Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After an interesting two-game series in Korea, the Dodgers will once again send out Tyler Glasnow for their home opener against the Cardinals. The Cardinals had an extremely disappointing 2023 season, finishing last in a rather weak NL Central division with a 71-91 record. They’ve added a few free agents, and had presumed that their big free agent acquisition of Sonny Gray would be starting on Opening Day for them, but a hamstring issue has him sidelined for now. This puts the 35-year-old Miles Mikolas on the mound instead. Due to the rather unique start to the season for the Dodgers, Glasnow will be making his second start in three games. They’ll look to start the series with a win against an interesting, albeit shorthanded St. Louis team.
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| 1:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| LF | Donovan (L) | SS | Betts |
| 1B | Goldschmidt | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| 2B | Gorman (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 3B | Arenado | C | Smith |
| C | Contreras | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| DH | Burelson (L) | LF | Hernández, T. |
| RF | Walker | CF | Outman (L) |
| CF | Scott II (L) | RF | Heyward (L) |
| SS | Winn | 2B | Lux (L) |
| P | Musgrove (R) | P | Yamamoto (R) |
The Dodgers will run out the same lineup as their first two games of the season, as they’re still yet to face a left-handed starting pitcher. Mookie Betts is off to a red-hot start after a second place MVP finish in 2023. He’s six for nine with two walks, with a homer and a double. Will Smith, the 140 million dollar man is also off to a great start with five hits of his own. James Outman is the lone starter yet to record a hit, but he’s added three walks and looked solid thus far.
Victor Scott II will be making his MLB debut and playing above AA for the first time in his career. He’s a top 100 prospect by most publications, mainly touted for his 80 grade speed and likely elite defense in center field. He hit .323 in AA last year and stole a total of 94 bases in 132 games. Young slugger Nolan Gorman is looking to finally stay healthy after adjusting his popcorn addiction, and highly touted prospect Jordan Walker is looking to have a big season and show he can play a passable right field.
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Here’s how these two offenses fared as a whole last year.
The Cardinals have a lot of hope in the hands of their young talent and possible rebound seasons from both Paul Goldschmidt (122 wRC+) and Nolan Arenado (107 wRC+). The former was good yet not spectacular like years past, while Arenado had his worst full season since his rookie year in 2013.
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Here’s how Glasnow and Mikolas performed in 2023 and their ranks amongst 102 starting pitchers with at least 120 innings pitched.
Glasnow started Los Angeles’ first game of the season, allowing two runs over five innings in a no-decision against the Padres in South Korea on March 20. It was a weird outing for him, but all pitchers in both games performed rather poorly. It was a weird series all around, and it’s good to be back to start in a familiar field. He went just 77 pitches in his last outing and is likely to be fully ramped up moving forwards.
Alex had some well written info and thoughts on Glasnow prior to his season opening start in Seoul.
“When Glasnow has been on the mound, he’s been mostly excellent. He has a 3.89 ERA in 529 2/3 career innings, but some of those struggles (and innings) came early in his career. From 2016-2018, Glasnow pitched in 67 games (28 starts) and 197 innings for the Pirates and Rays. He posted a 5.35 ERA and 4.76 FIP in that time, with a 24.6 percent strikeout rate and 12.1 percent walk rate. In 60 starts and 332 2/3 innings since 2019, Glasnow has a 3.03 ERA/2.89 FIP and a 35 percent strikeout rate with a 7.7 percent walk rate. A good chunk of that came with an elbow that needed repairing, so it’s a bit scary to think of how good he could be if fully healthy.
Glasnow is typically a three-pitch pitcher, as Baseball Savant has him throwing a four-seamer, slider and curveball nearly all the time for the last three seasons. Last season Glasnow threw a four seamer 43.6 percent of the time, which is likely his lowest usage rate with the fastball of his whole career. In 2017, Savant claims Glasnow only threw it 33.8 percent but had another 33.1 percent tracked as a sinker, and it’s the only year Glasnow has allegedly thrown a sinker. Probably a tracking quirk. Glasnow averaged 96.4 MPH on the fastball last season, which was the 13th-highest average velocity on the pitch among pitchers with over 1500 pitches thrown. He threw a slider 34.8 percent of the time and pretty evenly to both sides of the plate, but his best pitch has been his 12-6 curve. Glasnow threw 403 curves last year and allowed a .095 batting average and .109 slugging percentage off it, with expected numbers of .107 and .198, respectively. The curve came with a 52.2 percent whiff rate, which seems good. Glasnow looked excellent in the Spring, as he allowed a run and four hits in 10 innings with a 14-3 strikeout-walk rate.”
Mikolas retooled his slider during the offseason after a less than ideal 2023, as he looks for a way to attain better results this season. The one thing I can appreciate is the innings that Mikolas can accrue. He was fourth overall in innings pitched, and one of just five to go over 200 innings, a rare occurrence these days. Innings aside, Mikolas didn’t have many bright spots last year, with his main calling card being his ability to limit walks, which is essential when looking at the rest of his profile. He throws five pitches, with his fastball, sinker, and changeup all racking up less than favorable results. This leaves his mid 80’s slider, and his mid 70’s curveball that both work relatively well for him.
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We’re ready. The only thing left to do now is to play the game. #OpeningDayLA pic.twitter.com/ypU89C1niR
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 28, 2024
The hype video for the season is pretty cool.
2013: Clayton Kershaw helps himself out with a HUGE HR to put the Dodgers up 1-0 in the 8th on #OpeningDay
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) March 28, 2024
He also threw a complete game shutout. 😤 pic.twitter.com/wVdkjFOWJM
Clayton Kershaw had an incredible Opening Day start in 2013.
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Roberts said Dodgers are still deciding whether Walker Buehler goes to Triple-A Oklahoma City for a rehab assignment, or back to Camelback Ranch to build up innings
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) March 28, 2024
“Walker is coming,” Roberts said. “He’s coming sooner than I think we anticipated.”
Great to hear that Walker Buehler is making great progress towards his eventual return.
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First pitch is at 1:10 PM PT on SNLA and MLB Network.
