Dodgers: Mad Dog Expects the Pitching Shortage to Be LA’s Downfall This Season

The Los Angeles Dodgers are still favorites to make a deep run. That is despite all that they’ve lost this offseason and the lack of replacements/star talent they’ve acquired in the winter.

Still, LA remains favorites to win the NL West, according to vegasinsider.com, and they currently have the third-best odds to win the World Series, according to BetMGM.

Odds makers seem to still be high on the Dodgers until proven otherwise, but talking baseball head Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo said on MLB Network’s High Heat that he has the Dodgers falling short of the NLCS due to their lack of pitching right now.

As he said, we can’t hold him to these way-too-early predictions since they can change many times before the season starts and throughout the season.

However, Mad Dog’s concerns about the Dodgers are valid. Their pitching doesn’t look as impressive on paper as in years past. They lost Tyler Anderson, who had a career year with LA in 2022, and Walker Buehler will most likely miss the 2023 season dealing with Tommy John from June 2022.

The Dodgers could be aggressive in trying to trade for a star pitcher before the trade deadline. However, there is also a good possibility that someone from the rotation will be lights out like we’ve seen in years past in the Dodgers pitching department.

Anderson and Gonsolin were those guys last year, and we all know pitching coach Mark Prior has become known for revitalizing pitchers.

LA signed righty Noah Syndergaard in December, and he will be a part of the starting rotation. If Prior can work his magic, Syndergaard could also benefit from being a part of the Dodgers organization.

Even though the pitching doesn’t look promising at the moment, LA’s problems in the postseason have been their cold bats. The Boys in Blue couldn’t drive in a run last postseason to save their lives, and that’s been the case for most postseasons they’ve fallen short in.

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I’d say Dodger fans are more worried about timely hitting (and Roberts not messing it up) than the pitching staff.