Tuesday, October 02, 2018

Dodgers Leverage Global Footprint For Strength

Fascinating article over at mlb.com, indicating that the Dodgers' path to postseason contention is different from the other nine teams, in that the Dodgers leveraged homegrown players more than almost all the other playoff teams--but were without peer as far as looking internationally to fill their roster:

Dodgers
Homegrown (Draft + Int'l): 11 (WAR: 23.3)
• Draft: 6 (WAR: 16.1)
• International: 5 (WAR: 7.2)
Free Agents: 2 (WAR: 8.6)
Trades: 12 (WAR: 18.9)

Though the Dodgers had baseball's largest payroll each year from 2014-17 and rank third among postseason teams in 2018, they are the most homegrown postseason participant besides the Rockies. Clayton Kershaw (2006) and Walker Buehler (2015) were first-round selections, while Ross Stripling (fifth round, 2012) and Cody Bellinger (fourth round, 2013) were later-round steals. Los Angeles leads all playoff clubs with five international signees, including Yasiel Puig ($42 million contract out of Cuba in 2012), Hyun-Jin Ryu ($36 million contract, Korea, 2012) and Kenley Jansen ($85,000 as a catcher, Curacao, 2004). The Dodgers have fewer free agents than anyone, though both Justin Turner and Max Muncy have made bigger impacts that expected. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and GM Farhan Zaidi have filled out the lineup with astute trades for Manny Machado, Chris Taylor, Yasmani Grandal and Enrique Hernandez.

9 comments:

QuadSevens said...

Pretty interesting to see how we stack up against other teams. I wonder how Kemp fits into this chart? Is he a "Draft" player or a "Trade" player?

Steve Sax said...

Right!

He might be both.

QuadSevens said...

Hill is another guy that could be in two categories. He came to the Dodgers as a "Trade" but he signed a contract with the Dodgers as a "Free Agent".

QuadSevens said...

Red 5 Research firm has some free time on their hands if you couldn't tell.

Steve Sax said...

You should be MPQing

QuadSevens said...

Good call. I'm on it! I have a plan!

Steve Sax said...

Oh wow that's hilarious, I just got a gift of ISO from you, Quad, in MPQ.

QuadSevens said...

See! I really am MPQing now!

Steve Sax said...

This NL Wild Card game is crazy