Kicking Things Off
So I’ve been deep diving into past baseball seasons lately, you know, just for fun and learning. Yesterday, totally random, I started wondering about the 2016 Dodgers pitching staff. Were they actually good? Like, all-stars or just okay? Felt like a solid topic to dig into for my own curiosity.
Hunting Down the Raw Stuff
First things first, I knew I needed numbers. Real stats, not just gut feelings. Hopped online – baseball-reference is my usual go-to, lifesaver for historical stats. Took me a bit to navigate to the exact 2016 Dodgers team page. Scrolled past the batting stats straight to the pitching section. Grabbed the main stuff: ERA (earned run average), WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched), strikeouts (K’s!), and wins-losses. Jotted them all down messy in my notebook.
Making Sense of the Chaos
Sitting there with my chicken scratch notes, knew just listing numbers wouldn’t tell the whole story. Had to see where they stood. Pulled up some tabs showing the league averages for 2016 NL pitching. Started comparing:
- Team ERA: Theirs was 3.70. Compared it to the NL average… boom, actually pretty sweet, beat it by a fair margin.
- Strikeouts: Holy moly, they piled those K’s up! Looked like a team strength.
- WHIP: This one showed they were pretty stingy about letting guys get on base – lower than the average, which is what you want.
Felt good seeing patterns. The numbers weren’t lying; they pointed towards a strong staff overall.
Remembering the Human Factor
Stats are cool, but baseball ain’t played by robots. Started thinking about the actual dudes on the mound:
- Kershaw: Course, the ace. Beast mode when healthy.
- Kenley Jansen: Closing out games? Dude was a wall. Absolutely dominant numbers popped up right away.
- Guys like Hill & Maeda: Hill came later, Maeda was solid. But also remembered guys got shuffled around a bit, like Kazmir and Ryu had rough patches. Didn’t sweep the struggles under the rug in my notes.
Felt important to acknowledge the peaks and valleys, not paint it all perfect sunshine.
Sticking the Landing
Putting it all together after a couple hours? Yeah, the 2016 Dodgers hurlers were definitely very good. Not maybe the absolute top one or two in baseball that year stats-wise, but consistently way above average, especially in key areas like striking dudes out and limiting runs. Super deep staff handled injuries okay. Really fascinating to see how the numbers lined up with the star power and the grind of a long season. Makes you respect the whole pitching grind even more.
