The Dodgers are Good at Getting on Base

The Dodgers offense has played a huge part in their 20-8 start to the season. So far the Dodgers have the most runs in the National League, 151. They just barely have more runs than the Cardinals and Phillies, while their division rivals the Giants and Diamondbacks have the fewest runs in the NL.

Here's the top and bottom three teams in runs scored:

The Dodgers have the highest team batting average and on-base percentage in the NL, while the D-Backs rank dead last in both figures. To put their numbers in perspective, the Dodgers .282/.373/.426 line compares favorably with Ichiro's .330/.376/.430 career averages. The D-Backs .226/.298/.385 line looks awfully similiar to Angel Berroa's career .260/.304/.377 line, and their .683 OPS is nearly identical to his .681 career OPS. And keep in mind that we're almost 30 games into the season, its not like its only been a week. The D-Backs are in a truly epic offensive slump. Which lineup do you think would score more, one with eight Ichiro's or eight Berroa's?

The last hope for the D-Backs is that they have been getting unlucky on offense while the Dodgers have been lucky. This is somewhat true, although the rebound will be nowhere near enough to make up for the huge disparity in the two offenses. The D-Backs have the lowest BABIP (batting average on balls in play) in the majors, .266. Meanwhile, the Dodgers have the second highest, .327. The D-Backs offense should improve to mediocre levels while the Dodgers should regress down to merely very good. Hopefully that won't be enough to make up for the Dodgers substantial division lead.

(Final Note: The Giants will have no such improvement on offense. They are 12th in BABIP with a .307 mark, so their offense really is just that bad.)