Dodgers News: Outfield Is 3rd Best In NL West
Today over at the Los Angeles Times, Houston Mitchell released who has the best outfield, position-by-position, in the National League West. Unfortunately for fans of the Boys In Blue, the team that walked away with the most points was not the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In fact, the team didn’t even place in the top two spots. Oh no. Those went to the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies. Los Angeles was in a tie for third place with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The poor San Diego Padres were a distant fifth.
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From Houston Mitchell at the Los Angeles Times:
1. San Francisco and Colorado, 14 points
3. Dodgers and Arizona, 11 points
5. San Diego, 4 points
So those are the final point tallies for the outfield exercise. If you’re wondering how they were even tabulated, then wonder no more. Points were assigned based on where a player ranked at a position. Seven points for first, five for second, three for third, two for fourth, and one for fifth. Fairly simple.
How did the Dodgers end up with 11 points, you ask? Well, Andre Ethier actually rated as the second best left fielder in the division behind Giants newcomer Denard Span. So that was five points. Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig finished third at their respective positions for a grand total of six points. And there you have it.
Last week, Mitchell ranked the Dodgers as having the second best infield in the division. If you add up their point total from that (24) with the point total from the outfield rankings (11), then the Dodgers sit with 35 points, just four points back of the San Francisco Giants (39) in this exercise.
In the next little while, Mitchell will be releasing rankings for the bullpen, closer, starting rotation, and bench. The Dodgers should do well in the closer, rotation, and bench settings. But one thing is becoming quite clear: the Dodgers and the Giants are neck-and-neck in this, like they probably will be during the year.
I have no problem with the Giants being rated higher in the infield, but not the outfield. I do not see Span being #1 LF. I would keep Ethier at #2, but I would move Peralta from #3 to #1, and Span down to #3. Ethier is the better defender over Span. Span may have been a CF, but he was a poor one, and Ethier can play CF as well. I have no problems with the apparent ranking for CF: Pollock, Blackmon, Pederson, Pagan, Upton. I do not agree with Pence being rated higher than Puig. Neither played much last year, but at their respective ages, I believe Puig should be rated higher. I would switch Puig to #2 and Pence to #3. My rating would be:
LF: Peralta (AZ), Ethier (LA), Span (SF), Parra (CO), Jay (SD)
CF: Pollock (AZ), Blackmon (CO), Pederson (LA), Pagan (SF), Upton (SD)
RF: Gonzalez (CO), Puig (LA), Pence (SF), Kemp (4), Tomas (AZ)
That would make the revised point totals to: AZ (15), CO (14), LA (13), SF (8), SD (4). The two weakest components for the Giants is the OF and bullpen.
I think the above fairly rates the OF for each of the NL West teams.