Dodgers: Three Major Storylines to Monitor Before the Postseason

The Dodgers are without a doubt in a class of their own. They lead the MLB in wins and are on pace to have the most wins in franchise history. Regardless of how the regular season has faired thus far, Dave Roberts intends on having the team focusing on finishing the regular season strong.

Dave Roberts is well on his way to winning his second consecutive manager of the year award in just his second full season as an MLB manager. Part of Roberts success has to deal with his relationship with his players and his ability to keep the players focused on the end goal.

Along the way, Dave Roberts has also done a fantastic job handling big time managerial decisions. When you put all this together with the incredible, this Dodger team has you get a projected win total of over 110 wins on the season.

That’s not to say the Dodgers should already be crowned the World Series Champions. The MLB season is a long grueling season, and we’ve seen it time and time before where the hottest team in October takes home the World Series trophy. Let’s take a look at a few storylines that Dodger fans should continue to monitor as the Dodgers hit the final six week stretch of the season.

Starting Rotation In-Game Depth

We’ve noted time and time again that depth is a great thing to have. This season the club’s depth at the starting rotation has been called upon seemingly every month. So the depth isn’t necessarily the issue to look out for. As Hector Ponce pointed out last week, competition has brought out the best in the Dodgers starters, and the roles will define themselves as the season wears down and roster cuts are made in the postseason.

But there is a storyline to watch here, and it goes hand in hand with the bullpen storyline I just mentioned. This season the starters are averaging just under six innings per start, which is relatively solid when you have a dominant bullpen as the Dodgers have. But when you remove Kershaw from the equation Dodger starters are averaging a shade under 5 1/3 innings pitched. That breaks down as followed:

Kenta Maeda – 19 starts, 100.1 innings, 5.27 innings/start

Alex Wood – 18 starts, 105 innings, 5.83 innings/start

Hyun-Jin Ryu – 17 starts, 92.2 innings, 5.43 innings/start

Rich Hill – 17 starts, 89 innings, 5.24 innings/start

Brandon McCarthy – 16 starts, 86.2 innings, 5.38 innings/start

Yu Darvish – 2 starts, 12 innings, 6 innings/start

Obviously, the Dodgers pitching staff will look a whole lot better when Kershaw rejoins them hopefully sometime by the end of this month. But we’re still asking for around 7-9 starts from each of these starters until October.

Something has to give, and either these pitchers start pitching more consistently when their rotation spot comes around, or Roberts needs to add more arms to the bullpen to spread out the workload. Don’t get me wrong, pitching a little over five innings in the postseason is like gold. But for now, it will be helpful to the bullpen to have the starters going consistently past six innings.

How Does Dave Roberts Handle Adrian Gonzalez’s Return

Adrian Gonzalez has already played in a few rehab games just last week and is expected to join the team sometime next week. The key question here is – how does Dave Roberts manage Gonzalez’s playing time?

Dave Roberts has an ample amount of options with how he wants to handle this situation. The honest truth is that the way this plays out is entirely up to how Gonzalez produces when he returns. But assuming Gonzalez produces up to his best capabilities, Roberts has to choose from one of these solutions.

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1. Start Gonzalez at first, Bellinger moves to left, Taylor starts at center against lefties, Joc is benched.
2. Start Gonzalez at first, Bellinger moves to left, Taylor starts at second against righties, Forsythe is benched.
3. Split playing time with Bellinger and Gonzalez at first, easing Gonzalez’s return to full health and allowing Bellinger to rest as he has played virtually every day since his call up in April.
4. Ask Gonzalez to take a reduced role as the primary pinch hitter off the bench not disrupting the current lineup chemistry.
5. Split playing time with all four of the players mentioned above. Luckily Dave Roberts has players that are versatile and can play both the outfield and infield.

If you ask me, I’d roll out line ups based on choices 1 and 2. Taylor has proven himself as a true leadoff hitter for the Dodgers, and if Gonzalez is going to be an x-factor in the postseason, he’ll need everyday at-bats to get into October form. That said, option three doesn’t sound like a bad idea if it means that Bellinger can get some rest and it keeps Gonzalez 100 % healthy.

Next: Top of the Order is Filled With MVP Candidates

Dave Roberts has plenty of options when Gonzalez comes in. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, he’s the favorite for MOY, so I expect him to be already thinking about ways to handle these situations. He’s gotten them to the best record in baseball in only his second year. But moving forward these are some storylines to follow as we close out this season.