01.18.05
2004 vs. 2005
I thought I would try to calculate the difference between the 2005 Dodgers against the 2004 team, based on the key additions and losses. There are some glaring omissions in this. I didn’t include Steve Finley because he wasn’t on the team all that long. I also didn’t include Ricky Ledee, Jose Hernandez, etc. because they didn’t play in all that many games. And this is only an offensive comparison, a three-on-three.
It’s Adrian Beltre, Shawn Green and Alex Cora against Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew and Jose Valentin. Milton Bradley, Cesar Izturis are back. Hee Sop Choi is the guy at first. If this were a true comparison it would be position by position. Maybe I’ll figure that out later.
Here’s the surprise – Based on the stats from 2004, this year’s team is slightly better.
Runs is 287 to 243 (with 85 fewer at bats).
Home runs is 88 to 86.
RBIs is 270 to 254.
Walks — 210 to 171.
On base percentage is about even, slugging should be better, but batting average should be worse.
Strike outs should be a bunch worse.
Let’s not forget, the new guys are older. We also don’t know how well Dave Ross will do behind the plate compared to LoDuca, but if history is a predictor, it will be worse.
There is a bit of bad news in this though, because Odalis Perez is pretty excited because of the new lineup, and it isn’t THAT much better.