Dodgers News: LA Legend Orel Hershiser Identifies Team's Biggest Challenge

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The Los Angeles Dodgers, current leaders of the NL West with a 12-8 record, find themselves grappling with inconsistencies not unlike those they’ve previously encountered. The façade of leading their division masks underlying turbulence, particularly with their pitching roster.

In a candid exchange on MLB Network’s High Heat, former Dodgers All-Star pitcher and broadcaster Orel Hershiser offered his prognosis on the team’s early-season woes, saying, “[The challenges are] probably the same challenges they had last year, which was the health of our pitching staff.”

This challenge is reinforced by Hershiser’s belief that “you go as far as your pitching.” His ratio analogy underscores a prevalent issue; despite 80% outstanding performance, the remaining 20% could set a grim tone for the season.

On paper, the Dodgers’ arms could be perceived as a conundrum, given their middle-of-the-pack ERA of 4.18 and their seventh-place ranking on innings pitched, tallying 90.1. Contrastingly, their rank as first in strikeouts per nine innings at 9.9, fourth in WHIP with 1.25, and second in opponent batting average at a stingy .222 depict a squad with unmistakable potential. This dissonance highlights a volatile mix of dominance and vulnerability.

Meanwhile, the LA Dodgers’ offensive firepower has been “just fine,” as Hershiser mildly puts it. Their top-tier numbers are unambiguous indicators of their threat: among the royalty in runs, batting average, home runs, on-base percentage, and a commanding slugging percentage at .439. This potent force at the plate assures that the Dodgers are more than capable of rectifying their pitching fluctuations as the season matures.

The Dodgers undoubtedly possess the talent to not only “take care of business” and clinch the NL West but also to aim for much loftier peaks. The narrative of the 2024 season may be in its early chapters, but as history has shown us, a team of such caliber inevitably finds its rhythm, with both its pitching and offense firing in concert. The ultimate goal, lofty as it may be, remains well within the realm of possibility for a team of this caliber.