The NL West and the plight of the Dodgers

[Flash]

As fantasy GMs, we experience a lot of highs and lows, and with that, we have to deal with the unexpected twists and turns associated with MLB.  This has certainly been the case with the :LAD:.

A perennial winner of FGM's NL West, the :LAD: have suffered some key losses in the early part of the season.  As Spring Training was ending, the :LAD: lost OF AJ Pollock to a potentially season-ending injury when he suffered a broken elbow.  In 2015, Pollock was FGM's 8th ranked OF, scoring over 21 FP/G.

Then on April 22nd, the :LAD: lost another key piece in OF Chris Colabello.  A fantasy surprise in 2015, Colabello played in 101 games and was a "feel good" story because he was a player making good after years of toiling in the minor and independent leagues.  Scoring at a clip of 18 FP/G in 2015, Colabello was signed to a $9.0m contract four 4 years, but was slapped with an 80 game suspension by MLB for PED violations.  His future is certainly in jeopardy as :TOR: has publicly stated they are moving on from him. 

Then, to add insult to injury, yesterday, MLB announced they are levying an 80 game suspension on yet another FGM :LAD: player in Dee Gordon for PED violations.  As we all know, MIs are very valuable in this league and it's going to be tough to lose a player who, although off to a slow start in 2016, was the 2nd ranked FGM MI in 2015.

The Giants have been lamenting the early season injuries of Shin-soo Choo and Yangervis Solarte, but both are set to return in the near future. Their absences do not compare to the extended losses of Pollock, Colabello and Gordon.

I'm sure some other teams have suffered some untimely losses, but the :LAD: seem to be in a world of hurt. 

Thoughts???

[papps]

Yeah LA has had some horrible luck so far this year.  It seems like it happens to a different team every year.  Rick is a great GM though and I'm sure he'll make some moves and get back in the race before the end of the year!

[BHows]

My early exits from the playoffs the last few years prompted me to make some drastic changes during this past off season. Cabrera was pretty easy as he had faultered late for both the 2014 and 2015 seasons. I would say that was largely due to stamina. At his age, it's hard to maintain that pace thru 162 games. Regardless, he let me down during the playoffs in both of those seasons.
On the other hand, Stanton is kind of an enigma. He just doesn't have a lot of luck. Although he was a terror during the regular season he tailed off or was non-existant  come playoff time. Of course getting smashed in the face with a baseball didn't help. Anyway, I lost in the first round both of the previous years with them on my roster so I decided it was time to shake things up.
Acquiring Pollock came relatively close to replacing Stanton's  production. I  revamped my entire middle infield with Gordon(21ppg) and LeMahieu(18ppg). Signing Colabello(18ppg) was a bit of a risk @ $9m/yr BUT he did have the flexibility of being eligible at CI and OF. I paid more from an aging Ryan Braun than I wanted to but he is at about 29ppg right now so I'm not complaining a lot.
All that said I thought I was in pretty good shape. I thought I had offset the lost of production from Cabrerra and Stanton and a little more. That's what I get for thinking!
Oh well, I'll just have to right this year off and look at the bright side-
- I was on the fence about resigning Gordon @ $18m/yr. He'll always have that PED stigma hanging over him so that ain't gonna happen
- My pitching staff hasn't taken any hits, yet, so I don't have to worry about it, yet.
- I have a number of prospects with very bright futures to look forward to.