With the MLB season just over two months in, the Los Angeles Dodgers have established themselves as one of the best teams in baseball. With respect to strong starting pitching, perhaps the biggest reason for that has been their offense.
The Dodgers’ have been a well-oiled machine thus, not only hitting home runs, but also working counts, moving runners over and hitting with runners in scoring position. There have been noticeable improvements in areas the team struggled with last season.
While the Dodgers managed to win a sixth consecutive National League West title in 2018 and make the World Series for a second straight year, their bats struggled during parts of the postseason.
Max Muncy believes the strides made this season have taken the Dodgers to another level, via Jake Crouse of MLB.com:
“I think it’s a different animal than last year,” Muncy said. “Last year, we relied pretty heavily on the home run, and this year, we’re able to produce runs in a different manner. And that’s making us a more complete team and a more dangerous team.”
Other than hitting home runs, the one thing the Dodgers did well in 2018 was work walks as they ranked first in baseball with 647. They have been able to keep that up, trailing only the Chicago Cubs (by one) with 253 walks thus far in 2019.
Though there has been some regression of late, where they really have improved is hitting with runners in scoring position, particularly with two outs. As a team, the Dodgers batted just .199 in those situations a year ago, which ranked 29th.
They have improved that to a .246 batting average, good for 13th overall.
Muncy was a breakout star for the Dodgers in 2018 and the biggest question mark with him coming into 2019 was whether he would be able to replicate that success or not. So far he has been able to quiet all the naysayers, hitting .272/.360/.505 with 10 doubles, 12 home runs, 36 RBI and 31 runs.
In addition to Muncy, the likes of Cody Bellinger and Joc Pederson have shown drastic improvements from last season, not only in results but also their approach.
One reason for that could be the addition of Robert Van Scoyoc as hitting coach. This is Van Scoyoc’s first season as an MLB hitting coach, but he has been credited for turning around the careers of Justin Turner, Chris Taylor and J.D. Martinez.
Van Scoyoc now is working his magic with the entire Dodgers roster and it is leading to positive results.
