Mets / Dodgers Series Preview

The NL East leading New York Mets and NL West leading Los Angeles Dodgers get together for a three game series this week. The Dodgers playing the day after a cross country flight from Miami, where the Dodgers took two out of three games from the Marlins and four out of six on their brief east coast roadtrip. The Mets will be playing games 5,6 and 7 of a road trip where they have already beaten the Giants three out of four games, and after three games with the Dodgers will travel to Boston for three more. Let's take a look at how these two teams matchup and get to know the Dodgers opponent a little better.

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
Mets	22.6				-14.4	31.8	12.5	4.7	10.0
Dodgers	30.1				-8.8	40.0	11.5	5.4	12.4
Mets NL Rank	2nd	14th	13th	13th	15th	8th	4th	5th	3rd
Dodgers NL Rank	2nd	15th	12th	10th	14th	1st	6th	1st	1st

Top Three Mets Hitters by 2009 WAR:
1. CF-Carlos Beltran +2.0
2. 3B-David Wright +1.7
3. SS-Jose Reyes +0.7

Top Three Mets Starting Pitchers by 2009 WAR:
1. J.Santana +2.2
2. J.Niese +0.5
3. *J.Maine +0.4

Top Three Mets Relief Pitchers by 2009 WAR:
1. F.Rodriguez +0.4
2. B.Parnell +0.4
3. B.Stokes +0.3

Top Three Dodgers Hitters by 2009 WAR:
1. M.Kemp +1.8
2. O.Hudson +1.4
3. M.Ramirez +1.3

Top Three Dodgers Starting Pitchers by 2009 WAR:
1. *C.Billingsley +1.6
2. *R.Wolf +0.9
3. C.Kersahw +0.8

Top Three Dodgers Relief Pitchers by 2009 WAR:
1. J.Broxton +1.1
2. R.Troncoso +0.5
3. C.Wade +0.4

* Denotes a pitcher is pitching in this series.


The Mets stack up with the Dodgers about as well as any NL team does, but the Dodgers still hold an edge pretty much all across the board, but the Mets are definitely the best team the Dodgers have played so far this year. The Dodgers biggest edge is definitely in the starting rotation, where the Mets are a one man show, starring Johan Santana. The Dodgers won't have to face Johan Santana this time around, which bodes well for their chances to win this series. They will instead have to face the likes of Tim Redding in Game #1, who will be making his 2009 seasonal debut, after making two starts with the Mets AAA team. In Game #2, the Dodgers ace, Chad Billingsley faces John Maine who has been pitching well but sports a lucky .242 BABIP against. In the third game the Dodgers will throw out Eric Stults, who had a mediocre start against the Marlins, having come off a complete game shutout prior to that game... Stults faces the steady but very pedestrian Livan Hernandez. The Dodgers should be pretty solid favorites to take two out of three games in this series.

Source for stats: Fangraphs