Dodgers News: ESPN’s Buster Olney Has Dodgers Outside Top 10
Any ranking oriented system is based on opinion. You look at the teams, and the players they have, and come to a certain opinion based on how you think they’ll fare going forward.
ESPN Senior Writer Buster Olney released his rankings for the top ten MLB teams going into the 2016 season, and there is a little bit of a shock on, or actually off, the list.
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If you were looking for the Dodgers in Olney’s Top 10, you wouldn’t find them. Instead, he had them as the first unranked team. He had this to say about them:
Los Angeles Dodgers: FanGraphs’ early projections have them winning the most games in the National League. The team does have a ton of roster depth, as well as questions about exactly which guys will carry the load over the course of the season. If Scott Kazmir, Brett Anderson, Kenta Maeda and others pitch as much — and as well — as the Dodgers expect, then L.A. could win the NL West for a fourth straight season.
The National League teams that Olney ranks higher than the Dodgers are, in order, the Chicago Cubs (#1), San Francisco Giants (#4), St. Louis Cardinals (#7), New York Mets (#8), and Pittsburgh Pirates (#9). Essentially, Olney has the Dodgers as the sixth best team in their league going into the season. Some of that makes sense.
For instance, the Cubs, Cardinals, and Pirates all finished with better records than the Dodgers in 2015. The Cubs improved a ton in free agency, the Cardinals are always there, and the Pirates have been consistently good the last couple years. There’s some understanding of why they’re that high.
The two of note are the Giants and Mets.
The Giants have improved but, as Olney explains, they’re hoping the 2015 struggles of Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto are just one a year thing and that they can actually bounce back.
The Mets have lost free agent Daniel Murphy, and could lose Yoenis Cespedes, but they still feature one of the best rotations in baseball. So you can still understand why they’re that high.
If you choose to look at this way, the Dodgers have quite a few question marks going into 2016, and Olney sees them as a team with the potential to be great, but the potential for a lackluster season is also there. I guess we’ll see how it all plays out soon.
I’m surprised they are ranked that high. I have Arizona and Miami above the Dodgers because there are too many question marks on the team. Who is going to play first base, will Grandal return to last years first half form or do the Dodgers have a 100 hitter wit little or no power. The pitching is a mixed bag, after Kershaw then hat.
Bomar22 LOL. Marlins? Why are there so many clueless people that comment on this site? Marlins signed one decent pitcher and all of a sudden, they are above the Dodgers? Marlins finished 20 games under .500 last season with 91 losses.
Who is going to play 1st base? Do you watch baseball? (probably not, I am guessing.) Never heard of Adrian Gonzalez?
Do you even know why Grandal went into a slump after an all-star half? He had a bad shoulder. He addressed it by having surgery on it this offseason. You know how many catchers had more homeruns than Grandal? Grand total of 6 other catchers. He’s costing the dodgers less than $3 million next season. I’d say that’s a pretty good value.
DodgerBlues Bomar22 Actually, there are very few people who comment on this site at all.
Bomar22 ….Huh???? You’re as clueless as Buster Olney!!!! AGon will be at 1st as he has been….you know the perennial all-star that hits near 300 and drives in 100+ runs!!!! Gheesh
Buster Olney has the Red Sox as the third best team in baseball in that article. The very same Boston team that has finished last 3 of the last 4 seasons, and won all of 78 games last year.