What remains the same is an elite starting rotation, anchored by reigning Cy Young Award winner and MVP Clayton Kershaw, followed by Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu, plus newcomers Brandon McCarthy and Brett Anderson. The goal also remains the same: get that World Series title after losing eight of their 11 playoff series since 1988.
So, what can be expected from the Dodgers in 2015? Here are five predictions.
1. Ace gets higher
Kershaw’s 2014 numbers were mind-boggling: 21-3, 1.77 ERA, 1.81 FIP, 0.857 WHIP, 239 strikeouts and 31 walks in 198.1 innings, six complete games. You can’t do any better than that, right? It turns out, you can. Kershaw surrendered hits in 26 of his 27 starts last year, a total of 139. He gave up nine home runs. There were 510 batters that he faced and did not strike out. He gave up seven runs in 1.2 innings to the Diamondbacks in one start in May — which represented 17.9 percent of the earned runs against him for the season. There were four months in which Kershaw was not the National League Pitcher of the Month. Oh, and the playoffs. Well, this year, that all changes. Kershaw will go 23-2 with a 1.62 ERA, 1.74 FIP, 0.792 WHIP, 275 strikeouts and 29 walks in 232 innings. He will win the Cy Young again, and this time, he will not allow a single run in the playoffs. But there will still be room to improve — again, look at all those hitters Kershaw won’t strike out.
2. MVPuig
Yasiel Puig is 24 years old and has 1,072 major league plate appearances under his belt, over the course of which he has hit .305/.386/.502 with 35 home runs. Puig still will be guilty of sins of aggression on the field, but his experience in dealing with major league pitchers will result in a jump to another level in 2015. Puig’s strikeout rate went down last year and his walk rate went down, but his BABIP went down by 27 points. Puig will hit .323/.409/.617 with 32 homers, enough to wrest MVP honors from his teammate on the mound.
3. ‘Pen is mightier
Last year’s bullpen was a disaster for Los Angeles, and this year is not off to a good start with the news that closer Kenley Jansen, one of few bright spots from the 2014 relief corps, will miss the start of the season following foot surgery. The reason for the turnaround will be younger arms, specifically Paco Rodriguez and Yimi Garcia, making big contributions, as well as a solid, under-the-radar acquisition in Chris Hatcher. The best story, though, will be Dustin McGowan, whose 82 innings with Toronto last year were his most since 2008, when he was still a starter. Having extended his arm with that effort, McGowan will be ready to roll and be an effective reliever for his new team — he won’t make the All-Star team, but he will have the honor of getting the last out in Los Angeles’ division-clinching win, in a 10-2 blowout in Denver on the next-to-last weekend of the season.
4. Vin-sanity
Realizing that people have been syncing up streamed Dodgers radio broadcasts to their playoff telecasts the past two years, TBS will smarten up and announce Vin Scully will call Dodgers games in the Division Series, though the network will stick with its regular announcers for the NLCS. As for the other television matter involving the Dodgers, those fans in the Los Angeles area who were blacked out of almost every game last year because they don’t have Time Warner cable? SportsNet LA will be available throughout the market as of Memorial Day weekend as both sides agree that all they really want is to take customers’ money.
5. Not in the Cards, again
The Dodgers’ reward for winning a third straight National League West title will be a third straight year facing the Cardinals in the playoffs. While St. Louis won’t get to Kershaw this time, Puig will struggle again, and with one-run losses in Games 2, 3 and 4, Los Angeles will face the familiar question in mid-October of what it is about the Cardinals that they just can’t overcome. There is no answer, really. Life can just be stupid that way, and losing three games by one run apiece to another really good team, after having won the first game of a four-game series, is not something that anyone would really think much of if it happened at any time other than October. It’s just tough on the Dodgers after their first 100-win season since 1974.
