Worried about rotation for next year

[duke1861]

While I have no clue what Friedman and the Gang are up to, there are several concerns.

1. The back end of the rotation looks suspect. Anderson hasn't been healthy since 2011 and McCarthy has over a 4 ERA for his career. He did pitch well last year in the AL but he has had injury concerns with his elbow. I am not understanding why we targeted these pitchers.

2. Do we really think Kendrick, Grandal, Rollins and Pederson will make up for the production of Gordon, Kemp and Ramirez?

3. The bullpen has still not been addressed. It cost us a shot at the NLCS and we are still sitting on our hands.

 

[LASports96]

1) The back end is better than it was last year (McCarthy is certainly better than Haren and Anderson would be better than McCarthy if he stays healthy)

2) Overall, yes

3) The bullpen has been addressed (I wouldn't mind adding one more arm though)

 

[OutlawImmortal]

Don't want to overpay for free agents in a year with shallow depth. I like what Friedman and company have done so far. Kershaw, Greinke and Ryu at the top is still a damn good rotation, even with a suspect back-end.

 

[ksudodger]

While I have no clue what Friedman and the Gang are up to, there are several concerns.

1. The back end of the rotation looks suspect. Anderson hasn't been healthy since 2011 and McCarthy has over a 4 ERA for his career. He did pitch well last year in the AL but he has had injury concerns with his elbow. I am not understanding why we targeted these pitchers.

Anderson will end up as a reliever. I still feel we will either make a deal for Hamels or pay for Scherzer. McCarthy as a #5 would be ok by me if we add someone.

2. Do we really think Kendrick, Grandal, Rollins and Pederson will make up for the production of Gordon, Kemp and Ramirez?

Gordon had ZERO production from July on. Kendrick is going to be on base more and provide more pop. Grandal will double Ellis' output from last year. Rollins will not have the offensive output of Han Ram, but his defensive ability combined with upgrades offensively at 2B and C will even out. You cannot compare Pederson to Kemp. That is not fair. So to longwindly answer your question, YES I do believe Kendrick,Grandal,Rollins and Pederson will create as much offense as Kemp,Han Ram and Gordon.

3. The bullpen has still not been addressed. It cost us a shot at the NLCS and we are still sitting on our hands.

Actually there has been some work done on the bullpen. We have either traded for or signed Joel Peralta,Juan Nicasio, Joe Wieland and Adam Libertore and got rid of Brian Wilson. Peralta will be the 8th inning guy behind Jansen.

 

[OutlawImmortal]

In regards to the Dodgers offense, they had too many 'all or nothing' type of hitters last year. The lineup may not be as power heavy as it once was but there's a lot more consistency there.

 

[ksudodger]

^^^^^^^^^^ what he said!!

 

[OutlawImmortal]

The Dodgers have been a streaky team over the past 2 years, when they were on their game they were the best team in baseball, and when they were bad, they were very bad. They just weren't able to put it together for the postseason, terrible strike zones aside. As much as I enjoyed Kemp's play during his career with the Dodgers, he hasn't done much to lower his SO numbers over the years, even in his MVP-type season he averaged almost at least 1 strikeout per game.

Hanley Ramirez is a great talent, but I can't honestly say he gives 100% during the regular season. The only time I saw him push it to 100 before the postseason was after the Marlins traded him and everyone labeled him a cancer. The only thing I strongly opposed was the notion that no team was willing to pay him a large sum to be an every day player, but when you have the kind ofl depth at shortstop like the Dodgers do, it's not such a terrible idea to let him go. It's also something I was willing to call into question during the season, despite how high I was and still am on Hanley's skill.