With the first half in the books and the second half just ahead, Mark Saxson hands out his midseason report card for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
MANAGEMENT
Front Office: Andrew Friedman (right), Farhan Zaidi, Josh Byrnes
The trade with the San Diego Padres looks great, while the trade with Miami can easily be defended. The free-agent signings are mixed. The endless roster churn has been generally effective. Overall, the thrust and philosophy seem sound, and the roster is far more flexible than it was a year ago.
Manager Don Mattingly
If people had any idea how challenging this group of players is at times, they would probably like Mattingly better than they do as this team's manager. He has been open-minded to far more input from the front office regarding on-field strategy, which is probably a smart move if he wants to keep doing this for a while.
STARTING PITCHERS
In naming Greinke the starting pitcher for the National League, Giants manager Bruce Bochy called his numbers "unbelievable." That's good enough for us.
Relatively shaky command and atrocious luck early had everybody asking what was wrong with him. If you've been paying attention lately, nobody is asking that any more. You get the impression he could take out his frustrations on NL lineups in the second half.
He sent out a congratulatory tweet to himself for getting through 100 innings injury-free. Was he tempting fate?
He's a 6-foot-8 billboard for why it is foolhardy to rely on free agents to fill out your rotation. The Dodgers gave him four years and $48 million and, after he blew out an elbow ligament four starts into the season, they'll be lucky if they wind up getting 2½ seasons out of him.
Anderson essentially filled the role Ryu had handled so admirably for two seasons. Now, after experiencing shoulder issues for two straight years, Ryu is done for the season -- and the Dodgers have no clue what they'll get next year.
He has a great arm, but for two years in a row now, the Dodgers have had no idea what they're going to get from him on any given start.
If the Dodgers had known in the spring that they would need more than 140 innings combined out of Frias and Bolsinger before the break, they likely would have expected to be worse off than they are. Bolsinger has been a refreshing surprise.
Cut him slack for the shaky first start after a two-year layoff. He's trying to do something that is borderline statistically improbable: come back from two Tommy John surgeries and be a major-league starting pitcher again.
RELIEF PITCHERS
After scarcely more than 20 innings, he didn't have enough time to establish himself as an All-Star. But he is undoubtedly one of the best closers in the major leagues, with practically unhittable stuff.
He gives up hits, he doesn't strike out batters like many of his fellow Dodgers relievers. But he just doesn't give up any runs. Ever.
It might not be a bad thing that the Dodgers had to shut him down for a month-plus with a strained pectoral muscle. It kept them from overusing his powerful right arm, as they did to Yimi Garcia's, and it should help after the break.
Yimi Garcia
He was great for a while before the usage started to take a toll. He wasn't getting as much movement, and hitters started taking him deep. The Dodgers hope he can regain his stamina in the minor leagues.
It is almost physically painful to watch him pitch these days and, at 39, with arm issues cropping up already, any day on the mound could be his last. But he's getting it done, generally, when they give him the ball.
He hasn't been the same since Mattingly relied on him so heavily in 2013, his rookie season. Now he is hurt.
The Dodgers would love for something to click and for him to get his command figured out. Fastballs that can brush 100 mph tend to come in handy.
How did a lefty with his kind of stuff spend so long in the minor leagues without getting a shot? The Dodgers are hoping they can get through the second half without finding out.
CATCHERS
In a matter of three-plus months, Grandal has hit twice as many home runs as all Dodgers catchers combined last season. His defense is mixed, but Dodgers pitchers appreciate that he puts in the effort.
For a while there, it was looking a little dicey. Eventually, Ellis got used to the scarce playing time and started producing. He helped Kershaw get back on track.
INFIELDERS
An incredibly hot start and a strong finish were the details, but overall the Dodgers got the same steady production from their machine-like All-Star first baseman.
The fact that Dee Gordon led the world in hits made a lot of people doubt the trade with Miami, but the Dodgers honestly wouldn't reverse it, because they managed to flip Andrew Heaney to the Angels for this steady producer.
They still miss him and they're still forging ahead with his bobble head day. But he has barely been a factor -- and now he's a Brave.
A lot of people wonder when the magical potion is going to wear off, but for a year-and-a-half now he has proved those people wrong. He finished second among Dodgers hitters with a .913 OPS, and should have been an All-Star.
He hasn't been as bad as a lot of Dodgers fans feared he would be when he was acquired for Uribe, but he also hasn't been great either. He has one appreciable skill left: a knack for getting base hits. That's shaky now too.
The defense has been roughly league average, but that's a massive upgrade from Hanley Ramirez. The offense has been bad, but a lot of teams give up offense at shortstop.
Gone are the days when rookies kept their mouths shut around the veterans. This guy is as outgoing and wacky as they come, but his teammates seem to be having fun with it. The fact he can play a little must have something to do with that.
OUTFIELDERS
He tore an oblique in April and now that he's healthy again, he has to fight his way back to get on the field. Whether he does so or not could be a testament to how badly he wants it.
The Dodgers really didn't know how they were going to use him going into the season, but as so often happens, an injury fixed that dilemma. He is one of the best Dodgers at getting on base, and his power returned. His defense is mediocre, but they can live with it.
If you were to draw up predictions for his numbers in spring training, you probably would have come pretty close. The strikeout totals are staggering, but so are the walk totals. The one number that has been surprising has been his power -- 20 home runs at the break -- and it got him into the All-Star Game.
Somehow, without actually doing anything, he has become a distraction again, purely on the basis of a book that revealed some of the animosity his teammates feel for him. The Dodgers won't care unless his production declines. Considering that he missed about a quarter of the season with injuries, it's too soon to tell.
For several stretches, he was playing against both right-handed pitchers and left-handed pitchers -- and his numbers haven't been as impressive this season. That's probably no coincidence.