Hope Springs Eternal (Los Angeles Dodgers)

When I was a kid I could not wait to get my annual Athlon’s Baseball Guide or my Street and Smith’s magazine. I would consume every word of those publications and dream about the upcoming season. I remember sitting in Mrs. Williams 7th grade class with my notebook open making predictions for every team. Yep, I went full geek squad on these with complete opening day roster predictions and what each player would do.

Times have changed and the web makes it so much easier to find all of this info….But, I still find that, for me, I need to visually see each player and write them down to get the baseball memory the workout it needs for the upcoming season. Now, I thought I would finally share my work with you.

Stats wise this is just a fun experiment….so, I am not using some sort of calculation for these numbers. Just a little look inside the 7th grade Greg Schaum’s mind sitting in Mrs. Williams class with bubble gum card stats.

Dodgers Spring Training Complex: 10710 W Camelback Road, Glendale, AZ  85037 (Royals play there on March 15th at 7:05 PM)

The must eat restaurant

Tortas Paquime: 1.5 miles from Park- Tortas, Tacos, and ice cream for the kids

Los Angeles Dodgers:

3 Strengths: Top 3 in rotation, Mid order Pop, Defense at C

3 Weaknesses: Third Base, Closer, Rebound bug (Gonzalez, Crawford, Ramirez)

3 Impact Players: Kershaw, Greinke, Ramirez

3 best ST battles: Last spot on bench, LF if Crawford is out, backup C

3 Who could win a spot in the Spring: Gwynn JR, RHP Shawn Tolleson, C Jesus Flores

Any moves left: I could see them land a 3B via trade or get Scott Rolen out of retirement

(25 man opening day roster)

Starters

C- RH AJ Ellis ( 8 HR, 52 RBI, .248)

1B- LH Adrian Gonzalez (21 HR, 102 RBI, .282)

2B- RH Mark Ellis (6 HR, 46 RBI, .270, 8 SB)

SS- RH Hanley Ramirez (22 HR, 102 RBI, .275, 15 SB)

3B- RH Luis Cruz ( 6 HR, 36 RBI, .230, 4 SB)

LF- RH Jerry Hairston (3 HR, 25 RBI, .255, 3 SB)

CF- RH Matt Kemp (34 HR, 114 RBI, .308, 21 SB)

RF- LH Andre Ethier (18 HR, 77 RBI, .277, 3 SB)

DL- LH LF Carl Crawford (7 HR, 43 RBI, .266, 21 SB)

Starting Pitching

1-LHP  Clayton Kershaw (17-8, 2.43, 235/71, 230 IP)

2-RHP  Zack Greinke (20-6, 3.10, 225/52, 227 IP)

3- RHP Josh Beckett ( 14-10, 3.75, 181/55, 211 IP)

4- LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (R) (8-10, 4.40, 150/66, 173 IP)

5- RHP Aaron Harang (12-11, 3.95, 133/74, 180 IP)

Bench

C- RH Tim Federowicz (R) ( 7 HR, 24 RBI, .254)

2B/OF -LH  Skip Schumaker (2 HR, 21 RBI, .265)

INF- SH Nick Punto ( 1 HR, 13 RBI, .227)

INF- RH Juan Uribe (4 HR, 22 RBI, .246) candidate to be cut

OF- LH Tony Gwynn JR (1 HR, 15 RBI, .255, 10 SB) makes team with Crawford on DL

Bullpen

Long Man- LHP Chris Capuano (47 games, 8-8, 4.70, 108/41, 120 IP) Starting candidate if Ryu falters or injuries happen

MRP- RHP Javy Guerra (52 games, 3-4, 2.57, 43/32, 57 IP, 5 SV)

MRP- RHP Matt Guerrier (55 games, 3-5, 3.65, 42/21, 55 IP, 1 SV)

MRP- LHP JP Howell (62 games, 5-2, 3.40, 54/30, 60 IP, 3 SV)

Setup- RHP Ronald Belisario (71 G, 6-3, 3.35, 73/33, 77 IP, 2 SV)

Setup- RHP- Kenley Jansen (70 G, 7-2, 2.35, 103/25, 71 IP, 23 SV)

Closer- Brandon League (69 G, 3-3, 3.23, 48/33, 71 IP, 18 SV)

DL- Scott Elbert- (46 G, 2-2, 2.55, 31/16, 36 IP) who does he bump when he is back? Guerrier

5 Others who play roles this season:

SS Dee Gordon, IF/OF Elian Herrera, RHP Stephen Fife, RHP Shawn Tolleson, LHP Paco Rodriguez

10 top prospects (level they spend most time) : LHP Ryu (MLB), OF Puig (High A), SS/3B Corey Seager (Low A), OF Joc Pederson (AA)

RHP Zach Lee (AA) LHP Chris Reed (AAA) LHP Onelki Garcia (High A) LHP Paco Rodriguez (AAA) RHP Matt Magill (AAA) RHP Ross Stripling (High A)

* The Dodgers have a slugging 1B in the low minors named Justin Chigbogu  who they took in the 4th round of 2012 from Raytown South