Dodgers / Angels, Series Preview

Hitting:

	AVE	OBP	SLG	OPS	wOBA	RAR MLB Rank
Dodgers	.277	.356	.404	.760	.337	9th
Angels	.282	.342	.429	.770	.339	10th

Skinny: Two pretty evenly matched offenses. The Dodgers do a better job of drawing walks and getting on base, and the Angels do a better job of slugging the ball. The Dodgers offense has been on a down swing. The Dodgers wOBA in the month of June has been .294, while the Angels come in at a .361 clip. The Dodgers BABIP has steadily been heading south, their once mighty BABIP of .340 has dwindled to a more realistic .325, thanks in part to a June BABIP of .264.

Starting Pitching:
The Angels starting rotation has done a great job considering all the injuries and tragic events that have happened so far this year. The Angels starters have been 6.1 wins above replacement level, good enough for a ranking of 7th in MLB. The Dodgers starters on the other hand, have been 5.6 wins above replacement level, coming in 13th best in MLB. Let's preview this weekends starting pitching matchups.

Date	Pitcher	IP	W-L	ERA	FIP	K/9	BB/9	HR/9	BABIP	GB/FB Ratio
6/19	C.Billingsley	92.2	9-3	2.72	2.92	9.03	3.79	0.29	.300	1.31
6/19	J.Saunders	86.0	7-4	3.66	4.63	4.92	2.62	1.07	.269	1.17
6/20	Jeff Weaver	29.0	3-1	3.72	4.24	6.21	4.66	0.62	.312	1.11
6/20	Jared Weaver	90.2	7-2	2.08	3.30	7.35	2.48	0.69	.245	0.64
6/21	C.Kershaw	69.2	3-5	4.13	3.84	9.04	5.43	0.65	.275	0.99
6/21	J.Lackey	38.1	2-2	6.10	4.32	6.57	1.88	1.17	.370	1.50

C.Billingsley vs J.Saunders
This is the only pitching matchup where the Dodgers have the clear cut edge. Billingsley has blossomed into one of the National Leagues best pitchers. Saunders on the other hand is pretty average but could give some of the Dodgers left handed hitters (Loney, Ethier, Pierre) trouble.

Jeff Weaver vs Jared Weaver
A historical brother vs brother matchup, or should I call it Jeff Spicoli vs little brother. The last time two brothers started against each other was back in 2002 when Andy and Alan Benes faced each other (Hat tip: Dodgers49 via DodgerThoughts). Big bro Jeff has been pitching on fumes but has done reasonably well so far this year. But little brother Jared will help make the Angels a solid favorite to win this game. Jared has been a little lucky, limiting opponents to a BABIP of only .245.

Clayton Kershaw vs John Lackey
The outcome of this game is very unpredictable. Lacky coming off of an injury that has limited him to just over 38 innings has been pretty bad so far this year. But we all know the track history of Lackey, who was one of the AL's best pitchers last year. The big question with Kershaw every start has been, which Kershaw will show up, the good one or the bad one. Kershaw is getting more consistent these days, and all arrows point towards a very high early pitch count, lots of strikeouts and a handful of walks. You can pretty much count on Kershaw to pitch right around 5 innings. Clayton, don't be afraid to throw the curve ball for a strike to right handed hitters!

Bullpen:
If you have been following the Angels and Dodgers closely this year, this is where you will find the biggest talent gap between the two teams. The Angels bullpen has been pretty bad, though closer Brian Fuentes has a good stranglehold on 9th inning leads of late. Master of the blown save, Jose "Dog Food" Arredondo was recently sent packing to the minor leagues which can't hurt. Meanwhile, the Dodgers have one of (if not the) best closer in all of baseball in Jonathan Broxton. Broxton has been nursing a sore toe and has missed the past two games and his availability is day to day. Relievers Ramon Troncoso and Ronald Belisario have done a great job of protecting late inning leads. If Broxton is available, the Dodgers will have the edge in any tied games that go to the bullpen.

Defense:
Just a lot of ho-hum here. Both teams are middle of the pack defensively. Each team has their standout fielders. For the Dodgers it's Matt Kemp, who is 6th in UZR in all of baseball and ranks first defensively for all centerfielders. Surprisingly, LF-Juan Rivera ranks 8th on the list of best UZR in all of baseball. This is probably due to the fact that there aren't too many good defensive left fielders. While CF-Torri Hunter does make many spectacular plays he rates just under league average using the UZR metric.

Know Your Enemy

Pos	Player	Skinny
C	Jeff Mathis	Worst hitting catcher in the big leagues.
C	Mike Napoli	Solid hitting catcher who packs a punch.
1B/RF	Kendry Morales	Decent power but rarely draws a walk.
1B/RF	Rob Quinlan	Defensive replacement at firstbase, nothing more.
2B/SS	Macier Izturis	Decent glove man.
2B	Sean Rodriguez	Adequate power in minors, but strikes out way too much.
SS	Erick Aybar	Slightly below league average SS, most value from glove.
3B	Chone Figgins	Speedy, hits for average, gets on base and sustains a high BABIP.
OF	Juan Rivera	Passable power, not fond of walking.
OF	Torri Hunter	Having All-Star year with the bat.
OF	Gary Matthews	A big mistake.
OF	Vladimir Guerrero	Battling through injuries this year. My knees hurt watching him run.
OF	Bobby Abreu	Typical Abreu season. Decent average, little bit of pop, and a great OBP.