Dodger offense in May provided by two unlikely sources and one that Dave Roberts seems oblivous too

Phil Gurnee ♦ June 1, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

The Dodgers didn’t have a great offensive month in May as they were ranked 11th in wRC+ at 90 but they did have some solid performances, with most of the production coming from their 1st baseman but not the one you would have expected.

I sort this by plate appearances because I think it gives a great look at who is playing. Cody Bellinger led the team in May plate appearances while having the worst offensive month of his career.

Yasiel Puig led the team in wRC+ at 166 but could be found sitting whenever Dave Roberts felt the need to get the anemic bat of Joc Pederson in the lineup. Joc had a wRC+ of 64 for the Month, which was the lowest for any of the so called starters.  Joc not only gets to start more than he should but he gets to hit leadoff where his May OBP of .278 was found to be more attactive than the Puig OBP of .367.

Matt Kemp garnered over 100 plate appearances and posted an absurd May wRC+ of 156. I’m not shorting Matt Kemp here, he will get own own May writeup.

Chris Taylor took to shortstop and hit like Corey Seager putting up an outstanding wRC+ of 140.

However, the name we should all be in awe of was Max Muncy who took over the 1st base gig against all right-handed pitchers with a shocking wRC+ of 151 in 84 plate appearances for the month of May. I tweeted this when Muncy was starting against a left-hand pitcher instead of Cody Bellinger.

Have we really reached the point where Max Muncy is a better alternative against a left-hand pitcher than Cody Bellinger?

— Phil Gurnee (@meercatjohn) May 23, 2018

Jon Weisman rightfully spanked me with the news that Cody had yet to have a day off.

The catchers who had been so productive in April, wilted in May with neither Grandal or Barnes able to put up a wRC+ greater than 100.

The long-anticipated return of Justin Turner has yet to turn into much production but he continues to bat 3rd in the lineup while the best hitter for the month is usually found hitting 7th, 8th, or on the bench. I’m not saying Justin Turner shouldn’t be batting 3rd but I am saying that maybe Puig should stop hitting eighth. Not like the guy doesn’t have a career OPS+ of 126 in almost 2500 major league at-bats.

Breyvic Valera got his first major league hit this month, and he did it just in the nick of time.

The stats below were provided by the Fangraphs Monthly Split Tool:

Now for the Baseball Ref stats:

Most doubles in May belongs to Matt Kemp who hit 10, followed by Joc Pederson with six.  Joc had fifteen hits in May, and six of those were doubles.

Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger, and Yasiel Puig all hit five home runs for the month.

Matt Kemp drove in 17 runs to lead the team followed by Max Muncy with 15.

Four Dodgers had double-digit walks in May (Bellinger, Taylor, Grandal, and Muncy).

Chase Utley had a bad bad month but his replacement Logan Forsythe wasn’t much better. Chase had an OPS of .381 and Logan had an OPS of .598.

Player              Split  PA 2B HR RBI BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS
Cody Bellinger        May 113  4  5  13 11 30 .180 .265 .390 .655
Chris Taylor          May 112  5  3  10 16 29 .253 .393 .451 .843
Matt Kemp             May 103 10  3  17  4 19 .361 .379 .557 .935
Yasmani Grandal       May  89  0  4   9 15 22 .181 .315 .347 .662
Max Muncy             May  84  5  5  15 13 19 .261 .381 .551 .932
Joc Pederson          May  79  6  0   5  6 12 .211 .278 .324 .602
Justin Turner         May  60  3  1   8  4  6 .255 .317 .364 .680
Yasiel Puig           May  60  2  5   8  7 12 .283 .367 .604 .970
Enrique Hernandez     May  60  0  4   7  4 15 .196 .250 .411 .661
Chase Utley           May  54  1  0   3  3 12 .137 .185 .196 .381
Austin Barnes         May  50  0  1   1  7 11 .214 .340 .286 .626
Logan Forsythe        May  45  3  0   2  3  5 .238 .289 .310 .598
Alex Verdugo          May  30  4  0   1  0  5 .241 .241 .379 .621
Kyle Farmer           May  23  0  0   2  1  5 .190 .217 .190 .408
Tim Locastro          May  14  1  0   0  2  5 .182 .357 .273 .630

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/1/2018.