Los Angeles Dodgers: Why the Dodgers are still the NL’s team to beat
By Jason Reed
1. The Dodgers’ pitching depth is unparalleled
Perhaps the first step to being a successful MLB team, especially in the grind that is the 162-game season, is having pitching depth. It does not matter how talented the offense is, that offense will eventually have cold spells and cannot overcome needing to score a ton of runs every night.
The main reason why the Dodgers have been so great for so long is the team has always had great pitching depth. Some years it has come in strange places, such as the minor leagues, and others it was the product of a deep big league staff.
The big league staff is so deep that you could probably split it in half and it would still make for an above-average MLB rotation.
It is a testament to how deep the rotation is considering the Dodgers would legitimately be okay if Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler missed Opening Day. The Dodgers would still have enough arms in Hyun-Jin Ryu, Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda, Ross Stripling and Julio Urias to fill out a staff that is still better than most big league staffs.
And let’s not forget the bullpen. The Dodgers’ bullpen is getting slept on as one of the best in the league despite also being extremely deep. There are about a dozen legit MLB arms that will be contending for a spot in the bullpen. Most teams are lucky to get three or four legit MLB arms in their ‘pen.
No team can match how deep the Dodgers are on the mound.