Dodgers: Going through and grading the pitching staff

They were one win, even just seven outs, away from the NLCS, but the pitching staff could not hold the lead once again for the Dodgers in the postseason.

The rotation did well this season, finishing first in the league in ERA and WHIP and seventh in strikeouts. With the best offense and defense in the National League, the Dodgers looked set to take another shot at the American League Champion in the World Series for the third year in a row.

For much of the season, the team looked like it had the NL MVP and Cy Young in Hyun-Jin Ryu and Cody Bellinger. Ryu had a 10-2 record with an MLB-leading 1.73 ERA in the first half to go along with a league-leading 0.83 BB/9. Bellinger had 30 home runs and a .329 AVG, both good for second in all of baseball. Clayton Kershaw seemed to throw a quality start every time out and Walker Buehler racked up plenty of strikeouts.

Alongside the more established names, a whole new docket of fresh blood entered the active roster, with Will Smith, Tony Gonsolin, and Alex Verdugo taking on the largest roles along with Gavin Lux and Dustin May. Julio Urias came along nicely as well, with Kenta Maeda having a 2.92 ERA through 17 first-half starts before becoming the most reliable reliever in the NLDS bullpen. Joe Kelly recovered nicely from his April and May struggles, and Kenley Jansen oscillated between reliable and being a shell of his former self.

In light of this, I set out to grade each segment of the roster, from the starting rotation and the bullpen to the infield and outfield pieces of the lineup using an F to A+ scale. Here’s what I came up with. In this article, I’ll grade the pitchers, while I went through the offense in the last installment.