Dodgers Improvement

Unfortunate circumstances bring change and sometimes not for the best. Thankfully this was not the case when Cory Seagar needed Tommy John surgery early in the season. The Dodgers made a trade for the best shortstop in the game when they acquired Manny Machado after the all star break. Machado's right hand bat is a huge contrast to the left handed bat situation the Dodgers were hurt in last year's World Series.

I hate saying it being a left hander myself, but the Dodgers failed in the World Series last year because the lack of diversity in their batting lineup. Cory Bellinger, Joc Peterson and Cory Seagar have powerful swings, but they are the same. Yasmani Grandal's swing from the left side is almost the same as well. Keke Hernandez broke out in the World Series because his bat was different the the lefty bats in the lineup.

The power from the left side for the Dodgers all have the same holes in their swings that keep them from hitting the pitches low and inside. The fielders would all shift to the right side of the infield because none of these left handlers could hit a ground ball on the left side of the infield. The Houston Astros were daring the Dodgers to bunt down the third base line. With Manny Machado in the lineup, the series would be completely different.

Manny Machado would have had an awesome World Series last year if he was with the Dodgers as Keke Hernandez did. Now that Yasiel Puge and Justin Turner are hitting well, the Dodgers have a more diverse lineup to last year's not good enough to be champions lineup. Not only is the hitting more diverse, but so is the pitching.

As the Dodgers' lefty bats all swing the same, all of the Dodgers' starting left handed pitchers pitch the same. Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Alex Wood all pitch with great fastballs and like to get ahead in the count so they present opportunities to hit along with the same 12 to 6 breaking ball. Their sliders were not that good and when they fell behind in the count, it was almost guaranteed they were going to throw something good to hit that looked like a beach ball to Astro hitters. That has changed with this year's Dodger pitchers.

While the Dodgers still have Kershaw and Hill in the starting rotation, they have moved Wood to come out of the bull pen along with Maeta. This is due to the emergence of the right handed pitching of Walker Buehler and Ross Stripling. While these two pitch very similar to the other pitchers, it is from the right side. Buehler's pitching looks like a young Roger Clemons with fastballs close to 100 mph.

The 2018 Dodgers transformation appears to be complete with the addition of Many Machado and the emergence of Walker Buehler. I think the World Series would look completely different this year should the Dodgers meet the Astros to end the season.