Fun With Early Season Stats
by Eric Stephen on Apr 14, 2009 12:25 PM PDT
in Dodgers History & Records
Email
PrintAre eight games enough to tell us anything about this team? Not really, but such is the life of off days early in the season. Here are some other things that stood out to me through the first eight games:
A couple of blowouts have really enhanced the club's run differential:
| LA Dodger Highest Run Differential, First 8 Games | |||
| Year | RS | RA | DIff |
| 1978 | 54 | 25 | +29 |
| 1974 | 49 | 22 | +27 |
| 1972 | 43 | 18 | +25 |
| 1969 | 48 | 26 | +22 |
| 1977 | 53 | 32 | +21 |
| 2009 | 43 | 24 | +19 |
| 1965 | 30 | 12 | +18 |
The outfielders as a group have been hitting:
| Player | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Manny | .304 | .529 | .435 | .964 |
| Kemp | .357 | .387 | .536 | .923 |
| Ethier | .250 | .417 | .500 | .917 |
| Pierre | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Total | .313 | .448 | .494 | .942 |
Even without Manny Ramirez hitting his power stride, the Dodger outfield is among the best in baseball so far:
| Club | BA | OBP | SLG | sOPS+ |
| Giants | .382 | .442 | .605 | 165 |
| Cubs | .288 | .430 | .613 | 164 |
| White Sox | .316 | .391 | .579 | 145 |
| Dodgers | .313 | .448 | .494 | 142 |
| Phillies | .294 | .365 | .588 | 139 |
The Dodgers have also been a walking bunch, leading baseball with 40 walks. They seem intent on delivering on my 50-walk challenge.
| Player | Walks | Pace |
| Furcal | 3 | 61 |
| Hudson | 3 | 61 |
| Manny | 11 | 223 |
| Loney | 4 | 81 |
| Martin | 3 | 61 |
| Ethier | 7 | 142 |
| Kemp | 2 | 40 |
| Blake | 3 | 61 |
Since James McDonald's implosion Friday night in Arizona, the starters have put the smack down:
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | ERA | WHIP | Gm Score |
| Stults | 5.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1.69 | 1.13 | 59 |
| Wolf | 7.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1.29 | 0.57 | 72 |
| Billingsley | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 1.29 | 0.71 | 74 |
| Totals | 19.1 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 21 | 1.40 | 0.78 | 68.3 avg |
Overall, the starters have a 3.30 ERA, and have allowed opposing batters to hit only .182/.276/.264. How about the back end of the bullpen?
| Pitcher | IP | Baserunners | K | K/9 |
| Belisario | 4.2 | 3 | 8 | 15.43 |
| Kuo | 3.0 | 3 | 3 | 9.00 |
| Broxton | 4.0 | 1 | 5 | 11.25 |
| Totals | 11.2 | 7 | 16 | 12.34 |
Sure it's only eight games. But there's a lot to be excited about so far this season.
13 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Belisario
could easily supplant Duaner Sanchez as the best recent bullpen castoff acquired from Pittsburgh.
by Eric Stephen on Apr 14, 2009 12:48 PM PDT up reply actions
Saw this on Gaslamp Ball
Heath Bell of the Padres likes MLB Network’s coverage of baseball more than ESPN’s Boston/NY coverage. It’s a pretty good rant by Bell, and one that I agree with.
MLB Network has been good for baseball coverage and ESPN will have to do better if it wants to keep viewers.
How did the 1996 Braves lose the World Series?
So the Dodgers have had a wonderful last three games, outscoring their opponents 25-4, and it got me thinking of perhaps the best five game stretch in baseball history.
The 1996 Braves trailed the Cardinals 3-1 in the NLCS, then proceeded to do this in the next five games:
NLCS Gm 5: 14-0
NLCS Gm 6: 3-1
NLCS Gm 7: 15-0
WS Gm 1: 12-1 (Andruw’s coming out party — 2 HR at age 19)
WS Gm 2: 4-0
Greg Maddux had to be wondering where the run support was as he pitched the two games the Braves didn’t score 12+ runs. Over that five game stretch, the Braves outscored their opponents 48-2. In the heart of the playoffs no less! Of course, they lost the next four games to the Yankees, starting the Joe Torre success train in NY.
Also I should not on the walks
The Dodgers are merely 4th in MLB in walks per game:
Cubs 5.4
Brewers 5.3
Indians 5.1
Dodgers 5.0
Padres 4.5
Tigers 4.5
If Belisario holds up, the Dodgers could have the best trio of relief pitchers in the game
We were coming into the season with positive thoughts regarding Kuo and Broxton, but adding Belisario into the mix really adds a whole new dimension to the back of the bullpen. There are still some major question marks around Troncoso, Wade, Mota, and Ohman, but if they can be semi-solid and hopefully McDonald contributes and our bullpen will have a nice makeup. Combine that with a pitching rotation including Kuroda and Billingsley (both aces in my opinion) and then Wolf (who dominated in his last start), Kershaw (who has some nasty stuff, just has to work on command), and Stults (who looked great in his first start), and believe it or not, but the Dodger’s entire pitching staff may not be half-bad!
by uclaisthebest123 on Apr 14, 2009 1:39 PM PDT reply actions
I don’t think Ohman is much of a question mark. He’s an upgrade on Beimel and Beimel did a good job. The bullpen as it stands today is greatly improved on what we were looking at on March 16th.
Patience is for those who die waiting for something to happen
I would agree
The question marks were really more relating to Wade and Mota (Troncosa looked great in his one game of long relief).
by uclaisthebest123 on Apr 14, 2009 2:40 PM PDT up reply actions
right now wade isn't near the wade of last year
Dodgers - 2008 NL West Champions
Cardinals - 2008 NFC Champions
When the Giants are leading the league in outfield OPS
you know the stats don’t mean much yet.
by Brendan Scolari on Apr 14, 2009 10:03 PM PDT reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on True Blue LA
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
