Los Angeles Dodgers: Potential first-time all-stars for 2019
By Jason Reed
1. Walker Buehler
C’mon, this is an easy one. Walker Buehler was sensational in his rookie season and probably would have won the National League Rookie of the Year if he had a slightly large sample size with continued dominant results.
The hard-throwing right-hander made 23 starts, throwing 137.1 innings with a 2.62 ERA. Buehler was only getting better as the year carried on and once the postseason rolled around he was the best pitcher on the Dodgers, sorry Clayton Kershaw.
Buehler had a 1.53 ERA in the month of August and a 1.62 ERA in the closing month of the year, which included an absolutely stellar start for the team in the tiebreaker game 163 against the Colorado Rockies.
Take away the grand slam that Buehler gave up to Robert Acuna Jr. in the NLDS, which happened after he walked a pitcher, and Buehler’s ERA would have been under 2.00 in the postseason. Those are not normal numbers for a rookie.
Beuhler is undoubtedly good enough to be an all-star and is already ready to put forth the kind of production that is going to warrant the selection. Heck, I would go as far as to say that Buehler is even a dark horse Cy Young candidate, especially if he pitches like he did at the end of last year.