The Dodger beat writers have reported that Josh Lindblom and Justin Sellers will fill the final spots on the team’s Opening Day roster. So barring any mishaps between now and Thursday at 4:05 p.m., here are the jockeys at the starting line.
Starting pitchers (4): Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Chris Capuano, Aaron Harang.
Relief pitchers (8): Kenley Jansen, Javy Guerra, Todd Coffey, Scott Elbert, Mike MacDougal, Matt Guerrier, Jamey Wright, Josh Lindblom
Starting lineup (8): Dee Gordon, Mark Ellis, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Juan Rivera, James Loney, Juan Uribe, A.J. Ellis
Bench (5): Matt Treanor, Adam Kennedy, Jerry Hairston Jr., Tony Gwynn Jr., Justin Sellers
Gentlemen, start your horses!
Kyle MacGregor
How many outings does Coffey get to notch on his enormous belt before he gets DFA’d?
underdog
Coffey’s actually been a pretty solid reliever in the very recent past. I have more faith in him than I do, say MacDougal.
Anonymous
Wouldn’t be surprised if Coffey is better than Million Dollar Matt.
Jon Weisman
Why single out Coffey? About half that roster (and most of that bullpen) had shaky springs?
TrueMontenegro
Weakest bench in baseball?
underdog
No. Or at least (and this may be a bit sad) last year’s Dodger bench was arguably worse.
underdog
I’m glad, both earned it, both are in-house guys. Sellers won’t hit that much but he’s an excellent defender, very quick, will have some use. Lindblom probably won’t be around for that long unless someone gets hurt (or very quickly stinks up the joint), but he deserved a shot over Rice, who just didn’t seem that impressive.
David
I haven’t heard any word about AJ Ellis since he left the game after getting beaned in the elbow. Any word on his condition? I assume that no news is good news, but I would feel really bad for him if he misses out on being the opening day catcher because of this.
Rob C
Worst bench in MLB…no power…MacDougal was brutal this spring too…Dodgers have some interesting decisions looming as I can see MacDougal/Kennedy ending up in DFA land…well done SellBlock and Lindblom…both deserve it.
Anonymous
I take one look at that bench and think, son of …. boy is it stacked with pedigree!
Anonymous
That’s because the only thing better than PVL is 2nd (or 3rd!) -generation PVL. They literally have the PVL allele in their DNA!
Snake Smith
I didn’t follow the spring all that much and y’all have put me in a negative mood here on Opening Day eve…I can’t have that.
I predict…
a breakout season for Dee Gordon, 70 SBs
Ethier will regain his 2009 form
Kemp keeps being Kemp
Loney keeps up the hitting that he was doing at the end of last season
Rivera plods along predictably but continues to hit for some power
Uribe is a consistent bat at the bottom of the lineup
As for the pitching, Clay will be easy, I think that I need some more coffee for positive predictions for the rest of that starting rotation.
Anonymous
I like your thinking here. That almost surely leads to a pennant, and probably a world championship.
And while this requires several things to break our way, none of those things, individually, are even hard to imagine turning out right. In fact, if you made a prediction in Spring Training 2010 as to how each of these players would be doing, this is probably exactly what you would predict (with the possibility of Kemp and Kershaw having potentially exceeded expectations).
And this does not even require a big trade at the deadline (that the new ownership may be interested in doing).
I think that there is good cause to be optimistic about the starting pitching too (imagine what, in 2010, you would have predicted about Bills in 2012).
Finally, a couple of notes to the folks who are concerned about the bench: 1) Who needs the bench? Kemp owns the longest consecutive games played streak in the game, and is young and as strong as a horse. Same with Loney, Ethier, and Gordon. Tony Gwynn will probably play every game from the 7th inning on as a defensive replacement, and Sellers’s spring (after a pretty decent call-up last year) demonstrates we do not miss that much in the 7th spot on days that he spells Uribe. And Kershaw and Bills can both hit; 2) Bench is the easiest thing to fix during the season. Not hard to go out and get some overpayed veteran that can no longer cut it as a starter, and whose club is looking to dump some salary, if we are willing to take on a short-term burden. We could have Juan Pierre back in a Dodger uniform. (I’m kidding, but I’m kidding on the square); 3) Think about the extended bench. If we have injuries or long-term challenges, it is not these five guys that will make up the difference. FedEx is likely to come up if we need a catcher; despite his poor spring, Jerry Sands is still a great outfield prospect. And Nathan Eovaldi proved in the Spring that his successful call-up last year was no fluke–he could plug right into a hole in the starting rotation. I realize that people have currently given sort of average grades to our minor leagues right now, but at the top level, they contain a number of players that plug in solidly for the bench.
underdog
Suggestion for blog post: Comparing all the opening day MLB benches. :)
I actually am curious. I don’t think the Dodgers’ is that impressive but am also rather dubious that it is the “worst.” I mean even Matt Treanor is an improvement over last year’s backup catcher to start the year, but that’s a different point. I think Hairston, Kennedy and Gwynn are solid bench guys, while not a lot of power there (the first two are capable, Hairston especially, but wouldn’t expect many dingers from them). I would rather that Sands didn’t regress a little this Spring because his power potential would’ve helped a lot as a backup OF/1B.
I will say this, I think people who don’t see the value in great defense are going to undervalue the Dodgers this year. And maybe they’ll ultimately be right, but in the NL West, I wouldn’t dismiss the idea that great D could lead to a few wins this year.
Anonymous
Might help Billingsley in particular. This is just subjective, but my impression is that Bills gives up more cheap hits than anyone (bloop singles, seeing-eye grounders). Of course it would be easy to see if he’s more victimized by errors than others, but that’s probably random noise. Bills can’t make many guys swing and miss, so he needs a good defense behind him.
Anonymous
Thinking more about yesterday’s question as to whether we’d still be happier even if the team is worse, my reason for singling out the fate of the GM is because he’s the architect of the team. I can’t get mad at terrible players for playing terribly. The only guys whose performance could cause me angst would be Kemp, Ethier, Billingsley, and (though I doubt it) Kershaw. Maybe Dee Gordon if he won’t take a pitch. But everyone else I expect to be mediocre or worse, so if their collective performance means a poor W-L record, then the only thing I’ll be looking for is a new GM to build a better team. And even if I get that, I won’t expect big improvements until next season.
Jon Weisman
NPUT
Anonymous
Coffey and MacDougal? 10+ and 7+ ERA during spring training? Almost every outing they got shelled. Several outings Coffey could not finish one inning. Joke.