Kenta Maeda And Scott Kazmir Part Of Dodgers’ Shift To Deeper Starting Rotation

Jeff Spiegel January 19, 2016

5 Min Read

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

PAGES: 1 | 2

As the Los Angeles Dodgers were in the process of rebounding from an interesting and disappoint offseason, they were labeled as having the best starting rotation in the National League.

Wait, what?

Better than the New York Mets (Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Zack Wheeler and Bartolo Colon)?

And better than the Washington Nationals (Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Tanner Roark and Joe Ross)?

Must be a typo, right?

Well, not really. And the reason is rather simple: while fans are drawn to the top two or three names on a list, what often makes one rotation great and another average at the end of the season are those who fall beyond the No. 1 and 2 spots.

Last season Dodgers starters threw 979.1 innings, but of those, only 455.1 came from Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke.

Yes, the Dodgers had the two best pitchers in baseball in 2015, but 50 percent of the team’s innings came from other starters — a lot of other starters.

Los Angeles sent 16 different pitchers to the mound as a starter last season, which was an MLB-high. This list included the likes of Scott Baker (two starts), David Huff (one start), Joe Wieland (one start) and Ian Thomas (one start), among others.

While the aforementioned names were called on for a spot start, the Dodgers’ season largely rested on the shoulders of Mike Bolsinger (21 starts) and Carlos Frias (13 starts), who combined to fill the shoes of a full-time starter.

While this seemed to be a serviceable combination, relying once more on Bolsinger and Frias for 34 starts is best avoided. Which is precisely where it seems the offseason plan came in.

CONTINUE READING: Dodgers’ Offseason Plan Valued Quantity Over Quality

TAGGED:Clayton Kershaw Kenta Maeda Los Angeles Dodgers Scott Kazmir

By Jeff Spiegel

Jeff Spiegel was raised in California but currently resides in Portland, Oregon. After graduating from the University of Oregon, he worked in sports before entering journalism full time — first as a Sports Reporter and then as the Associate Editor of a local newspaper. Online, he has been writing about both the Dodgers and Raiders since 2012 — having written for DodgersNation.com and SBNation.com prior to joining both DodgerBlue.com and RaidersNation.com. He left full-time journalism in 2012 to become a pastor. Jeff can be found on Twitter at @JeffSpiegel. Favorite Dodger I'm going past and present (sort of) on this one. Recently, I was a die hard Yasiel Puig guy. The energy he played with was amazing and the hope and expectation he brought every single night was captivating. Whether it was a rifle from the warning track to throw a guy out at second, an aggressive bat flip or licking his bat, I was here for ALL of the Yasiel Puig era. Past tense, I'd go with Eric Gagné. This wasn't so much about Gagné himself as it was the experience of cheering for him. Yes, he was on steroids — but the dude was unlike any pitcher I've ever seen — he was NASTY. I still stand by the claim that if I needed one out and my life depended on it, and could choose any pitcher from any era to get me that out, I'm taking roided up Gagné in a heartbeat. Favorite Dodger Moment A few jump to mind immediately. Being born in November of 1988, I missed the last World Series by weeks — which also meant I didn't get to see the Dodgers win a playoff game until I was nearly 16. They had made the playoffs in 1995 and 1996, but were swept both times. In 2004, though, I got to see them win behind a complete game shutout from Jose Lima, and that was pretty freaking special. The next in-person moment that came to mind was the Manny Ramirez bobblehead night pinch-hit grand slam from 2009. Vin Scully claimed it was the loudest he had heard Dodger Stadium in 20 years, and it's hard to disagree. As far as ones I didn't get to see live, I'll throw one more out there: the back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs that tied a game against the Padres in 2006 (plus the walk-off from Nomar Garciaparra in extra innings) was an all-timer. Obviously, the impending Dodgers World Series will quickly jump to the top of this list...