Reds @ Dodgers Aug. 15, 2015: Strong outing from Anderson would be nice

Despite Yasmani Grandal and Andre Ethier getting the night off, this is still a pretty solid lineup against the Reds. I’m a little surprised Scott Van Slyke wasn’t in there in some capacity, but to each his own.

	Reds			Dodgers
	6:10 p.m.			Los Angeles
2B	Phillips		SS	Rollins
SS	Suarez		2B	Hernandez
1B	Votto		1B	Gonzalez
3B	Frazier		3B	Turner
RF	Byrd		RF	Puig
LF	De Jesus		LF	Crawford
C	Peña		C	Ellis
P	Holmberg (L)		CF	Pederson
CF	Hamilton		P	Anderson (L)

But it’s also nice to see Carl Crawford get some work — especially against a lefty, which he hit pretty well in 2014. The Dodgers have ridiculous depth on the roster, particularly in the outfield. This doesn’t even take into account Alex Guerrero (meh) and Enrique Hernandez (who is playing a fine second base, and Mike wrote some good words about him earlier).

I’m expecting the Dodgers to have no problem scoring runs tonight. What they’ll need is a solid performance out of Brett Anderson. He hasn’t been great in his last seven starts:

• 4.08 ERA
• 10.0 H/9
• 1.2 HR/9
• 5.7 K/9
• 5.7 IP/GS

Not horrible, but not great, either. The Dodgers’ bullpen could benefit from a longer outing for Anderson. And if they score a lot of runs, perhaps a guy like Chris Hatcher could be eased back into action.

And one tidbit from Eric Stephen to consider:

Dodgers have 3 off days from Aug. 17-24. Mattingly said yesterday team would stay on rotation for Oakland series (so Kershaw, Latos)…

— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) August 15, 2015

…would make sense to have Greinke-Kershaw go Aug. 22-23 in Houston, then Aug. 27-28, then final 2 games of Giants series Sept. 1-2…

— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) August 15, 2015

…. so Kershaw gets the extra day of rest this time through rotation (before Tuesday start), Greinke gets the extra day before next start

— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) August 15, 2015

So, you want to be an MLB manager?