San Francisco Giants vs. Los Angeles Dodgers: Position-by-Position Breakdown

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Mar 21, 2017; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner (40) pitches during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Scottsdale Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports /

Starting Pitchers

Some people might make an argument for the Dodgers in this category, but for me it’s an easy choice.

Yes, the Dodgers possess the best regular season pitcher in the game in Clayton Kershaw, but there are plenty of question marks after him.

Kenta Maeda did pretty good in his first year in Major League Baseball, but became fatigued at the end of the year. We’ll see how he does once MLB hitters make adjustments to him.

Rich Hill was amazing last year, but he hasn’t thrown more than 110.1 innings since 2007. He’s an injury waiting to happen.

Then they have a couple of number four starters in Hyun-Jin-Ryu and Scott Kazmir – who will start the year on the disabled list.

If Julio Urias comes up later in the season and proves he can dominate a lineup for more than five innings, then maybe the Dodgers have a case.

I just don’t think their front four stacks up against Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, and Matt Moore.

The proof for this category is in the numbers. With essentially the same pitching staffs last season, the Giants had a 3.71 ERA to the Dodgers 3.95. They were actually fourth and fifth in the National League.

In the postseason I’ll take the Giants top three over the Dodgers all day.

Advantage: Giants