The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants are, as of this writing, tied for first place in the National League West. They each have 49 games left and chances are neither will be one of the Wild Card teams, so this is a fight for one playoff spot.
As exciting as is the prospect of these old rivals racing to the end for a spot in the postseason, it is a little bit of an old hat. When the two teams played within the boroughs of New York City, they often battled for playoff positioning.
In fact, the 1951 tie-breaking playoff ending with Bobby Thomson’s home run is probably the greatest and most famous finale to a season ever.
And in California, the two bitter foes fought head to head and also played spoiler. Joe Morgan’s homer ended the Dodger’s hopes in 1982. The Dodgers blew out the Giants to end the dreams of a 1993 pennant. The Dodgers spoiled Barry Bonds’ 71st homer in 2001 by eliminating the Giants.
And of course Steve Finley crushed any hopes for the 2004 Giants by launching his walk-off, Division-clinching grand slam for the Dodgers on the last weekend of the season.
The next great chapter in their rivalry is a head-to-head postseason matchup. And the way both teams are developing, the potential of an electric new chapter of their rivalry is possible.
The Dodgers have a home grown MVP candidate in Matt Kemp, who exudes a superstar quality worthy of Hollywood and a flair for the dramatic. They have Clayton Kershaw, a Cy Young winner brought up through their own system. And with the new ownership led by Stan Kasten and having Magic Johnson front and center, they are willing to import stars and high caliber players into the fold.
The Giants have a fun-loving personality with great characters. Any team that gets All-Star performances from a guy named Buster Posey and another one known as the Kung Fu Panda (Pablo Sandoval) is fun to watch.
Add in their fabulously deep pitching staff led by perfect game hurler Matt Cain and they would have remarkable matchups with the Dodgers. If Tim Lincecum turns his career around, they will have the most marketable player in the game. If Bryan Wilson comes back, they will have the funniest.
To have these two rivals with these two casts in the NLCS would be the best thing for baseball in the current decade.
When the Wild Card playoff system was first played to completion in 1995, it brought about the attractive possibility of inter-division rivals playing for the pennant. And the when they happened, they were not disappointing.
The Yankees and Orioles met in 1996 and Jeffrey Maier became a celebrity.
The Marlins and Braves faced off in 1997 and Livan Hernandez struck out 15, aided by Eric Gregg’s wide zone.
The 1999 NLCS between the Braves and Mets was one of the wildest playoff series in history. It featured Robin Ventura’s walk-off grand slam single and Kenny Rogers walking the bases loaded for the pennant.
The Cardinals and Astros met in back-to-back NLCS in 2004 and 2005. It featured walk-off shots by Jeff Kent and Jim Edmonds, not to mention Albert Pujols series extending homer against Brad Lidge.
The Rockies and Diamondbacks were unlikely opponents in 2007 with Colorado streaking to the World Series. The Rays and Red Sox battled in a spectacular 2008 ALCS with a great Red Sox comeback cut short by David Price.
And last year the Cardinals and Brewers faced off in an unlikely rematch of the 1982 World Series.
But nothing could compare in terms of drama and tension to the Yankees and Red Sox meetings. The ancient rivals first met in the controversial 1999 ALCS where sloppy play and a few bad calls crushed the Red Sox hopes.
In 2003 and 2004, the two faced off for back-to-back, heart-stopping, historic seven game series. Between the Pedro Martinez and Don Zimmer brawl to Grady Little’s decision to Jorge Posada’s double and Aaron Boone’s homer, the 2003 series was monumental.
In 2004, the 3-0 hole and Dave Roberts’ steal, Bill Mueller’s hit, Keith Foulke’s clutch pitching, the bloody sock, the slapped glove and David Ortiz’s homer, the rivalry came to a mind-boggling climax.
All the while, clips of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Bucky Dent, Jim Rice, Ron Guidry and Reggie Jackson were shown to give the great games a historical context as well.
Since then, the Red Sox and Yankee games have seemed anti-climactic. There needs to be a new historic rivalry to play on the stage of a trip to the World Series.
That’s where the Dodgers and Giants fit in. These teams and their personalities and their histories on display in the League Championship Series could be the fresh rivalry that could come to a boiling head this decade.
Clips of the past could be shown. Old heroes would arrive at the stadium. And a great rivalry that spans decades and a continent could have its Aaron Boone homer or Dave Roberts steal.
And for people tired of the Red Sox and Yankees hype, they can have a whole new rivalry to be engrossed by.
Giants and Dodgers for the pennant. It could feel like 1951 all over again.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers were easily the most active buyers leading up to today’s 4 p.m. ET, MLB non-waiver trade deadline.
They pulled off a stunning trade last week when they acquired former All-Star Hanley Ramirez and left-handed reliever Randy Choate from the Miami Marlins for 22-year-old pitcher Nate Eovaldi and lightly regarded relief pitching prospect Scott McGough.
That move was augmented by yesterday’s trade to acquire relief pitcher Brandon League from the Seattle Mariners, which then allowed the Dodgers to flip relief pitcher Josh Lindblom and prospect Ethan Martin to the Philadelphia Phillies for outfielder Shane Victorino.
Each of those moves dramatically improved the Dodgers’ postseason odds and sent a strong message to the rest of Major League Baseball that the new ownership group in Los Angeles is serious about winning now.
But as savvy as each of those trades were—especially since the Dodgers surrendered none of their top prospects to make the moves happen—there was a glaring hole in the strategy executed by Los Angeles general manager Ned Colletti: he failed to upgrade the starting rotation.
There’s no question that the Dodgers’ inability to consistently score runs was the biggest issue preventing them from being a legitimate threat to contend for a World Series in 2012 and beyond. But there are four reasons why not upgrading the starting pitching could cost Los Angeles dearly.
One thing is for sure—the Dodgers will look to add one more quality starting pitcher to their rotation before the MLB trade deadline.
According to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com, the Dodgers’ quest for another arm to add to the rotation will come down to the Chicago Cubs‘ Ryan Dempster, Miami Marlins‘ Josh Johnson or Tampa Bay Rays‘ James Shields.
Given that the Dodgers will need to sacrifice a nice bundle of minor-league prospects to acquire any of their targets, there will be risk involved with any one that they bring in. That being said, these three are not created equally, and each has their own positives and drawbacks that they bring to the table.
Here’s the breakdown on all three and how they fit into the Dodgers plans.
Ryan Dempster
Dempster appears to be target No. 1 for the Dodgers, as Heyman points out that the Dodgers and Cubs have already been engaged in trade talks.
2012 Stats: 5-5 2.25 ERA 1.04 WHIP 83 K’s
Positives: Obviously, Dempster has been pitching at a very high level all season, Dempster would provide the Dodgers with a veteran presence and has been consistent throughout the season.
Dempster can’t overpower batters and his 83 strikeouts this season is very modest, but he keeps the ball in the park and allows his defense to make outs.
With the additional run support he would see with the Dodgers, his 5-5 record would improve as his other stats indicate a much better record.
Drawbacks: With talks between the Cubs and Dodgers coming to a standstill, it would seem that bringing Dempster into the fold may ultimately cost too much. Dempster has pitched the best of the three targets, but he’s in a position to have the highest price.
Josh Johnson
Johnson is rumored to be a backup plan if the Dodgers aren’t able to land Dempster. At 28 years old, Johnson provides a much better option than Dempster if the Dodgers are looking to add a pitcher they could keep in the long-term.
2012 Stats: 6-7 4.14 ERA 1.34 WHIP 105 K’s
Positives: The physically imposing 6’7″ Johnson is a powerhouse pitcher that can rack up the strikeouts. When healthy, Johnson is the kind of pitcher that can take every start deep into the game and has the ability to lead a pitching staff.
At seven years younger than Dempster, the Dodgers would be adding a pitcher that could be a force on their staff for years to come if they can get him to commit long-term.
Drawbacks: Firstly, his numbers are not close to Dempster’s. Johnson’s ERA is almost a whole run higher than Dempster’s and his whip is .3 points higher. He may be able to pitch more innings for the Dodgers, but his injury-shortened 2011 season still has to be a bit of concern as the pennant chase gets closer.
According to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com, the Marlins have publicly shopped Johnson but that they are also asking for elite prospects in return. With the Dodgers reluctant to give up their top prospects for Dempster, it’s hard to imagine they give up much more for a pitcher who is pitching significantly less effectively.
James Shields
Shields is another backup plan if the Dempster trade doesn’t work out, according to Heyman, Shields is 30 years old and has pitched for the Rays for all seven years of his major-league career.
2012 Stats: 8-7 4.52 ERA 1.46 WHIP 134 K’s
Positives: Shields may not be as physically imposing as Johnson, but he is still a workhorse of a starter that will eat innings and keep the Dodger bullpen fresh as the season wears on. Shields has pitched 200+ innings each of the last five seasons while posting consistently serviceable numbers.
If Shields can reclaim the success that he had last season, he is capable of putting up ace numbers, he posted a 2.82 ERA in 249.1 innings.
Drawbacks: While Shields durability is one of his strong suits, he has yet to notch a complete game in 2012. After posting his best season last year, his numbers have largely returned to the mediocrity that he has been known for so there’s no guarantee that he will be able to post his 2011 stats again.
Shields may ultimately be the most lackluster of the options but he would be a serviceable innings eater for the Dodgers, and he could be had at a relatively low cost in terms of what the Dodgers give up in a trade.
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As I followed the Dodgers game against the Padres last night, there was something slightly different about things, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
Was I glad that baseball was finally back after a brief hiatus? Possibly, but that seemed unlikely.
And then, everything clicked.
As Mark Ellis, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier stepped to the plate in succession, my feelings were clarified: it wasn’t that I hadn’t seen baseball in a few days, it was that I hadn’t seen these guys play baseball in so long.
It always seems cliche to talk about off-the-field intangibles or thoughts and feelings that can’t be quantified with an average or a number, but the feeling of knowing the Dodgers were healthy, finally, was almost tangible.
The confidence I lacked with Adam Kennedy patrolling the middle of the order (or even playing at all) and Jerry Hairston as our best hitter had become borderline difficult to bear. In fact, when things finally caught up with the “miracle team” and the losses started piling up, I wondered if this day would ever come.
Would the Dodgers hold Ethier out for an extended period of time wanting to play it safe? Would Kemp’s hamstring cooperate with and respond to the treatment they were giving him?
Well, on a beautiful Friday night at Chavez Ravine, Friday the 13th no less, both of those questions were answered in a way that sent chills and goosebumps down the spine of anyone who claims to bleed Dodger Blue.
As Kemp stepped to the plate and promptly smashed a ball into the left-center field gap, fans throughout the stadium held their breath to see how his legs looked powering into second.
No problem.
So as Kemp jogged into second, a universal sigh of relief was taken and the game continued.
While two runs are hardly enough to make fans believe the offense has returned from its six-week hiatus, the positives were there.
For starters, one of the team’s true unsung heroes (and least-appreciated acquisitions of the off-season), Mark Ellis, was right in the middle of things. Now with 29 runs in just 42 games, Ellis raised his on-base percentage to just under .370 with a monumental two-run homer that got the second half of the season off on the right foot.
While many will remember this as the time when Kemp and Ethier returned from injury, Ellis wanted to remind them that he had been gone for a good chunk of time prior to returning before the All-Star break. Don’t think the celebration of the return of the two Dodger stars Friday night didn’t light a fire under him a little bit.
Regardless of what it looked like, and it wasn’t pretty, I couldn’t describe Friday night’s game as anything less than perfect.
The stars returned, the Dodgers won and hope in Dodgertown was restored. The dominant first-place team we remember from a couple months ago is back—and, man, it feels good to have the band back together.
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There are many ways to build a winning ball club. You can be the Yankees of the last decade and shell out nine-figure contracts. You can be the Rays of the last half decade and build through intelligent coaching and brilliant drafts.
Do I need to even declare which style earns greater respect among the general fan?
It’s just something special to raise a talented player from the day you drafted him, through the rungs of the minor league system, until stardom finally strikes in the big leagues.
Like watching your own son blossom into a successful adult.
The Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers are one of the franchises that has always prided itself on bringing up internal talent to get to the playoffs. Matt Kemp is the latest in a long line of homegrown talent in Dodgers’ lore to reach All-Star status.
Here is the best homegrown player from each position in Dodger history:
As the Dodgers lost their sixth straight game Friday night (and in impressive 9-0 fashion), rumors began swirling about a potential trade with the Houston Astros to land Carlos Lee.
While insiders like Buster Olney and Ken Rosenthal flip-flopped on who was in the deal and who the Dodgers were receiving, midway through Friday’s game, it appeared that Lee was the likely target. In fact, it appears that the only thing standing in L.A.’s way of receiving “El Caballo” is his waving of a no-trade clause.
On the surface, the trade makes perfect sense. Lee remains a feared bat among MLB circles and plays a position (1B) that the Dodgers are desperate for help at. Furthermore, because of his large contract ($9 million remaining this season), insiders point out that trading for Lee wouldn’t require anyone of the caliber of Zach Lee, the Dodgers’ No. 1 prospect.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they’re quite giving him away either, which is where my worries hit high alert.
Ned Colletti + Dodgers prospects = Worry!
In fact, here are some examples of Colletti trades that worry me:
— July 31, 2010: Dodgers trade James McDonald and Andrew Lambo to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Octavio Dotel
Note: James McDonald, who was always among the team’s top prospects, currently has a 2.44 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP. Octavio Dotel appeared in 19 games as a Dodger and had a 3.38 ERA.
— July 26, 2008: Dodgers trade Jon Meloan and Carlos Santana to the Cleveland Indians for Casey Blake
Note: Santana hit 27 home runs last season as a catcher for the Indians. Casey Blake hit higher than .252 just once in four seasons with the Dodgers.
What scares me so much about the Carlos Lee trade idea is just how similar it is to these past deadline moves from Colletti. In the Casey Blake deal, for example, the Dodgers got decent production out of Blake, but the prospect they gave up turned out to be an excellent MLB player who made the Dodgers look bad.
The same goes for the Dotel trade. Sure, Dotel was a nice acquisition at the deadline, but to give up a guy like McDonald—who had shown serious promise—for a rental closer was crazy at the time and looks even more ridiculous now.
My problem with the Carlos Lee deal has nothing to do with Lee and everything to do with a lack of faith in Colletti‘s ability to work a fair deal for the Dodgers. When he’s desperate, his track record is far from reassuring.
So while the Dodgers will surely make a handful of moves over the next couple of weeks, I expect that they will improve for this season and hopefully make a run into the playoffs. Where the fun begins, however, is three years from now when we find out just how much they gave up to get there.
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The trade deadline may be over a month away, but time will move very quickly over the next few weeks. Major League Baseball will start to see which teams are contenders and which are pretenders.
While the Dodgers are a team that has been struck with the injury bug, they still own the second best record in all of baseball, best overall in the National League.
They’ve been lucky. Maybe you want to call it… Magic?
Either way, if the team is looking to play deep into October this year, there are moves that can be made to help cement their legitimacy. Unfortunately, those moves will cost pieces.
Here is a look at some of the prime trade assets the Dodgers own that other teams would want.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are in a tailspin, and they must do something to stop the bleeding soon.
After dropping the series opener to the San Francisco Giants 8-0 last night, Los Angeles is now in jeopardy of falling into a tie for first place in the NL West by the time the series ends on Wednesday night. The Dodgers are now 11-12 in June and are in danger of having their first losing month since July of 2011.
While injuries to All-Star center fielder Matt Kemp—who’s missed 38 games across two DL stints with an injured hamstring—and starting pitcher Ted Lilly have certainly hurt, it’s more apparent than ever that the Dodgers need to make a trade or two soon if they want to maintain their grip on the division and have a shot at an extended playoff run.
Both the San Francisco Giants—who are now within two games of the first-place Dodgers following Monday night’s win—and the Arizona Diamondbacks—the defending NL West champions—are starting to play like most predicted they would at the start of the 2012 season.
Neither team should be expected to take steps backward during the second half, injuries notwithstanding.
Yesterday I wrote a column outlining eight deadline possibilities for the Dodgers, but now it’s clear that general manager Ned Colletti cannot wait that long before making moves to improve the roster.
The Dodgers hope to have Kemp back after the All-Star break, but there is no definitive timetable for his return. Lilly’s return is not imminent, either, and Nate Eovaldi may not be the long-term solution, as he continues to struggle with his command despite looking good in five of his six starts this year.
Los Angeles knew that it had questions in both the rotation and in the lineup entering the 2012 season, and while their strong start helped to mask some of those deficiencies, it is now time to start plugging those holes in preparation for a second-half playoff run.
The addition of the second Wild Card spot in each league has narrowed the field of teams that are clearly out of contention heading into the July 31st trade deadline. This will create greater competition for the few players that are available via trade, so Colletti would be wise to start working the phones now.
The Dodgers can expect some improvement to occur organically once Kemp and Lilly eventually return. But that likely won’t be enough to hold off second-half surges from the Giants and Diamondbacks, as well as other National League teams that may make moves to improve their postseason chances.
Contact Geoff at geoff@popflyboys.com, follow him on Twitter @snglemarriedguy and read more about sports and pop culture at popflyboys.com.
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In an article written by the New York Post’s Joel Sherman, the trade market is starting to formulate with a couple of big names.
While the early litmus test says the likes of Ryan Dempster, Matt Garza, Zack Greinke, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels all could be changing teams mid-season, one that should intrigue the Los Angeles Dodgers is none other than Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez.
This is purely speculation on my part, but the addition of a player like CarGo would be an impressive statement on behalf of the new ownership group.
Gonzalez is on a cash-poor team in Colorado on the threshold of hitting the expensive years of his contract.
Next season his contract bumps up to $7.5 million before jumping in to double-digit millions in 2014.
Big money for a team like Colorado.
Small potatoes for the Dodgers. Not a need at all but small potatoes.
As Sherman says,
You would have to worry if he is a Coors monster, since his home OPS this year is 1.174 compared to .847 on the road and 1.075 to .787 since joining the Rockies in 2009. Also, there are questions about his motor — if he plays hard all the time.
The fact of the matter is, Gonzalez is a young stud that would likely be an All-Star caliber player regardless of where he plays.
For the fans, the outfield would be comprised of fantasy baseball caliber All-Stars.
Realistically speaking, this is a move that the Dodgers will not pursue. The money would certainly be wiser spent on a Cole Hamels in the summer time to deepen the pitching staff.
As constituted, the team payroll for 2012 is only at $97.3 million. If the Dodgers wanted to dream big… they certainly have the wiggle room.
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