The Dodgers may not be World Series champions, but they are a marvel. It's one thing to win 104 games by bludgeoning your opponents with superior talent, which at some positions they have. It's quite another to do it by upending many of the game's longest-held beliefs, potentially reshaping the way every team employs its 25-man roster in the process.

Of course, some of the depth that allowed them to cycle starting pitchers through the new 10-day DL, keeping their most impactful arms at peak condition instead of losing them to attrition, is gone now, with Yu Darvish and Brandon McCarthy being the chief examples. But they still have the best starting pitcher in Clayton Kershaw and three others with All-Star ability in Rich Hill, Alex Wood and Kenta Maeda, not to mention one of the top pitching prospects in Walker Buehler. Yeah, they'll be OK.

And that's what's scariest about the impending Dodgers dynasty: how they don't have to trade away their best prospects to sustain it. With the way they mine data, they'll just uncover a Justin Turner, a Chris Taylor or a (now departed) Brandon Morrow for cheap, allowing them to introduce a Corey Seager or Cody Bellinger to an already formidable core.

The well isn't about to run dry.

Dodgers in Scott's top 300
PlayerRoto RankH2H RankRoto Pos RankH2H Pos Rank
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Clayton Kershaw LAD SP
#10#9#1#1
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Cody Bellinger LAD 1B
#24#25#5 (at 1B)#5 (at 1B)
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Corey Seager LAD SS
#27#27#4#4
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Justin Turner LAD 3B
#49#51#8#8
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Kenley Jansen LAD RP
#62#81#1#1
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Alex Wood LAD SP
#120#80#29#29
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Chris Taylor LAD CF
#127#142#31 (at OF)#31 (at OF)
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Rich Hill LAD SP
#130#109#34#36
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Yasiel Puig LAD RF
#137#159#34#35
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Yasmani Grandal LAD C
#205#215#10#10
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Austin Barnes LAD C
#206#216#11 (at C)#11 (at C)
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Kenta Maeda LAD SP
#242#188#68#66

Players in Scott's Top 100 Prospects

Dodgers prospects
25Walker Buehler
Though his September call-up was as unsuccessful as it was unnecessary, it shouldn't detract from the triumph that was Buehler's 2017 -- his professional debut, for all practical purposes, after a recovery from Tommy John surgery. He throws 100 and has two devastating breaking balls but needs to build up his innings in an organization that lives to suppress them.
Scott's 2018 Fantasy impact:  midseason hopeful (at SP)  
34Alex Verdugo
Verdugo profiles similarly to the Reds' Jesse Winker, but the lack of home runs is a little more concerning since he's a more aggressive hitter overall. Still, in today's offensive environment, I feel like any prospect with the kind of bat skills Verdugo possesses could become a 20-homer guy, and he might only be an injury away.
Scott's 2018 Fantasy impact:  midseason hopeful  
61Keibert Ruiz
If you regret missing out on Francisco Mejia, Ruiz is the prospect for you, showing similar bat-to-ball skills with enough power potential to develop into a star. He'll be tackling Double-A as a 19-year-old, which is especially rare for a catcher, so if he delivers more of the same there, he could surge up these rankings.
Scott's 2018 Fantasy impact:  don't count on it  
67Yadier Alvarez
After climbing the rankings a year ago, Alvarez got a dose of reality in 2017, his spotty command sabotaging him against more advanced hitters. Clearly, he has some work to do, which may delay the development of his changeup, but his easy velocity and a swing-and-miss slider make ace reliever a fine fallback.
Scott's 2018 Fantasy impact:  don't count on it  
78Yusniel Diaz
Another prospect who has been more projection than production for most of his minor-league career, Diaz may have turned the corner over the final three months of 2017, hitting .333 with nine home runs and a .903 OPS over his final 267 at-bats. He cut down on the strikeouts, too, so there's definite middle-of-the-order potential here.
Scott's 2018 Fantasy impact:  cup of coffee

Things to Know

  • While Clayton Kershaw is still the No. 1 starting pitcher in Fantasy, it's an increasingly tenuous distinction. He has missed time with a back injury three of the past four years, so you can no longer expect him to measure up to Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber and Chris Sale in terms of innings. Start for start, though, he'll still give you the length of an ace, which is uncommon among Dodgers hurlers.
  • The biggest question is at catcher, where Austin Barnes overtook Yasmani Grandal in the postseason and may overtake him again despite manager Dave Roberts' claims to the contrary. And it's easy to see why. He's an on-base machine with above-average power for the position -- numbers that have translated almost seamlessly from the minors -- and going by only his starts, he averaged as many Head-to-Head points per game as Gary Sanchez last year. Grandal is productive in his own right, so you're rooting for a trade here.
  • Whether or not you buy the sustainability of Chris Taylor's .361 BABIP, the guy upped his power enough to become a legitimate offensive weapon. Where he'll ultimately play -- be it in center field, blocking prospect Alex Verdugo, or second base, blocking one of the few misses of the Dodgers' 2017 campaign, Logan Forsythe -- remains to be seen, but he will play.
  • After spending the postseason in the bullpen, Kenta Maeda is pretty much a lock for a rotation spot, but part of the reason the Dodgers shifted him to the bullpen in the first place is because they don't seem to trust him to pitch a third time through the lineup. Even if his percentages are more in line with his rookie 2016 campaign, he may be a fringy mixed-league option.

Lineup & Rotation

Batting order    
                
1 Chris Taylor CF
2 Corey Seager SS
3 Justin Turner 3B
4 Cody Bellinger 1B
5 Yasiel Puig RF
6 Yasmani GrandalC
7 Joc Pederson LF
8 Logan Forsythe 2B
Pitchers                             
SP Clayton Kershaw
SP Rich Hill
SP Alex Wood
SP Kenta Maeda
SP Hyun-Jin Ryu
CL Kenley Jansen
RP Pedro Baez
RP Josh Fields