What do 2015 ZiPS projections mean for the Dodgers?

In the era of stats we have to sometimes look-up to get the full context of, I want to do my best to explain ZiPS projections.

The projections came out for the Dodgers yesterday, and while they are really rosy in some areas, the process of how they are formulated is a little bit mystical.

Dan Szymborski, a member of SABR and is (according to Wikipedia) “an expert in the field of baseball statistics,” especially in the realms of “projections and minor league translations.”

Speaking of projections, Szymborski is the creator of ZiPS. ZiPS is a kind of acronym for Szymborski Projection System. He’s a guy who’s an expert in projections, so it’s fun to look at projections now and it will be fun to compare those projections to how the team actually performs throughout the season.

Of course, if you don’t “believe in” advanced statistics, then you will think the whole thing is silly and probably not read much more of what I write on the subject. Actually, the whole thing might indeed be silly. But that won’t stop the typing that’s about to take place.

In case you are interested, Carson Cistulli is one of my favorite writers on subjects related to baseball analytics. His initial post about the Dodgers ZiPS projection is here.

Eric Stephen covers the Dodgers in a fairly complete manner at TrueBlueLA.com and wrote this piece, also worth reading on the subject.

While many Dodger fans have been wary of the team’s offseason moves, Andrew Friedman seems to really be diversifying his portfolio, so to speak. The Dodgers got rid of some guys with name value, but they have built a deep, talented lineup of really good players.

Here's a rough depth chart for the Dodgers with projected WAR c/o @DSzymborski. Full post tomorrow at FanGraphs. pic.twitter.com/KbdBLkYcQr

— Carson Cistulli (@cistulli) January 7, 2015

The most overlooked guy in all of this is Howie Kendrick. By WAR alone, Howie Kendrick had his second-best season ever and was sixth-best in the majors last season. Dee Gordon had a career year and was 10th.

While they lost ground at shortstop in terms of projected WAR — after all, a kind of injured Hanley Ramirez is REALLY good — the Dodgers are primed to have a much better overall pitching staff and Rollins will be a big upgrade defensively over Hanley.

The bottom line – don’t fret Dodger fans. A plan is materializing. It might not include the big names you know and love but, at least on paper, this team is still about as good as they were last season – with some room to grow.