Dodgers: Dave Roberts Is Perfecting His Lineups Adjustments

While the Dodgers have used over a hundred different lineups throughout the regular season, Roberts seems to have found his two lineups.

The Dodgers front office and coaching staff love to play the splits. And so far it looks like they have found their lineup for the post-season when facing right-handers and left-handers.  Against right-handers, the Dodgers are choosing to bat Puig fifth in the order due to his reverse splits.  Left field looks like its Curtis Granderson’s spot to lose when a right-hander is on the mound.  Roberts chose to start Logan Forsythe in the opening game against Tajuan Walker, but he started Utley in game three.  I think this is just to get Utley some more at-bats but Roberts will most likely use Forsythe for most of the starts at second against a righty.

Against southpaw starters, Roberts is choosing to hit Kike Hernandez fifth and sliding Yasiel Puig down to the eighth spot. While this seems to be a bit questionable due to Puig’s hot start, he continues to mash no matter where he hits, posting an average above .500 in the first two games of the series.  Kike is notorious for mashing lefties, which is why Roberts is batting him fifth, and it makes sense to put his power in the fifth spot. Grandal figures to get most of the starts against right-handed starters, but Austin Barnes is starting to look like the everyday catcher against lefties. This is the best move for Roberts to make since Barnes posted a .886 OPS in the regular season against lefties and 6 of his 8 home runs came against southpaws.

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The only spots that Roberts could still flip-flop are left field and catcher. While Granderson has gotten both starts in left field versus a right-handed starter, Roberts could choose to go with Ethier if Granderson doesn’t turn things around. Ethier played the field a few innings in game two, so he is capable of handling left field defensively.

The Catcher spot against right-handed hitters is also still a toss-up.  Austin Barnes ended the season strong while Yasmani Grandal nosedived in the second half for the second consecutive season.  Roberts will likely continue to give Grandal a shot to start against most righties, but he should pull the plug and start Barnes every game.

While the fifth to eight spots in the batting order will be changed by Roberts, the one through four spots in the order is a lock. Roberts has found his niche going with a top four of Taylor, Seager, Turner, and Cody Bellinger.

Roberts might as well write those on a lineup in ink since it would take a lot for him to shift away from those four in a row.  Regardless of Roberts pencils in the order, it appears the grittiness of Roberts has rubbed off on his players.  Every Dodger is grinding out their at-bats and made the Dbacks go to their bullpen early.  Not only are they driving up the pitch counts of the Dback starters, but they are also putting up exhausting at-bats that will wear a starting pitcher down both mentally and physically.

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This was key to the Dodgers success in the NLDS and will need to continue if the Dodgers will adavnce. When hitters are working the count it makes things a little easier for Roberts to continue to make changes to the lineup.