Improved Playoff Bound L.A. Dodgers


August 27th, 2012
Dodgers get Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Nick Punto

Dodgers get Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Nick Punto

The Los Angeles Dodgers were able to pull off the blockbuster trade of the season as they recently acquired Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Nick Punto from the Boston Red Sox, and only had to give up James Loney and four prospects. The Dodgers are currently in the number two spot in the NL West, and only 3 games behind the SF Giants as of Aug. 25. The Dodgers have been in the playoff hunt all year despite having to deal with the injuries to star player Matt Kemp who is hitting .333 with 17 home runs even with the missed time.

Now that the Dodgers have added All-Star first basemen Gonzalez and starting pitcher Beckett, they should become the immediate favorite to overtake the San Francisco Giants and win the NL West. The Dodgers now have possibly one of the best offensives in the National League and have bolstered their pitching staff that already has reigning Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw and solid starters Chris Capuano and Chad Billingsley. Beckett has had a disappointing season for the Sox so far this year, with a 5-11 record with an ERA above 5. Hopefully the change of scenery for Becket helps him relax and play better as it did for infielder Hanley Ramirez who the Dodgers traded for earlier in the year from the Miami Marlins.

The other players involved in the trade that the Dodgers receive, Crawford and Punto, won’t have a significant impact for the Dodgers, Crawford won’t play for the rest of the season and Punto is mainly a defensive skilled infielder. The Dodgers will unfortunately have to pay Crawford’s ridiculously high salary that includes five more seasons and a total of $102.5 million at the beginning of next season. This will hamper their ability to sign players in the future with so much money tied up in current players, but as for their hopes to reach the playoffs this year and in the future, this trade seems like the right thing to do for the Dodgers and should help them make a deep run in the playoffs this season.

The second silver lining for the Dodgers is that they play in the same division as the Padres and Rockies who are both have a winning percentage under .500. The Dodgers have a total of 12 games vs. either of those teams along with six games left vs. the Giants, which could help the Dodgers overtake the number one spot in the West if they are able to win the majority of those games. However, as of now, the Dodgers are not only one spot out of the playoffs for their Division; they are also a game and a half behind the second Wild Card team the St. Louis Cardinals, who the Dodgers get to face four more times this year. Each game in that four game series could be one of the most important games of the season as it could dictate if the Dodgers get a spot in the playoffs or not.

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By Chris Cabrera
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This Day in MLB History!


August 27th, 2011


August 27th

  
1897 Future Hall of Fame catcher Senator Roger Bresnahan makes his major league debut as a pitcher shutting out the Browns, 3-0.
1911 At Comiskey Park, Chicago hurler Ed Walsh, Sr. no-hits the Red Sox, 5-0. The future Hall of Famer’s son, Edward Arthur, will also pitch for the White Sox from 1928-1932.
1937 Dodger right-hander Fred Frankhouse tosses a rained shortened (8 2/3 innings) no-hitter beating the Reds, 5-0.
1938 In the first game of a twin bill at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio hits three consecutive triples. His offensive outburst helps the Bronx Bombers edge the Indians, 8-7.
1938 Monte Pearson becomes the first pitcher to throw a no hitter in Yankee Stadium. The right-hander faces only 27 batters, thanks to two double plays, beating the the Indians, 13-0, for his 10th consecutive victory.
1941 Beating the Braves 6-4, Charlie Root, best known for giving up Babe Ruth’s ‘called’ home run, becomes the first pitcher to win 200 games in a Cub uniform.
1946 At Owners’ Meeting, a committee formed to study integration, which includes Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey, delivers its secretive report defending the covert color barrier which exists in professional baseball. The absurd reasons given to why blacks shouldn’t be allowed to play in the big leagues include an absence of skills due to inferior training and lack of fundamentals and the need to respect Negro League contracts, but another lesser known motivation may have been profit as revealed later in the report, “The Negro leagues rent their parks in many cities from clubs in Organized Baseball (and) Club owners in the major leagues are reluctant to give up revenues amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars every year” as well as the fear white fans would be driven away if black players attracted more minorites to the ballpark.
1951 Scoring all the Phillies’ runs in the victory over the Reds, Del Wilber hits three solo homers making it the first time in major league history a player has accounted for all the runs in 3-0 game with home runs. The 32-year old catcher will only hit a total of 19 homers during his major league career.
1955 In his second big league start, bonus baby Sandy Koufax two-hits the Reds at Ebbets Field, 7-0. Showing his future dominance of the 1960’s, the southpaw strikes out 14 Cincinnati batters.
1974 At Shea Stadium, Benny Ayala becomes the first National Leaguer in 13 years to hit a home run in his first major league at-bat. The Mets rookie goes deep off Astros’ hurler Tom Griffin in New York’s 4-2 win.
1975 At Candlestick Park, nearly half the outs in the Giants 9-1 victory over the Expos come via the strike out. John Montefusco, who goes the distance to get the win, strikes out 14 Montreal batters, and the ‘Count’ and his teammates reciprocate by whiffing 11 times, including the three times he goes back to the dugout with a bat in his hands.
1977 In an 8-2 victory at Yankee Stadium, Rangers Bump Wills and Toby Harrah hit back-to-back inside-the-park home runs on consecutive pitches. It is only time in baseball history the feat has been accomplished.
1978 By hitting his 200th home run, Reds’ second baseman Joe Morgan becomes the first major leaguer to hit 200 homers as well as steal 500 bases.
1982 In the 5-4 loss to the Brewers, A’s Rickey Henderson breaks Lou Brock’s 1974 single season record of 118 stolen bases. By stealing a total of four bases Rickey ends the day with 122 and will finish the season with 130.
1986 With one out in the bottom of the eleventh inning and the visiting Mets ahead, 6-5, Padres infielder Tim Flannery lines a single to center field where Lenny Dykstra comes up throwing to nail the runner trying to score from second base. Knocked on his back by Gary Templeton, catcher John Gibbons, from a prone position, throws a strike to Howard Johnson who tags out Flannery, trying to get to third base, ending the game with an unusual 8-2-5 double play.
1997 In honor of first baseman Jim Thome’s birthday, the Indians begin pulling up their socks to just below the knees. The Tribe will win 17 of 27 games en route to clinching American League East flag while sporting this new look.
1999 In a 4-1 Expos loss to the Reds at Olympic Stadium, Vladimir Guerrero’s hitting streak, the longest in the big leagues since 1987, ends at 31 consecutive games. The Montreal outfielder’s accomplishment sets a franchise record.
2001 In the Nippon Ham Fighters-Fukuoka Daiei Hawks contest, Michihiro Ogasawara doubles and tallies on Yukio Tanaka’s single breaking a 51-year Japanese record by scoring a run in 17 consecutive games. Indian Kenny Lofton (2000) and Yankee Red Rolfe (1939) share the major league record of 18 straight games.
2001 With his 17th dinger this month, Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa ties the National League record for August homers established by Willie Mays in 1965. Tiger Rudy York set the major league mark going yard 18 times in the eighth month of 1937.
2005 Jeff Kent becomes the first player to hit 300 homers as a second baseman. The Dodger infielder, who has surpassed Ryne Sandberg’s total of 277 last September, is the major league leader at this position with Joe Gordon holding the American League record with 246 round-trippers.
2005 After losing a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning against the Yomiuri Giants earlier in the season, Fumiya Nishiguchi (16-4) sees his perfect game against the expansion Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles go into extra innings. The Seibu Lions right-hander gives up a hit and has to settle for a 10-inning complete game shutout.
2007 Citing the need a fresh start, Drayton McLane, owner of the last place Astros, fires skipper Phil Garner and GM Tim Purpura. Bench coach Cecil Cooper is named interim manager with long-time team executive Tal Smith being appointed as general manager, also on interim basis.
2007 Jake Peavy becomes the Padres leader in career strikeouts when he punches out Orlando Hudson looking at an inside fastball in the first inning of a 3-1 San Diego victory over the Diamondbacks at PETCO Park. The right-handed fireballer, who fans 11 in the game, moves past Andy Benes who had struck out 1036 batters pitching for the Friars from 1989 to 1995.

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By Chris Cabrera
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Dodgers vs. Giants Rivalry Continues!


March 31st, 2011

The last time the L.A. Dodgers faced the S.F. Giants it was September 17, 2010. After a grueling game the Dodgers walked away with their heads tucked and a looming scoreboard of Giants 10-2. It was a bitter evening for the Dodgers. And one likely not forgotten as Dodgers Opening Day 2011 finally arrives. What a way to launch a new season! The Dodgers will once again take on century-old rivals and ever-so-hated San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium today at 5:00 pm. Broadcast by ESPN, each year Los Angeles Dodgers fans are clambering for their seats, planning their tickets months in advance. As a salty tradition continues, a glimpse into the history behind the rivalry makes the stakes seem that much higher.

The feud between the L.A. Dodgers vs.the S.F Giants is set back once upon a time when both teams were playing out of New York City. The Dodgers were then the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Giants were then the Manhattan Giants. The dispute was bitter as the Giants looked on their Brooklyn counterparts with disdain and disgust. And financially it was almost impossible to support a team based in Brooklyn- fans simply weren’t as interested! So, in 1957, Dodgers owner and wealthy businessman Walter O’ Malley decided to relocate the Dodgers. He is also responsible for the implementation of Dodger Stadium. Somewhere along the line O’ Malley talked Giants owner Horace Stoneham to maintain the rivalry between the infamous New York baseball teams. He urged Stoneham to consider also taking his Giants to California. Though the idea seemed ludicrous at the time, it was a decision that has proven lucrative today. Therefore, it seemed only natural that Stoneham would take his boys to San Francisco. After all, Los Angeles and San Francisco have always had their own rivalry; economically, culturally, and politically the two cities have been neck-to-neck for who has more.

To date the Giants vs. Dodgers have maintained an even balance where one fan can’t say to another their team is bar none the best. Each team has eighteen National League Pennants, more than any other franchise in the MLB, as well as six World Series Titles. The Giants 2010 World Series was their first since moving to California. And the Dodgers have not tasted such a victory since 1988. So as today kicks off a new start for each team, it is highly symbolic to long-time fans of the rivalry.

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By Chris Cabrera
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