Los Angeles Dodgers: Why the Dodgers are still the NL’s team to beat
By Jason Reed
2. This team has experience together
It sounds cliche and it really is, however, it definitely makes a big impact. The Los Angeles Dodgers have experience in the biggest moments that baseball has to offer. This team has been to the ringer and back multiple times together. They know what it is like to fall short, to win in miraculous fashion.
And while the team no longer has Yasiel Puig nor Yasmani Grandal, who have been constant producers in these playoff runs, the core is still together and have walked the walk. The only real inexperience on this team is rookie Alex Verdugo and A.J. Pollock.
The rest of the NL’s contending teams cannot really say the same thing. The Chicago Cubs certainly can but they have fallen out of the limelight and there are some people that think they could even finish in fourth in the NL Central (unlikely).
Let this sink in: out of all the contending teams in the National League (aside from the Cubs), the Milwaukee Brewers are the only ones that have won a playoff series.
Washington infamously cannot get past the division series, these Phillies have not been in the postseason, the Braves lost to the Dodgers, the Rockies were swept by the Brewers, the Cardinals have not won a playoff series since 2014 and this team is much different.
The Dodgers gained more experience just in 2018 than most of NL teams have gotten over the last five years.