Division Dive - NL West (LA & SD)
A look at the early season data from the NL West
Welcome back to the ongoing Division Dives series. We’re heading out west!
I was only able to cover the Dodgers and Padres in this one, but the rest of the division will come soon in another post. I just wanted to get some of the stuff I’ve written out there instead of delaying it to the point where the stats are 3-4 days out of date. Baseball is tricky that way, the stats change pretty much daily.
Dodgers
stats current to the games completed on April 20th
LAST TWO WEEKS LINEUP GRID
Freddie Freeman did the right thing and conceived another child last summer. So he’s missed some games recently. Tommy Edman has been out all year, and Mookie Betts is on the IL with him. So the Dodgers have had to mix some things up.
But life is good for the Dodgers. Dalton Rushing has been their best hitter by a number of measures (helped by the small sample, no doubt), and they’re getting a breakout season from Andy Pages. They’re doing just fine.
Ryan Ward has been rewarded with a much-deserved call to the big leagues (40 homers since last year in the minors), but starts have been hard to come by even with Freeman and Betts missing.
Hitters
I’m going to try to focus only on the needle-movers in the fantasy game. I won’t spend much time talking about studs being studs.
SHOHEI OHTANI
That was funny what I did there, right? Said I wouldn’t talk much about that studs, hit “enter”, and then wrote “Shohei Ohtani”. But look at that itty bitty stolen base attempt rate at 3.1%! They don’t need him to steal bases to win games, and they clearly prefer him to cool it on the bases while he’s also trying to pitch.
DALTON RUSHING
If he were in any other organization, chances are he’d be on his second or third year as a regular player. His minor league numbers from 2024-2025:
He played 53 games last year with a bunch of strikeouts (36%), but the starts were few and far between because of how loaded this team is. Where’s the backup catcher going to play when Ohtani is the DH and Freeman is at first base?
They’re going to have to find him some reps this year, though. They have plenty of guys to spell once a week, so I think Rushing will find his way into the lineup.
He’s murdering hte ball so far this year with a .332 xBA and a .497 xwOBA on a 26.3% Brl%. The EVs are great (107.9 EV90), and he’s getting a ton of balls into the air (21% GB%). His 74% Zone Contact% is bad, real bad. So he’ll cool down no matter what. He’s a tough guy to roster in a 12-team league, but with any further injury that gets him regular playing time, he’ll be a must-own.
ANDY PAGES
He’s been lucky.
But he’s been good.
The splits are good:
And he’s one of the team’s most aggressive base stealers with an 18% attempt rate. Maybe Tommy Edman will take some starts away when he gets healthy, but the more Pages hits, the less likely that seems. He’s their centerfielder. I don’t think he’s a true five-category fantasy stud, but he’s very good and you’ll be happy to have him on your roster.