The Dodgers Surge

Devon Young points out that the Dodgers have now played half a season of games at the .800 level:

MLB standings from May 17 to Aug 19, 2017

Team	Wins	Losses	Win Pct
Dodgers	65	16	0.802
Red Sox	50	34	0.595
Indians	48	35	0.578
Astros	48	35	0.578
Nationals	48	35	0.578
Cubs	46	38	0.548
Marlins	45	38	0.542
Diamondbacks	44	38	0.537
Mariners	45	39	0.536
Royals	45	39	0.536
Angels	42	39	0.519
Rockies	43	40	0.518
Pirates	43	41	0.512
Blue Jays	42	41	0.506
Yankees	43	43	0.500
Twins	43	43	0.500
Rangers	41	41	0.500
Brewers	42	42	0.500
Cardinals	42	44	0.488
Padres	40	42	0.488
Rays	40	43	0.482
Braves	39	46	0.459
Mets	38	45	0.458
Orioles	37	49	0.430
Athletics	36	48	0.429
Tigers	35	50	0.412
Reds	34	52	0.395
Giants	33	51	0.393
Phillies	30	55	0.353
White Sox	29	54	0.349

The Red Sox played great baseball in that same time frame, and they are 16 1/2 games behind the Dodgers.

Here are the Dodgers hitters with at least 40 PA in that time. Austin Barnes? He posted great minor league numbers, but never hit at the MLB level until this season, and now he’s unstoppable. Chris Taylor? Again, great minor league numbers, never hit in the majors until now. Logan Forsythe draws a ton of walks, so we’ll let him get on base and not care about his BA. Bellinger was destroying AAA pitching at a young age, no need to wait to bring him along. The Dodgers did a great job of recognizing talent, and figuring out a way to get that talent to work at the MLB level.

The pitching is great, too. Rich Hill is their worst starter, and he is 8-3 with a 3.67 ERA in that time frame. It seems that everyone on that list with an ERA lower than Hill does not walk batters, and most strike them out at a great rate.

There is a lot going right here, I believe. The front office is good at recognizing talent, and the field staff is good at getting the best out of that talent. Andrew Friedman worked well with Joe Maddon this way, and he and Dave Roberts appear to have the same relationship. On top of that, Friedman now has a lot of money to spend, so he built the depth he could not do in Tampa Bay. Moneyball meets money, and the team blows away the league.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2v3I4Jd