Whenever the topic of the playoffs comes up in baseball circles, the first thing fans address is the pitching matchups. Therefore, it's only fitting that I start this set of matchup posts with the pitching staffs of each team.On the Dodgers front, the starting rotation has been much maligned, and the bullpen has been called into question for most of the year by national media and local media alike. All of this despite the fact that the Dodgers have the best team ERA in the league. The Cardinals are on the opposite end of the spectrum, as they enter the postseason with a heavily lauded rotation and a rarely mentioned bullpen.
Hype and perception aside, the aim here is to get down to the reality of the situation, and that's exactly what I intend to do.
Rotation
To tackle the rotation comparison, i'm going to look at the four best starters on each team.
As many already know, the hype about the Cardinals rotation is not at all unwarranted. They have two of the three Cy Young contenders in the National League in Carpenter and Wainwright, Piniero has been a huge surprise this year, and with the inclusion of Smoltz, that group has combined for a total WAR of 17.6.The Dodgers rotation is not as bad as the fans or media seem to think. While it's clear that they are inferior to the Cardinals best, the Dodgers have still accumulated a competitive total WAR of 12.6 from their best four. Wolf has been a pleasant healthy surprise and Kershaw has emerged as one of the best pitchers in the league. Unfortunately, Billingsley has had a nightmare second half in 2009 after looking like a staff ace in 2008 and the first half of this year, while Kuroda's neck injury has been a huge blow to the playoff rotation. Padilla likely represents the best remaining of a shaky back-end of the rotation, but he's still a respectable fourth option in the series.
Overall, the Dodgers prove inferior in the Wolf/Carpenter and Billingsley/Piniero matchups, but the Kershaw/Wainwright and Padilla/Smoltz contests are basically tossups. It's not the complete blowout that everybody, including me, thought it was.
Bullpen
Next up is the all important bullpen, and to measure their respective strength, i'll take the five best relievers from both squads and compare their numbers. I suppose you could examine either four or six guys if you wanted, but I feel five is the number of relievers that should have a significant impact on the series.
The relatively unknown bullpen of the Cardinals is a lot better than I think most people would expect, me included. Franklin has had a great year, albeit a relatively lucky one, and the rest of the bullpen have held up well despite generally mediocre careers.For the Dodgers, the bullpen is the strongest part of the team, and it might be the best in the league. Broxton's skills are arguably the best of any reliever in the majors, and the 8th and 7th inning duo of Sherrill and Kuo may well be the best in the bigs as well. Belisario and Troncoso were both setup options at some point during the season, and both probably would still be on different teams, which reflects the depth of this pen.
The skills of the Dodgers relievers outclass the Cardinals at every turn, but that difference should be expected. In fact, from the Dodgers perspective, that difference needs to exist considering the skill disparity beteween the rotations.
