The Dodgers will maintain DodgerFest later Saturday at Dodger Stadium as a remaining wrap for followers earlier than spring coaching. Right here's a take a look at a number of tales from the previous week to get us into the weekend.
In each full season below the present possession group — courting again to 2013, excluding 2020 when there have been no followers within the stands — the Dodgers have led the majors in attendance, together with 3.8 million in every of the final 4 seasons in what capability of the stadium. they don’t seem to be restricted by a pandemic.
Invoice Shaikin on the Los Angeles Occasions checked out how the Dodgers, now with Shohei Ohtani on board, might make a push to achieve 4 million followers, and the way they’re successfully the final professional sports activities workforce that might attain such a milestone . From Shaikin:
“We've been fairly constant within the 3.8 vary, 3.7 to three.9,” Dodgers president Stan Kasten mentioned. “Do I believe it's going to be just a little bit higher than this? Most likely. However we've obtained to get on the market and do it. I'm not taking that as a right.”
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Esteban Rivera at FanGraphs checked out varied hitters who have been caught with an excessive amount of weight on their foot in 2023. Included have been a number of Dodgers with leg kicks, together with Will Smith, who struggled down the stretch, and Kiké Hernández, who cleaned issues up. mechanically after returning to Los Angeles.
Russell Carleton at Baseball Prospectus checked out developments in beginning pitcher utilization over a number of many years, and particularly extra just lately, with shorter and shorter begins:
What is evident is that two main modifications within the fashionable recreation of baseball – the shortened begin and the rise in strikeouts – are associated to one another. For a similar purpose that groups started to favor shorter appearances in favor of relievers who would solely “go” for an inning, they started to do the identical with their starters. Blake Snell led the way in which to 2 Cy Younger Awards.
In case you missed it on Friday, robust main league-ready pitching depth has the Dodgers farm system ranked within the high 10 in MLB by Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, and ESPN.
Within the final Three-Inning Save podcast, Jacob Burch and I talked in regards to the addition of James Paxton from the Dodgers.
