Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

This was our year to finally get past the NLCS, and after winning 109 games thought we had a chance to win the World Series. Gordon Baird had another strong season going 22-5 with a 2.17 ERA while striking out 261 batters in 207 1/3 innings that could yield him his first Cy Young Award.

He's our ace, but acknowledging the small sample size he's 86-37 with a 2.76 ERA during the regular season, and 1-4 with a 4.34 ERA in the postseason after losing again tonight. While game 1 was a tough luck loss tonight was a clunker as he gave up 5 runs in 4 innings. Luke Clark and Mauro Ruiz each went deep in the loss.

I expected more than a loss in the Division Series, but we'll head home for the offseason after our 7-5 loss and try and regroup.

[NYY #23]

We had some decisions to make in the offseason. The first decision to make was whether to execute the $8.5 million option on Juan Morales, or buy him out for $1 million. It was going to be an easy decision to buy him out, but Morales decided to retire, saving us a little bit of money.

Our second decision was also an easy one. Buyout the contract of Weldon Johnston for $1 million, or bring him back for $16.4 million. Yes he'll be 38 years old next year, but let's look at his stats from this year - 3-5, 57 saves, 2.08 ERA, 82 K, 91 IP, 2.6 WAR. He'll be back next year.

Luke Clark chose to return to the Dodgers next season, and declined his player opt-out. He'll be making $27 million next year and is under contract through 2090. He hit .263 with 35 home runs and 96 RBI last season.

The Dodgers also hold a $16 million option on Matt Mills, who hit .274 with 28 home runs and 82 RBI. It was pretty easy decision to bring him back.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers had one Gold Glove winner, left fielder Ron James. Weldon Johnston finished second in Reliever of the Year voting. Darren Dooley was our only Silver Slugger winner, winning the award for third base.

Then the big news, Gordon Baird won his first Cy Young Award after going 22-5 with a 2.17 ERA this year. It was well deserved after a few third place finishes. He capped that off with his first MVP Award as well.

[NYY #23]

One of our major decisions this offseason is what to do about first base. Mauro Ruiz had an ok half season since his call-up hitting .245 with 12 home runs and 25 RBI. He's just 24 years old, and we were rewarded by Darren Dooley for sticking with him at third base.

That left us with some money to spend and we targeted 32 year old left fielder Quinton Coleman. He's hit at least 25 home runs 8 years in a row, is a career .305 hitter, and has averaged 4 WAR over the past eight seasons. He cost a draft pick, and $86 million over four years, with the final year a team option with a $2 million buyout.

We also added outfielder/first baseman Antonio Velazquez on a much cheaper one year $1.4 million deal. He's a backup that hit .252 with 16 home runs last year.

Then finally we welcomed back reliever Bernardo Davis on a one year $1.5 million contract. He was 5-1 with 2 saves and a 2.41 ERA for us last year.

[NYY #23]

Two players were voted into the Hall of Fame this year:





LF Pedro Martínez 97.3 (1st year) Inducted HOF
1B Pedro Torres 80.2 (1st year) Inducted HOF
SS Jesús Reyes 67.3 (2nd year)
1B Anthony Webb 63.5 (10th year) Dropped
2B Edward James 58.2 (4th year)
CL Tony Hodge 55.9 (7th year)
RF Neil Davis 51.3 (2nd year)
CL Gabriel Valdés 47.9 (6th year)
C Maurício Maio 46.0 (2nd year)
SP Kevin White 45.6 (2nd year)
C Sergio Beltrán 36.9 (2nd year)
SS Vinny Sánchez 15.2 (5th year)
CL Cristo Hernández 13.7 (4th year)
CL Dave Beard 12.9 (5th year)
C Dave Banister 9.9 (1st year)
1B Berto Chacón 9.9 (2nd year)
C Andrea Pometti 9.9 (5th year)
CL Julián Córdova 8.7 (3rd year)
3B Aurelio Vásquez 8.7 (2nd year)
SP Roberto Barrera 8.4 (1st year)
SP Jorge Cruz 8.4 (8th year)
C Norris MacBeth 7.6 (1st year)
CL Pedro Navarro 6.1 (9th year)
RP Roland Fuller 5.7 (2nd year)
CF Juan Salas 5.7 (4th year)
CL Mark Gibbons 4.6 (3rd year) Dropped
CL Tim Stanley 4.2 (3rd year) Dropped
RF José Flores 3.4 (2nd year) Dropped
C Brent Jones 3.4 (1st year) Dropped
SP Juan Galván 3.0 (6th year) Dropped
SP Ernesto Rodríguez 3.0 (4th year) Dropped
SP Jesús Cedeño 3.0 (2nd year) Dropped
2B John Splittorff 1.9 (1st year) Dropped
RP Michael Lyard 1.5 (1st year) Dropped
2B Reynaldo Pérez 1.1 (1st year) Dropped
CL Alonso Moreno 1.1 (2nd year) Dropped
SS Jamie Hutchence 0.0 (1st year) Dropped

[NYY #23]

After going 21-9 in Spring Training I felt that the Dodgers were ready for the year. After a slow start we finished the month with a 17-10 record, winning 8 of our last 10 games. One thing that I keep thinking about with the Dodgers is our window closing. That's hard to say about a team coming off a 109 win season, but we have a minor league system ranked last in the league, and not a single top 100 prospect. We've got a lot of money tied up in veterans, and our strategy of signing high priced free agents while losing top draft picks isn't a great one.

But I do think we have a good team, and I feel good about this year, so we'll see what happens.

36 year old Jose Guerrero of the Padres picked up career hit number 2500. 35 year old Bryan Yoder of the Blue Jays slammed the 300th home run of his career, and 35 year old Michael Bowman of the Brewers saved the 400th game of his career.

[NYY #23]

I want to begin in Cincinnati this month where Cipriano Castillo did something that hasn't been done in 70 years, won the 300th game of his career. I'm happy for the former Monk, who should be a future Hall of Famer, and is likely in his final year at 43.

The Dodgers went 16-12 this month and are 3 1/2 games back.

[NYY #23]

With a 18-9 month the Dodgers have jumped into a first place tie in the NL West. I feel like we have a good team, but I'll take a look in July to see if we can add a player or two to push us over the edge. We do have some payroll room, so we'll see what we can do.

32 year old Michael Saltines of the Astros saved the 400th game of his career this month.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers completed two trades this month. The first I feel a little bit guilty about since there was interest in Lee last year, but the Dodgers traded pitching prospect Jose Vazquez and minor league shortstop Dennis Lee in exchange for outfielder Dan Hardcastle. Hardcastle is the type of veteran bat I hope can put us over the edge. He's hitting .278 with 22 home runs with the Orioles this year, and last year hit .313 with 24 homers. Next we traded pitching prospect Paul Turner and third baseman George Sutton to the Angels in exchange for 2B Ron Lloyd. Lloyd is a free agent after this year, and we're hoping a change of scenery helps him out as he's hitting .224 this year.

July was a tough month because of what seemed like an excessive number of injuries, but things seemed to turn out ok with a 14-10 month and we're 3 games back of the Brewers.

Gordon Baird, Antonio Sandoval, and Darren Dooley were the Dodgers All-Star representatives this year.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers finished the month with a 14-12 record and are 3 1/2 games behind the Brewers. We do have the second best record in the National League though, and the third best record in baseball.

33 year old Samuel Harris of the Yankees hit the 300th home run of his career this month.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers finished the season strong with a 18-12 finish to the season and we finished just one game back in the NL West. That means an extra round of playoffs for the Dodgers. I hope it's not overconfidence, but I feel like we shouldn't have too much trouble in the Wild Card round with the talent we have on our team.

33 year old Samuel Harris of the Yankees hit the 300th home run of his career, with 34 year old Lou Hunt of the Rockies also hitting the 300th home run of his career. Then finally 32 year old Adam Koplove of the Carolina Knights hit the 300th home run of his career.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers will open up the playoffs at home against the Mets. We hold an advantage with our record, both overall and head to head, along with offense, defense, and pitching. In other words, we have no excuse not to win this series.

[NYY #23]

If we were drawing up the perfect blueprint for Game 1 it would have been Gordon Baird pitching 8 innings, with Weldon Johnston closing out the game for the win. Things didn't go perfectly though, but they were pretty close to perfect. Baird dominated with 7 shutout innings, allowing just 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 6 before turning over the ball to Johnston to finish off the final two frames.

Offensively we get a solo homer from Mauro Ruiz, plus RBI's from Matt Mills and Andy Jordan. Production from the youngest member of the lineup, and the oldest. Ruiz was one that I wasn't sure would cut it at first base. We spent last offseason fielding offers of first baseman nearly every day, with a couple offering tempting options that offered plenty of upside. Maybe it was the frequent offers that led me to doubt Ruiz, but nobody has tried to ship us a first baseman lately after Ruiz hit .306 with 36 home runs and 87 RBI this year.

Matt Mills is on the other end of the spectrum. He's 39 and in the final year of his contract. During the four years of his $66 million contact he's put up WAR of 5.4, 3.7, 4.2, and 0.1. In case it isn't clear from his WAR, he went over the cliff this year and hit just .214 with 14 home runs. There was a long debate on whether to keep him on the postseason roster this year.

Which is a long way of saying both came through in our 3-0 win today.

[NYY #23]

While pitching carried us in Game 1, it was our offense that carried us in Game 2. The Dodgers went deep four times in our 12-5 win with Darren Dooley driving in 4 runs on 2 homers. Matt Mills added a three run shot, and Mauro Ruiz added a two run shot.

Antonio Sandoval picked up the win with a shaky 5 2/3 innings, allowing 4 runs on 6 hits. Eduardo Salgado earned the save after allowing 1 run over the final 3 1/3 innings. With the win the Dodgers are now one win away from heading back to the Division Series.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers are heading to the Division Series after knocking off the Mets 6-3 to complete the sweep. Chris Moss picked up the win with 7 1/3 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits while striking out 8.

Rob Adams and Ray Harvey each went deep for the Dodgers, who will now wait for our next opponent.

[NYY #23]

Next up for the Dodgers is the Cubs, a team that won 6 games less than us during the regular season, but we split our season series with the Cubs. The Cubs have a slight offensive advantage, while the Dodgers have a big advantage with pitching and defense. That usually makes a difference in a short series, but I don't have a good feeling about this one being the underdog and being forced to play more games on the road where we had a .457 winning percentage this season, vs. .741 at home.

[NYY #23]

In the preview I talked about our road problems, so there is nothing more frustrating than blowing a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the eighth to send the game to extra innings. Luckily a Ron James solo homer in the 11th was all the Dodgers needed to take Game 1 by a score of 4-3.

Bernardo Davis picked up the win with an inning and 2/3 shutout innings, as the third pitcher into the game. Antonio Sandoval was the starter and pitched 7 innings of 2 run ball, while Weldon Johnston blew a save while giving up 1 run in 2 1/3 innings.

Mauro Ruiz had 3 hits at the plate today, and drove in a pair of runs.

While it all could be a coincidence I'm starting to feel like this could be our year. It's those little things that give you a good feeling, like bringing back Davis on a one year contract, then having him win a game in the playoffs. So in the course of one game I went from thinking we'd blow the division series to win it all. Stay tuned, my opinion will probably change after tomorrow.

[NYY #23]

Another day, another extra inning game in the Division Series. What a game for Gordon Baird though, who did his best Jack Morris impression to put the team on his back. 9 2/3 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts --- and the win. Rob Adams delivered the big RBI single in the top of the tenth, and Bernardo Davis recorded the final out in the bottom of the tenth.

But to even get to extra innings the Dodgers needed some heroics with a ninth inning pinch hit solo homer by Dan Hardcastle to tie the game at 1. That homer was just our second hit of the game at that point.

The Dodgers are now heading back home with a 2-0 series lead.

[NYY #23]

The Dodgers moved to within one game of heading to the NLCS with a 10-6 win in Game 3. Chris Moss picked up the win with 7 2/3 innings, allowing 10 hits on 5 runs, with Weldon Johnston picking up his second save.

Matt Mills and Darren Dooley each hit two run homers for the Dodgers in our win.

[NYY #23]

With the Dodgers trailing 3-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth our offense came alive. With one out Luke Clark, Mike Williams, Dan Hardcastle, and Antonio Velazquez hit consecutive singles, followed by a bases loaded walk by Andy Jordan, and sacrifice fly by Ray Harvey.

Just like that the Dodgers were up 4-3 and Walter Johnston came into the game in the bottom of the ninth to preserve our victory as the Dodgers head back to the NLCS.

Eduardo Salgado picked up the win with 2 innings of relief of Sherman Miller who left the game with a no-decision after pitching 6 innings and allowing 3 runs.

The Dodgers did lose both Matt Mills and Ron Lloyd to injury in the game.