March 27th, 2019 at 11:00 am 
by 0799291000348
Starting Pitching: A+
Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin, Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda, Dustin May, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Dennis Santana, Ross Stripling, Julio Urias: Exceptional blend of talent, experience, youth, and depth.
Bull Pen: B+
Scott Alexander, Pedro Baez, JT Chargois, Yimi Garcia, Kenley Jansen, Joe Kelly, Jaime Schultz, plus a couple of starters who will move to the pen when Kershaw and Hill come off the IL. Caleb Ferguson and Dylan Floro both struggled getting hitters out in spring training. Losing Tony Cingrani for an extended period leaves the team thin for left handers, but Urias could easily solve that problem. Guys like Justin Grimm, Daniel Corcino, Donnie Hart, Adam McCreery, Ryan Moseley, Layne Somsen, and Brock Stewart provide depth.
Catching: B
Austin Barnes clearly won the regular catching position with an excellent camp. Russell Martin, the veteran, looked terrific handling the pitching staff. Neither Rocky Gale or Will Smith hit in spring training. Josh Thole’s slash line of .381 / .481 / .381 / .862 this spring was excellent, but that was in only 26 plate appearances; he has an opt-out on July 1 if not on active roster and has no minor league options remaining.
Infield: B
Third baseman Justin Turner and second baseman Kiké Hernandez had A+ springs. First baseman Max Muncy and shortstop / second baseman Chris Taylor brought down the GPA by striking out around 33 percent of their plate appearances and hitting around the Mendoza line. Corey Seager played mostly on the back fields in minor league games. Backups? David Freese had a good spring and will backup first base and third base. Non-roster middle infielder Daniel Castro had an excellent spring, as did youngsters Jeter Downs and Omar Estevez; but Edwin Rios (with the bat) and Matt Beaty (with the glove) did not impress.
Outfield: C-
The good news, A.J. Pollock and Alex Verdugo did well (not great) in spring training, but Joc Pederson hit .167 and struck out almost 31 percent of the time. Cody Bellinger’s slash line did not look good (.220 / .305 / .480 / .785), his strike outs increased toward the end of spring training, but his new swing and approach looked very good. Backup Chris Taylor also struggled with high rate of strike outs.
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Posted in 
I’ve gotta believe that with some coaching Ferguson and Floro will get back to being the pitchers they were last year.
At catcher, if I have to choose between offense or defense I’ll take defense without a doubt. We just got rid of a catcher who couldn’t catch the stinking ball. I find it so hard to believe that T’hole was a knuckleball specialist.
With a small sample size it appears the correction to his stance has helped CT3. We’ll have to see how it goes.
I still call it 173-0 until it’s no longer possible.
Remember that my report card is spring training only, not a projection. I think Ferguson will be fine, but I am a little concerned that at the end of spring training Floro’s best fastball velocity is 2 mph below his average last season and 3 mph below his top velocity. I agree with you about catcher defense, should Barnes or Martin be injured I will not be surprised if Will Smith is the replacement. Taylor is one of my favorites, I like the way he plays the game — hopefully he and the coaches work out his strikeout issue(s); love for him to win the left field position outright. Nice thought about 173-0.