Pitching roster for NLDS

Phil Gurnee ♦ September 26, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

With the positional players done, let’s move on to what will be more important. Who will make up the pitching portion of the NLDS?

Below are the splits for the pitching in Sept. This is more to get an idea of who is being used the most from the bullpen and how effective they have been lately.

Player              G   ERA   IP  WHIP  SO9  SO/W   OPS
Tony Cingrani      10  1.04  8.2 0.923 12.5  4.00  .422
Tony Watson        10  1.08  8.1 0.960  8.6  2.67  .457
Brandon Morrow     10  2.08  8.2 1.269 14.5  7.00  .587
Ross Stripling      9  9.00  8.0 1.625  7.9  2.33  .996
Pedro Baez          9 14.21  6.1 3.158 11.4  1.14 1.330
Luis Avilan         8  3.86  7.0 1.286  7.7  1.20  .523
Josh Fields         8  4.50  8.0 1.000  9.0  8.00  .711
Kenley Jansen       7  2.35  7.2 1.174 14.1 12.00  .724
Walker Buehler      6  8.53  6.1 2.053 12.8  1.80  .913
Yu Darvish          5  3.71 26.2 1.050 10.8  5.33  .625
Clayton Kershaw     5  3.03 29.2 1.146  9.7  5.33  .682
Alex Wood           4  4.30 23.0 1.217  9.0  3.29  .734
Edward Paredes      4 13.50  2.0 3.000       13.5 1.364
Rich Hill           4  2.45 22.0 0.818 12.3  5.00  .514
Brock Stewart       4  4.32  8.1 1.680 10.8  1.43  .758
Kenta Maeda         4  5.25 12.0 1.333 12.0  5.33  .835
Hyun-Jin Ryu        3  1.38 13.0 1.231  9.0  1.86  .552
Wilmer Font         3 17.18  3.2 3.000  7.4  0.75 1.389
Brandon McCarthy    1  3.00  3.0 0.667        6.0  .364

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/26/2017.
My first four starters would be Kershaw/Darvish/Hill/Wood

My first four relief pitchers would be Jansen/Morrow/Cingrani/Watson

That is eight pitchers, we have three to go. I’m going to carry eleven pitchers, not twelve because you don’t have a fifth starter, and Kershaw and Yu are at least six inning pitchers, with plenty of rest in the postseason for the bullpen.

The candidates:

Hyun-Jin Ryu – if he’s healthy I think he should be in the bullpen but maybe not more so than Avilan.   Also can’t really consider him a candidate since Roberts refused to use him in the bullpen as he said he would to get the starters not making the postseason rotation acclimated to the bullpen.

Kenta Maeda – He is in for me, just in case Rich Hill has one of those games like he had last year in Washington.

Brandon McCarthy – The next week could be the decider for him but for me he is out though I would have no problem picking him over Josh Fields/Stripling or Walker Buehler.

Josh Fields – I could easily see him being the Pedro Baez of 2017 if they let him

Ross Stripling – not feeling it for Ross, I think he loses his spot to Kenta. At least he does for me.

Brock Stewart – does not appear to be on the radar for the postseason

Pedro Baez – sorry Pedro, not this year

Luis Avilan –  It is close but I’ll take him over Ryu giving the Dodgers three solid left hand options in the bullpen.

Walker Buehler – I know the Dodgers really want him on the postseason roster. I don’t.

Edwardo Paredes – No, I don’t really consider him a candidate

With Kenta and Avilan in, that leaves one spot left.  For me it comes down to Josh Fields/ Ross Stripling/Walker Buehler.  I hope none of the three would need to pitch in a high leverage situation but if so, I’m closing my eyes and going with Josh Fields.

To be clear on this I would have chosen Ryu over Fields but since the Dodgers have refused to try Ryu in relief I can’t consider him a candidate for the bullpen and I fully expect Wood to win the 4th starter gig leaving Ryu without a spot.

Remember this is my own exercise, I fully expect the Dodgers to go with only thirteen position players and twelve pitchers and that Walker Buehler will be on the roster, but this is what I’d do.