Spring training confidence

Phil Gurnee ♦ February 15, 2018 ♦ 1 Comment

Why am I confident in the 2018 Dodgers even though they have shed millions of dollars in salary while keeping pretty much the exact same team that played in the 2017 World Series minus the over the hill back up first baseman, the longest tenured Dodger who only managed 64 plate appearances while raking in $35M over the past two years, and a 2017 NRI who had a fantastic injury-free season for the first time this decade?

Probably because they would be 2017 World Champions if not for:

• Their best pitcher giving up two three-run leads in the same game
• Their second best starter giving away two games in a seven game series
• Their clean up hitter striking out 17 times in 28 at-bats
• Their main setup man thinking he had something when he had nothing
• Their right fielder and catcher combining for three extra-base hits in 50 at-bats
• Their best postseason hitter going 3 for 16 over the last five games of the World Series

Even with everything that went wrong in the World Series, they had enough to make it a seven-game series.

We will look at their competition tomorrow. I’m curious to see how the Brewers stack up because on the surface they seemed to have loaded up this winter like no other team in the National League, but they had a long way to go.

I’m definitely not worried about the Giants. Old teams who get older with no depth just don’t worry me over a 162 game season.

The focus tomorrow will be on the Cubs/Nationals/Brewers/Cardinals.