Dodger Defense Coming Up Golden This Spring

The Dodger defense is on a record pace this spring. They’re making all of the plays, and we can only hope that the solid glove work continues into the regular season. The hard work seems to be paying off so far.

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The Dodger’s brain trust made it one of their top priorities this winter to upgrade the Dodger’s lackluster team defense. Thus they added top notch defenders like shortstop Jimmy Rollins, second baseman Howie Kendrick, and catcher Yasmani Grandal.

It seems as if those changes are already paying dividends. The club had gone 45 consecutive errorless frames before committing just their second error of the spring in Monday afternoon’s 5-5 tie against the Giants. The misplay was on an errant throw to home from Howie Kendrick in the fifth inning.

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All total the Dodgers have made just three errors in their eight games this spring. The Dodgers had one error in Tuesday afternoon’s 2-2 tie against the Colorado Rockies. Alex Guerrero’s throwing error occurred during the seventh inning. His throw on Ryan Casteel’s grounder was wide. Guerrero was playing third base, taking over for Juan Uribe at the hot corner.

This year the Dodgers have posted a .990 fielding percentage during spring training, and a .747 defensive efficiency in 648 innings, rating them fifth in the majors. Last spring training the club committed 27 errors, and had a .971 fielding percentage, and a .685 efficiency rating in 24 games.

The Dodgers ranked 23rd in team defense in 2014. The boys in blue committed 107 errors during the regular season, while posting a .690 defensive efficiency rating, with a .983 fielding percentage.