Giants Vs. Dodgers Comes Down to Hitting Vs. Pitching

As a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan and a huge Dodger hater, this is an incredibly difficult statements for me to type. All right, here goes....

If Manny Ramirez re-signs with the Dodgers, LA will have a better offensive player in all eight positions on the field.

Ok, this is the part when all of my fellow Giants' fans disagree, but before you pass judgement let's take a look at each position.

Left Field - Manny Ramirez Vs. Fred Lewis
No one in there right mind could argue that Freddy is better than Man Ram.

Center Field - Matt Kemp Vs. Aaron Rowand
This is actually one of the closer battles, and I could see many Giants fans picking Rowand, but let's look at last year's stats. Kemp hit .290 with 18 HR's, 76 RBI's and a .799 OPS. Rowand hit .271 with 13 HR's and 70 RBI's and a .749 OPS.

For those of you who think that Rowand will have a better second year in SF than he did in his first, keep these two facts in mind. He will never have a better offensive year in San Francisco than he did in his best season playing in that hitters park in Philadelphia.

And two, Kemp hit .342 with more power over half a season in 2007, so there is room for improvement with his stats too.

Right Field - Andre Ethier Vs Randy Winn
This is another close one, but again, when you look at the numbers, you have to give the edge to the Dodgers. Winn had a solid year for the Giants in 2008, he hit .306 with 10 HR's with 64 RBI's and a .789 OPS.

Unfortunately, those numbers don't even come close to Ethier's .305 average, 20 HR's, 77 RBI's and .885 OPS. Sorry Giant's fans, but Winn's power numbers are awful for a right fielder.

First Base - James Loney Vs Travis Ishikawa
This is where my starry eyed Giant's are going to start talking leaps of faith and make ridiculous assumptions about how well unproven young players are going to perform. Please come back to earth for a moment and look at the numbers.

Loney hit .289 with 13 HR's, 90 RBI's and a .772 OPS. Not amazing numbers for a first baseman, but solid. Also keep in mind, the year before, Loney hit .331 with 15 HR's in a half a season.

Ishikawa received praise from the Giant's management for his strong performance after the August call up, but the numbers themselves don't exactly jump off the page. He hit .274 with 3 HR's, 17 RBI's and a .769 OPS.

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