Los Angeles Dodgers Are for Real: Powerful Reasons to Believe

Blink once, blink twice, rub your eyes and wake up—this is not a dream. The Los Angeles Dodgers own the best record in baseball.

While many will resort to theories of a potential downfall, there is a small percentage of those who see continued success in the Dodgers' future. While one cannot verify which belief will come to fruition until the games have been played, the reasons for optimism are plenty.

To offer insight as to what they could be, here are five powerful reasons. Enjoy, repulse or retaliate. Just pay attention before a brilliant season goes by without you marveling.

5. Andre Ethier

In 2011, Andre Ethier started the season on a 30-game hitting streak.

He set an MLB record with 23 consecutive games with a hit in April.

Unfortunately, Ethier's production took a major hit as a knee injury damaged the quality of his follow-through and fielding range.

The Dodgers subsequently shut him down after months of injury speculation and controversy.

In 2012, Andre Ethier has picked up where the elite play left off. He's currently hitting .320 with an NL-best 46 RBI.

Ethier is also posting a 22.2 AB/HR rate, his best since he hammered 31 homers in 2009 at a rate of 19.2. Ethier's isolated power is also at .235, his best rate since 2009.

The consequential result has been a monumental improvement by the Dodgers as a team on the offensive end of things. It's also been Ethier's emergence as a potential NL MVP candidate.

Season Averages: .320/.377/.555—9 HR—46 RBI—28 XBH

4. Consistent Starting Pitching

Reigning NL Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw has been shutting opponents down. We all expected this.

What we did not expect, however, was for the Los Angeles Dodgers to emerge with the third-best team ERA in the major leagues at 3.29.

At the heart of this has been the consistent solidity of veterans Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano.

While many might expect a downfall from these two, who both share a history of high ERAs and low win counts, that expectation should be tempered.

Harang is coming off of a 2011 campaign in which he went 14-7 with a 3.64 ERA. He just so happened to have been playing in the very NL West that the Los Angeles Dodgers call home.

Capuano, meanwhile, is currently sitting pretty at 7-2 with a 2.50 ERA. He's holding opponents to career-bests of a .202 batting average, .278 on-base percentage and .329 slugging percentage.

As for why he'll be able to maintain a similar pace, Capuano is throwing a career-low 15.4 pitches per inning.

The lead concern would be Capuano's 0.68 ground-ball to fly-ball ratio.

4b. Consistent Starting Pitching

On the contrary to Capuano's potential downfall is the potential breakthrough of 22-year-old Nate Eovaldi.

The youngster is currently starting in place of the injured Ted Lilly, who has had himself an excellent season.

Eovaldi is coming off of a seven-inning performance in which he allowed just two runs and four hits against the hit-heavy Milwaukee Brewers.

He followed that performance up with 5.2 innings of solid ball, allowing just two earned runs and five hits.

Eovaldi could potentially be the Dodgers' Vance Worley.

3. Dee Gordon's Struggles

Entering the 2012 MLB regular season, Dee Gordon was a trendy pick to be one of the league's true breakout stars.

He was coming off of a rookie season in which, through 56 games, Gordon had hit .304, scored 34 runs and stole 24 bases.

That projects to 162-game totals of 172 hits, 98 runs and a jaw-dropping 69 stolen bases. 

Unfortunately for Gordon and the Los Angeles Dodgers, his production has yet to scratch the surface of efficiency.

Through 48 games, Dee Gordon is hitting a mere .223 while scoring 21 runs and stealing 14 bases. While the stolen base number is more than adequate, Gordon's 162-game totals would show 139 hits and 69 runs.

Fortunately for LAD, Gordon has hit .298 since being benched for three games from May 19th to May 21st. Gordon will turn things around.

Season Averages: .223/.264/.271—21 R—39 SO—14 SB

2. Elite Middle of the Order

Assuming Matt Kemp does not pull a Derrick Rose and once again return too soon, thus further injuring himself and placing the Dodgers' season in jeopardy, Los Angeles' middle of the lineup is as dangerous as any.

Kemp is a legitimate MVP candidate, combining elite long-ball power with a great eye and consistent contact hitting.

Andre Ethier, meanwhile, is in the conversation himself, as he is currently hitting .320 and leads the National League with 46 RBI.

This could be deadly, as the Dodgers pair the two with Bobby Abreu, who is hitting .324 since joining the Dodgers, and A.J. Ellis, who is third among catchers with a .315 batting average.

Here's hoping for James Loney to turn it on. Finally.

1. 25-10

Although mightily under-reported, the Los Angeles Dodgers finished the 2011 regular season on as much of a high note as any.

They closed the disappointing year out on a 25-10 run.

The hot streak included a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals and series victories over the Atlanta Braves, Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants on two separate occasions.

Over the span of this elevated level of play, Clayton Kershaw won eight consecutive decisions, the Dodgers' pitching staff posted a collective ERA of 3.43 and the Dodgers' offense produced 5.0 runs per game.

In other words, this "momentum" has been building for 10 months.