Dodgers At 2014's Mid Season, Where Are The Runs? Thank Goodness for Dodgers Pitching! (Updated July 15th, 2014)

Hello,

The Dodgers are one of the most bizarre teams in the MLB in number of runs scored. At the All-Star break the Dodgers are 10th place in runs scored, with 404 runs. However in their recent 4 game series with the Padres, the Dodgers only managed 7 runs the entire series. The fact that LA won three of those games show just how good the Dodgers pitching staff is and also shows how bad the Padres are.

When the Dodgers do score a lot of runs many times they score a lot of runs in games when they don't really need them. Here's a few examples of the Dodgers prowess in scoring when all those runs aren't quite needed. LA beat Minnesota 8-3 on May 6th and beat Arizona 7-0 on May 16th. The next day LA scored 7 more runs in a 18-7 loss to Arizona and beat Pittsburgh 12-2 on May 31st. In three games from June 8th to June 10th the Dodgers scored 18 runs, while only allowing 4 runs. From June 16th-18th the Dodgers scored 18 more runs, while only giving up 3 runs this time. On July 6th LA beat Colorado 8-2. So the accumulation of runs in those games skew their runs scored ranking.

Many times the Dodgers only score 2 or 3 runs per game. LA played 95 games through the All-Star Break. In 45 of those games they scored 3 runs or less, including the last 5 games they've played. In those 5 games, they only scored 8 runs. Not surprisingly LA is only 13-32 in games where they score 3 runs or less. So even with a great pitching staff a team still needs a decent offense and timely hitting. I'm worried with what's going to happen when the Dodgers need a big hit in a crucial late season or playoff game. Who's going to provide that big hit, besides Yasiel Puig do the Dodgers even have a player like that on their roster?

Carl Crawford is only hitting .261 and just barely came back from missing two months due to injury. Last season's Mr. Consistent has been this season's Mr. Under Performing, Adrian Gonzalez is only hitting .250. Andre Ethier is hitting .253, A.J. Ellis is only hitting .214 and Matt Kemp is hitting .269. Kemp is another player wildly under performing his contract. Hanley Ramirez is one of the best hitting Dodgers this season at .275. In my opinion the Dodgers can let Ramirez go in the off season. He's too injury prone and wildly inconsistent. Juan Uribe has been a consistent hitter, hitting .297 this season. However he also misses a lot of time due to injury. The Dodgers only have one hitter with a batting average above .300, Yasiel Puig is hitting .309. I've wondered many times where the Dodgers would be without Puig's bat in the lineup.

So with the trade deadline coming up on July 31st, the Dodgers desperately need another bat. LA is an example of just because you have a lot of money, doesn't mean you should spend it all. In fact your team is much better if you spend your money efficiently. Oakland has won 5 more games than LA and only have a payroll at 40% of what the Dodgers payroll is. That 2012 trade with the Red Sox is starting to haunt the Dodgers even more.

The fact that the Padres only scored 7 runs in the whole series isn't a surprise at all. They are the lowest scoring team in the MLB and they aren't even close to the next lowest scoring team. The low scoring Padres are the only MLB team that hasn't scored 300 runs. In fact they've only scored 279 runs, which means they trail the 29th place St. Louis Cardinals by 81 runs scored.

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