Make no mistake about it, new Dodgers Present of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and new Dodgers General Manager Farhan Zaidi are not concerned about what fans think of their off-season moves. In fact, their boss – Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten – ordered them not to.

“I have told them not to concern themselves with the business aspects, like ticket buying,” Kasten said. “Their job is to make the best team we can have, both for this year and the long term. We will take care of the business stuff.”

But while Kasten’s standing orders to his top brass may sound good during radio talk show interviews and may look good in the media – print and on-line – it’s probably safe to say that Dodger fans are a little less optimistic about some of the moves than are Kasten, Friedman and Zaidi.

It’s hard to argue that the acquisitions of Jimmy Rollins and Howie Kendrick to replace Hanley Ramirez and Dee Gordon respectively do not make the Dodgers a better defensive team up the middle, but it is impossible to argue that the loss of Ramirez’s and outfielder Matt Kemp’s right-handed bats is a devastating blow to the Dodgers offense – one that even the best defense may not be able to overcome.

During the 2014 season Ramirez’s 16 errors in 410 chances made his .961 fielding percentage dead last in the National League among all shortstops playing more than 108 games. In contrast, Rollins’s seven errors in 563 chances made his .988 FPCT first. Additionally, in spite of his selection to the 2014 NL All-Star team, Dee Gordon’s 12 errors on 643 chances ranked his .981 FPCT 13th in all of baseball while Kendrick’s 11 errors in 684 chances ranked his better .984 FPCT 12th. For you sabermatricians, Gordon had a defensive Runs Against Replacement (dWAR) of -0.3 in 2014 compared to Kendrick’s dWAR of 1.4 – a rather significant disparity.

The Dodgers went from having the worst everyday defensive shortstop in the National League in Hanley Ramirez to having the best in Jimmy Rollins – but will that make up for the runs lost without Hanley’s bat in the Dodger line-up? (Photo credit – Matt Slocum)

On the other side of the ball Ramirez and Kemp hit a combined .285 with 38 home runs and 160 RBIs in 2014 – not monster numbers but certainly good enough to be responsible for quite a few Dodger wins. And while there is little doubt that Rollins’s and Kendrick’s defense will prevent some runs from being scored against the Dodgers in 2015, will it make up for the offensive runs lost with Ramirez and Kemp no longer in the Dodgers’ line-up?

This, of course, is the absolute bottom line when it comes to evaluating the off-season moves by Friedman and Zaidi. It is also the very nail on which Kasten is hanging his hat when it comes to what fans will ultimately think of the Dodger team that Friedman and Zaidi have assembled for 2015.

“I think fans are going to respond if we give them a good team,” said Kasten. “We think the changes we have made and the changes we still have hopes of doing this winter will give us a really good team and a great chance to win, starting with the division and hopefully more than that.”

Okay Stan – you, Andrew and Farhan are now officially under the microscope of Dodger fans.

Let the games begin.