The Los Angeles Dodgers are back-to-back World Series champions.
Not much to complain about there, really.
But they did struggle in one area enough in the regular season that a bold ESPN prediction from before the year ended up with an ‘F’ grade.
Hey, you’ve got to find little things to nitpick with when the team is this good.
ESPN’s David Schoenfield predicted the Dodgers would set the new MLB record in ERA+ this season.
Instead, they ranked 10th just this year in that category, so Schoenfield graded himself with an F.
“This seemed reasonable considering the three lowest marks in this category belonged to the 2020 Dodgers (146), the 2022 Dodgers (145) and 2021 Dodgers (140),” Schoenfield wrote on Monday. “With Shohei Ohtani returning to the mound, plus the free agent additions of Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, the Dodgers’ pitching appeared deeper than ever. Instead, it was mediocre — at least until the postseason — and the Dodgers finished just 10th in the majors with a 106 ERA+.”
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The pitching got the job done in a much bigger way in the playoffs (in part by using the starters as much as possible and the regular relievers a lot less).
Schoenfield sees a bright future for L.A.’s pitching, too.
“All the key pitchers will be back, and assuming more volume from the likes of Ohtani, Snell and Tyler Glasnow, plus improvement from the bullpen, I just might make this prediction again,” Schoenfield writes.
Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle