Disabled Dodger Offense?
by David Young on May 31, 2010 12:03 PM PDT
in Dodgers History & Records
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PrintThe Dodgers have finished the first 50 games of the season with a record of 28-22, a .560 winning percentage that projects to a 91 win season. They have managed to do this despite having their preferred eight starting position players on the 25-man roster for only 30% of the season, the first 15 games of the year. Since then, at least one of Manny Ramirez, Rafael Furcal, or Andre Ethier has had a stint on the 15-day disabled list.
Expected to be key elements of the Dodger offense, Furcal as the leadoff hitter and the other two in the heart of the batting order, two of the these Dodgers have been on the DL simultaneously for 19 games, or 38% of the season.
Despite the extended presence of important offensive cogs on the DL, the Dodgers runs per game average is fourth in the National League, surrounded by teams who play in the offense-enhancing stadiums in Cincinnati, Arizona, Colorado and Philadelphia. Not surprisingly, the offense was most effective when healthiest, averaging 2 1/3 more runs per game than when one or more starters were disabled.
| Healthy | Disabled | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ramirez | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Furcal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ethier | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dodgers | Full Strength | 1 on DL | 2 on DL | 1 on DL | 2 on DL | 1 on DL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| W - L, Runs/Game | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dodgers | 7 - 8, 6.53 | 1- 3, 1.25 | 5- 5, 5.00 | 5- 1, 5.33 | 7- 2, 4.33 | 3- 3, 3.33 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| W | L | R/G | |
| Full Strength | 7 | 8 | 6.53 |
| One on DL | 9 | 7 | 3.56 |
| Two on DL | 12 | 7 | 4.68 |
| Overall | 28 | 22 | 4.88 |
Jamey Carroll, Reed Johnson and Xavier Paul received the bulk of the starts substituting for Furcal, Ramirez, and Ethier, and filled in more than adequately, especially considering their status as backup, and in Paul's case AAA, players. Carroll hit .295 / .385 / .321 while Furcal was disabled, and Johnson and Paul combined to hit .296 / .339 / .409 after Manny hit the DL. Russell Martin helped out with a .360 OBP as a leadoff hitter.
Ethier is expected to be activated from the disabled list for the start of this homestand. It would be foolish and unrealistic to believe that when all starters are healthy the Dodger will continue to average 6 1/2 runs per game, but it should be fun to see the full Dodger offense back on the field together for the first time since April 22.
It is probably instructive to note that the Dodger won-loss record doesn't mirror the disabled-list population or the runs scored per game by the offensive during those time periods. Good pitching still goes a long way in baseball, and the Dodger have received plenty of it (see the starting pitching table here) while Ramirez, Furcal, and Ethier, took turns recovering from injuries.
(Note that Furcal was officially placed on the DL starting April 28; however, he was injured in the first game of the April 27th doubleheader in New York. For the purposes of this article, Furcal's disabled-list time included the second game on April 27.)
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Great read here.
Interesting breakdown of the records when one of the three you mentioned is on the DL.
Very nice
How about that bullpen?
Dodger defense should improve quite a bit as Furcal gets back into it?
More range at SS and the arm to go with it.
by 68elcamino427 on May 31, 2010 12:32 PM PDT up reply actions
Enjoyed this alot
It’s nice when your bench is producing offensively. lets go over .500 at full strength now.
I'm nobody's fool, least of all yours
Glad the pitching righted itself.
Otherwise I think it would have been a very, very painful month.
They say to never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious.
Maybe the Dodgers should avoid trips to Asia.
In 08, the Dodgers started off slow to a trip to China,
In 09, they started off hot as they stayed in Ariz all spring training,
in 10, they started off slow to a trip to Taiwan.
Im going to watch it tonight when I get home
after work and the Dodger game. Should be a battle. Who you got?
SF 2 Col 1 IMO
Xei should’ve done a sim for it.
Posey goes 4-8
And becomes the first player ever to hit for the cycle and get the golden sombrero in the same game.
xei has the giants narrowly winning i believe
I'm nobody's fool, least of all yours
by BoulderDodger on May 31, 2010 1:12 PM PDT up reply actions
Phillies...and Joe Blanton...lose AGAIN
Out of first place. The man who Ruben Amaro just HAD to keep instead of Cliff Lee, because, why, he three years on his contract to Cliff’s one, now has a 5.68 ERA.
Fortunately for Amaro, even most Philly fans don’t see it this way, most thinking that Lee was a necessary sacrifice for Halladay as part of three-way deal. And for Amaro’s sake, he should pray that it stays like that.
well, the point being
Amaro valued having Blanton for a few years, plus a couple of OK prospects, more than he valued Cliff Lee for one year, plus a couple of draft picks next year, in addition to whatever they could’ve gotten for Blanton. And that’s the worst case scenario, ie. Cliff Lee walks at the end of the season. Signing Ryan Howard to such an enormous contract makes the Cliff Lee “cost saving” move that much more bizarre. We’ll see how it all pans out, but the early returns are not looking good for Mr. Amaro.
It is amazing, and I really like it, that
Andre leads the league in BA by .025 with the 0 for 15 tacked on.
43 pitches for Lincecum going into the 3rd.
Yeowch.
They say to never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious.
I kind of want to go over to MCC to see how they're doing.
But…I’d like to be drinking and relaxed when that happens. You know, so I can enjoy it. :D
They say to never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious.
“But I can even remember Joe, in August of ‘07 or ’08, saying that ’Moving forward, this team and this organization is relying on you young guys, not on the veteran players. The success of this is going to depend on you guys. Either accept it or we’ll have to make some changes.’
This is pretty funny since Torre wasn’t even on the Dodgers in 07
Well the point is that it couldn’t be August 2007 since that would have been tampering. :)
But it was just an illustration that the human memory, even among immortals like Ethier, is a frail thing.
by Eric Stephen on May 31, 2010 2:30 PM PDT up reply actions
Maybe he's been hanging out with Lambo
since he’s been doing his rehab assignments. Too soon?
They say to never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious.
It doesn’t hurt the pinkie to hold certain things. I’m just saying.
by Eric Stephen on May 31, 2010 2:31 PM PDT up reply actions
According to a website I just looked at (don't know if I should post it can't remember if people get killed for that)
Todd Jones is the greatest #59 in the history of MLB.
Dodgers Lineup -- he's baaaack
Still no corresponding move official though:
Furcal SS
Kemp CF
Ethier RF
Ramirez LF
Loney 1B
Blake 3B
Martin C
DeWitt 2B
Billingsley P
DREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle the unmitigated awesome that will be the Ely/Haren match up…with both Dre and Ely in the lineup.
They say to never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious.
Dre/Ely
I guess they are the high points for those Dodger fans who are homosexual males or heterosexual females. ;-)
Sexual preference nonwithstanding
Elymania transcends all preconceived and standard notions of awesomeness.
They say to never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious.
Arizona lineup
Johnson 2B
Upton RF
Drew SS
Reynolds 3B
LaRoche 1B
Young CF
Parra LF
Snyder C
Lopez P
That huge explosion in the SF Bay area you just heard
was the explosion of the McCovey Chronicles World Headquarters.
Col 4 SF 0.
I bet they are crushed that Timmah is getting schooled by Bob Gibson
by keithc13 on May 31, 2010 2:58 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Top of the 7th only
As we were taught, Rockies stop scoring halfway through the game. Not over yet.
Need to factor in that…
a) it’s the Giants offense
b) Ubaldo is pitching
5 runs might as well be a million
by Eric Stephen on May 31, 2010 3:07 PM PDT up reply actions
Roger that
But Ubaldo is pretty good. Although he is nearing, if not past 100 pitches now. The SF offense is offensive.
In 6 games vs Arizona this season...
Ethier has 13 hits, including six extra-base hits, and is hitting .406/.424/.719
That OPS is worse than his 1.201 on the season
Baseball Ref says
He wasn’t bad until the middle of 06. He got traded to Seattle, where he was below-average, but not awful, in part-time work over the next year and a half (400-plus at bats). Then he went to Texas and he stunk in 89 plate appearances.
The Ultimate Ned's Kind of Guy
by Humma Kavula on May 31, 2010 3:17 PM PDT up reply actions
Sad day
The crawl on the bottom of MLBN tells me that there is one fewer Brandeis pitcher in the majors today… Philadelphia DFAs Nelson Figueroa.
The Ultimate Ned's Kind of Guy
Yes, Nelson Figueroa is the only Brandeis graduate ever to make the majors. Here’s hoping he’s back soon.
The Ultimate Ned's Kind of Guy
by Humma Kavula on May 31, 2010 3:21 PM PDT up reply actions
We play them in sports!
WOOO D3 ATHLETICS!!!!!!!!!!!
Basketball, anyway.
They say to never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious.
I just realized that DeWitt has zero HR. That’s ridiculous, man. I thought his swing had some loft to it.
Four game series vs ATL next week
We’re throwing our FAB FOUR out there:
Thu: Kuroda
Fri: Kershaw
Sat: Bills
Sun: Ely
Should be a great series, especially the EPIC Kershaw/Heyward confrontation.
Yeah and it looks like the Braves will counter with
Kris Medlen
Kenshin Kawakami
Tommy Hanson (vs. Bills)
Tim Hudson
Dodgers will not face Derek Lowe.
They should move Kawakami up one day for a Japanese duel.
I am sure it has happened a few times before, but I wonder if Uncle Google or you may know how many times 2 Japanese starters have faced each other?
Good info from you and the Widow.
123 pitches for Ubaldo
2 on, 2 out. Bottom 9.
4-0 Rockies. Tracy goes out to talk but leaves him in to face Uribe.
Ubaldo is a beast
He ran into some trouble in the 9th, but finished a 129-pitch shutout.
7 earned runs in 80 1/3 innings.
0.78 ERA through 11 starts.
OMG
Julio Teheran, a 19-year-old pitching prospect for the Braves, just had the most DOMINANT performance I’ve seen all year in the minors:
8 IP, 6 H, 0 BB, 14 K
His ERA for High-A Myrtle Beach is 0.43. Overall for the year he’s at 0.90 over 60 innings with 73 Ks.
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