[Tiger Fan]

I focused on the '65 Reds in the previous post. Before I go to the American League and the great Yankee-Red Sox pennant race I thought I should touch on the Los Angeles Dodgers. It is a testament to just how good Cincinnati is for a Dodger team with the talent it has to be 22 games out of first place.

The Dodgers have the NL's best pitching thanks to a top 3 of Sandy Koufax (19-7, 2.53), Don Drysdale (19-6, 2.58) and Don Sutton (13-9, 2.73). You could throw in number four starter Turk Farrell (11-9, 2.93) as well.

Koufax is 29 and coming off of 2 straight NL Cy Young and MVP awards. He was 23-7 with a 1.30 era and 326 strikeouts in 1963 and followed that up by going 21-7, 1.12 with 327 k's last year. The strikeout total is a modern day record and broke the old mark of 300 set by Rube Waddell back in 1903. His 1964 era was only surpassed by Christy Mathewson's 1903 campaign. The Dodgers won the World Series last year for just the second time in franchise history - 1914 was the other title. As for Koufax, he is 157-98 for his 11 year career but I am waiting to see what happens going forward with 3 year recalculate on.

Drysdale won the Cy Young the two years prior to Koufax and at age 28 is 165-75 for his career, which started in 1955 in the sim just like Koufax. Sutton is a 20 year old rookie who might be the Dodgers first rookie of the year winner since Frank Howard in 1958. 31 year old Turk Farrell joined the Dodgers from St Louis in 1963 and is coming off the best season of his career when he won 16 games last year. Farrell is 83-69 overall but 34-18 as a Dodger.

The Dodgers have a decent offense as well led by 31 year old outfielder Roberto Clemente (.277,16,77) and 32 year old shortstop Maury Wills (.288,1,44). In real life the Pirates selected a teenage Clemente from the Dodgers organization in the Rule V draft. That did not happen here and the legendary outfielder made his MLB debut at 21 in Brooklyn. In 1206 career games Clemente has a lifetime .318 batting average and won an NL batting crown in 1964. Wills did not make the major leagues until 1960 after spending nearly a decade in the minors. The Dodgers lead-off man is quite the same base thief he was in real-life, swiping a career high 52 (and counting) this season to give him 277 for his career. Ty Cobb is the all-time stolen base king in this sim with 942 thefts while Kiki Cuyler's 93 in 1927 is the modern day single season mark.

The Dodgers have decent secondary talent offensively including outfielders Willie Davis (.282,13,68) and Ron Fairly (.254,10,50), infielders Wes Parker (.285,7,63), Jim Lefebvre (.281,18,65) and Bob Aspromone (.234,7,51). Mike T Brumley has taken over the catching duties after the season ending injury in June to veteran Johnny Roseboro.