On BBTF, commenters tried to come make up with an All-Star team of Pirate players from 1993 to 2009 that would compete for the division title (since the Pirates haven't had winning season since 1992). On that note, I thought it would be interesting to come up with a "team" of Dodger players from 1989 to 2008 that would do the same. I went on BBref and selected players who either had a minimum of 400 plate appearances for position players, 120 innings for starting pitchers, and 40 appearances for relievers. There are no repeats, meaning if a starting pitcher or a reliever had more than one really good season  I selected the highest one and went on to the next pitcher. Also, if a position player or a pitcher has the same OPS+ in multiple seasons (as in the case of Brett Butler and Shawn Green), I went with the one that had the most plate appearances or innings/appearances. Here's my team:

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With the Giants losing 2-1 to the Phils today, the Dodgers' number to clinch a spot in the playoffs is now 20. With 28 games left in the season, any combination of 20 Dodger wins or Giants (or whoever is second in the wild-card) automatically gives them a playoff berth. As for the division, with Colorado's loss to the Mets today, the magic number to clinch the division is now 24. For more info on magic numbers click here.

Diamondbacks vs Dodgers coverage

Ever since their lead-off man, Juan Pierre, has gone on the Disabled List a few days ago, the Dodgers have since gone 4-1 over a 5-game span and now trail (as of this moment) the 1st-place D'Backs by a game in the NL West.  And while Pierre has been out of the lineup in that timespan, the much-maligned Dodgers offense has suddenly hit a resurrgance despite their "self-proclaimed" spark-plug spending that entire period on the DL. This begs a question of my own; how exactly has the offense faired with and without Juan Pierre? Here's what I found (courtesy of baseball-reference.com):

Games in which Pierre started: 3.806 R/G (67 games)
Games in which Pierre did not start: 5.421 (19 games)
Games in which Pierre played: 3.726 (73 games)
Games in which Pierre did play: 6.615 (13 games)
Games in which Pierre lead-off: 3.3 (50 games)
Games in which Pierre did not lead-off: 5.361 (36 games)

While the correlation of high-scoring games during Pierre's absence does not imply that he is the main cause of the Dodgers' offensive woes, the Dodgers are surely doing a better job without their "spark-plug."