Starting On The Right (and left) Foot

The Dodgers have a very peculiar schedule to open 2014, and I’m not just referring to opening it up down in Australia. The season opens with a double-header in the land down under that is a week before they play any regular season games in the US. Then they have 5 off days that happen after they play their US opener in San Diego. This allows for the Dodgers to set up the strong front-end of the starting pitching rotation to something like this:

March 22 @ D-Backs: Kershaw
March 22 @ D-Backs: Greinke

March 23 – 26: Off Days
March 27 – 29: Spring Training Games

March 30 @ Padres: Kershaw

March 31: Off Day

April 1 @ Padres: Greinke
April 2 @ Padres: Ryu

April 3: Off Day

April 4 vs. Giants: Kershaw
April 5 vs. Giants: Haren
April 6 vs. Giants: Greinke

April 7: Off Day

April 8 vs. Tigers: Ryu
April 9 vs. Tigers: Kershaw

April 10: Off Day

April 11 @ D-Backs: Greinke
April 12 @ D-Backs: Ryu
April 13 @ D-Backs: Haren

April 14 @ Giants: Kershaw
April 15 @ Giants: Greinke
April 16 @ Giants: Ryu

The schedule is then followed by a 10-day stretch of games without any off days where the rotation could be normalized to the 5-man thing. This puts the Dodgers in a position to start either Kershaw or Greinke 10 out of their first 15 games while still having each pitcher throw on either full or one extra day of rest. Why not? Well, you could run the risk of having the back end of the rotation not see any action for a prolonged period of time, but it could prove to be advantageous if not only to give them extra time to prepare for regular season action by throwing extended bullpens and simulated games. I just can’t argue the case to not use the best pitchers possible when they still get the full (or extra) amount of rest they would get during any other stretch of the season.