Dodgers close out April with a sweep

Phil Gurnee ♦ May 1, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

The in an out of April ended with the Dodgers sweeping a three game set from the Phillies giving them a winning record for April at 14 – 12 and a nice four game winning streak to take into May.

The offense basically did it on the backs of Justin Turner and Corey Seager with alot of help from the bench. No other regular had an OPS over .800 besides the two mentioned. Joc Pederson and Adrian Gonzalez were particularly non-offensive. Grandal hit two home runs on opening day and drew eleven walks, and that was about the extent of his offensive contributions.  Has to be noted that Gonzalez and Grandal made up the bulk of cleanup at-bats in April.  Those cleanup combined for a .619 OPS and one home run.

Chase Utley and Scott Van Slyke were the two bench pieces that struggled mightily in April.  I’d like to see Adrian sitting against LHP but if the only option is Scott Van Slyke the Dodgers might want to see if other options are available.  Chris Taylor completely outplayed Chase Utley after he replaced Logan Forsythe on the roster but I’m sure he will be sent back down to AAA when Logan is activated later this week.

Cody Bellinger gave the team a shot in the arm after being recalled last week and even though Dave Roberts has said he’s headed back to AAA when Joc Pederson gets activated, I wonder if they won’t be re-thinking that strategy come Friday.

Using Fangraph metrics the Dodgers rank 3rd in wRC+ in the NL at 102. They are just one point off of the Brewers at 102. The Nationals are crushing the NL in offense at 128. Thanks to the recent power surge over the weekend the Dodgers ended with 28 home runs for the month good for 9th in the league.  They were probably 13th before Bellinger joined the team.

Rk   Pos                           Name         PA 2B 3B HR RBI BB  SO   OPS
1     3B                  Justin Turner         99 11  0  1  12  5   9 1.026
2     SS                  Corey Seager*        107  6  0  5  17 15  21  .961
3     LF                Cody Bellinger*         24  0  0  2   2  3   5  .946
4     IF                   Chris Taylor         29  2  0  2   5  2   9  .937
5     UT              Enrique Hernandez         52  6  1  2   7  4   7  .820
6      C                  Austin Barnes         29  2  1  1   2  3   8  .810
7     RF                    Yasiel Puig        104  3  0  5  13 13  18  .765
8     LF                  Andrew Toles*         76  1  0  5  13  4  12  .754
9     IF     Logan Forsythe (10-day dl)         54  2  0  0   3  6  16  .748
10     C               Yasmani Grandal#         84  4  0  3   7 11  19  .734
12    LF Franklin Gutierrez (10-day dl)         14  2  0  0   0  1   4  .670
13    CF      Joc Pederson* (10-day dl)         59  3  0  1   7  7  18  .662
14    1B               Adrian Gonzalez*         96  5  0  0  10 10  14  .654
15    UT                Scott Van Slyke         36  1  0  1   2  5  12  .508
16    1B        Rob Segedin (10-day dl)          4  0  0  0   0  0   2  .500
19    OF          Brett Eibner (40-man)          5  0  0  0   0  0   3  .400
20    2B                   Chase Utley*         46  1  0  0   1  5   6  .364
22    OF       Trayce Thompson (40-man)          8  0  0  0   0  0   3  .000
                               Rank in 15 NL teams  5 15      8  2   9     7
                     Non-Pitcher Totals        926 49  2 28 101 94 186  .767

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/1/2017.

Early on the starting pitching relied on Clayton Kershaw and Brandon McCarthy but as the month was coming to an end everyone in the rotation was pitching in. Ryu/Kenta/Wood all made quality starts and with the addition of Urias the rotation has more depth than the Golden State Warriors.  Rich Hill took his blister to the DL twice but no one noticed he was missing.  How they manage this in May in going to be an interesting story. Will arms start to fail making the decisions easy? or will some very competent arms be sent to the bullpen?

For one of the few times in his career, Kenley Jansen had a great April. Ross Stripling and Chris Hatcher led the bullpen in innings.  Josh Fields who is already back in AAA probably had the best April of the bunch.

Name                           IP ERA+   FIP  WHIP   H9 HR9  BB9  SO9  SO/W
Clayton Kershaw*             35.1  176  2.54 0.792  6.4 1.0  0.8  9.9 13.00
Brandon McCarthy             29.0  130  3.57 1.207  8.1 0.9  2.8  7.8  2.78
Hyun-Jin Ryu*                26.2  100  4.90 1.313  9.1 2.0  2.7  9.8  3.63
Kenta Maeda                  26.0   62  5.14 1.346 10.0 2.4  2.1  9.3  4.50
Alex Wood*                   19.2  178  2.97 0.966  5.0 0.5  3.7  8.7  2.38
Ross Stripling               14.0  106  1.52 1.500 11.6 0.0  1.9  9.6  5.00
Chris Hatcher                13.2  104  3.61 1.317  9.2 1.3  2.6  9.9  3.75
Kenley Jansen                 9.2  223 -0.50 0.828  7.4 0.0  0.0       15.8
Pedro Baez                    9.1  430  4.52 0.964  1.9 1.0  6.8  9.6  1.43
Sergio Romo                   8.1   43  4.94 2.040 10.8 1.1  7.6  9.7  1.29
Luis Avilan*                  8.1  193  2.54 1.320  7.6 0.0  4.3  8.6  2.00
Rich Hill* (10-day dl)        8.0  124  6.40 1.500  7.9 2.3  5.6  7.9  1.40
Grant Dayton*                 8.0  186  4.27 0.875  4.5 1.1  3.4  6.8  2.00
Josh Fields (40-man)          7.0  327  0.02 1.000  7.7 0.0  1.3 15.4 12.00
Julio Urias*                  5.2  268  3.73 1.412  6.4 0.0  6.4  6.4  1.00
Adam Liberatore* (40-man)     0.1   32 12.02 6.000 27.0 0.0 27.0  0.0  0.00
Team Totals                 229.0  117  3.48 1.188  7.8 1.1  2.9  9.5  3.32
Rank in 15 NL teams                                                       6

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/1/2017.