Dodgers Team News

Dodgers News: Dave Roberts Has Faith In Offense To Rebound

The Dodgers’ offense has been frigid lately, but as patience wears thin with Dodger fans, Manager Dave Roberts has expressed his full faith in his team to rebound.

Roberts’ belief stems from the Dodgers buying into advanced metrics, not simple averages. For instance, Howie Kendrick is a career .300 hitter, and he has Roberts’ full confidence.

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“I believe Howie Kendrick is not going to hit .170 this year. I look at quality of at-bats, the contact, how hard they’re hitting the baseball. There are things we get as far as data to specify how hard the guys are hitting the baseball. For me, I try to take the long view where, if you’re getting good at-bats, hitting the baseball hard, then it will turn and you’ll start to get some hits.”

In regards to advanced metrics and exit velocity, the Dodgers do project better than most teams. Yasmani Grandal actually has the highest average exit velocity in all of baseball.

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Average exit velocity

While there has been a culture war over advanced metrics and their validity in baseball, certain statistics have proven themselves over time.  Hitting the ball hard always has and always will be a good thing.  So, it is a fair assumption for Roberts to expect his offense will improve, but until they do, Dodgers fans grow increasingly impatient.

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Trevor Orr

LA born and raised, I like to eat my way around town. Dodgers Stadium is my favorite place in the world, and I consider myself lucky that I get to cover them all day and call it, "work." Give me a follow, and we'll talk sports: @TrevorGeorgeOrr

2 Comments

  1. Not a big fan of advanced metrics, although they may be of some limited value. Remember Ebonics? Enough said.

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