This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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Even a team with the financial resources and player-development skill the Dodgers have can only take so much. The Dodgers, right now, simply do not have enough healthy pitchers. In May, the team is 22nd in ERA and 25th in FIP. They’ve gone through 21 pitchers (plus Miguel Rojas) in 25 games over 29 days. That number will go up, as the Dodgers traded for former Reds closer Alexis Diaz, who will now throw 26 fantastic innings and get injured in August. Adding Diaz yesterday means the Dodgers have made a change to their pitching staff on 14 days this month, a level of churn that’s remarkable even in modern baseball. Andrew Friedman has reflected on the injuries to his homegrown pitchers, but much of this is simply the team’s tolerance for risk -- Glasnow, Snell, Sasaki and all the relievers were health cases long before they were Dodgers. The Dodgers are just playing a different game, assuming they can get to the tournament and planning to be at full strength when they do.
