In a season where they set the Major League Baseball record for the highest payroll in one year ($300 million), the Dodgers came up short once again in their quest for the team’s first World Series title since 1988. Los Angeles, buoyed by a veteran lineup and the All-World pitching duo of Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, fell to the eventual National League champion New York Mets in the Divisional Round. While 2015 ended with a disappointing finish, Los Angeles still has the pieces to win the NL West for the fourth straight year.
Best Los Angeles Dodgers Betting Lines
For information pertaining to the most updated daily betting lines for the Dodgers, refer to the breakout box below. This tool will give you the rundown on each opponent L.A. plays next.
Los Angeles Dodgers Regular Season Schedule
For an overview of the L.A.’s season schedule and upcoming road swings and home stands, please check out the calendar breakout below.
This tool will give you an overall idea of the makeup of the Dodgers’s season from Opening Day until the postseason comes around again in the fall.
Make sure to consistently zero in on this option for any upcoming parlay bets that you want to make or to exploit a matchup during a particularly favorable homestand.
Los Angeles Dodgers Regular Season Standings
Even though the Dodgers have won the last three NL West titles since 2013, there are still plenty of reasons why you should keep track of the NL West standings.
With the tool below you will always have a clear idea of where the Dodgers place in the division and it will give you almost and immediate snapshot of their season overview.
Indeed baseball is not won in April or May but rather after the dog days of summer are over. With this function you can pinpont the strengths and weaknesses of your matchups.
Online Tips For Los Angeles Dodgers Bettors
The headliner Kershaw returns and will be relied on more than ever with Greinke departing to divisional rival Arizona in the offseason.
The three-time Cy Young winner, Kershaw led the NL in strikeouts in 2015 and is usually the front runner to win another Cy Young in any year he is healthy. While the 28-year old is the main event for the Dodgers, it should be stressed that he cannot do it all by himself.
Greinke's exit leaves a big hole in the starting rotation but Los Angeles did make an effort to replace him in former Houston Astro, Scott Kazmir. Kazmir is a three-time All-Star, most recently making the team in 2014. While he is not anywhere near the level of Greinke, he will be a solid replacement for the time being. The biggest X-Factor as far as the Dodgers pitching rotation goes is new addition Kenta Maeda.
Maeda, in his first MLB season, was the youngest pitcher in Japanese baseball history to achieve the pitching Triple Crown during his time with the Hiroshima Toyo Corp. During his final season in Japan, Maeda won the Eiji Sawamura Award (bestowed to the best starting pitcher in the Nippon Professional Baseball League) for the second time in his career. If he is more like fellow international transfer Yu Darvish than other Japanese pitchers that have flamed out in the majors, then the Dodgers will have made a very smart acquisition in Maeda.
Los Angeles is certainly not a lock to win the NL West for another year, given divisional rival San Francisco's track record of winning a World Series in a "even year," but they still are the kings of the NL West mountain for now.
While the top of this page focused on the state of pitching affairs for the Dodgers, let's take a look at what the batting order has in store for Los Angeles in 2016. To recap, the Dodgers had one of the more exciting/perplexing hitting rotations in baseball. While sluggers Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson garnered most of the headlines last season for either their colorful personality (Puig is the self-annointed master of the bat flip) or young age (Pederson was only 23 in 2015), it was actually first baseman Adrian Gonzalez who was L.A.'s most consistent hitting threat. Gonzalez was L.A.'s leader in home runs (28), RBIs (90) and was named to his first All-Star team since 2011.
Outside of A-Gon, the Dodgers had some hitting hiccups in 2015. This starts with the two suspects above. While both Puig and Pederson have a lot of potential (Pederson was second on the team with 26 home runs in 2015 and Puig was the youngest Dodger to start in an All-Star game since 1982), they both struggled at times in 2015. The former was the head and shoulders leader on the team in strikeouts (170, 63 more than Gonzalez) and he posted a porous .210 batting average.
The latter only played 79 games in 2015 while degressing in each major hitting category. These two, along with Kershaw are the foundation of the Dodgers so they need to take a more consistent step in 2016 for L.A. to stay on top.
While there were some different struggles in 2015, L.A. still finished eight (8) games ahead of the Giants and nearly toppled the Mets if it wasn't for the All-Star hitting rotation that New York employed. Indeed with the bulk of their core returning, 2016 could be the year that L.A. reaches the World Series.
They have four out of their five 2015 All-Stars returning (Gonzalez, Kershaw, Pederson, catcher Yasmani Grandal) and a couple of other players that could play in the All-Star game if they are healthy. With the highest payroll in baseball, Los Angeles will not be short on talent, but it remains to be seen if they can finally get the right formula for a World Series winner.
Finally, before you make your final bet, please peruse the table below to find the best betting fit and match for your final wager.
