Fresh off a brief 3-1 road series against San Diego, the Giants head back home for a three-game set against the Dodgers. The Dodgers, who recently filed for bankruptcy, currently sit 12 and a half games out of first place in the NL West with a 42-53 record. Overall, their pitching has been fairly average (104 ERA-, 100 FIP-, 97 xFIP-), and that hasn't been enough to carry a team averaging 3.67 runs per game.
Nevertheless, the trio of Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, and Hiroki Kuroda has been pretty excellent, posting a collective 6.8 wins above replacement (per Baseball-Reference). The Giants will have to face two of those starters in this series...the probables:
Game one -- Chad Billingsley v. Ryan Vogelsong
Game two -- Rubby De La Rosa v. Madison Bumgarner
Game three -- Clayton Kershaw v. Tim Lincecum
In game two, the Giants face Rubby de la Rosa, who was ranked as the Dodgers' fifth best prospect coming into the season. Rubby has made seven starts on the season for the Dodgers and has been pretty solid, posting a 3.74 ERA backed by a 3.40 FIP. He sits in the mid-90s with his fastball, and his changeup (which he throws 16% of the time) has been very good, as he's gotten whiffs with it 19.4% of the time (as compared to a 12.6% MLB average).
Game three should be a great matchup, as Clayton Kershaw (28.3%) and Tim Lincecum (26.0%) rank first and third in the majors in K%, respectively.
On the offensive side of things, the Dodgers are pretty mediocre (91 wRC+), but are still better than the Giants (84 wRC+). Matt Kemp, who ranks second in the majors in fWAR (4.8), has emerged as a serious MVP candidate after a disappointing 2010. Jamey Carroll (1.5 fWAR) -- who I recently pegged as a trade target for the Giants -- and Andre Ethier (2.4 fWAR) have also been good; beyond that, however, the Dodgers haven't gotten much production. To illustrate their offensive struggles: Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley have been worth a collective 1.4 wins above replacement with their bats, which ranks them as 7th and 8th best on the Dodgers respectively.
Lastly, keep an eye on Juan Rivera, who just joined the Dodgers recently. In spite of his struggles with the Toronto Blue Jays earlier this year, he absolutely devours left-handed pitching, with a career .292/.338/.505 mark against southpaws.
