Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 03, 2008
NL West Race
Diamondbacks Dodgers

Photo: Icon SMI

The NL West race involves two teams separated by 1 1/2 games entering Wednesday. Here's how the two teams stand in terms of major statistics:
2008 (NL Ranks)DiamondbacksDodgers
Runs per Game 4.59 (9th)4.16 (13th)
OBA.326 (9th).327 (8th)
Slug..415 (9th).393 (13th)
ERA4.02 (6th)3.76 (1st)
Staters ERA4.00 (4th)4.02 (5th)
Relief ERA4.10 (9th)3.29 (2nd)

Both teams clearly depend on their pitching. With a superior bullpen, the Dodgers are able to hide weaknesses in the starting rotation. However, they've used the bullpen about 50 innings more than the Diamondbacks, so we'll see if the Los Angeles relievers hold up as well down the stretch. They are struggling a bit more lately. For the season, opponents have a .310 OBA and a .366 slugging percentage against the pen. Since 8/1, those numbers are .331/.410.

So far, Manny Ramirez is winning the best trade contest. Both have OBA's around .500 (.488 for Adam Dunn, .500 for Ramirez), but Manny is winning the power battle by .250 points of slugging percentage. Despite that, the Dodgers are 15-16 since August first, the DBacks 14-16.

My feeling is that the difference in scoring is more a product of the two home parks, and that these teams are actually very even offensively. That leave the race down to the front line starting pitching of the DBacks versus the fading pen of the Dodgers. Given that the Arizona starters appear to be fading more than the Dodgers bullpen, I have to give the nod to Los Angeles to sneak by with the division title.

Of course, Colorado still lurks in the background. Could they pull off two miracles in a row? That's unlikely, but it will be fun to watch them try.


Posted by David Pinto at 03:52 PM | Division Races | TrackBack (0)
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