year and are led by Hunter Feduccia who is hitting .438 on the young season. Feduccia also leads the club with home runs with 4, OBP at .596, Slugging at .844 and OPS at 1.440. He is also tied with Ryan Ward for the most amount of RBIs with 17. 

Now that Justin Bruihl has been recalled, Tayler Scott leads the team in ERA at 1.23. He’s followed by Victor Gonzalez at 1.29, Adam Kolarek at 1.39 and Wander Suero at 2.35. 

Luke Williams was hitting .375 before he got promoted and Yonny Hernandez was hitting .308. 

AA Tulsa Drillers

The AA Tulsa Driller are possibly the most talented team in Minor League baseball and are off to a 7-4 start on the early 2023 season. 

Jorbit Vivas has hit safely in all 11 games to this point and has a batting average of .356, which is 2nd best on the club. Well, other than Bryson Brigman who only has 12 at-bats. He also leads the team in runs scored (11), so he is showing why the Dodgers put him on the 40-man roster before last year. 

Andy Pages leads the team in batting average, (.406), within the players that have more than 12 at-bats, OBP (.551), SLG (.719) and OPS 1.270.  He is also tied for the team lead in home runs (2), so it’s been an incredible start to 2023 for Pages. 

Landon Knack leads all qualified players in ERA at 0.69, which, if you follow Dodgers Daily, shouldn’t come as a surprise. Knack is finally healthy and is super motivated to show that he is still one of the best pitching prospects in Minor League baseball, nonetheless the org.

Nick Frasso has the 2nd best ERA at 1.38 and Emmet Sheehan isn’t far behind at 3.09. Sheehan also leads the team in strikeouts with 21, WHIP at 0.69 and average against at .125. This dude is explosive. 

High A Great Lakes

Great Lakes is off to a bit of a slow start at 5-6, but, not to be worried, they did pretty much the same thing last year and stormed back to win the first half division title. 

Austin Gauthier leads the club in batting average at .342, is 2nd in OBP at .476 and OPS at .918. Dalton Rushing leads the team in OPS at .959, SLG at .483, and is tied for the team lead in RBIs with Alex Freeland with 9. 

Ronan Kopp leads all qualified pitchers in ERA at 0.90, and he also leads the club in strikeouts as well with 17. 

Reinaldo DePaula, Jake Pilarski and Braydon Fisher, who was just moved to Tulsa, all have yet to allow a run in relief. Pilarski has 10 Ks in just 4.2 innings. 

Ben Casparius has also been great posting an ERA of just 1.00 a WHIP of just 0.89 and an average against of just .133.

Single A Rancho Cucamonga

Rancho is 7-4 on the year and is coming off a good road trip at Visalia and are currently in a home series against Fresno. 

Kyle Nevin leads the club in batting average after his incredible series at Visalia and is hitting .489 with an OPS of 1.202 which also leads the club. Other notables are Thayron Liranzo who is hitting .294 and Chris Newell at .256. 

Liranzo also leads the club in home runs with 3 and is 2nd in OPS at 1.003. 

Maddux Bruns has yet to give up a run this year, and Jerming Rosario isn’t far behind posting a 1.00 ERA. Bruns also leads the team in strikeouts with 19, is 2nd only behind Rosario in WHIP at 0.78 and is first of all qualified players in average against at .128. 

The Quakes have 3 pitchers whose averages against are below .200 and they have 7 pitchers who have WHIPs below 1.00. 

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