Los Angeles Dodgers: Bold predictions for Walker Buehler in 2019
By Jason Reed
2. Walker Buehler posts a sub 2.40 ERA
Walker Buehler did what many pitchers are unable to do at the big league level and posted an ERA under 3.00 last season. Not only is Buehler going to repeat the feat in his second year but he is also going to one-up himself and lower the ERA even further in his second season.
Buehler finished with a 2.72 ERA in 137.1 innings pitched. That is not the biggest workload but the numbers to keep in mind are his second half numbers. In the second half, Buehler threw an even 80 innings and had a 2.03 ERA.
Those are Cy Young-caliber numbers if they are stretched out for an entire season.
Despite having such a strong showing in his rookie year, Baseball-Reference’s projections are not favorable of Buehler. While projections usually tend to be on the lesser side, B-R projects to throw just 122 innings and post a 3.25 ERA.
Those numbers would be absolutely shocking to see and I would expect Buehler to throw 50 more innings than projected and have an ERA one run lower than projected.
Anything could happen over the course of a 162-game season and Buehler could hit a cold spell or even have some mechanical issues that lead to a few bad starts. However, his stuff is just so nasty that he should be able to avoid and prolonged slumps and absolutely deal in 2019.