With an 80-82 record the Los Angeles Dodgers finished in fourth place in the National League West. This is one of those statistical anomalies that are kind of hard to explain. They went 40-32 against their four division rivals, sure a 4-11 record in interleague play hurts, but this team seems to have played down to their competition. They also only managed a 16-20 record against the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants. They did spend seven days in first place, and overall they were about a .500 team as their record suggests.
There are some problems on the offense as they cored just 667 runs, which was 11th best in the NL. They only hit 120 home runs, and that was the second worst HR mark of the 16 NL teams. They did collect 1,368 hits, and the team batting average was .252 and both of those numbers were 10th worst on the senior circuit. While those numbers are not terrible, they are a little less than average.
Their Pitching staff was just a tad over average. The staff ERA was 4.01 and that was the 7th best mark in the NL. They did strike out the third most batters with 1,274 but they did issue 539 walks. They also gave up the third fewest hits in the NL with 1,323. That suggests their problems not only lay with the pitching staff, but the defense behind them. Three of their five regular starters did have double digit victories, but only two of them finished with a winning record.
The immediate future of this team is on hold as the owners are in the middle of a nasty divorce preceding. That likely means this team will not get better for 2011 and that many big deals are not likely to get done. They have not added much yet, and are likely not to be big players. I see this team existing until new ownership is found.
Related Links:
- Los Angeles Dodgers news and notes
- The Business of Major League Baseball
- Joshua Lobdell.com
