[PilotMan]

April 1995

There is weakness in the NL West this year. The Dodgers find themselves in first place with a 14-12 record a full half game ahead of the Padres. It's a positive start for a team that narrowly missed the playoffs last year, and spent some money to ensure they might make it this year. So how do we look?


Bad news right out of the gate though. Andy Pettitte made 5 starts, was 2-2 with a 1.97 ERA , but the young 22 year old, top prospect, is done for the year with a torn labrum in his shoulder. Brutal blow for the team and for Pettitte. Could really impact his future.

The second consequential injury was to Rickey who strained an oblique after a slide into 2nd base. Henderson is down for roughly a month. In 21 games, he was slashing .280/.400/.480 with 3 HR's and 8 RBI's. A great rebound from a really down year last season.


Quick Peek


Pitchers


Valdez, 1-3; 3.51 ERA 1.15 WHIP 8.1 K/9
Holt, 2-3; 4.81, 1.40, 7.0
Wilson 1-2; 3.76, 1.33, 6.5
Berthau, 2-0 2.53 1.22 6.8
Rapp, 1-0, 2.25, 0.75, 2.2


We have seen the debut of Sean Estes in the majors. He's currently coming out of the bullpen, although he's made his first start. Zane Smith has the most innings out of the bullpen and has a start as well.


Rick Aguileria is a perfect 8/8 in save situations and Edward Lindsey has stayed healthy and is the bright spots as well.


All in all the Dodgers are good on the mound. Starters are 2nd in ERA and the bullpen is 3rd. The team is solid in the field, just like last season. Currently first in efficiency and errors. The team as a whole, first in runs against.


The big problems are elsewhere.


Current Lineups


Biggio .250/1/11
Everett .159/1/7
Surhoff .310/2/14
McGriff .284/4/15
Lewis .251/1/11
Abreu .271/4/14
Rodarte .122/1/6
Martins .300/1/4


Third base is a disaster. Rodarte has been horrid. He started the year 1/41 and still has a job. Everett isn't exactly stepping up in Henderson's absence either. The upside here is that Scott Rolen has been called up and while he's not starting, he's not far off. He's 2/4 in 5 appearances. He's close and third is right there for the taking. What do we have to lose right now?! Vizcaino is currently playing a sort of super sub role, and splitting time with Martins at short.


In the rest of baseball the Cardinals are the best in the NL with an 18-7 record and the Royals with a 16-8 record lead the AL.


Jay Buhner (TEX) has gone nuts with 13 HRs and 31 RBI's in April. In the NL it's young Jim Thome who hit 9 and has 34 RBI's.


Cardinals rookie starter Robert Dodd has been on fire as the NL's best starter in April. Posting a 4-0 record with a 1.17 ERA with a 0.84 WHIP and 6.2 k/9. And over in the AL it's an ageless Oil Can Boyd, 35, who has found the fountain of youth going 4-1 with a 1.96 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 6.9 k/9. Boyd was a 20 game winner just 2 seasons ago.*


* and as an aside, there's not been many players whose careers have exceeded their real life careers like with Boyd. Real life career WAR of 18.5 and out of baseball by 1992. Here he is with a career 32.2 WAR. Even though he's in the final year of his contract, he's already earned nearly 16M in career earnings. In real life he only earned 4.1M.