Baseball is a fun sport. Even if there is no reason to have hope, it provides hope. But this doesn't come from anywhere. In a small sample of the game – three of them are certainly qualified – anyone can beat anyone. So even if you don't like your odds, you can hope you win. This may not be much hope. But if you sit down and watch the game, then a portion of you think “we might win this one.”
A weird way to start a series preview, but I guess zero of you is wondering why I started it this way. This is because we face the Los Angeles Dodgers of the Swordsman, and they are certainly destined to play again, and even more. In a sense, there is no real reason to preview a series of teams like the Dodgers. For most teams, I will at least inform you of the actual situation of your opponents. There is no need to do this here. You may not know these names, but you can see the key points.
But you probably know most names. These are many familiar names. The Dodgers' offense is third in baseball, probably the second appearance. I'm writing this before playing any Sunday game. The Dodgers' offense was not led by Shohei Ohtani, although he had 164 WRC+. Not Freddie Freeman, though he has 138 WRC+. Instead of Mookie Betts having a bad offensive season. No, it was led by receiver Will Smith, whose 171 WRC+. Isn't this annoying?
Andy Pages has performed well in his sophomore year when his rookie season wasn't particularly impressive. He played a good central field and hit a lot of home runs (19). Although he only hit the average time, he didn't walk much. The top 100 prospect Alex Freeland seems to be the regular starter for the 3B right now. As of this writing, he has 195 WRC+ in 11 PAs, but also 0.800 BABIP and 4 strikeouts, so the jury is still on him.
Max Munchy is on a recovery mission and we are excited to see him in this series. He has 134 WRC+ this year. For those who desperately hope that the Dodgers prefer Nolan Arenado to actually exercise. Obviously, they still have the top 100 players who also play 3B? Yes, if Arenado only wanted to go to the Dodgers, that wouldn't have happened.
However, this lineup did not reach 9 depths. It's not even 7 deep. As mentioned earlier, Betts has 87 WRC+. He only has .241 Babip, but his Xwoba is honestly no better than his actual WOBA. Better, but like…he should have BABIP of 0.260, not .300 Babip better. He lost all his strength. Of course, he can obviously play SS. Bates is still moving forward. Matching him is Michael Conforto, who is a bad defender in LF, so he's been replacing. He still starts every game.
Tommy Edman may be working due to injury or is no longer a full-time starter. He started with 3 of the last 6 games. That's because Miguel Rojas has a slightly higher shooting percentage this season. Edman has 87 WRC+. Finally, in the days when Will Smith didn't catch up, Dalton rushed. Moreover, his career has been very difficult. So, no matter what, there will be some loopholes in this lineup.
As for the bullpen, this is a bit similar. Technically, they are ranked fourth in the baseball game at FWAR, and I say that because…it must be because of leverage. The Bullpen Times ranked 19th in 4.21, FIP ranked 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 10th in 10th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th in 14th But in fact, this is not leverage, but a situation. The Dodgers threw 480 innings, nearly 50 innings over the next 50 innings, almost 100 more innings than the Cardinals. So it was a mediocre bullpen and he threw a lot of innings.
It consists of two different ways to build a cattle shed: your random cheap reliefer and expensive reliefer. The common theme is to throw many of them onto the wall and hopefully some sticks. Cheap rescuers work better than expensive rescuers. Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates both made $29 million and are currently injured. Blake Treinen only has a healthy enough game to pitch in 9 games, and it's OK. However, cheap relief workers are also hurt: Brusdal Graterol, Michael Grove, Evan Phillips and Michael Kopech.
Three different Dodgers got the savings last week. Although one of them is Justin Wrobleski, who is sometimes starting, he got a 3-inning save. The other was Jack Dreyer, who won his first career when Dave Roberts was forced to hit Blake Trineen from 5-1 because he didn't get a single left-handed batsman in that inning. Dreyer seems to be better than Great, although his time and FIP are good.
Does this mean the closer the third person we are to get savings actually? Left-handed Alex Vesia certainly has statistics to support it, but this is his first savings since June 11. So, I don't know who is actually closing the game for the Dodgers in this series. Their old redman is closer to Alexis Diaz, who may have settled since he threw a 4.1 inning with them. They also traded Solid Reliever Brock Stewart at the deadline.
They have Anthony Banda, around 4, and he is not very good. The fifth round of 2021 Ben Casparius is OK. He had a chance to start mid-year, and it was awful, so he was better than his stats. The Cardinal scored two points on him earlier this season. All in all, honestly, it's not necessarily a terrible bullpen. Any of them can close the team on any given night, but they are not consistent with it.
Sonny Gray (4.38 ERA/3.09 FIP/2.95 XFIP) vs. Tyler Glasnow (3.38 ERA/4.58 FIP/3.65 XFIP)
Glasnow is currently healthy, which is unfortunate for the Cardinal. He has only made nine starts so far this year, and as you might expect, nine starts could lead to some funky numbers. In this case, Glasnow allows a lot of home runs, resulting in higher FIP. But he still seems like Grasno, so it's hard to hit him.
Meanwhile, Sonny Gray is a little tough, he will be on the way and he will face the Dodgers. If you are not completely optimistic about this at the beginning, I will forgive you because these signs don’t seem to be very good. But it's baseball, maybe gray can start with that.
Miles Mikolas (4.83 ERA/4.57 FIP/4.61 XFIP) vs. Emmet Sheehan (3.60 ERA/2.74 FIP/4.26 XFIP)
If you're upset with Sonny Gray on the Dodgers' road, you won't have sunshine for Mikolas pitching the next day. Has the latest trend for the Cardinal starter been blown up? Yes, not sure it will change in this series. On paper, it's a tougher series for any pitcher
Sheehan, on the other hand, has fewer face-to-face faces than the other two starting pitchers. He only officially started four times this year and shot in six games. In fact, all the stats for starting the pitcher are unreliable because almost no game actually pitches. We seem to be “lucky” to face a relatively healthy spin. That said, from most metrics, Sheen is their worst starter, so I hope to play him
Matthew Liberatore (3.96 ERA/3.58 FIP/4.17 XFIP) vs. Shohei Ohtani (2.40 ERA/2.70 XFIP/3.23 XFIP)
If you face the Dodgers, you want your starter left-handed. It's not because they're a bad offensive team against left-handed pitchers, but because they're an offensive team against LHP (112 WRC+) and not against RHP (115 WRC+). But it's still difficult to close. Liberatore will face challenges like any pitcher the Dodgers face.
Ohtani's statistics are misleading because he hasn't actually been asked to throw many innings. His game started seven times, but he only invested three innings with a 15 innings. In his recent match, he faced 16 batsmen, allowing 2 runs, so at this start he will be good in about 4 innings.
So you have. It would be a difficult series, but it's still baseball and anything can happen. Just ask the Pirates a few years ago when they won the season series against the Dodgers.