Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
So Yasiel Puig is a star, and he’s on the disabled list. Joc Pederson is a budding star, and he’s on the bench tonight. Carl Crawford was far more valuable in 2014 than anyone seems to care to admit, and now he’s on the disabled list with an oblique injury. That’s the Opening Day outfield; that’s the owner of 42 of this year’s 57 outfield starts. None are playing tonight.
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Giants
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Dodgers
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7:10 p.m.
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Los Angeles, Ca.
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LF
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Aoki
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SS
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Rollins
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2B
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Duffy
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CF
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Hernandez
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CF
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Pagan
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1B
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Turner
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C
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Posey
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2B
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Kendrick
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RF
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Maxwell
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RF
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Van Slyke
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1B
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Belt
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LF
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Guerrero
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3B
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McGehee
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3B
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Uribe
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SS
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Arias
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C
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Ellis
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P
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Bumgarner (L)
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P
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Kershaw (L)
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For a lot of teams, that would be outright disaster. Could you imagine the Marlins outfield without Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, and Christian Yelich, even if just for a night? The Pirates without Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, and Gregory Polanco? It’d be the end of the world. But for the Dodgers, it’s, “well, guess we can get Scott Van Slyke a start, and finally try Alex Guerrero in left field, and remember how much we liked Enrique Hernandez? Let’s call him up to replace Crawford and get him a start in center.” All winter long, we talked about depth. This is depth. I mean, this is depth even without considering that Andre Ethier isn’t playing tonight. It’s great. It’s insane. It’s wonderful.
While the team can get by, unfortunately the news isn’t good for Crawford, who suffered what’s called a “bad tear” of his left oblique, likely sidelining him for at least three or four weeks. Though he was off to a slow start, it’s important to remember that he hit .300/.339/.429 (119 wRC+) last year, which is outstanding, though it never seems that fans have quite warmed up to him. It may open up some playing time; it’s still a loss.
Anyway, Clayton Kershaw against Madison Bumgarner tonight is a pretty marquee matchup, and so Don Mattingly has loaded his lineup with righty hitters, giving Justin Turner a start at first in place of Adrian Gonzalez and sending Ethier out of the area code. (Probably.) If you want to complain that Hernandez is hitting second when Pederson can’t get out of eighth, go right ahead, but ultimately it doesn’t matter that much.
Also! At least there’s some positive injury news. Kenley Jansen threw a bullpen session, got up to 96, and is ready to go out on a rehab session, where he’ll need “six or seven innings” to be ready. Hyun-jin Ryu threw a bullpen — 25 pitches, all fastballs — and is in line for another. Not a moment too soon, really.
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