Penny improved over his 5.72 innings per start in 2006 while Lowe slipped slightly from his 2006 total of 6.32. As a team the '07 Dodgers dropped from 5.70 to 5.66.
Chad Billingsley boosted his numbers from his first major league season, recording a 5.60 innings per compared to his 2006 mark of 5.39.
Lowe led the team in 2006 with 6.32 innings per start and the departed Greg Maddux was at 6.10.
Randy Wolf, in his first season as a Dodger, was third on the 2007 charts with a 5.70 mark, all in the first half. Of the 11 starting pitchers, eight of them finished below the team average of 5.66 and as a result the bullpen had to provide almost four innings each game.
2007 Innings per start
starts in ips
Penny 33 208 6.30
Lowe 32 198 6.20
Wolf 18 103 5.72
Billingsley 20 112 5.60
Wells 7 39 5.52
Tomko 15 79 5.29
Hendrickson 15 76 5.07
Stults 5 28 5.06
Kuo 6 28 4.67
Schmidt 6 26 4.22
Loaiza 5 24 4.44
162 917 5.66
2006 starts in ips
Lowe 34 215 6.32
Maddux 12 74 6.10
Kuo 5 29 5.86
Penny 33 188 5.72
Sele 15 84 5.60
Tomko 15 83 5.51
Stults 2 11 5.50
Billingsley 16 86 5.39
Hendrickson 12 64 5.36
Seo 10 50 4.92
Perez 8 38 4.75
Totals 162 923 5.70
The Dodgers innings per start have cascaded downward like a flight of stairs from 1998 to 2007, following the trend in baseball in general.
Innings per start
1998 6.44
1999 6.19
2000 6.13
2001 6.01
2002 6.09
2003 6.08
2004 5.90
2005 5.77
2006 5.70
2007 5.66
In the National League, the Dodgers were last in the West Division and tied for 12th of 16 teams in the entire league, with San Francisco, Cincinnati and Washington topping their respective divisions.
National League
West Div gm inn in/st
SFrancisco 161 983 6.10
Colorado 162 985 6.08
San Diego 162 971 5.99
Arizona 162 966 5.96
Los Angeles 162 923 5.66
Central gm inn in/st
Cincinnati 162 975 6.02
Milwaukee 162 963 5.94
Houston 162 960 5.92
Florida 162 947 5.85
St. Louis 161 942 5.85
Chicago 162 877 5.41
East Div gm inn in/st
Washington 162 979 6.04
Atlanta 162 929 5.73
Pittsburgh 162 928 5.73
Philadelphia 162 921 5.69
New York 162 919 5.67
Totals 15068 5.82
Remarkable record
Don Sutton, listed on nearly every Dodger pitching record chart, holds the club record with a remarkable 8.26 innings per start set during the 1972 season, the best mark since 1942. Only four pitchers, three of them Hall of Famers?, in the last 60 years have worked into the ninth inning? and none since 1972, the short list including Bill Singer (8.18), Sutton, Sandy Koufax in 1965 (8.15) and Don Drysdale in 1964 (8.03).
Starters today rarely work in relief, but it was not uncommon some years ago to use starters for an inning or two between their starts, and a fixed rotation was somewhat of a rare occurrence until doubleheaders became a thing of the past.
In the Dodgers? pennant winning year of 1941, Whit Wyatt and Kirby Higbe won 22 games each for manager Leo Durocher. Higbe started 39 times, had 19 complete games and relieved in another 11. Wyatt started 35 and completed 23.
Los Angeles had four complete games in 2003, with Derek Lowe claiming three of them (two were losses, 1-0 and 3-0) and Chad Billingsley adding the fourth. Arizona led the National League with seven complete games. The all-time low was in 2001 when Chan Ho Park had the only shutout on the staff.
The 1902 Brooklyn staff set a franchise record by completing 131 of 141 starts, a stunning 93%. But complete games have gradually became less and less the norm.
After Dodger Stadium opened in 1962, the figures stayed in the 40?s and 50?s, although the 1974 pennant winners had only 33 complete games.
Bill ?Brickyard? Kennedy set the Dodgers? franchise record with 40 complete games ?out of 44 starts ?in 1893 and Sandy Koufax holds the Los Angeles Dodger mark with 27 accomplished in both 1965 and 1966 before his elbow wore out.
Over Koufax?'s final four seasons he averaged a remarkable 7.9 innings per start. And even with the short season of 1964 that sidelined him with a finger injury, he started 150 times and pitched a total of stunning 1,187.2 innings, including three in relief.
No Dodger pitcher has earned a spot in the top 15 since Orel Hershiser in 1988.
Top 20 All-Time Innings Per Start
(30+ starts)
in starts
8.26 - Don Sutton, 1972 (33)
8.18 - Bill Singer 1969 (40)
8.15 - Sandy Koufax, 1965 (41)
8.03 - Don Drysdale, 1964 (40)
7.98 - Andy Messersmith, 1973 (40)
7.91 - Fernando Valenzuela, 1986 (34)
7.88 - Sandy Koufax, 1966 (41)
7.83 - Claude Osteen, 1970 (41)
7.83 - Bill Singer, 1969 (40)
7.82 - Orel Hershiser, 1988 (34)
7.65 - Don Sutton, 1976 (34)
7.63 - Don Drysdale, 1962 (41)
7.78 - Sandy Koufax, 1963 (40)
7.77 - Don Sutton, 1973 (33)
7.74 - Fernando Valenzuela, 1985 (35)
7.71 - Don Drysdale, 1968 (31)
7.70 - Fernando Valenzuela, 1982 (37)
7.87 - Don Sutton, 1976 (35)
7.68 - Fernando Valenzuela, 1984 (34)
7.67 - Claude Osteen, 1972 (33)