Monday, March 18, 2024
Copyrighted by Sarah Morris, 2024
On the eve of Opening Day for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, the National League Western Division should be analyzed. Most baseball fans frequently ignore the National League Western Division since the division is perceived as weak competitively. This upcoming season, most fans will keep an eye on the West.
Since 2020, the National League Western Division has produced a wild card. For the last three seasons, it has produced a different team to go to the NLCS. In the 2023 season, the Arizona Diamondbacks won the pennant.
After a spectacular historic offseason, everyone in the baseball world expects the Los Angeles Dodgers to win their division at least. Many think they will win their first full-season world championship since 1988.
As all baseball fans know, games aren’t won on paper or bought. No one cares during a game when the Dodgers spent a record-setting over a billion dollars this offseason. If the team performs well, everyone will think Andrew Friedman is a genius. If the team doesn’t perform up to the lofty expectations, Dodger fans will want to fire Dave Roberts, though he doesn’t hit, pitch, or field.
Signing Shohei Ohtani should improve the offense. While he is coming off an oblique injury and a revision Tommy John surgery, On Monday, Ohtani was cleared to start a throwing program, and according to Roberts, when Ohtani is cleared to play in the outfield, he will see time on defense.
Ohtani has had a great offensive spring training. He demonstrated power and speed. He should have a huge offensive season.
Tyler Glasnow, who came from the Tampa Bay Rays and signed a long-term extension with his hometown team, has looked like an ace this spring. He has super velocity, a Kershaw-like curveball, a cutter, and a changeup. This spring, he has performed well enough to earn the Opening Day assignment in South Korea, probably in Los Angeles.
The problem is Glasnow hasn’t pitched more than 120 innings a season, and the Dodgers need a durable starter. Since the Rays were slow in diagnosing Glasnow’s torn UCL, requiring Tommy John surgery, he earned an undeserved reputation as fragile. He has a goal for the 2024 season to pitch more than 120 innings. The Dodgers need him to be effective more than durable since the franchise has many minor league pitchers who are almost ready for the big leagues.
The Dodgers gave a humongous long-term contract to Yoshinobu Yamamoto before he threw a pitch in the major leagues. He accomplished everything he could in Japan at 25 before coming to the United States. During spring training, Yamamoto experienced ups and downs. His raw stuff can baffle every major leaguer, and usually, he can locate his superior pitches on the corners of the strike zone.
Yamamoto needs to make adjustments to be successful in the major leagues. He was tipping his pitches and had difficulty with working out his stretch. Eventually, Yamamoto will be one of the elite starters in the majors, but perhaps, he will need more than spring training before he dominates the National League.
Teoscar Hernàndez is exactly what the Dodgers wanted. Since the Dodgers have a left-handed dominating lineup, they needed a right-handed power hitter. Hernàndez is one who loves to face left-handed pitchers.
Entering spring training, the Dodgers believed Gavin Lux would be their everyday shortstop and Mookie Betts would be their second base. Not many players could be a Gold Glove right fielder and be willing gladly to move to second base. Betts had a goal of winning a Gold Glove at second base.
However, after missing the entire 2023 season with a significant knee injury, Lux toiled at shortstop defensively. Regularly, Lux committed throwing errors even with easy hurls.
Since Lux had great offensive highlights, the Dodgers didn’t want to take him out of the lineup. In the 2022 season, he played second base successfully. Therefore, the Dodgers decided to move Lux back to second base. After a few games, Lux looked more comfortable at second base than he ever at shortstop.
When the Dodgers put Lux at second base, they moved Betts to shortstop. Many have questions about this though Betts was drafted as a shortstop by the Boston Red Sox.
Betts sees this as a challenge. “The most important thing for me is winning,” Betts said. “You can put me wherever. As long as I’m on the diamond, I’m going to do the best I can do and we’ll see what happens after that.”
So far, Betts looks like a decent shortstop.
If the Dodgers remain healthy, they should have no problem of winning the National League Western Division. They should go deep into the postseason.
