This is how I feel about the 2013 Dodgers

[Dan Druff]

Pitching: Looks very good. Kershaw is great, Greinke is a very strong #2, Ryu looks like he could be a hidden gem, and while Billingsley/Beckett are questionable (especially Beckett), both are very good for bottom-of-rotation picthers. The bullpen looks pretty nice with an 8th-9th combo of Jansen-League. Finally this team has a rotation that can win games in the postseason, provided they get there.

Batting: On paper, the Dodgers lineup looks very good, but it's unfortunately not very deep, and also very injury prone. The outfield of Crawford, Kemp, and Ethier is incredible when healthy, but all three of these guys have suffered major injuries in recent years. Adrian Gonzalez is a big question mark. It seems like he might be on the decline, especially power-wise. This actually surprised me, as he seemed really solid and reliable in San Diego, and he played half his games in a pitcher's park. But now is all that matters, and I really didn't like what I was seeing out of him in a Dodgers uniform. He was about as un-clutch as you could get. Perhaps he will do better, now that he is settled in, and now that there are enough other good hitters to take the burden off of him. The rest of the lineup is a lot of question marks, as well. AJ Ellis was very good last year, but he was a career minor leaguer, and it wouldn't be surprising if 2012 was a fluke. Same thing was Luis Cruz. He was great in the second half, and it seemed like he was always coming through when needed, but this is a guy who never really hit before, and the Dodgers are proceeding with him as if he's a sure thing. Mark Ellis is a decent 2nd baseman, but is aging and was never anything special. Hanley Ramirez is out for at least 2 months, and hopefully we get the old Hanley back, rather than last year's strike-out-constantly Hanley. The worst part, however, is the Dodgers' bench. They have Punto, Schumaker, Uribe, Herrera, Jerry Hairston, and a rookie catcher. That's a terrible bench. The only decent one in that bunch is Hairston, and his performance tends to vary from year to year. So you have a team full of injury-prone superstars, and then terrible bench players to replace them if they go down. Scary.

So I'm a bit worried that the pitching will be really good, but the batting will be crappy again (much like the end of last year), and the team will struggle to stay much above .500.

With that said, if the hitters perform (and stay healthy), this team should kick ass, since I think the pitching will be really strong.

Also, the NL West doesn't look particularly strong.

Colorado and San Diego suck, Arizona is mediocre, and the Giants, despite being World Series champs in both 2010 and 2012, have a lot of holes.

I think the Dodgers will make the postseason this year, but whether they have enough to finally get into the World Series is questionable, especially since the baseball postseason is pretty much a rungood contest anyway.

[lewfather]

[Dan Druff]

Detroit had their chance and choked.

[lewfather]

I'm sure they won't be back either

rofl

[WillieMcFML]

i wish i was a baller who had a lot of money that i could escrow for a decade to bet on the cardinals for overall record and championships

people who don't follow the cardinals have no idea how many studs we have coming up through the system who will play for cheap

i'd also love to bet the cards get into the playoffs at least 5 times in the next decade (with odds)

[JimmyG_415]

Colorado and San Diego suck, Arizona is mediocre, and the Giants, despite being World Series champs in both 2010 and 2012, have a lot of holes.

What?
The World Series team is intact, except for a back up 2b.

I'll take whatever holes you are eluding to.
We have hands down the best C in the NL. top 2-3 3B,
our infield is solid and by far the best "fielding" infield.
(say what you want about Belt and Crawford, on top of their bats coming around, they are EXCELLENT fielders, both will win gold glove at some point, crawford this year.)
Excellent pitching all the way through, (except for maybe a 2 time Cy young winner)
Pagan in CF, and Hunter in RF.
So the hole is in LF?

I'm not saying SF is better than LA in every position, but I don't see holes.

[badguy23]

i wish i was a baller who had a lot of money that i could escrow for a decade to bet on the cardinals for overall record and championships

people who don't follow the cardinals have no idea how many studs we have coming up through the system who will play for cheap

i'd also love to bet the cards get into the playoffs at least 5 times in the next decade (with odds)

That mother fcking Nark is back on the Drugs!!

[Dan Druff]

Colorado and San Diego suck, Arizona is mediocre, and the Giants, despite being World Series champs in both 2010 and 2012, have a lot of holes.

What?
The World Series team is intact, except for a back up 2b.

I'll take whatever holes you are eluding to.
We have hands down the best C in the NL. top 2-3 3B,
our infield is solid and by far the best "fielding" infield.
(say what you want about Belt and Crawford, on top of their bats coming around, they are EXCELLENT fielders, both will win gold glove at some point, crawford this year.)
Excellent pitching all the way through, (except for maybe a 2 time Cy young winner)
Pagan in CF, and Hunter in RF.
So the hole is in LF?

I'm not saying SF is better than LA in every position, but I don't see holes.

Let me count the ways:

1) 2B Marco Scutaro, for as great as he was in a Giants uniform in the final 3 months of the 2012 season, is a career .276 hitter with relatively little power. He has also only stolen more than 9 bases in a season once (14). He's also going to be 38 at the end of this season, so it's not like he's a talented hitter finally reaching his peak. At best, Scutaro will be an empty batting average, but he might not even be that, instead hitting .270 with little power or speed.

2) SS Brandon Crawford is a .235 career hitter who stole 1 base and hit 4 HR in well over 435 AB last year.

3) LF Gregor Blanco is a .253 career hitter with 7 career HR in over 1100 AB. He steals bases, but that only makes him good for fantasy. His platoon mate Andres Torres is a career .241 hitter and is 35 years old.

4) 1B Brandon Belt has not lived up to potential. He is still young, but so far he is looking unimpressive.

5) Ryan Vogelsong, while pitching very well in a Giants uniform, was horrendous before that, and had a career ERA around 6.00 (!!). He also missed 5 consecutive seasons before returning in 2011. He will be 36 this season, and while you can be optimistic and believe he has made an RA-Dickey-like late career transformation into a great pitcher, he's far from a lock to be solid again this year.

6) Barry Zito has sucked since putting on a Giants uniform in 2007. He has not had a sub-4.00 ERA since that time.

7) Which Tim Lincecum will show up? The great one prior to 2012, or the 2012 version with an ERA of 5.18?

I will concede that the Giants have some true talent in Posey, Sandoval, Pence (though he had a disappointing 2012), Cain, and Bumgarner. Pagan is ok, but nothing special. The bullpen also looks pretty good.

I just don't see this as a great team. They overachieved big time in 2012. They were super-hot at the end of the season, and it carried over into the postseason.

[chinamaniac]

What?
The World Series team is intact, except for a back up 2b.

I'll take whatever holes you are eluding to.
We have hands down the best C in the NL. top 2-3 3B,
our infield is solid and by far the best "fielding" infield.
(say what you want about Belt and Crawford, on top of their bats coming around, they are EXCELLENT fielders, both will win gold glove at some point, crawford this year.)
Excellent pitching all the way through, (except for maybe a 2 time Cy young winner)
Pagan in CF, and Hunter in RF.
So the hole is in LF?

I'm not saying SF is better than LA in every position, but I don't see holes.

Let me count the ways:

1) 2B Marco Scutaro, for as great as he was in a Giants uniform in the final 3 months of the 2012 season, is a career .276 hitter with relatively little power. He has also only stolen more than 9 bases in a season once (14). He's also going to be 38 at the end of this season, so it's not like he's a talented hitter finally reaching his peak. At best, Scutaro will be an empty batting average, but he might not even be that, instead hitting .270 with little power or speed.

2) SS Brandon Crawford is a .235 career hitter who stole 1 base and hit 4 HR in well over 435 AB last year.

3) LF Gregor Blanco is a .253 career hitter with 7 career HR in over 1100 AB. He steals bases, but that only makes him good for fantasy. His platoon mate Andres Torres is a career .241 hitter and is 35 years old.

4) 1B Brandon Belt has not lived up to potential. He is still young, but so far he is looking unimpressive.

5) Ryan Vogelsong, while pitching very well in a Giants uniform, was horrendous before that, and had a career ERA around 6.00 (!!). He also missed 5 consecutive seasons before returning in 2011. He will be 36 this season, and while you can be optimistic and believe he has made an RA-Dickey-like late career transformation into a great pitcher, he's far from a lock to be solid again this year.

6) Barry Zito has sucked since putting on a Giants uniform in 2007. He has not had a sub-4.00 ERA since that time.

7) Which Tim Lincecum will show up? The great one prior to 2012, or the 2012 version with an ERA of 5.18?

I will concede that the Giants have some true talent in Posey, Sandoval, Pence (though he had a disappointing 2012), Cain, and Bumgarner. Pagan is ok, but nothing special. The bullpen also looks pretty good.

I just don't see this as a great team. They overachieved big time in 2012. They were super-hot at the end of the season, and it carried over into the postseason.

5) Ryan Vogelsong- 2 straight very very good years and i think he has had a nice spring as well

My money in on lincecum moving back to the pen in about 4-6 weeks

[gut]

Little Nicky Punto is the one player I have despised in the MLB the most ever since he began his 7 years playing for the Twins. A suck-up to the coach type guy and he seemingly has understood and manipulated the "small-untalented-white-guy-has-to-hustle" thing, and has made a career out of it. His fucking slides into first are horrible, and he'll do it all the time.

A good parody of Grantland's Oral History series: http://www.virtualsportsnetwork.com/...nto-First-Base

[Suicide King]

We just fluked our way to 2 world series in 3 years. You people are such humongous faggots it's sickening.

[mulva]

fernando valenzuela 1981 topps update.

there was a time when this baseball card was highly cherished

[gut]

http://deadspin.com/sandy-koufax-rel...irst-464891110


that was pretty cool.

[Hockey Guy]

http://deadspin.com/sandy-koufax-rel...irst-464891110


that was pretty cool.

That was awesome. Well done Dodgers.

[badguy23]

Same old Dodgers waste another great pitching performance from Kershaw cuz they cant hit or do the simple things like move runners over. Druff u r about to see why the Giants are better then your Redsox West team. It's called a Bullpen something your team doesn't have and in today's baseball you need. Especially when you have Ted Lilly and Billingsley as 2 of your starters. Enjoy fighting for that Wild card you non Tomato eating mother fucker they paid enough money to at least do that...

[badguy23]

Kershaw winning this one by himself.. Fck yea I have them!!

[David USF]

Same old Dodgers waste another great pitching performance from Kershaw cuz they cant hit or do the simple things like move runners over. Druff u r about to see why the Giants are better then your Redsox West team. It's called a Bullpen something your team doesn't have and in today's baseball you need. Especially when you have Ted Lilly and Billingsley as 2 of your starters. Enjoy fighting for that Wild card you non Tomato eating mother fucker they paid enough money to at least do that!!

Next time wait until the game's over so you won't sound so stupid, k?

[Dan Druff]

Same old Dodgers waste another great pitching performance from Kershaw cuz they cant hit or do the simple things like move runners over. Druff u r about to see why the Giants are better then your Redsox West team. It's called a Bullpen something your team doesn't have and in today's baseball you need. Especially when you have Ted Lilly and Billingsley as 2 of your starters. Enjoy fighting for that Wild card you non Tomato eating mother fucker they paid enough money to at least do that!!

Putting aside this embarrassing Dewey Beats Truman moment of yours, I don't see why you're bitching about the bullpen.

The Dodgers bullpen is actually pretty good. Even if League can't handle the closer's job, Kenley Jansen is there to step in. If both pitch well, the team will have a great 8th-9th combo.

Lilly is on the DL. Ryu is the 5th starter right now. I don't know what they'll do with Lilly when he comes back -- maybe trade him.

I agree that the offense might be a problem again, especially with Hanley Ramirez out for 2 months.

[Dan Druff]

I guess it's going to be Dodgers vs. Giants in Dodger Stadium to open every year now.

Kershaw keeps winning these battles. He's the best pitcher in the NL right now.

[Suicide King]

I guess it's going to be Dodgers vs. Giants in Dodger Stadium to open every year now.

Kershaw keeps winning these battles. He's the best pitcher in the NL right now.

I agree with this. Kershaw is fucking god and owns our souls.