LAD pinch hitters are ruling the day

Phil Gurnee ♦ May 6, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

The LAD have a long history of productive pinch hitters but in 2016 the tough role only produced a .567 OPS and that included the great work by Andrew Toles. In 2017 however, they are hitting like Manny Mota, Lee Lacy,  Lenny Harris, Mike Sharperson and Olmedo Saenz combined.   It is only May 6th and four Dodgers already have at least three pinch hits and the pinch hitting group sports an OPS of .876. The group is led by Chris Taylor who is four for seven so far.

Clearly, Adrian Gonzalez is ready for his new role.

Andrew Toles had eight pinch hits in 2016 and three more in 2017. He is on his way to being one of the best 21st-century LAD pinch hitters.

Name                 PA  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI   OPS
Chris Taylor          7  2  4  0  0  1   4 1.571
Andrew Toles         10  1  3  1  0  0   1  .844
Adrian Gonzalez       6  0  3  0  0  0   2 1.583
Franklin Gutierrez    4  2  3  1  0  0   0 1.750
Scott Van Slyke      13  2  1  0  0  0   1  .322
Chase Utley          10  3  1  0  0  0   0  .543
Enrique Hernandez     5  1  1  1  0  0   1  .600
Joc Pederson          4  0  1  0  0  0   0  .500
Justin Turner         2  1  1  0  0  1   1 2.500
Yasmani Grandal       2  1  1  0  0  0   1 2.000
Team Total           71 13 20  3  0  2  11  .876

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/6/2017.