In MLB, preseason expectations give us a pretty good idea about how good or bad certain teams are.
The season is very long, though, so in some cases, teams will smash these preseason expectations or fall well short of them.
In the specific case of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team is so good that even though experts and prediction systems forecast a lot of wins, they usually fly past those projected totals.
That has been the case in 2023, as Codify Baseball shows us.
needed to match their preseason fangraphs projected record:
NYY 19-0
LAA 16-1
COL 16-3
CLE 14-3
SF 9-9
TOR PIT MIN 8-10
BOS 8-11
HOU 7-10
MIA PHI 6-12
MIL DET 6-13
SEA 3-15
TEX 3-16
ARI 2-15
WSH 2-16
LAD 1-18All other teams have won or lost too many games already.
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) September 12, 2023
Per Codify, the Dodgers would match their FanGraphs preseason prediction with just one more win.
This means that FanGraphs projected them to go 88-74 before the season started.
Let’s all agree that was very, very conservative.
Yes, there is a ton of talent in the division: the San Diego Padres were supposed to take a giant step forward, the Arizona Diamondbacks are a young, up-and-coming team, and the San Francisco Giants are always competitive.
None of that has mattered: the Dodgers are just much, much better than all of them.
They are deeper, have better scouting, player development, and are willing to spend when they have to.
That’s all reflected in the standings: LA is, as of Tuesday afternoon, 87-56 and have a 12-game cushion over the second-place team, the D-Backs.
While Arizona looked like a serious threat earlier in the season, they still have a lot of work to do to catch up to the juggernaut Dodgers.
At this point, LA is still the top dog in the NL West and it’s not particularly close.
