The 30 Team/30 Day Report Cards: Day 12- Los Angeles Dodgers

Los Angeles Dodgers

Record: 80-82 (Fourth place in NL West, 12 games behind San Francisco)

Batting Leaders

Batting Average: Andre Ethier (.292)

Home Runs: Matt Kemp (28)

RBIs: Matt Kemp (89)

On-base Percentage: Andre Ethier (.364)

Pitching Leaders

Wins: Clayton Kershaw (13)

Strikeouts: Clayton Kershaw (212)

Innings Pitched: Clayton Kershaw (204.1)

ERA: Clayton Kershaw (2.91). Bullpen- Hong-Chih Kuo (1.20)

WHIP: Hiroki Kuroda (1.16). Bullpen- Hong-Chih Kuo (0.78)

Saves: Jonathan Broxton (22)

Highlight of the Season: On May 6, right fielder Andre Ethier continued his torrid start by drilling a game-winning grand slam over the center field fence to defeat the Brewers 7-3, at Dodger Stadium. Also worthy of consideration was Joe Torre’s touching retirement ceremony held on the final day of the season.

Lowlight of the Season: While not a singular defining moment, the divorce between team owners Frank and Jamie McCourt cast a pall over the entire season.

The Lowdown:

The quest for a third consecutive division title would unfortunately fall by the wayside for the Dodgers this year, as the team struggled with a wildly inconsistent offense. Not only that, the Dodgers were also hampered by the messy divorce proceedings between owners Frank and Jamie McCourt, which put a temporary financial restraint on the team, along with damaging the team’s image. In spite of the chaos that surrounded the team, the Dodgers played well out of the gate, as they were tied for the division lead as late as June 17. After that day however, the rug was pulled out from underneath the boys in blue, as the team would fall to ten games back by mid-August.

Offense:

The team suffered from a bit of a power outage in 2010, finishing 27^th in home runs (120) and 21^st in runs scored (667), along with finishing 19^th in batting average and 24^th in slugging. Their power outage was exemplified in the decline of left fielder Manny Ramirez, who hit only eight home runs and drove in 40 in just 66 games with the club, before being traded to the White Sox in August. His decline took the wind out of the sails of the Dodger offense, as he was supposed to be one of the centerpieces of the lineup, along with Andre Ethier.

Either, however, had no trouble pulling his weight in the lineup, hitting .292, with 23 home runs and 82 RBIs in 139 games. His numbers look even more impressive when you consider that he missed half of May due to an injury. At the time Ethier went down on May 15, he was already hitting .392, with 11 home runs and 38 RBIs. It’s safe to assume that if Ethier played at least 150-155 games, he would have garnered some MVP consideration, had the Dodgers remained in contention.

Also, while Matt Kemp led the team in home runs with 28, his average dropped considerably this year, falling to .249 from .297 in 2009. Casey Blake and James Loney did not fare much better, as Blake hit only .248, while Loney hit just .267. Other players that received significant playing time but did not do well at the plate include Garret Anderson, Reed Johnson, Russell Martin and Ronnie Belliard.

While it is a bit unfair to single out the Dodgers’ lack of hitting while their division rival won a title with a similar lineup, it is safe to be a little critical of their lack of timely hitting, something the Giants did have this year.

Final Grade: C

Pitching:

The Dodgers featured some solid starting pitching this year, as the staff was led by the 22-year-old lefty Clayton Kershaw. In his third big league season, Kershaw demonstrated the capability of becoming a star pitcher in the National League, as he would toss over 200 innings for the first time in his career, along with striking out 212 hitters. Kershaw was complimented in the rotation by two other solid starters in Hiroki Kuroda and Chad Billingsley, who would go on to record ERAs of 3.39 and 3.57 respectively. Behind those three was a bit of a black hole in the rotation, as the team used a myriad of starters, including John Ely, Vicente Padilla, Carlos Monasterios and Charlie Haegar. However, the club did establish a bit of stability once they acquired left-handed starter Ted Lilly from the Cubs, who went on to sport a 7-4 record with a 3.52 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP in 12 starts.

The bullpen was a tad subpar this year, finishing with a 4.07 ERA, 20^th in the majors. Closer Jonathan Broxton struggled a bit closing out games, as he would record a 4.04 ERA this year, while lefty specialist George Sherill was even worse, finishing with a 6.69 ERA in 65 appearances. The top reliever out of the Dodgers’ bullpen was All-Star lefty Hong-Chih Kuo, who recorded a 1.20 ERA along with a 0.78 WHIP in 56 games. The hard throwing lefty also spent time as a set-up man and closer, recording 21 holds and 12 saves.

When compared with their MLB peers, the Dodgers finished 13^th in ERA (4.01), third in “batting average against” (.244), 10^th in quality starts (92) and 26^th in home runs allowed (134). Even though their bullpen was a bit shaky, their starting pitching easily made up for their bullpen deficiencies.

Final Grade: B

Wild Card: Frank and Jamie McCourt

While it appears that Jamie McCourt has won ownership of the team, one can only hope that she either sells the team, or has a plan in mind of creating some stability in the organization once again. The divorce proceedings she went through with her husband left a usually strong franchise in a state of disarray.

Final Grade: F

Overall:

This year was marked with a considerable amount of underachievement for this club, but they look like they are ready to move forward into 2011 with their signings of Juan Uribe, Ted Lilly, and Jon Garland. Now with new leadership on the field with Don Mattingly taking over the reins as manager, it will be interesting to see if the Dodgers can make up for 2010 by winning their third division title in four years in 2011.

Final Grade: C

Check back soon for the report card on the Los Angeles Angels!