Succesful May bullpen is in the books

Phil Gurnee ♦ June 1, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

Overall Record 33 wins / 21 losses

May Record – 19 wins / 9 losses

Position – 1st place /  half a game in front of the both the Rockies and Diamondbacks

Dodgers led the NL in pitching fWAR with 5.5, closest team was 4.0.

Dodger led the NL in starting pitching fWAR with 3.7 barely beating out the Diamondbacks at 3.4

Dodgers crushed the NL in relief pitching fWAR with 1.7.

May Pitching stats for 2017:

Player               IP W   ERA GS  H HR BB SO  WHIP  SO9  SO/W   OPS
Clayton Kershaw    40.2 3  2.43  6 37  6  7 39 1.082  8.6  5.57  .676
Alex Wood          28.1 5  1.27  5 22  0  7 41 1.024 13.0  5.86  .510
Kenta Maeda        22.1 2  3.63  4 19  1  8 19 1.209  7.7  2.38  .629
Hyun-Jin Ryu       19.1 1  3.72  3 20  2  9 13 1.500  6.1  1.44  .804
Brandon McCarthy   17.2 2  3.57  3 13  0  3 16 0.906  8.2  5.33  .496
Julio Urias        17.2 0  6.62  4 19  1 10  7 1.642  3.6  0.70  .829
Ross Stripling     16.1 0  1.65  0 11  1  3 19 0.857 10.5  6.33  .519
Josh Fields        14.1 2  0.63  0  8  1  3 14 0.767  8.8  4.67  .456
Chris Hatcher      14.1 0  3.14  0 16  3  1 17 1.186 10.7 17.00  .793
Rich Hill          14.0 1  4.50  3 12  1  9 14 1.500  9.0  1.56  .696
Pedro Baez         13.1 0  1.35  0  9  1  5 12 1.050  8.1  2.40  .556
Kenley Jansen      10.1 1  0.87  0  5  1  0 18 0.484       15.7  .361
Sergio Romo         9.2 1  3.72  0  6  3  1 11 0.724 10.2 11.00  .680
Luis Avilan         6.2 0  4.05  0  8  0  4 12 1.800 16.2  3.00  .746
Grant Dayton        4.0 0 11.25  0  5  1  3  3 2.000  6.8  1.00 1.088
Adam Liberatore     3.0 0  0.00  0  2  0  1  5 1.000 15.0  5.00  .432
Brandon Morrow      2.0 1  0.00  0  0  0  0  1 0.000        4.5  .000

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/1/2017.

Standout Pitching:

• Alex Wood was unbeatable in May going 5 – 0 and outpitching Clayton Kershaw which hasn’t happened very often over a month in the last nine years.
• Brandon McCarthy had a WHIP below 1.00 and an OPS against below .500. Impressive
• Jansen only pitched ten innings but struck out eighteen with zero walks
• The setup men, Fields, Baez, Stripling were simply outstanding

Pitching Notes:

• For a pitcher destined for long relief, Ryu finished the Month on fire
• Urias had a bad month. He not only pitched horrible, the one game he was great, he ended the season for Toles.
• Romo ended the month on a high note
• Chris Hatcher had more brilliant moments than bad.
• Rich Hill still has a lot to prove but at least he ended the month by getting fifteen outs in one game.
• Only seven pitchers started a game in May. In 2016 only seven pitchers made starts in May but the names were Bolsinger/Kazmir/Stripling along with the first major league start by Urias.

Even though the bullpen lost the last game of the month, no one can complain about the work the bullpen did in May. If you had asked everyone what they felt the team needed when May started I think most would have said another great bullpen arm. With May in the books I’m not sure that is the case.  Provided they don’t send Fields back to AAA again.