Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

Let's look at a couple of interesting facts for the Dodgers:

1) Of the 13 pitchers on our Opening Day roster this year they combined for just one start
2) The Dodgers played the first 10 days of the regular season without a backup catcher on our roster
3) Through the first month of the season the Dodgers have scored more than any other team in baseball

With a 17-11 start to the regular season the Dodgers are just a 1/2 game out of first place. I don't know if we have enough talent to make the playoffs this year, but I also don't think it can be ruled out. We'll see if we can keep up our strong play.

30-year-old Erik Johnston of the Marlins hit his 300th career home run this month.

[NYY #23]

After going 17-11 in April the Dodgers went 11-16 in May, but we are still one game over .500, one game out of first place in a three-way tie for third place. The AL West is crazy this year.

One of our biggest needs this year is a centerfielder. We really don't have a long-term solution in centerfield either. We continue to explore the trade market for that solution, but we have found the cost extremely high, or the return not what we are looking for. When we can't acquire the #65 prospect in baseball for five top 100 prospects the price is just too high.

Former Dodger Cipriano Castillo reached a milestone with this month with career win number 250. He's third on the all-time win list, 33 wins behind the career win leader.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers completed one trade this month with the Phillies, sending Vicente Romero to the Phillies in exchange for Russell Frasier, with the Phillies retaining 90% of Frasier's salary. Frasier is a familiar name from my Gator days, and still appears like he's capable of playing centerfield when healthy.

Our clubhouse has never been happy with Romero, but he is hitting .315 with 10 home runs this year.

In the amateur draft we selected starting pitcher Roland Nelson with our first round pick, sixteenth overall. I really didn't want to draft another starting pitcher, but I have a hard time not picking the best available player. In the second round we took a chance on shortstop Bryan Smith. He was a player I briefly considered in the first round, but there are warning signs and obstacles to signing Smith. Perhaps the biggest obstacle is the impossible signability for the Dodgers. He's also a little weak defensively, and maybe not a model citizen in the clubhouse, according to sources.

In the third round we selected closer Julio Barron, with second baseman Kade Campbell, and second baseman Chris Foley rounding out the top five.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers went 17-10 in June while struggling to fill our outfield. The Dodgers brought back Gene Sanders on a free agent contract to help fill in for outfield injuries. The Dodgers are in the thick of the pennant race though, just a game behind the Giants.

The Dodgers took a risk drafting shortstop Bryan Smith in the second round, offered him a very nice signing bonus, but Smith still intends to go to college. It was worth a shot at least.

36-year-old Dave Dillard of the Indians hit the 300th home run of his career.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers completed a trade this month sending first baseman Jorge Herrera and a pair of pitching prospects (Ken Smith and Manuel Javier) to the Royals in exchange for centerfielder Chua-kah Chen. Herrera is still 27 years old, but has never quite clicked. In portions of five years he's accumulated 0.1 WAR hitting .207 with 41 home runs.

Chen has no power, but is capable of playing all three outfield positions and is a career .269 hitter accumulating 7.6 WAR in parts of five seasons.

The Dodgers were 10-14 for the month and have fallen to 6 games behind the Giants in the NL West. The Dodgers had three players selected to the All-Star game - closer Jose Navarro, shortstop Tim Delaney, and right fielder Mike Williams.

Delaney also reached 2000 career hits this month.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers went 13-14 in August, and have fallen off the pace for the Wild Card, now sitting 2 1/2 games back of the final spot.

Joe Numbers picked up the 2000th hit of his career this month.

[NYY #23]

We finished up my second year with the Dodgers with an 83 win season, a three game improvement on last year. At times this year the playoffs even seemed possible, and despite just winning three more games I feel like we're set up much better this year than last. Our minor league system finished the year ranked second in baseball. 26 year old Gordon Baird is our ace in his first year in the rotation, and on his way to becoming an ace after going 17-5 with a 2.86 ERA with 208 strikeouts in 198 innings.

The rest of our rotation is somewhat a work in progress, but I'm optimistic that things will work out as our youngsters develop. For a group of pitchers that made one start combined previously they did will all things considered.

Our first decision of the offseason was whether to execute a $15 million option on David Julio. He hit just .244 with 11 home runs and 37 RBI. With a WAR of 0.4 I don't think he did enough to warrant picking up his option and the $2.3 million buyout plus the salary saved will benefit us.

32 year old Stephen Smith of the A's hit career home run number 300 last month.



Los Angeles Dodgers - 75-87 (.463) 25 GB
2078 - Los Angeles Dodgers - 80-82 (.494) 17 GB (Season Score - 526)
2079 - Los Angeles Dodgers - 83-79 (.512) 12 GB (Season Score - 470)

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers completed one trade to wrap up the winter meetings sending four players to the Knights in exchange for first base prospect Jerry Cramer. Cramer has not played in the majors, but I think he'll be ready this year.

Going back to Carolina is four prospects including reliever Ron Rodriguez, starting pitcher Jeremy Spencer, second baseman Chris Foley, and third baseman Jose Alvarado.

The Dodgers also agreed to terms with two free agent closers. The first was Juan Morales who signed a five year $42 million contract. As a 31-year-old Morales was 4-9 with 45 saves and a 2.79 ERA with 136 strikeouts in 93 2/3 innings. For his career Morales is 44-54 with 216 saves and an ERA of 2.90.

The second was signing 40-year-old Bryan Carson to a one year $16 million contract. He was 5-8 with 32 saves and a 2.43 ERA in 107 1/3 innings. Carson originally wanted a three-year contract, but we paid a little bit more to stick to a one year deal. If there ever were a pitcher to consider giving a three-year contract to at 40 it would have to be Carson based on his track record.

The Dodgers also announced the signing of LF Julian Gunn to a one year $6.9 million contract. Gunn hit .247 with 24 home runs and 58 RBI.

Our starting catcher Ramon Lupercio signed a two-year contract making $12.5 million per year with the White Sox.

[NYY #23]

Two players were elected to the Hall of Fame this year with Michael Gibbs gaining entry on the first ballot, and former Washington National Richie Bennett going into the Hall of Fame in his third year.





SS Michael Gibbs 97.8 (1st year) Inducted HOF
SS Richie Bennett 76.1 (3rd year) Inducted HOF
1B Oliver Osborne 73.6 (3rd year)
CL Roberto María 66.6 (4th year)
1B Anthony Webb 62.1 (6th year)
CL Tony Hodge 61.5 (3rd year)
CL Gabriel Valdés 55.1 (2nd year)
C Andrea Pometti 42.0 (1st year)
CL Dave Beard 39.8 (1st year)
SS Vinny Sánchez 34.7 (1st year)
CL Pedro Navarro 32.2 (5th year)
SP Jorge Cruz 25.8 (4th year)
SP Juan Galván 13.7 (2nd year)
CL Matt Simmons Jr. 13.1 (2nd year)
CL Gustavo López 11.8 (1st year)
SP Svetozar Grol 10.8 (2nd year)
CL Jerry Hale 10.5 (1st year)
C Edgardo Díaz 9.2 (5th year)
C Ramón Díaz 8.3 (1st year)
C Edward Widgery 7.3 (3rd year)
CL Bartolo Flores 7.0 (1st year)
SP Nick Bane 6.4 (3rd year)
3B Víctor Padilla 6.1 (2nd year)
2B Dan Stephens 5.7 (10th year) Dropped
SP Jeff Lowe 5.1 (5th year)
SP Paco Martínez 4.1 (4th year) Dropped
1B Luke Sutton 4.1 (4th year) Dropped
CL Dalton Ward 3.8 (1st year) Dropped
CL Stan Wagner 3.8 (6th year) Dropped
3B Brian Nolan 3.5 (1st year) Dropped
SS Johnny Hanson 3.2 (1st year) Dropped
SP Bob Everhart 2.9 (9th year) Dropped
C Tony Casillas 2.2 (1st year) Dropped
1B Curt Black 1.9 (1st year) Dropped
CL Jesús Rivera 1.6 (1st year) Dropped
C Matt Schultz 1.3 (2nd year) Dropped
SP Phillip Heller 1.0 (1st year) Dropped
3B Kenny Hampton 1.0 (1st year) Dropped

[NYY #23]

As the Dodgers wrapped up Spring Training we needed to either make a trade to get rid of Boyd Wade or release him. $13 million of salary is a lot to eat, so we tried to work out a deal. We worked out a deal with the Tigers sending Wade and minor league pitcher Emerson McGrath to Detroit.

We retained 85% of Wade's salary in order to get back a fringe prospect, catcher Ivan Estrada. Estrada is strong defensively behind the plate, but his bat is lacking. He'll provide some catching depth at AAA though.

We also brought back a pair of former players as we headed into Spring Training. Joe Numbers signed a one year $5 million contract and David Julio signed a $3 million contract. They'll compete for at-bats at first base and designated hitter.

[NYY #23]

April was a terrible month for the Dodgers as we finished with an 8-15 record. Our offense is sputtering, our pitching is struggling, and our defense is sloppy. Things are just bad all the way around. Sometimes a bad month is just a bad month though, and I haven't lost faith yet.

After starting the season 1-25 at the plate we wanted to demote David Julio to AAA, but we needed to pass him through waivers first. He was claimed by the White Sox.

Former Gator Douglas King had his career cut short with a shoulder injury. In Tampa, 39-year-old Victor Rojas picked up the 2500th hit of his career with 32-year-old Mike Cantrell hit his 300th career home run.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers went 13-15 in May, so things got a little bit better, but we still haven't gotten things on track this year. With our struggles comes a little bit of discontent in the clubhouse with several veterans requesting a trade.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers were selecting 19th overall, and in the first round of the amateur draft we selected shortstop Patrick Banks. In the second round we selected second baseman Julio Valdez and starting pitcher Dave Harris, with the extra pick because we failed to sign last year's second rounder.

In the third round we selected pitcher Donald Morgan with shortstop Dennis Lee selected in the fourth round and centerfielder Andre Love rounding out the fifth round.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers finished the month with a 14-13 record and are 11 1/2 games back in the NL West. I'll take our first winning month of the year, but it would be nice if we could put together a big month and get back in the Wild Card race. I do fear that we have too many holes that we won't be able to fill this year though.

Vicente Romero of the Diamondbacks hit the 300th home run of his career this month while former Dodger David Julio got his 2000th hit.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers completed three trades this month sending Alonso Avila and minor league 3B Antonio Huerta to the Brewers in exchange for catcher Andrew Walters and left fielder Michael Hanson.

The second trade was bigger sending SP Rudy Berry, closer Harold Parker, CF Chua-kah Chen, and minor league relievers Donald Morgan and Patrick Banks. Coming back to Los Angeles is closer Aaron Ruffin and 22-year-old centerfielder Ray Harvey. Harvey is the #29 prospect in baseball and I hope will be our long-term centerfielder.

Then finally we traded minor leaguer Arturo Agulierra to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for 1B Lee Gilliam. It was a deal for a non-prospect in exchange for an impending free agent who is hitting .260 with 15 home runs. Hopefully taking on a little salary will help us this year.

For the month the Dodgers went 14-10, but it's too early to tell whether are trades will help this year or not. Being just 3 games out of the final Wild Card spot gave us an opportunity too big to pass up.

Just one Dodger, shortstop Tim Delaney, was selected to the All-Star team this month.

Around the league there were two milestones - 33-year-old Alberto Gomez picked up the 2000th hit of his career for the Marlins, while 33-year-old Adam de Valk reached 2000 career hits for the Monks.

[mirrf]

Two week bump.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by mirrf

Two week bump.

Boy, where did the last two weeks go? I'm going to blame the playoffs.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers were red hot in August going 19-8 for the month. That put us 7 games over .500, 6 games behind the Giants, and 2 1/2 games up in the Wild Card race.

I'd love to say I pushed all the right buttons with my trades, but that wouldn't tell the whole story. Our additions haven't played bad, but it's been guys that have been here all along that stepped it up, maybe spurred on by a little more competition. Ben Morgan had a huge month at the plate hitting .354 with 12 home runs and 24 RBI, including his 400th career home run. Mike Williams and Darren Dooley each hit 6 home runs, with Matt Bell slamming 5. Gerald Spilborghs didn't yield the catcher position hitting .298 for the month.

We'll see what September brings, but I would love it if we could make the playoffs after such a horrible start.

33-year-old Jose Guerrero of the Padres picked up the 2000th hit of his career.

[NYY #23]

With a 17-16 end to the regular season the Dodgers finished tied with the Braves and Rockies for the final Wild Card spot. We'll face off against the Braves and hope we can take a Wild Card spot. Regardless, we did show improvement this year, which after starting the season 8-15 is a good accomplishment.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers would hit the road and travel to Atlanta for a tie-breaker game. Gordon Baird would be making the start, which is exactly who we wanted to be starting. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be Baird's night and he allowed 4 runs in 1 2/3 innings. It would be Baird's shortest start of the year.

The Dodgers would come back though behind not one but two home runs by Joe Numbers as the Dodgers beat the Braves 8-5 and are now heading to the playoffs.

Bryan Carson pitched 4 1/3 innings of shutout ball to pick up the win