The 1977 Dodgers and the 2025 Dodgers

When I was 11 years old, the Dodgers sent 98-64, won the National League, and lost the World Series to Reggie Jackson and the Yankees.  Ever since then, I thought that was the best Dodger team I've seen.  Yes, other teams actually won the World Series.  But to me, the 1977 Dodgers were actually the strongest Dodger team I could remember.  Here are their top 12 players by Wins Above Replacement:

1.  Reggie Smith, RF (.307, 32 HR's, 87 RBI's) (6.1 WAR)

2.  Burt Hooten, SP (12-7, 2.62 ERA in 223 innings) (5.4)

3.  Davey Lopes, 2B (.283, 11, 53) (47 stolen bases) (4.7)

4.  Don Sutton, SP (14-8, 3.18 ERA in 240 innings) (4.5)

5.  Tommy John, SP (20-7, 2.78 ERA in 220 innings) (4.4)

6.  Steve Garvey, 1B (.297, 33, 115) (3.8)

7.  Ron Cey, 3B (.241, 30, 110) (3.6)

8.  Dusty Baker, LF (.291, 30, 86) (3.5)

9.  Rick Rhoden, SP (16-10, 3.74 ERA in 216 innings) (3.0)

10.  Doug Rau, SP (14-8, 3.43 ERA in 212 innings) (3.0)

11.  Bill Russell, SS (.278, 4, 51) (3.0)

12.  Steve Yeager, C (.256, 16, 55) (2.9)

Now here are the top 12 players for the 2025 Dodgers:

1.  Shohei Ohtani, DH-SP (.282, 55, 102) (1-1, 2.87 ERA in 47 innings) (7.7)

2.  Yoshinobu Yamamoto, SP (12-8, 2.49 ERA in 173 innings) (5.0)

3.  Mookie Betts, SS (.258, 20, 82) (4.8)

4.  Will Smith, C (.296, 17, 61) (4.5)

5.  Andy Pages, CF (.272, 27, 86) (3.8)

6.  Max Muncy, 3B (.243, 19, 67) (3.6)

7.  Freddie Freeman, 1B (.295, 24, 90) (3.5)

8.  Tyler Glasnow, SP (4-3, 3.19 ERA in 90 innings) (1.9)

9.  Miguel Rojas, Utility Infielder (.262, 7, 27) (1.9)

10.  Clayton Kershaw, SP (11-2, 3.36 ERA in 112 innings) (1.6)

11.  Hyeseong Kim, 2B (.280, 3, 17 in 161 AB's) (1.6)

12.  Teoscar Hernandez, RF (.247, 25, 89) (1.5)

I don't have any analysis yet -- I just wanted to see what the data looked like for now.  There's a lot to think about here.