Los Angeles Dodgers: Player grades for the month of April
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Dodgers are victims of another slow month of April. However, there have still been some great individual performances in April.
*This article was written before the Los Angeles Dodgers-Arizona Diamondbacks game on April 30. Any stats, mention of record, etc. Are all prior to the last game of the month. Also, for simplicities sake, stats also include the three games played at the end of March.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are notorious for starting the season off slow before picking it up in the summer. Los Angeles started this trend in 2013 with the emergence of Yasiel Puig and even happened last year. Before Cody Bellinger, the Dodgers’ were a sub-.500 team. They finished with an MLB-best 104 wins.
So while it may not be time to hit the panic button just yet, there still have been some concerning individual performances on the roster. The story of the 2018 season thus far has been the team’s inability to put together a complete game.
One game, the pitching will put the offense in a situation to win only for the offense to fall short. In other games, the offense will rally behind a poor pitching performance, falling just short of winning.
This offense is capable of scoring a lot of runs (evident from the 15-run showing against the Giants) and can deliver shutouts or one to two-run games. Piecing the two together on a consisting basis has been the struggle.
Despite this, there have been some solid individual performances thus far, as well as some bad ones. With May upon us, it is time to grade each Dodger’s first month of the season.
To qualify, a starting pitcher must have made two stars (just so we can include Walker Buehler), a relief pitcher had to pitch at least nine innings and positioned players needed at least 25 at-bats.