Dodgers: The Three Biggest Surprises of the First Half

The Dodgers’ regular season is a bit more than halfway done, but the All-Star game seems to be the artificial divider of the first and second half.  There were some big surprises for the Dodgers in the first half of the season.

The Dodgers finish the first half of the season in the place they expected to be, first place.  Although they were able to finish the first half in first place, it took a lot of hard work to get to this point.  It wasn’t too long ago that the Dodgers were sitting in last place in the NL West with a 16-26 record.  Since then, the Dodgers have been one of the best teams in baseball, despite having to go through stretches without key players.

With key players such as Corey Seager and Justin Turner out for significant parts of the first half, the Dodgers had to stay afloat by surprise contributions from all across their depth chart.  Whether it was Caleb Ferguson, Max Muncy, or the rejuvenated Matt Kemp, the Dodgers first half was filled with plenty of surprises that not even the front office could have imagined.  Here are the three biggest surprises of the first half of the 2018 season.

The Emergence of Ross Stripling

Raise your hand if you had Ross Stripling making the National League All-Star team as a starting pitcher this season?  Nobody should be raising their hands.  As far as starting pitchers go across the league, Ross Stripling has to be the biggest surprise story in baseball.  Stripling has always been squeezed out of the rotation and in the bullpen as a long reliever but due to an absurd amount of injuries to the Dodgers starting rotation, Ross Stripling was inserted into the starting rotation and hasn’t looked back since.

All Ross Stripling did in the first half was go 8-2 with a 2.08 ERA in fourteen starts.  Using the four-pitch mix of his fastball, slider, changeup, and curve, Stripling has turned into a very good starting pitcher and without him who knows where the starting rotation would have been right now.  Stripling has put up a Kershaw-like strikeout to walk ratio in the first half of the season finishing with 108 strikeouts and only fourteen walks.  Given Stripling made fourteen starts, that’s literally a walk per start he has given up.

With the Dodger rotation having six healthy starters for the second half, one starter will need to go to the bullpen.  Although Ross Stripling has experience as a reliever there is no way the Dodgers will shift him back to the bullpen.  Chicken Strip will continue his run at the National League ERA title which is currently held by Jacob deGrom and his 1.68 ERA.

The resurgence of Matt Kemp

Last winter when the Dodgers acquired Matt Kemp, the common thought was that the Dodgers were going to eat money and trade Kemp away, or outright release him.  After a strong start to spring training, Kemp slumped towards the end of spring training and it appeared he was going to be what everyone expected, an all hit, no field outfielder.

Then the regular season started and Kemp was arguably the best Dodger hitter until Max Muncy arrived and starting his power surge.  Kemp has slowed down a bit over the last few weeks but he still finishes the first half with fifteen home runs and 60 RBI’s.  Matt Kemp also has hit for better average this season and currently carries a .310 batting average with him.  Kemp is also the leading hitter with runners in scoring position, with a .429 average.

The only part of Matt Kemp’s game that is still below average is his defense, but even that has improved in 2018.  Kemp’s weight loss has allowed him to make some spectacular plays in left field and get to plays that he would not have been anywhere close to the last few seasons.

While Kemp carries a -6 DRS rating, he has hit and showed enough in the outfield to be an average outfielder defensively.  In right field, Kemp actually has a positive DRS rating and a UZR/150 rating of 20.0 so Kemp has actually been a good right fielder.  Kemp will look to continue his improbable MVP run in the second half.