Angels / Dodgers, Series Preview

Heading into the Freeway Series both teams find themselves without their big sluggers. The Angels have been playing without Vladimir Guerrero for most of the year due to torn pectoral muscle and the Dodgers without Manny Ramirez for the last dozen or so games. The Angels enter the series in 2nd place in the AL West, with a 21-19 record and only two games behind the surprising Rangers. The Dodgers on the otherhand hold a whopping 9 game lead over some god awful team. The Angels, whose pitching staff has been in shambles this year, recently got a big boost from the return of both John Lackey (Saturdays pitcher) and Ervin Santana. Please read below for a more statistical breakdown of the matchup.

Team	Hitting	Arm	Range R	Error R	Overall Fielding	SP	RP	Overall Pitching	Team Total
Units	RAR	NL Rank	NL Rank	NL Rank	UZR	RAR	RAR	WAR	WAR
Angels	4.7				-4.1	33.4	14.7	4.7	9.1
Dodgers	25.1				-8.8	43.6	13.4	6.0	12.9
Angels MLB Rank	15th	23rd	20th	24th	21st	17th	7th	11th	12th
Dodgers MLB Rank	6th	29th	23rd	17th	24th	5th	10th	4th	2nd

Top Three Angels Hitters by 2009 WAR:
1. CF-Torri Hunter +1.5
2. C -Mike Napoli +1.3
3. RF-Bobby Abreu +1.1

Top Three Angels Starting Pitchers by 2009 WAR:
1. *J.Weaver +1.1
2. J.Saunders +0.8
3. S.Loux +0.6

Top Three Angels Relief Pitchers by 2009 WAR:
1. J.Arredondo +0.7
2. D.Oliver +0.6
3. B.Fuentes +0.4

Top Three Angels Fielders by 2009 UZR:
1. 2B-H.Kendrick 4.2
2. LF-J.Rivera 1.4
3. 1B-R.Quinlan 1.0

Top Three Dodgers Hitters by 2009 WAR:
1. M.Kemp +1.7
2. O.Hudson +1.6
3. M.Ramirez +1.3

Top Three Dodgers Starting Pitchers by 2009 WAR:
1. *C.Billingsley +1.8
2. *R.Wolf +1.1
3. *C.Kersahw +0.8

Top Three Dodgers Relief Pitchers by 2009 WAR:
1. J.Broxton +1.2
2. R.Troncoso +0.6
3. C.Wade +0.4

Top Three Dodgers Fielders by 2009 UZR:
1. CF-M.Kemp 7.3
2. 1B-J.Loney 2.0
3. 1B.M.Loretta 0.6

* Denotes a pitcher is pitching in this series.

Statistically, the Angels aren't all that impressive. Their biggest strength appears to be their bullpen, but their closer Brian Fuentes, is not even their first or second best pitcher out of the pen. Niether team fields all that well, but the Dodgers do have the 4th best fielder (Matt Kemp) in all of baseball based on 2009 UZR. The Dodgers continue to be near the top in hitting and pitching, and should be favored to win this series. Of course with the return of Lackey, the Angels starting pitching is better now than what the early season stats show. The Dodgers counter with their three best pitchers (Kershaw, Wolf and Billingsley), so be prepared for some great pitching and low scoring games this weekend.

Last 15 Games, Angels: 9-6
Last 15 Games, Dodgers: 10-5

Last 5 Games, Angels: 3-2
Last 15 Games, Dodgers: 4-1


Series Pitching Matchups
G1: J.Weavers vs C.Kershaw
G2: J.Lackey vs R.Wolf
G3: M.Palmer vs C.Billingsley


Source for stats: Fangraphs