The Start Of The Dodgers Season Was Incredible

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Clayton Kershaw is out till June

*more than likely*

Brian Wilson is MIA

It feels like Chad Billingsley hasn’t pitched since the Guggenheimers took over.

Scott Elbert apparently is still alive.

So is Matt Kemp.

Dee Gordon is the starting second baseman for the Dodgers (may not be the worst thing ever actually)

Alex Guerrero has 2 times more muscle strains that major league hits.

Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, and Andre Ethier have combined to hit 8-55 (.145) thus far.

The bullpen as a whole has allowed 8 runs (7 earned) in 12 innings pitched good for a 5.25 ERA.

The 2014 Dodgers have won 4 of their first 5 games against hated division rivals. Which really should have been 5 out of 5 but Brian Wilson who really was unfit to be pitching at that time let a 1-0 lead slip away.

Wha???

It sounds laughable considering how undermanned the Dodgers are, that they have been spotted a 1 game lead against the next closest division foe, but it’s true.

Sure good things have happened, Paco Rodriguez is definitely the best non-Kenley reliever on the Dodgers, Hyun-Jin Ryu has been awesome, Dan Haren was really solid yesterday. Yasiel Puig is on pace for a 8+ WAR season. Carl Crawford has been okay, so has Chris Withrow. Juan Uribe has been the opposite of 2011-2012. A few adequate performances, that’s about it. The vast majority of the team has underperformed but the Dodgers are 4-1 and on top of the NL West.

The whole argument of “at no point will every single player be firing on all cylinders at the same time” still exists, but who cares? Any team should be so lucky to have such little production from their starting SS, 1B, CF. No PA’S from their MVP caliber outfielder, lose the best pitcher in baseball for 2 months, and still have a 4-1 record. Yes, Hyun-Jin Ryu will more than likely regress a bit (although with the new curve he debuted Sunday, it’s not so farfetched to see him becoming an ace anymore), Yasiel Puig is probably not putting up an 8 win season while putting up negative value in non-offensive categories, Juan Uribe certainly isn’t going to have a 172 wRC+ at the end of the season. However, you know what the beauty is? They don’t have to.

Hanley Ramirez is going to be above average offensively at the least. Adrian Gonzalez doesn’t have much power anymore, but he’ll collect his hits. Andre Ethier proved last year that no matter how horrible he starts, it’s likely he’ll eventually stop impersonating Skip Schumaker. I also think there’s a good possibility that we’ll see one of Dan Haren, Paul Maholm, or Josh Beckett become a good middle of the rotation starter the Dodgers need so desperately. And if they need someone else? How about throwing the “high floor” prospect in Zach Lee into the mix? Everybody and their mother is saying he’s going to eat innings, be a mid rotation guy, and is definitely ready this year.

Yeah depth is good

Oh, hey, if that’s not enough, reinforcements in the former of Kemp, Billingsley, Kershaw, are coming.

So many individual players have had rough starts to the season and guess what? The Dodgers season is going swimmingly.