The Los Angeles Dodgers are one week into the 2023 season, currently sporting a record of 4-2, and all alone in first place in the division.
The name of the game this early in the season is small sample size, of course, but we are still going to use it to compare and contrast players on the Dodgers and teams in the NL West.
The Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres sit at 3-3, with San Francisco and Colorado behind them with only two wins each. Every thing is clumped close together as one would imagine this early on.
The Dodgers do have a chance to perhaps put a little room between them and the Padres, as the Dodgers will next play in Arizona and San Francisco, and the Padres head east to take on the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets, potentially tougher matchups for the team down south.
The starting rotation has performed very well to start the season. Despite allowing a solo homer, Clayton Kershaw was his vintage self, striking out nine in 6.0 innings. Noah Syndergaard was also vintage in his outing, allowing one across 6.0. And Dustin May didn’t allow any runs in his outing that went 7.0 innings. Julio Urías has started the season 2-0 with a 0.75 WHIP. The exception was Michael Grove, who gave up three earned runs in four innings of work. Later, Manager Dave Roberts said that Grove was pitching a little under the weather which could have attributed to his less than stellar outing.
The offense was hot and cold to start the season. They had run totals of 8, 1, 10, 1, 13 across the first five games of the season.
The rookies are showing up as promised. James Outman is batting .286 with a homer and an impressive 1.260 OPS. Miguel Vargas leads all of the majors with nine walks, showing incredible plate discipline, along with his .375 batting average. He did miss Tuesday’s game with a sore thumb, but said on Thursday that it is feeling better and while not starting, could be called upon to pinch hit if needed.
Will Smith continues to make his case for Best Catcher In Baseball. He’s batting .421 with three homers, and a whopping 1.478 OPS.
Of course it was not all perfect. Max Muncy struck out all five times in last Thursday’s home opener. His defense at third has been somewhat of an adventure. Alex Vesia and Brusdar Graterol gave up key runs in tight games. But overall, winning two thirds of your games will get you pretty far. If they managed to continue that, they would end up 108-54.
Of course we know as fans it will not all go that well, but fans can be encouraged by the Dodgers’ start.
A few injury notes – Miguel Rojas is dealing with a groin injury. He was expected to do some pre-game work Thursday and will be evaluated after that.
Tony Gonsolin “got through” his live batting practice Wednesday at Camelback Ranch, according to Dave Roberts. He will likely throw another bullpen and live batting practice before heading out on a rehab assignment.