Los Angeles Dodgers: Predicting the offensive season leaders
By Jason Reed
Home runs and RBIs: Cody Bellinger (35, 105)
We were going to make separate pages for both home runs and RBIs but it made sense to bunch them together as they are going to the same person. Plus, if we were to make them separate, we would have just said a lot of the same things on both slides.
Cody Bellinger is the most prolific home run hitter on the Los Angeles Dodgers and is primed for another year in which he slugs at least 30 home runs. His sophomore slump was not as bad as anticipated and Bellinger has shown that he can hit for power against southpaws, at least in spring.
New hitting coach Robert Van Sayoc is a film guru and if there is anything in Bellinger’s swing that is going to lead to less power and more strikeouts then it will be identified and fixed immediately.
Bellinger is not going to have a .300 average or even come close to it, I think a .270 average seems reasonable for Bellinger. However, with Seager back in the lineup and Turner also hitting in front of Bellinger, he is going to get plenty of RBI chances and is going to capitalize on them.
This season is going to remind fans a lot of Adrian Gonzalez‘ 2014 season. Gonzalez slugged 27 home runs and drove in 116 RBIs with a .276 average. Gonzalez was not an all-star that season and secretly put together these great numbers.
Dodger fans won’t realize it in the moment but September will hit and Bellinger will be approaching 100 RBIs and it will all come into focus.