Apr 05

Opening Day 2015

Padres at Dodgers, 1:10pm PT, Dodger Stadium

Here it is at last, the first day of the new season, with the changes the new management made over the winter soon to be on display.

Will Jimmy Rollins play better defense than Hanley Ramirez? Will Howie Kendrick hit better than Dee Gordon? Will Kershaw win a fourth Cy Young Award? Can he lead the National League in ERA for the fifth consecutive year? Will Hyun-Jin Ryu recover from his shoulder woes and win more than fourteen games? Can Kenley Jansen come back from his foot woes and regain his form as an elite closer? Will the Dodgers miss Matt Kemp’s bat more than they’ll be helped by Puig’s play in right field? Can Uribe play up to his standard of the past two years while remaining healthy enough to play 125 games or so? Can Justin Turner keep up his torrid hitting from last year while coming off the bench and playing all over the infield? Will Joc Pederson keep up the hitting he did in spring training? What’s going to happen with AndrĂ© Ethier?

Questions, we have questions. Today we start getting answers.

Lineup:

Apr 05

Pre-season predictions

Anybody who wants to make a prediction about the Dodgers finish this year, here’s the place for it.

In the previous post Howard Fox said “2015 prediction: final record 85-77 due to lack of pitching consistency, miss playoffs by 1 or 2 games, Donnie fired the day after the season ends, Padres win the World Series.”

Who’s next?