LA Dodgers (OOTP X) - 2009 and Beyond

[Barry Diamond]

I had another dynasty going but late Friday night, early Saturday morning, it was time to move from OOTP 2007 to OOTP X !!

I wanted to go back to when Paul DePodesta was running the Dodgers and take over from there but just could not get things started the way I wanted them to begin.

So, we will pick it up at the start of 2009!!

[Barry Diamond]

Los Angeles Dodgers Ned Colletti is gone ! Dodgers name new GM!!

AP - Ned Colletti as reported in the last several weeks has left the LA Dodgers citing personall reasons for the move. The Dodgers have promoted from within as the Special Assistant to Colletti, Barry Diamond has been named the new G.M.

Mr. Diamond has served under Colletti since he took the reins in LA.

Barry Diamond was quoted as saying, "I am sorry that Ned had to leave this way but he had personal matters that only he could take care of. He said that he would miss baseball and hoped one day he could return. I hate to get a job this way, but Ned has taught me well and I think the dodgers are in good hands. I will be working very close with Mr. McCourt in making sure that the Dodgers continue to strive for what we are looking for and that is continued success."

Barry Diamond also said that as of right now he was making no changes to the manager or any of his coaches with the big league club or any of the minor leagues but a new manager was hired to run the Isotopes team as that had not been done. Mr. Diamond was working with Mr. Colletti on getting that done and it would get done in the next day or so according to G.M. Barry Diamond.

As of right now, it looks like statis quo for the Dodgers as they begin the 2009 season.

[Barry Diamond]

April 2009 as the season begins!!
The Dodgers start slow in April for new GM Barry Diamond and Manager Joe Torre. We started the season with a 9-13 April. We did have some early injuries to a few key Dodgers.

Andre Either would go down for 15 days on April 18th. He was leading the Dodgers in hitting at the time. Brad Ausmus would also go on the 15-day DL on April 25th. And the next day, Manny Ramirez would go on the 15-day DL.

Hot Players for the month of April
SS-Rafael Furcal .354/15-BB/6-SB
LF-Manny Ramirez .292/6-HR/19-RBI
RF-Andre Either .413/5-HR/13-RBI
SP-Randy Wolf 2.74/3-1/16-SO
RP-Cory Wade 1.38/2-Runs in 13-inn.

Not Hot for the month of April
1B/3B-Casey Blake .205
SS-Mark Loretta .120/11-SO
2B-Orlando Hudson .253/17-SO
SP-Chad Billingsley 7.30/1-4/20-runs in 24-inn.
SP-Clayton Kershaw 11.14/0-4/26-runs in 21-inn.
RP-Guillermo Mota 12.10/17-hits, 13-runs in 9+-inn.

Here's hoping that May will be a better month for the Blue Crew. I know that Joe Torre can get things going.

[Barry Diamond]

May is a better month for the Blue Crew!!

It was the hitters that help with the Dodgers move from next to last to a half game behind the Arizona Diamondbacks. We went 21-8 in the month. Injuries were numerous in April for the Dodgers and it continued in May. With injuries to both catchers, Russell Martin and Brad Ausmus the Dodgers went to seek a free agent catcher or two. The catchers in the minors are nothing special so we had to go to the free agents and see if there was anything that we could sign as we are close to our payroll max. We did find Johnny Estrada and he proved to be very good while our catchers were out with injuries. In fact, on May 19th we signed him to a two year contract for $1,200,000.

Hot players for the month of May
1B-James Loney .341/5-HR/11-RBI's
RF-Andre Ethier .385/.449OB%/25-RBI's
3B-Blake DeWitt .311/17-RBI's - 2nd best
SP-Chad Billingsley 2.21/3-0/.226 BA Against
RP-Will Ohman 1.32/13-inn - 6-hits - 2-runs
CL-Jonathan Broxton 1.56/2-wins/6-saves

Players NOT hot in May
RP-Eric Stults 6.10/10inn - 13-hits - 7-runs
RP-Cory Wade 5.00/9-inn - 6-hits - 5-runs
LF-Manny Ramirez .196/1-HR/1-Double/20-K's
1B/3B-Casey Blake .238/3-HR/5-Doubles

Injuries
May 1st - C-Russell Martin (15-Day DL)
May 5th - LF-Delwyn Young (15-Day DL)

Signed
May 12th - SP-Randy Wolf 3-Year for $4-Million
May 19th - C-Johnny Estrada 2-Year for $1.2-Million
May 25th - 2B-Orlando Hudson 4-Year for $20-Million

It was a very active month as we signed a couple of players to contracts. Randy Wolf has been wonderful this year and we hope he can go for 3 more years. We have some young arms on the way but they won't be ready quit yet. Also, we have NOTHING in the way of a second baseman in the pipeline so we HAD to do something and we hope Orlando Hudson is that man. With two quick injuries to both Russell Martin AND Brad Ausmus, we had nothing to fall back on, so we signed Johnny Estrada too. We have some young kids coming but nothing at the AAA level to speak of. Let's hope that June is as good as the month of May was to us!!

[Barry Diamond]

Andre Ethier has been the driving force behind the Dodgers of 2009 so far.

[Barry Diamond]

We kept our heads above water in JUNE !!

The 2009 LA Dodgers went 14-12 in June. We lost a bit to the league leading Arizona Diamondbacks. At the end of June we find ourselves 3 games back but we find ourselves up a game and a half on the Milwaukee Brewers for the Wild Card spot. We are 26-15 at home and only 19-18 on the road for the season. We are 6-2 in extra frames and 10-7 in one run games.

Hottest Players for the month of June
SP-Clayton Kershaw 3-1/3.86/30-inn - 13-runs - 6-BB - 30-K's
SP-James McDonald 2-3/3.66/32-inn - 13-runs - 11-BB - 27-K's
CL-Jonathan Broxton 2.16/ 6-saves
RP-Hong-Chih Kuo 1-1/2.05/22-inn - 5-runs - 13-BB - 23-K's
RF-Andre Ethier .433/4-HR/4-Dobules/22-RBI's
CF-Matt Kemp .400/5-HR/8-Doubles/3-Triples/22-RBI's
1B-James Loney .329/6-Doubles/1-HR/15-RBI's
C-Russell Martin .325/7-Doubles/3-HR/13-RBI

NOT-so-hot Players for the month of June
SP-Chad Billingsley 2-1/6.59/27-inn - 39-hits - 20-runs - 39-K's
SP-Randy Wolf 2-1/5.81/26-inn - 25-hits - 29-K's
LF-Manny Ramirez .224/8-HR/2-Doubles/19-RBI/20-K/24-BB
3B-Blake DeWitt .237/4-Doubles/2-HR/12-RBI

Player Signing - We did sign Ben Sheets (who is injured) to a minor league contract. If McDonald can not come through for us then I needed a backup. We had nothing before, but now we have Sheets. We do get Jason Schmidt off the 60-Day DL but don't know what kind of shape he will be in. We won't get anyone to trade for his contract so we might have to move Sheets at the deadline and keep Schmidt for the remainder of the year as he will be a free agent for 2010. Glad to see that 12-million go. We also signed a free agents to minor league contracts as they will be insurance at AAA for us. We signed RP-Phil Stockman. The First-Year Player Draft was also held in June. More on that in a few moments.

We are still chasing first place but so far the youngsters have been doing well for us. If we can get Billingsley, Kershaw and McDonald firing on all cylinders for us, I think we could forge ahead. We will see what July (All-Star Month) has in the cards.

[Barry Diamond]

Los Angeles Dodgers 2009 First-Year Player Draft.

It was my first year at the draft but I did have Logan White, my head scout to lean on as I did. I made the first few picks and a couple others down the line but I let Logan choose some players too. Here is a recap.

Rd1.(15th overall) - RHP-Julio Rivero - Has the potential for an above average fastball and Sinker. He was drafted as a starter but most people think he will be a reliever. He will start out as a starter and see what happens. He will need to develope a third pitch to be a good starter.

Rd2.(45th) - LHP-Jose Nunez - Has a good fastball and an average cutter. He was the best reliever on the board and could become a closer somewhere down the line. His fastball is there but he will need that cutter to get better and may need to develope a third pitch.

This draft was strong in pitchers and not on position players.

Rd3.(75th) - RHP-Clyde Cook - Has the makings of a bottom of the rotation starter. Above average fastball and Curve and is developing a Changeup. Just began work on that this year.

Rd4. (105th) - RHP-Cisco Rodriguez - Talk about your control pitcher. Cisco is it. We think getting him in the 4th round was a steal. Should be a starter for us in the future and has already moved from Rookie League to Class A ball. In two years could be at the backend of the rotation. His changeup is better than his fastball which is just average. He will need lot's of control to make the club.

Rd5. (135th) - 1B-Domingo Mendez - Our first position player was the best on the board. For a 20-Round draft and your not sure if your 5th rounder will even make it to LA, is saying something. So far he is 2-10 (.200) with 4 strikeouts. Don't think he has a chance but this was Logan White's pick here. Hopefully he knows something that I don't.

These are the top 5 as we will follow them each year.

[Barry Diamond]

Editor's Note: As I stated earlier, I wanted to take over when Paul DePodesto left but I could not get things set up that way so I began with the 2009 season. Usually I take over a bad team and turn them around. With this Dynasty, can I keep together a good team and lead them to the World Series? Can my draft picks help the team or hurt them? Will I trade the wrong player? Will I extend the contract to a player I should not have extended one to? We'll see. Thank you for ready this Dynasty.

[Barry Diamond]

2009 All-Star Game

This would be an All-Star Game for the ages. It would be a pitching duel. In the top of the third the AL would get on the board first.

With one out and Grady Sizemore at the plate, the Dodgers Jonathan Broxton would walk Sizemore on a 3-1 count. Sizemore would then steal second. With Robinson Cano at the plate he would find a hole between first and second and Sizemore would score to give the AL the lead 1-0.

That would hold up till the National League top of the 7th. On the first pitch of the 7th inning, Ryan Braun would single of Scott Baker. Chase Utley would come to the plate and on a 0-1 pitch, Bake would hit Utley. that would bring Edwin Encarnacion to the plate and he would hit into a double play sending Braun to third. Lance Berkman, the pride of the Astros would single Braun in to tie the score.

At the end of the 9th inning this game was still tied at one.

In the top of the 10th with one out, Rick Ankiel would double off the wall in Right-Center. Adrian Gonzalez would come to the plate hoping to break the tie, but he would not have that chance as he was walked on four pitches. First and second with one out and here comes Jimmy Rollins. On an 0-1 pitch Rollins would single to left but it was not enough to drive home a run. Bases now loaded with one out and Chase Utley to the plate. With Dallas Braden pitching on the first pitch he would hit Utley and the ballgame was no longer ties. The National League would take a 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the 10th, with Carlos Marmol pitching, Ryan Theriot would ground out, Ichiro Suzuki would ground out to third and Nomar Garciaparra would single. With 2 outs and Carlos Pena at the plate and a 1-2 pitch, he would strike out swinging to end the game.

National League 2 American League 1 F

[Barry Diamond]

Interesting Pickup for the Dodgers !!

On July 7th, we spotted Nyjer Morgan on waivers from Pittsburgh. It got us thinking about our bench. We needed a bit more pop off the bench.

We looked over our team and with Delwyn Young hitting just .160, we needed more. If we could find a trading partner for Young then we could possibly pull Morgan off waivers. It had to be quick though.

We really did not want a lot for Young. He is someone that is getting better, but just not for us. We began to shop Young around the Majors. We found a lot of teams wanting to trade for him, but then the Texas Rangers anted up and offered SP-Matt Harrison. We could not pass on a player like that, so we made the trade and then went after Morgan.

We also got Morgan off waivers and added him to our bench. We put Harrison in AAA for now till we actually see what we have.

But, WOW!! What a deal!

[Lawley]

Go Giants!

[Barry Diamond]

We were hoping for more in JULY !!

August 1, 2009

Things were going pretty good in July but after the All-Star break we started slow again. For the month we went 13-12. Of course the trade deadline was coming and we needed bullpen help, but could we pull off a trade that would help us? Was a major injury headed our way? August could be a very hard month for these youngsters.

HOT players for the month of July:
SP-Chad Billingsley 3-0/3.15/9-BB 38-K's
RP-Ramon Troncoso 1-1/2.66/23-inn - 7-ER
RP-Cory Wade 3-1 1-SV/2.84/
RF-Andre Ethier .378/8-HR/7-Doubles/18-RBI
2B-Orlando Hudson .388/8-Doubles/3-Triples/27-RBI
SS-Rafael Furcal .333/3-HR/17-RBI/5-SB

NOT-so-hot players for July:
SP-Hiroki Kuroda 0-2/7.33/23-inn - 40-hits - 19-ER
SP-James McDonald 2-2/5.87/12-BB - 19-K's
RP-Eric Stultz 1-1/5.91/10-inn - 13-hits - 7-runs
CF-Matt Kemp .257/.294OB%/20-K
1B-Casey Blake .196/.255OB%
LF-Manny Ramirez .274/2-HR/4-Doubles

Transactions:
SP-Jason Schmidt came off the DL and has gone into the starting rotation. For not pitching much in the last 2-years, he has been OK. Not great, but OK. We could not send him down to AAA for a few games to get him into game shape, as he refused to be assigned to the minors. (OOTP, can we have injury assignements put in the game?) So we had to send down someone else and we chose the worsed pitcher (stat wise) at that time as we reassigned SP-Clayton Kershaw. He will be back up, I am sure. SP-Claudio Vargas also came off the 60-day DL and we reassigned him, but the Florida Marlins took him off waivers. The night before the trading deadline (we needed better bullpen help) we sent RP-Guillermo Mota (4.43 ERA in 65-innings) and backup C-Brad Ausmus to the Atlanta Braves for RP-Mike Gonzalez (1.89 ERA in 33-innings) He will be the setup for CL-Jonathan Broxton. However, Mike Gonzalez was unhappy in Atlanta as he wanted to be the closer. So I am sure it will only be a matter of time before he is also unhappy in LA. I decided to take the chance and hopefully we can make him happy till the end of the season.

Injuries:
We didn't do too bad on injuries till July 29th as we lost our team leader in Home Runs, RBI's and Average as RF-Andre Ethier went down for 4-months. So, he is gone for the season.

Minor Leagues:
AAA - CL-Eric Threets - Won the PCL Pitcher of the Month.
A - SP-Chris Withrow - Won the CAL Pitcher of the Month Award.
R - SP-Leandro Cespedes - Won the PIO Pitcher of the Month Award.
R - C-Tony Delmonico - Won the PIO Batter of the Month Award.

[Barry Diamond]

Here are the "Dog Days" of August !!

August 1, 2009

At the end of July we lost RF-Andre Ethier for the remainder of the season. We could not afford to lose another offensive player. It has been the offense that has carried the Dodgers as the pitching has had it's problems except for the bullpen which has stepped it up this past month. The starting rotation ranks 13th in the NL and the bullpen is ranked 2nd.

Hot Players that have helped us in August
LF-Juan Pierre .367/18-SB/0-caught stealing
CF-Matt Kemp .333/7-Doubles/4-HR/16-RBI
2B-Orlando Hudson .311/9-Doubles/23-RBI - both lead the team
SP-Chad Billingsley 3.48/3-2/41-inn/37-hits/16-runs
RP-Mike Gonzalez 1.54/1-0, 3-SV/11-inn - 7-hits - 2-ER - 5-W - 20-SO
RP-Will Ohman 0.00/7-games/9-inn/3-hits/0-runs/1-BB/11-SO
OF-Xavier Paul .306/14-RBI in 17 games (Why is he up with LA? - Details coming)

NOT-SO-HOT Players in August
1B-Casey Blake .222/1-Double/22-SO
Nyjer Morgan/Mark Loretta/Blake DeWitt 12 for 81 .150BA and 1-HR/0-Doubles/0-Triples
SP-Hiroki Kuroda 6.92/2-3/26-inn/35-hits
SP-Randy Wolf 5.63/He was 3-1/32-inn/36-hits
SP-Jason Schmidt 5.58/2-3/30-inn/40-hits
RP-Cory Wade 4.86/0-1/16-inn/18-hits/10-runs

Injuries
August 12- LF-Manny Ramirez goes on the DL and is lost for the rest of the season. (Post concussion syndrome)

Minor Leagues
A-SP-Mario Alvarez - CAL pitcher of the Month
R-SP-Julio Rivero - PIO Pitcher of the Month
R-3B-Brian Mathews - PIO Batter of the Month

With our top 2 players on the shelf, we are going to have to overcome to make the playoffs and even win in the playoffs. Ben Sheets was signed to a minor league contract and not sure if he will help at the major league level before the end of the season or not. Hoping to sign him for next year too. Now to the final month and here's to a playoff push!!

[Dwight Schrute]

any chance you could post the standings?

[Barry Diamond]

2009 Dodgers just miss making the Playoffs

14-17 for September and October was not what we were looking for. Here are the 2009 Final Standings!!

[Barry Diamond]

And here are the final 2009 Los Angeles Dodger Stats!!

[Barry Diamond]

And here is how the Playoffs finished up.....

ALDS:
N.Y. Yankees over the Cleveland Indians 4-2
Oakland A's over the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1

NLDS:
Philadelphia Phillies over Milwaukee Brewers 4-2
Cincinnati Reds over Arizona Diamondbacks 4-2

ALCS:
N.Y. Yankees over Oakland A's 4-1
Philadelphia Phillies over Cincinnati Reds 4-1

World Series:
Philadelphia Phillies over N.Y. Yankees 4-0.

[Barry Diamond]

How Our Draft Picks Did In 2009!!

SP-Julio Rivero (R-1, 15-Overall) - 9-2, 4.53, 17GS, 91-inn, 105-H, 95-K
RP-Jose Nunez (R-2, 45-Overall) - 0-4 1sv, 7.14, 20G, 40-inn, 53-H, 35-K
SP-Clyde Cook (R-3, 75-Overall) - 1-8, 9.00, 11GS, 55-inn, 82-H, 36-K
SP-Cisco Rodriguez (R-4, 105-OA) - 6-3, 6.80, 9GS, 49-inn, 61-H, 26-K
1B-Domingo Mendez (R-5, 135OA) - .353/.389/.676, 2-HR, 3-D, 13-RBI
(Mendez only had 34-AB as he was hurt and will still be out another 5-months)

Not what we wanted from our high draft picks but we do have some that were picked in the lower rounds that had a pretty good first year.

[Barry Diamond]

OFF-SEASON MOVES !!

The LA Dodgers off-season moves were few as we are still strapped with big contracts from Manny Ramirez which we hoped would lead us to the Series this past year, and did not. Juan Pierre and Hiroki Kuroda keep us from making any BIG moves.

Here are the moves that we did make......

After the Series we found a buyer for SP-Ben Sheets as the Cleveland Indians wanted to offer him a contract for the 2010 season. We wanted to offer him a contract but he wanted too much money for our money-strapped team. In return we received RP-Jensen Lewis who is going to be a big help in 2010.

Nyjer Morgan also asked for a trade in the off-season so we sent him to the LA Angels for RP-Jose Arredondo. We needed to re-tool the relief staff and these trades let us do it.

RP-Wil Ohman (who just never fit in) asked to be traded so we sent him packing to Philadelphia for RF-Gus Milner. Gus hit .230 at Double A last year but he does have an upside that might get him to the Majors. Logan White, our scouting director does not like him much, but siad that our coaches will work with him.

We also made a minor trade in sending 31-year old LF-Dee Brown to the Chicago Cubs for 19-year old SP-Larry Suarez. In 2009 he moved from A-ball 1.69 era 5-0 in 6 starts to Double-A where he was 6.35 ERA and 6-5 in 16-starts to Triple-A where he was 4.66 era 1-0 in 2 starts. Good upside but will begin this season in Inland Empire at Single-A where we hope he will move quickly but he will not move past Double-A this year.

In the Rule 5 draft we found RP-Casey Mulligan with the 22nd pick in the first round. Of course, he has to stay on the major league roster or we have to give him back. He will pitch later in relief as we have other players that will relieve before him, but he has a ton of upside for this 22-year old youngster.

We found 1B-Gabriel Martinez as a free agent and we signed him to backup 1B-James Loney. With Casey Blake gone as backup at both 1B and 3B we needed to find someone. Gabriel signed a two-year contract for $400,000 annually. Last year he won "Batter of the Week", "Batter of the Month" and an All-Star Selection in the Southern League. He won't play much but should help when he does.

We also signed as a free agent SS-Marco Scutaro to backup the infield. He was signed for one-year at $400,000.

Ramirez and Kuroda's contracts come off the books at the end of this year. Can not find anyone to take Pierre's contract. We have a couple of players at Triple-A we are excited about. One of them is LF-Andrew Lambo. If he plays well this year (as we expect him too) he will be a rookie starting in Left for the Dodgers next year. Let's hope he has a GOOD 2010 season at Triple-A for the Isotopes.

The 2010 season is on the way................

[Barry Diamond]

LA Dodgers have a rocky Spring!!

May 1, 2010,

Spring training was not kind to the Dodgers as we developed several key injuries which helped lead us to an April we would like to forget. On March 23rd Rafael Furcal went down with a torn quad and is out for 5 to 6-weeks. March 27th Matt Kemp went down for 3 to 4-weeks with an oblique strain. On March 28th Juan Pierre went down for 6-weeks with a strained medical collateral ligament. We then got Matt Kemp back for 33 at bats when he went down again with a strained rib cage muscle and is not out for 4-weeks. So March and April have not been kind to the Dodgers.

HOT PLAYERS FOR APRIL
Manny Ramirez .327/.403/.703 7-HR/15-RBI
James Loney .385/.437/.462 10-RBI
Russell Martin .368/.478/.614 3-HR/5-Doubles/11-RBI
Andre Ethier .349/.517/.674 3-HR/5-Doubles/15-RBI
Jonathan Broxton 5+inn/ 0.00 era/3-Hits/0-Runs
Matt Harrison 2-0 but 4.24 era

NOT-SO HOT PLAYERS FOR APRIL
Blake DeWitt .197/.258/.230 0-HR/0-Doubles/6-RBI
Matt Kemp .182/.250/.303 1-HR/1-Double/0-RBI
Xavier Paul .194/.265/.258 0-HR/0-RBI
Chad Billingsley 5.79 era/2-2/23inn/28-hits/16-runs
Hiroki Kuroda 5.09 era/1-2/17inn/24-hits/10-runs
Randy Wolf 0-2/12.60 era/10-inn/14-hits/14-runs

Milestones......On April 30th, 2010, Manny Ramirez got his 2500 hit!!!!

Because of the injuries we had to call up several Triple-A players plus we also signed OF-Endy Chavez as he was a low cost outfielder that can help as he signed for $400,000. We are off to a rocky start with the pitching but Manny is helping out early when we need him too.