It's time for Dodger Baseball! ('82-'94 Complete)--OOTP 17-23 Alt History - Page 2

PilotMan · 05-04-2017, 10:05 PM

Alright. On to the offseason.

Thanks guys, that sweep smarts. Even still.

1984 Post Season and Awards

First order of business for the Dodgers is to get Lasorda signed to a 4-year extension. That's great for LA. Good choice. Pitching coach Jordan Aviles gets a 2-year contract.

Burt Hooton, Andre Thornton and Bobby Grich are all heading to free agency this off season. Hooton didn't get his contract vested and the team bought out both Thornton and Grich. That frees up some space so the team can maneuver and bring in guys if they want to.

AL Gold Glove Winners
P Bert Blyleven – NYY
C Alex Trevino – BAL
1B Dave Bergman – CHI
2B Glenn Hubbard – NYY
3B Buddy Bell – TEX
SS Cal Ripken Jr – BAL
LF Bob Skube – CLE
CF Jerry Mumphery – DET
RF Mike Davis – OAK

NL Gold Glove Winners
P Walt Terrell – NYM
C Tony Pena – PIT
1B Steve Balboni – PHI
2B Danny Tartabull – CIN
3B Luis Salazar – SD
SS Ozzie Smith – STL
LF Dan Gladden – PIT
CF Chet Lemon – PIT
RF Tony Gwynn – SD

AL Rolaids Reliever of the Year
Willie Hernandez – DET (9-4, 28S, 2.25 ERA)

NL Rolaids Reliever of the Year
Tom Niedenfeur – LAD (9-2, 33S, 1.19 ERA)

Ex Dodger Ted Power was 3^rd in voting for Cincy.

AL Silver Slugger
C Carlton Fisk – NYY
1B Eddie Murray – BAL
2B Tim Teufel – MIN
3B George Brett – KC
SS Cal Ripken Jr. - BAL
LF Jim Rice – BOS
CF Brett Butler – NYY
RF Jack Clark – SEA
DH Kent Hrbek – MIN

NL Silver Slugger
P Fernando Valenzuela – LAD
C Gary Carter – MON
1B Leon Durham – CHI
2B Lou Whitaker – MON
3B Pedro Guerrero – PHI
SS Robin Yount – MON
LF Tim Raines – MON
CF Dale Murphy – HOU
RF Andre Dawson – MON

The Expos had FIVE FREAKING Silver Sluggers! WOW!

AL Rookie of the Year
3B Jim Presley – SEA - (.301/26/100)

NL Rookie of the Year
C Floyd Rayford – CIN - (.292/7/80)

AL Manager of the Year
Bobby Cox – TOR

NL Manager of the Year
Jim Fanning – MON

AL Cy Young Winner
Frank Viola – MIN (21-7, 2.63 ERA)

NL Cy Young Winner
John Candelaria – MON (20-2, 1.93 ERA)

Alejandro Pena finished as the runner up.

AL MVP
Frank Viola – MIN

Hrbek was 2^nd in voting.

NL MVP
Alejandro Pena – LAD (19-6, 2.01 ERA)

Ok, that's just plain odd. I'm going to mark this down to the fact that Pena beat him in WAR, and hit 2 homers on the season. That's the only thing I can think. Candelaria clearly had a better pitching year, but Pena wins the MVP and the Candy man comes in second. Not sure this is a situation that we'll see ever again. The top hitter was Hawk Dawson, again for the Expos. They just killed this year.

PilotMan · 05-05-2017, 11:51 AM

1985 Opening Day Roster

Starting Rotation
L Fernando Valenzuela (20-10, 2.75)
R Rick Rhoden (16-9, 2.99)
L Frank Tanana (15-9, 3.07)
R Dennis Eckersley (8-1, 3.00)
L Jerry Reuss (0-2, 4.35)

This team has a lot of options for starters. It's a little surprising to see that Reuss gets the nod over the rest of the guys in the bullpen, but pending his effectiveness at least there are other options. Valenzuela and Rhoden make a really good 1-2 combo. Tanana is a prototypical #3 starter and Eck is easily #3 caliber. Reuss is really nothing more than a 5 starter on this rotation. The big shocker is that 1984 MVP Alejandro Pena is nowhere to be found.

Bullpen
R Jim Beattie (19-4, 2.61)
R Milt Wilcox (17-8, 2.55)
R John Denny (1-0, 5.57)

R Alejandro Pena (19-6, 2.01)
L Steve Howe (1-3, 3.66)

R Tom Niedenfeur (9-2, 33S, 1.19)

No other team can match the number of wins from last year in their bullpen that we have. Too bad that doesn't count for anything at all. At 1Mil per year, John Denny continues to be the most expensive middle reliever in baseball. Pena and Howe will set up Niedenfuer this year. That could be a very good pairing. The addition of Jim Beattie seems to be a waste with him buried in the bullpen. Only 1 lefty in the bullpen, and you know John Franco is in AAA just waiting to make his mark on the team. Let's hope he doesn't get traded for another middle infielder.

Catcher
Mike Scioscia (.278/8/48)
Buck Martinez (.208/2/23)

Same guys as last year. Scioscia is an above average contact hitter who doesn't strike out much, and a good defender. Martinez is not an embarrassment, and is also a good defender. No competition here who the starter is when Scioscia got his big contract.

First Base
Sid Bream (.352/2/12)
Andre Thornton (.305/1/10)

Bream is first on the depth chart and had a very good year last year between AAA and the majors. He's a decent defender with above average skills. Thornton is a massive liability in the field and he's closing in on 36. He isn't even listed as the #2 first baseman. Not sure, other than a big bat off the bench, what he's doing with the team. Greg Brock was designated and placed on waivers. Stubbs will back up Bream for now.

Second Base
Willie Randolph (.335/6/46)
Frank White (.256/7/34)

Randolph was the most important piece of the offense last year with his ability to get on base. His defense was also stellar at second. He is in no danger of losing his job anytime soon. Frank White is coming off of an injury filled season. He is good in the field and is a good vet bat off the bench.

Third Base
Graig Nettles (.272/18/72)
Toby Harrah (.194/1/3)

This is the old guy position. Nettles is 40 and Harrah is 36. Lasorda is set to platoon them for now with Nettles sitting against lefties. Neither guy is going to hit for high average, and with Harrah we lose a lot of power when he's playing. Nettles is only averaging 15 homers per year for the last 3 years so you'd expect that to drop a litte for this year. I'm wondering if keeping Grich might have been the better option.

Shortstop
Roy Smalley (.226/11/63)

The only shortstop on the roster, Smalley saw his productivity drop off significantly last season. He is a below average short stop in the field, but even with that, he's still dangerous with the bat. I'm hoping that last year was a bit of an aberration. Tony Phillips who was nearly useless last year was optioned to AAA to start the year.

Left Field
Mike Marshall (.275/18/55)

Marshall has a lot of power, but will he stay healthy enough to play much? He also might split time with Ron Kittle, who was the AAA MVP last year (duh? That man was on fire!) Kittle is on the DL with tendinitis to start the year, but he should be called up when he's healthy. Both guys are similar and can hit the ball a mile, strike out a lot, struggle with injuries, and field questionably. Not having George Foster to suck up at bats should help both guys.

Center Field
Dwayne Murphy (.278/23/88)
Franklin Stubbs (.274/12/34)

Murphy didn't bring as much pop to the club as we had hoped. He didn't even get close to the 30 HR mark that was expected. His defense was outstanding however, and he easily holds down the starting spot this year. Stubbs is the primary backup at all 3 outfield positions as well as first base, so we can expect to see him playing quite a bit this year.

Right Field
Dwight Evans (.291/29/108)
Tony Brewer (.333/0/1)

Evans carried the team early last year, then just kind of disappeared. His power dropped off quite a bit playing in LA, which always seems to happen to sluggers who come here, but he hit for 20 points higher in average than the previous year. Brewer starts the year on the roster, but figures to go away in a couple weeks when Kittle comes back.

Notable Absences
Steve Sax. Guy hits .303 his rookie year and then .347 in AAA last year and he can't make the team? And they have so little faith that they go out and get Frank White? He's one of the best contact hitters on the team and he can't make the roster. Trade him for some value, or play him, please, before he can't throw to first any more.

Tony Phillips. Not that shocking. I have a feeling that he'll show up on the roster simply because he can play short stop and the other infield positions. Not likely to make an impact either way after his tenure here last year.

Scotti Madison. Once the top prospect for the team can't make the team as a catcher and they bring Buck Martinez back instead. That can't bode well for his future.

Brian Holton. Tore his UCL last year so he only threw 10 innings at AA. Still one of the better arms in the bullpen once he gets healthy. He was lost in the Rule 5 draft to the Brewers but didn't make the team and came back.

John Franco. Saw a little bit of playing time down the stretch and is now in his final option year. If the team needs another lefty in the bullpen he'll be the first to get the callup. Had 22 saves in AAA last year with a 0.90 ERA. He really needs to step it up this year because this team needs some young help. Could be playing if the team would unload some of it's starters and move them out of the pen.

Kelly Downs. Won 16 games in AAA last year is still only 24. The problem is that there are so many, many arms ahead of him on the club it's going to be hard to get that spot without some big things happening. He still has 1 more option year so it's not as important as it is for Franco.

Greg Brock, Jim Pankovits, UL Washington, Ricky Wright were all designated and placed on waivers. Brock is the only one of that group that's modestly surprising. He hit 3 homers in 17 at bats for us last year, but he hasn't really shined nor been the impact player that he needed to be to win the first base job.

It's time now, FOR DODGERS BASEBALL!

PilotMan · 05-09-2017, 12:41 AM

4/9 1-0 W over the Astros
Opening day on the road in Houston. Valenzuela and Ryan go toe to toe and neither blinks. Valenzuela had to work a little harder, scattering 7 and walking 4, while Ryan struck out 9 with 1 walk. The bottom of the 9^th saw a young Barry Larking strike out in his Major League debut against Valenzuela. LA would get to the bullpen in the 10^th when they would load the bases for Scioscia who hit a short, difficult grounder to short and somehow legged out the single that allowed the run to score. Niedenfeuer (1-0) got the win, and Pena came on and retired the side in order for the save.

Greg Brock was claimed off of waivers by the Indians. He's still waiting for his assignment.

4/10 9-1 L to the Astros
Rhoden (0-1) pitched great until the Astros got to him in the 5^th, then they put up 7 and that started the run. Our only run came on a Randolph double, that followed a steal of third and a throwing error. Milt Wilcox struck out the side in the 8^th, and that was the best that we had going for us. Jim Beattie made his debut and gave up a homer to Bill Madlock on his third pitch in Dodger blue. Tony Bernazard is leading off and playing second for the Astros, and made us pay going 2-5, with a run and an RBI.

4/11 11-5 W over the Astros
Another big hitting game for both teams. Tanana (1-0) was pitching great until Tony Bernazard made us pay again with a 3-run homer in the 7^th to cut the lead to 3. He ended up 3-5. The big story though was the hitting of Mike Scioscia and Sid Bream. These lefties combined for 7-9, 5 runs, 7 RBI, and a walk. Both men had a double and triple. A nice surprise for the faithful if they stay hot.

4/12 9-4 W over the Giants
Eckersley (1-0) got his first start of the year and served up 5 straight hits and 4 runs in the first. LA answered against Bannister with 5 straight hits of their own and put up a 5 spot in the bottom of the first which changed the nature of the game. I don't even know where to start, everyone hit everything except Smalley and Eck. Dwight Evans and Mike Scioscia each hit their first home runs of the year. Eck struck out 7 in 7.

4/13 6-5 W over the Giants
The starting pitching didn't have the greatest week, but Lasorda was sticking with his men. Even with all the bullpen help his starters are expected to work out of their own jams. LA trailed for the entire game until the bottom of the 7^th. Stubbs lead off the inning with a pinch hit homer to cut into it, and then soon we had a 4 run inning. Mike Marshall went 3-4 with 3 rbi's and his first homer to match Stubbs, who was pinch hitting.

4/14 6-0 W over the Giants
Fernando was on fire. He took a no-hitter into the 8^th when a Julio Cruz single broke it up. Chili Davis would get the other hit, and Valenzuela (1-0) walked 3, but struck out 12. He also ran his scoreless inning streak to start the season to 17.1 innings. The game changed on the 4^th inning, when after two quick outs a pair of walks and a passed ball allowed Valenzuela to knock in 2 with a single. The inning would continue though and LA would load them up and Dwight Evans would clean them off, in his second homer of the year. LA's patient approach at the plate helped too, as they were able to draw 7 walks to go with 7 hits. Quietly, we've got a 4 game win streak.

4/15 2-1 W over the Astros
A great pitchers dual between Rhoden (1-1) and Sutcliffe. Houston scored first on a passed ball in the 4^th, but Rhoden kept his cool and bore down. Bottom of the 8^th Dwayne Murphy, who is off to another slow start, kept us in the game with a solo homer (1) to tie it up. The game went to the 10^th and Rhoden stayed in, striking out 9 in the game. LA got a leadoff double from Andre Thrornton and got to third on a single by Murphy. After a Frank White strikout, Roy Smalley knocked a ball over the drawn in first basemen, Chris Smith, and Thornton came home.

4/16 3-2 L to the Astros
Tanana had another rough first inning against the 'Stros allowing all 3 runs right out of the block. Doyle Alexander did a great job shutting us down except for Sid Bream. Bream tripled and scored to get us on the board in the 7^th, then in the bottom of the 9^th hit his first homer of the year to bring us within 1. We got the tying run on before Don Aase struck out the last 2 to end it. /

4/17 3-1 W over the Astros
Eckersley (2-0) goes 8 allowing 3 hits and striking out 7 for the win. He was very strong throughout. But it was his bat that made the difference. After a Nettles homer (1) the Astros tied it in the top of the 7^th. Eckersley came to bat in the bottom of the inning and hit one over the right field fence to put LA up for good. Niedenfeur picked up his 2^nd save.

4/18 4-1 L to the Padres
The rotation already has been shuffled. John Denny (0-1) got the start and Jerry Reuss was swapped to the pen. Not particularly surprising considering the lack of lefties and their roles in the last year. Denny got owned by Tony Gwynn to the tune of an RBI double and a two-run homer. Young Jimmy Key (2-0) got the better of us for most of the game. Our only run came on a Frank White pinch hit home run (1) late. LA did bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Andre Thornton, but he grounded out to third to end it.

4/19 5-0 W over the Padres
Fernandomania is running wild over SoCal to start the year. He is straight dialed in. Valenzuela (2-0) goes the distance allowing 1 hit to former Dodger Bob Brenly in the second inning. He struck out 8 and his scoreless innings streak is up to 26.1 to start the year. LA got a lot of help on offense notably a Dwight Evans monster 455-ft homer (3) in the 6^th off of Ojeda. Scioscia, Bream, Evans and Murphy all had 2 hits.

Dodger prospect Kelly Downs tore his rotator cuff and he's done for the year. Ron Kittle is back off the DL and as expected, Tony Brewer has been optioned to make room. UL Washington was also released and picked up by Toronto.

4/20 5-3 W over the Padres
Rhoden (2-1) pitched into the 8^th, and pitched well in a solid start. LA overcame 4 errors today and it was the top of the lineup produced. Randolph went 3-5 and scored twice, and Scioscia went 2-4 with 2 RBI's. LA drew 5 walks against Dave Dravecky (1-1) who had only walked 3 all year coming in. Niedenfeur pitched the last 5 outs for his 3^rd save.

PilotMan · 05-09-2017, 09:49 PM

4/21 10-5 L to the Padres
Tanana got out of the first inning today, but he would lose everything in a big 7^th inning for the Padres that would see them score 7 times. Alejandro Pena (0-1) came on to try and lock it down, but he allowed 3 hits and a walk without getting an out before he was lifted. LA drew 9 walks off of Padres pitching today, but left 9 guys on base. It was an Ozzie Guillen triple that cleared the bases and opened the game up. Buck Martinez went 2-4 and hit his first home run of the year in the losing effort.

4/22 3-2 (10) L to the Giants
Eckersley got the start and went 8.1, scattering 9 hits and allowing 1 run. He got into trouble in the 9^th with the winning run in scoring position and no outs. Steve Howe came in and worked us out of the jam and the game went to extras. LA got a leadoff double from Stubbs, who scored on a Randolph single. Niedenfuer (0-1) came on for the save and quickly got Damaso Garcia and Rob Deer out. He had a 1-2 count on Chili Davis before losing him to a walk Then on a 1-1 pitch, Jeffrey Leonard put the ball in the left field bleachers and we walk off, shocked.

4/23 3-1 W over the Giants
John Denny (1-1) pitched a great game, and he needed to, because his defense didn't help much. The Dodgers commited 5, yes 5, errors. Every infielder and Stubbs in center committed errors. We were lucky. Sid Bream went 2-4 and knocked in 2 of the 3 runs. The first put us on the board when we hit a Floyd Bannister pitch over the right field fence for his 2^nd homer. Alejandro Pena pitched a perfect 9^th for his 2^nd save.

4/24 3-0 L to the Giants
Valenzuela v. Hammaker III didn't go as I and II did. The Giants scored in the 2^nd and 3^rd to go up and Hammaker dominated the Dodgers over 8 innings. Valenzuela pitched 1 out shy of another complete game, before tiring and giving way to Steve Howe. LA only got hits from 4 players, and just couldn't get the offense going against the talented lefty. The Giants newly acquired closer Bob Stanley, who we've had some dubious success against, had no problem finishing us off. Stanley was acquired when the Expos placed him on waivers. Don't feel bad for the Expos, their bullpen features a double headed monster called Quisenberry/Reardon.

4/25 3-2 L to the Padres
Another close loss. It's not been a good week. Rick Rhoden (2-2) started and pitched well enough except for the 6^th inning when the Padres took advantage of a Toby Harrah error. Luis Salazar (really? Again? What is it with this guy and us?) hit a 2-run shot that put the Padres up. Roy Smalley and Dwight Evans had a couple hits each, but all in all, this team is putting next to no offense up right now.

4/26 2-1 (14) L to the Padres
Ouch, this one hurts. Frank Tanana pitched his best game of the year and left after 8 shutout innings. He gave way to Niedenfuer who gave up a double to Gwynn and eventually scored, sending it to extras. The Padres starter Tandy Charley pitched 10 full innings and we couldn't do anything. In extras, Alejandro Pena pitched 3 good innings and Steve Howe (0-1) came on, but it would be another error, this time by Andre Thornton at first that opened things up. Former Dodger farmhand, Larry Fobbs, knocked a single that scored Gwynn for the Padres in the 14^th. LA had no answer in the bottom. April can't end soon enough at this rate.

4/27 6-3 L to the Padres
That's three in a row to the Padres, at home. Geez. Eckersley (2-1) got roughed up, allowing 10 hits in 6 innings of work. LA scored twice in the first but in the second it was none other than, yep, Luis Salazar again, who tied it up with his home run. SD took the lead for good in the 6^th inning when first basemen Pat Casey hit his first career home run. Pena got roughed up in relief, and we just couldn't keep up. SD had 15 hits in the game, and still left 11 guys on. This could have been much worse.

4/28 1-0 W over the Padres
We salvage 1 game at least, but the offense is still lost. John Denny (2-1) was really on his game and pitched into the 9^th before being lifted for Niedenfeur. I'd have left him in to get the shutout, he wasn't in trouble and he had 9 K's in the game. Niedenfeur didn't blow this one. Our only run came when pinch hitting Thornton walked, followed by a Toby Harrah walk, and then Roy Smalley hit a single, for our 2^nd hit of the game. We'd only get 3. W is a W, but this is still bad.

4/30 5-1 W over the Cardinals
Valenzuela (3-1) back on track. Eight innings, 8 strikeouts. Yet another game where we fail to hit a home run. A few hits here, a few hits there, and we scored where we could. Pitching set the stage again.

PilotMan · 05-09-2017, 09:49 PM

April Recap
LA went 12-9 in the month, good enough for second place in the West. The Padres, hold a tight 1 game lead on us. That series against us really put them up. It's early, but this team is struggling. Early on we were leading the NL in runs scored, but by the end of the month we are 10^th in average, 8^th in homers, and 7^th in OBP. That's some of the lowest numbers we've put up.

The pitching staff is on track. Either first and second in all pitching categories and first in defense, despite a couple of horrendous defensive games.

Our bombers aren't bombing. Dwight Evans leads the team with 3 homers. Sid Bream had a good April and it's good to see that he got the nod over Greg Brock. Graig Nettles is awful. He's hitting .100 in part time play with 1 home run. Roy Smalley not much better at .156.

This team could be super explosive, but right now they aren't doing shit. If the pitching staff can hold it together we might be able to get back on track, but for now it's just not working.

Best record in baseball? California Angels at 15-6. Not sure why, they are among the bottom of the league in offense, and pitching is holding them together. Former Dodgers getting playing time with the Angels are Steve Garvey, Ken Landreaux and Dave Stewart.

PilotMan · 05-20-2017, 09:53 PM

5/1 8-3 W over the Cardinals
Lots of hits for LA. Finally, maybe this means that we'll break out. Dwayne Murphy hit his 2^nd home run of the year and Dwight Evans went 4-5 with 2 RBI's. LA had 15 hits, and walked 6 times, at least we had baserunners. Rick Rhoden (3-2) pitched well enough, but wasn't commanding.

5/3 7-5 W over the Pirates
Eckersley (3-1) started, but only managed 5 innings. He spotted the Pirates a 4-0 lead when Ron Cey hit a 3-run shot. His 7^th and 4 more than any Dodger, and left down 4-1. A big top of the 6^th for LA got them back in it as they put up 5 to grab the lead. Murphy hit his 3^rd in the 5^th and Mike Scioscia hit a solo shot that started all the scoring in the 6^th. Bream and Marshall in addition to Murphy and Scioscia had 2 hits each. Niedenfuer pitched the last 8 outs for his 5^th save.

5/4 5-4 W over the Pirates
This game mirrored the last one. Tanana gave up a 3-run shot to Johnny Ray and another to Ron Cey. For the second game in a row the Pirates went deep back to back. So we were down 4-1 again. We answered with a couple in the 4^th but we were still down 1. It was all zeros until Andre Thornton came up as a pinch hitter then hit homered (1) off of Rod Scurry with Stubbs on base to give LA the lead. Niedenfuer, for the second game in a row, got the last 8 outs for his 6^th save.

Young Roger Clemens, at 22, throws a no-hitter for the Indians against the Rangers. He struck out 7. It's the first No-No since Charlie Hough last June.

5/6 10-7 L to the Cubs
Neither Valenzuela nor David Cone would make it to the 5^th inning. By then it was 7-5 LA, but Jim Beattie (0-1) came on and just gave the Cubs all the runs. LA still had the lead by the 6^th inning when Ryne Sandberg hit a 2-run triple to put the Cubs up. Mike Marshall went 3-5 with 2 RBI's to lead the Dodgers.

5/7 13-7 W over the Cubs
Rick Rhoden could only make it 4.1 before he was lifted. At one point the Dodgers had a 10-1 lead and then Rhoden allowed 4 homers. LA had 22 hits, exactly 1 of them was for extra bases and that was a Dwayne Murphy solo shot (4). The Cubs Bert Johnson was making his ML debut and it's going to be one he will want to forget. Roy Smalley went 5-6 and scored 4 times, Murphy went 4-6. In fact, it was a big hit parade except for Mike Marshall, he went hitless, the only starter without a hit. Wilcox (1-0) got the win.

5/8 4-2 L to the Cardinals
Twice LA had to answer the Cardinals and wasted a generally good outing from John Denny. Denny left the game tied at 2-2. In the 9^th Niedenfeur (1-2) came on, expecting that he'd shut them down, he proved me wrong. Curt Ford hit a pinch hit double and was knocked in by Tom Herr. Ricky Horton shut us down in the 9^th to hand us the loss. Niedenfeur has started rough, much worse than his last couple years. He's already blown 2 and taken 2 losses. The 2-time all star might not be one this season.

5/9 5-4 L to the Cardinals
Frank Tanana had another rough first inning. He allowed 5 hits and 4 runs and LA was immediately down 4-0 and had a big hole to dig out of. Most of the digging was 1 person, Dwight Evans. LA only had 5 hits all game, 2 of them were home runs by Evans. The first was a 2-run homer that got us on the board. Mike Marshall finally hit his 2^nd homer to put us down 1, then in the next inning Evans homered again to tie it up. Tanana wouldn't allow another hit all game. He left in the 7^th, having struck out 7. Alejandro Pena came and in the 9^th it was Andy Van Slyke that got to him, hitting his 6^th home run of the year to give the Cards the lead and ultimately the win.

5/10 8-0 W over the Pirates
Eckersley (4-1) pitched brilliantly, allowing 3 hits heading into the 9^th. However, after the second pitch of the 9^th he was pulled with some kind of injury so he couldn't get his shutout. LA battered the Pirates with 9 singles, and another where we had no extra base hits. We were also able to take advantage of 4 Pirate errors. Between Scioscia and Evans they had 5 ribbies and 4 of the hits.

Toby Harrah was diagnosed with a strained hamstring. He's gone to the DL and Steve Sax is called up.

5/11 4-2 L to the Pirates
Mike Scott (4-2) just crushed us today. He struck out 12 in 8 innings of work and his only mistake was a 2-run homer allowed to Graig Nettles. That was Nettles 2^nd of the year and gave us a temporary lead. Valenzuela (3-2) went 7 and allowed all 4, while sriking out 8. He was far from dominant though. Tom Henke came on in the 9^th and gave up a lead off single to Scioscia. He struck out Evans next and got Bream to fly out. Marshall got another single to put the tying run on base. Sax pinch hit, in his first apprearance of the year and grounded out weakly to second.

5/13 3-2 W over the Pirates
LA put up 3 in the 2^nd inning. Mike Marshall got us on the board with his 3^rd HR. Rick Rhoden knocked a double, scoring Nettles who had walked, then Randolph singled him in. Rick Rhoden (4-2) went 8 innings and Niedenfeur pitched the 9^th for his 7^th save. LA hands Jose DeLeon his first loss of the year.

Before the game the team got the bad news that Eckersley is going on the 60-day with a fairly serious shoulder injury. It's a partially torn labrum and he won't be back anytime soon. John Franco is taking his spot on the roster. He has option to stay with the team or become a free agent after the year. Jerry Reuss and not Pena, Beattie or Wilcox will take his place in the rotation. This is a blow.

5/14 4-2 W over the Cubs
LA put up runs in the first and in the 2^nd it was Graig Nettles going deep for his 3^rd of the year. Mike Scioscia hit his 3^rd, a big solo shot in the 5^th to put us up 3-0. Shawon Dunston went deep off of Denny to cut the lead down to 3-2, but LA managed to hang on. Denny moves to 3-1 with 8 strong innings. Niedenfeur pitched the 9^th for his 8^th save.

Funny aside – in the last week the Dodgers have signed Mark Fidrych who hasn't played in the majors since 1980, and Sparky Lyle, who is nearly 41 and last saw the majors back in '82 with the Phillies. The funny thing with Lyle is that wherever he was the last 2 seasons his minor league team won the title.

5/15 6-1 L to the Cubs
The Cubs break their 5 game losing streak on us. They get a great performance from Mike Mason (3-4) and a leadoff home run from Leon Durham (7), a solo shot from Dunston (3) in the 8^th, and the big one, a grand slam from Jody Davis (6) that just broke the game open. Frank Tanana (1-2) takes the loss. He struck out 7, but only could go 5 innings. He still can't seem to find his rhythm this year. Both Dwayne Murphy and Graig Nettles left the game shaken up. No word yet on their condition.

PilotMan · 05-22-2017, 08:25 AM

5/17 4-3 W over the Phillies
Shane Rawley had LA in control all day. He left after 8 innings of work with a 3-1 lead. Dave Smith came on to pitch the 9^th. The Stubbs lead off and grounded out, Frank White struck out and just when it looked like it was over Roy Smalley and his buck something average and 0 dingers, hit a monster 440 ft shot to center. That brought us down 1. Sid Bream stepped in next and he pulled the ball into the right field seats to tie it up. LA wasn't done there, Steve Sax singled pinch hitting, stole second (man haven't seen that in a long time here). Randolph hit a single into right and Sax came home to put us up. Niedendfeur pitched a perfect 9^th for his 9^th save to preserve it.

Nettles has a torn thumb ligament and he's on the DL. Frank White got the start at third in the last game and Tony Phillips was recalled to take his spot on the roster. Stubbs played for Murphy who is still out and no word on his timeline either. LA also signed Steve Howe to a 2-year extension, but the 2^nd year requires vesting.

5/18 4-1 W over the Phillies
It was Rick Rhoden taking the ball for LA today and he didn't have his best stuff, but he got a lot of support. Rhoden walked 6 in 5 innings of work before being yanked after 106 pitches. LA got on the board first when Randolph scored on a Evans single. Sid Bream then doubled home 2 more. We picked up another on a Kittle sac fly. Jim Beattie finally pitched a couple good innings and Niedendfeur struck out 4 in the last 2 for his 10^th save.

It's more bad news for the Dodgers. Murphy has a broken leg and it looks like it's worse than the 6 week kind. He's going to miss most of the season. We're going to have to get it done without one of our best players. Tony Brewer who had 3 at bats last year was called up to take his place on the roster. Stubbs is expected to take his place in center field.

5/19 5-2 L to the Phillies
The Phillies got on the board in the first off of John Denny (3-2), but we answered with a couple in the 4^th to take the lead. A rain delay of nearly an hour didn't have an impact on either pitcher and Denny was rolling along easy. Bottom 6, Wayne Gross, who was 0 for life against Denny hit a 2 run homer for his first hit and put the Phils in the lead. Pedro Guerrero would add another for the Phillies. More concern for LA as Pena left in the 9^th after feeling discomfort. We couldn't take Dave Smith down this time as he shut the door on us in the 9^th.

Harold Baines hit for the cycle against the Rangers.

5/20 7-3 W over the Expos
Hey look another win against the team we can't beat in the playoffs! The Expos still have the best record in the NL. Frank Tanana (2-2) got the start today and got the help of a big 4-run first inning. Mike Scioscia doubled in Randolph to start the scoring, then later in the inning, it was Mike Marshall hitting a 3-run homer (4). We would tack on 3 more in the 4^th. Right now, including the pitcher, there are 4 starters with sub .200 averages starting and our leading home run hitter wouldn't even crack the top 3 on most teams. John Franco made his first appearance of the season, allowing 2 hits in a scoreless 9^th.

5/21 7-1 L to the Expos
Rick Reuschel (5-2), an ex Dodger, put it to us again. We only managed 3 hits, and committed 3 errors that lead to Franco, who pitched the 9^th, to allow 4 unearned runs, on 4 hits. Jim Beattie pitched a couple scoreless innings and Jerry Reuss (1-1) was mildly effective over 5. Our only run came on a Franklin Stubbs HR, his 2^nd.

The good news is that reigning MVP, Alejandro Pena is only going to miss 2 weeks with some shoulder tendinitis. Considering all the other injuries, this is good news. Young prospect, Ken Howell, is called up. Although, his 8.44 ERA in AAA is less than inspiring.

5/22 9-6 W over the Expos
Valenzuela (5-2) got the win, but allowing 11 hits and 2 homers in 6 innings wasn't awesome. He's struggled quite a bit since his great first couple of games, but the offense got going and helped him out. Ever time LA opened the game up, Montreal closed it back up again. LA got a 2-run homer from Marshall in the 5^th (5) and a solo shot from Evans (6) in the 6^th. LA also drew 7 walks against David Palmer (1-3) who was pitched out in the 5^th. LA left 13 runners on, so it could have been a much bigger score and both teams combined for 5 errors. Both of LA's were by Frank White, who is NOT a natural third basemen. Ken Howell made his ML debut going 2 innings, allowing 1 hit and striking out 1. Niedenfeur pitched the 9^th for his 11 save.

5/23 8-3 W over the Mets
Rick Rhoden (6-2) pitched another quality game today, but he didn't carry the team. Today, that was Mike Scioscia, the #2 hitter in the lineup. Scioscia went 3-4, with 3 runs and 3 RBI's. One of those hits was a solo shot in the 3^rd, his 4^th. Only holding a tight 1 run lead LA erupted for 4 in the 9^th. The big hit was Franklin Stubbs, 3-run home run. Roger McDowell threw 42 pitches and couldn't get out of the 9^th. Rookie, Rick Aguileria had to finish.

5/24 9-4 L to the Mets
This Denny/Gooden matchup looked like it should have been a pitchers dual. Gooden leads the league in pretty much everything right now. Denny wouldn't hold up his end of the bargain as the Mets touched him for 6 runs in 4.2 innings. Sid Bream put us up in the 4^th with his 4^th, but the Mets answered with 2. Then in the 5^th Scioscia answered with his 5^th to cut the lead to 1, but the Mets again got another 2 to increase the lead for good. Tony Phillips got the rare start and went 2-4 for LA.

5/26 3-1 (11) L to the Mets
A pitchers dual between Frank Tanana and Jay Tibbs. Tibbs shut the Dodgers out for 8 innings then gave way to Roger McDowell. Down 1-0 in the 9^th, with 2 out and runners at the corners, Frank White legged out an infield single that scored Franklin Stubbs to tie the game. John Franco pitched 2 scoreless, before Niedenefeur (1-3) served up a 2-run homer to Kevin Mitchell (9) that ended it.

5/27 5-2 W over the Mets
At least we managed a split to the Mets. Fernando picked up his 6^th win, going 8 and striking out 6. The Mets scored in the first and the 1-0 lead held the day until the 6^th when Valenzuela, who had singled, scored on a Scioscia single. The Mets tied it up again, but LA scored in the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th. Mike Scioscia, who went 2-4, pulled up with an injury after a double. Buck Martinez filled in, and then hit a 2-run homer (2) in the 9^th to cushion the lead. Niedenfeur pitched the 9^th for his 12^th save.

Good news on Scioscia. It's just some soreness in his groin, and the team expects that he can play through it for a couple of days. We really didn't need to lose his bat right now.

5/29 4-2 (13) L to the Phillies
We used to win these kinds of games. The Phillies went up 2-0 early off of Rick Rhoden, but LA tied it up with runs in the 3^rd and 4^th and the now rare HR from Roy Smalley (2) in the 3^rd. . It stayed like that through 9 with Rhoden going all 9. After it was turned over to the bullpens LA couldn't get anything going. Ultimately, it was 2 unearned runs, thanks to a Ken Howell (0-1) error, that put the Phillies in front. Even with LA turning 4 DP's in the game, fielding cost the game.

Former 6-time Gold Glove winning center fielder, Gary Maddox was claimed off of waivers from the Mariners. Tony Brewer was sent down to make room for him. It still looks like Stubbs will keep his job for now, but that .194 batting average might cost him. Maddox hasn't seen any real playing time since he started for the A's back in '83.

5/30 7-1 L to the Phillies
It started off good for us. Willie Randolph lead off the bottom of the first with his first homerun of the year. The top of the second was horrid for John Denny (3-4) though. He would walk 4 runners, twice with the bases loaded and then allowed another on a wild pitch. He settle down until the 7^th when Keith Moreland touched him for a 3-run homer, his 5^th. Yet again, our offense is non-existent as Kevin Gross (3-7) shut us down.

5/31 9-3 W over the Expos
Good news/bad news. Good news, the offense finally got something going, and against Reuschel no less. Plus, this was against the best team in the NL and a team that's had our number. Roy Smalley went 2-4, with 3 RBI's and he smashed 2 HR to give him 4 on the year. Sid Bream had a good game too. He was 3-4 with 2 RBI's and his 17^th double. Bad news. Tanana (3-2) pitched alright, but walked 6 in the win, and allowed 8 hits in 7 innings. Willie Randolph was hit by a pitch and had to leave the game. He's got a bruised elbow and will join everyone else on the DL. Utility player Ross Jones was called up to take his place. Sax will take over 2^nd while he's out.

PilotMan · 05-22-2017, 09:49 AM

May Recap

LA went 14-10 in May, one of our worst months in a long while. Going 4 games above .500 isn't a failure though. It may be good enough to win the division right if we can keep that up. As it stands right now, after 2 months, LA is tied for first place with the Reds, with a 26-20 record. That's pretty far from where we were last year at this time. The Expos are riding high with the best record in the NL with a 31-16 record. The White Sox lead all of baseball with a 30-14 record. The World Champion Blue Jays are also in first in the East at 27-19.

So we have some problems. Injuries are piling up and it's causing some problems. We've got depth, and that's helped. We've got depth in the rotation....but. We're used to leading the league in pitching. Thanks to the bullpen we're 3^rd. It's the starters, 6^th, that aren't performing up to par, and losing Eck for the season blows. LA is 3^rd in runs allowed and our defense is 4^th in the NL.

Speaking of defense, having Frank White at third, and losing Dwayne Murphy in center is bringing us down. Mike Scioscia has become a wrecking ball behind the plate. He's cutting down 46.2% of base stealers.

But let's get to the real issues with this team right now, and that's the offense. LA is 7^th in the NL in average. That's a far, far cry from being the #2 offensive team last year. Those rankings just roll right down, OBP, SLG, (both 6^th), runs scored (5^th), home runs (4^th). We are worst in the NL in steals, with 13 team steals.

Sid Bream is leading the team in avg, batting .304, followed by Evans and Scioscia, .280 and .272 respectively. Evans' 6 home runs lead the team. As does his 32 RBI's. Here's the most depressing thing about our power numbers. If we look at the league leaders in homers, it's Bob Brenly (SD) AND Ron Cey (PIT) leading the league with 11. Over in the AL, Greg Brock (CLE) is 5^th with 10. Someone has to break out for us, or we're just going to waste away.

Here's another thing to think about. Looking back on the Ron Kittle deal a couple years ago, that sent away Mariano Duncan and Ted Power? Well, Kittle has 336 AB and 19 HR while playing for LA, since 1983. Duncan has broken through to start at short for the White Sox, has 400 AB, and 5 HR, along with 39 SB's. Ted Power finished 3^rd for Reliver of the Year last year and is the closer for the Reds. He's 11-6 with 39 saves since the trade in 104 IP. I'm starting to think that maybe this trade won't go down as a good one, just judging from the lack of playing time for the slugger.

None of that is going to put the ball in play. We have starters that just aren't pulling the load.

Starting with Frank White. He's hitting .175 and the hot corner is more than he can handle. Next, Mike Marshall. His .652 OPS and 5 HR are projecting to an 18 HR season. His defense is ok, but not worth that. If Bream wasn't playing so well, you could make an argument to move him to first and start Kittle in left. Roy Smalley is hitting .199 with an OPS of .575. Only 3 more years of that mil+/year contract. Graig Nettles, who was supposed to bring his old self and power? Just looks old now. He's hurt, has 3 HR, a .192 avg and .596 OPS. It goes on and on down the list. Players who we need to make an impact and who are failing mightily.

Our best players have been the standard, Scioscia (defensively he's a stud), Randolph (hurt now, but still drives the O), and Evans (playing ok, but we really need more from him like last year. A 9 HR drop in production won't get us to the promised land, nor will a team whose power hitter leads with 21 go far.

No panicking yet. We're tied for first and that's with our best players playing somewhat poorly. June is going to see the return of a few players, if they can get healthy. We need to try and stay optimistic, but it's clear that this team isn't going to run away and hide like we did last year.

PilotMan · 05-24-2017, 11:56 AM

6/1 3-2 W over the Expos
Valenzuela (7-2) went 7.2 before giving way to Niedenfeur who pitched the last 4 outs for his 13^th save. Robin Yount lead off the game with his 2^nd homer of the year. LA was able to answer in the bottom of the 2^nd when Frank White knocked in 2 with a double. Both he and Bream were 2-4 in action. Young Expos prospect, Andres Galarraga hit his 2^nd career homer in the 8^th to cut the lead.

6/2 7-4 L to the Expos
Jim Beattie (0-2) got his first start of the year and it did not go well. He was spotted 4 runs as LA opened up in the bottom of the first. Roy Smalley, who has been on a little hot streak, went 1-3 with 2 RBI's. It all went wrong in the 5^th with Dawson smacked a 3-run homer to tie the game, and then later in the inning young infield prospect Mike Greenwell hit his first career homer. This was another 3-run homer. That put the Expos up for good. All 7 runs were pinned on Beattie over 5 innings.

6/3 8-5 L to the Mets
The Mets abused Rick Rhoden (6-3) to the tune of 16 baserunners over 5 innings. NY built up an 8-0 lead by the 6^th inning and we slowly whittled it down, all the way until we had the tying run at the plate in the 9^th inning. Frank White just couldn't get the hit we needed to stay in it. Steve Sax lead the offense going 3-5.

6/4 3-1 L to the Mets
And the losing streak stretches to 3. June isn't starting off so hot right now. It was another Denny/Gooden matchup, and this time it was a dual. Denny won the K battle 9 to 7 in 2 less innings of work, and when you add in the 5 that John Franco got, we really did, but it didn't matter when we couldn't score off of Doc. Gooden moved to 9-2, Denny to 3-5. Steve Sax had the lone RBI and Mike Scioscia had 2 hits to pace LA. LA did get something going in the 9^th when Scioscia singled and Evans walked. That put the winning run at the plate in Stubbs, but he grounded out to end the rally.

Alejandro Pena was activated off the DL and John Franco was sent back to AAA. Franco pitched in 6 games, 8 innings, and struck out 8. He'll fill the closer role in Albuquerque again.

6/5 7-0 L to the Mets
Boooooooo. Jay Tibbs owned us again. He came within an out of a shutout, and pushed his record to 5-2. Frank Tanana (3-3), again, didn't pitch past the 5^th, allowing 6 runs. The only bright side was Pena, fresh off the DL, threw 3 shutout innings. We managed only 4 hits, 1 extra base hit, a double, from Stubbs. Not too often we hit a 4 in a row skid, but here it is. LA has dropped to third in the West, 2.5 games back.

6/7 9-6 W over the Braves
The offense woke up today. LA opened up with 3 in the first and with Valenzuela on the mound we thought it was going to hold. However, in the 2^nd inning, Frank White made 3 throwing errors and 4 unearned runs crossed the plate. LA clawed back on a Roy Smalley HR in the 5^th, and in the 6^th Dwight Evans finally hit another, his 7^th. A three run shot that would be the winning margin. Valenzuela (8-2) only went 6, walked 5, but pitched well without White's help. Ken Howell pitched the final 2 for his first career save.

6/8 4-3 L to the Braves
Tough loss. Rhoden (6-4) started against rookie Zane Smith (2-5). Smith went 8 and was large and in charge for most of the game. Atlanta peppered Dodger pitching for 9 hits. Down 4-1, LA got one back in the 8^th, and in the 9^th Frank White lead off with a solo homer (2) to cut the lead to 1. LA would get runners on first and second before Steve Sax flew out to center to end it.

Adding insult to injury, Sid Fernandez threw a 1-hitter for Seattle, striking out 10.

6/9 6-1 W over the Braves
It looked like another anemic offensive start to the game with Pascual Perez taking a no-hitter into the 5^th. But Sid Bream lead off that inning with a game tying shot to right. His 5^th. Look at this sequence for how Atlanta scored their first run. Brad Komminsk singled to lead off. He stole 2^nd, took third on a Mike Marshall error, then scored on a flyout. That's been our season in a nutshell. Stubbs added his 4^th of the year, a monster 444ft line drive to right, scoring 2, that put LA up. Meanwhile John Denny (4-5) was pitching well. He went 8 strong before leaving and Niedenfuer came in to make sure we'd take the W.

Graig Nettles has returned from the DL and Ross Jones was optioned back to AAA. That should help defensively if nothing else. Neither he, nor Frank White, are lighting the world afire with the bat.

6/10 4-3 W over the Reds
We get our first look at the best team in the West and get an opportunity to run them down. Jeff Russell kept us in check for most of the game. Tanana started, but was forced out in the 7^th after his 10^th hit allowed and having surrendered 3 runs. We had a big scare in the 4^th when Dwight Evans pulled up lame after a hit and had to leave the game. More on his condition later. Top 8, down 3-1 Andre Thornton, off the bench, hit his 2^nd homer of the year, to cut the lead. In the 9^th the Reds Keefe Cato (2-2) tried to lock it down, but he walked Stubbs to lead it off, and then Mike Marshall hit a 1-2 pitch into the left field bleachers (6) to put us up. Jerry Reuss (2-1) got the win. Niedenfeur got his 14^th save.

Dwight Evans has a tight hamstring and he'll be out for about a week. He isn't on the DL right now.

6/11 6-4 L to the Reds
Man, Jim Beattie (0-3) is really struggling. He struck out 7 in 5 hard innings of work, but he allowed 5 runs too. Eddie Milner and Danny Tartabull destroyed us. They went back to back, Milner's was an inside the park job and he scored 4 runs. A big 4^th against Jack Morris (5-4) brought us back. Sid Bream was 2-2 with 2 RBI's and we got back within 1 thanks to Stubbs solo shot (5^th) in the 6th. The Reds got an insurance run and put us away in the 8^th.

6/12 6-5 W over the Reds
We take game 3 in come from behind fashion. Valenzuela struck out 9 over 7, but served up 2 homers, one to light hitting Len Matuszek and the other to youngster Kal Daniels. He left the game with it tied at 4. Despite LA's 13 hits, again, only 1 was for extra bases. In the top of the 9^th we faced off against Ted Power. Gary Maddox got a hit, Mike Marshall reached on a Nick Esasky error, to put the go ahead run on first. Smalley singled in Maddox and Mashall took third. Sid Bream then scored Marshall on a sac fly. Sid Bream and Roy Smalley both went 2-4 with 2 RBI's. Niedenfuer pitched a 1-2-3 9^th for his 15^th save. Steve Howe (1-1) got the win.

6/13 4-2 W over the Astros
Rhoden (7-4) allowed 1 hit over 8, but got into a little trouble in the 9^th. Niedenfeur had to come on and close it out for his 16^th save. Stubbs hit a solo shot (6) in the 2^nd and Marshall hit a 2-run homer in the 6^th (7).

Willie Randolph was activated off the DL. Tony Phillips was optioned to AAA to make room. Dwight Evans is expected to be in the lineup tomorrow, so the gangs getting back together again.

6/14 6-4 W over the Astros
Big day for the offense. Randolph took his rightful place at the top of the order, and Mike Scioscia was 4-5 with 2 RBI's hitting behind him. Mike Marshall hit #8 and we made Nolan Ryan's (6-4) really hard. Tanana (4-3) went 7 and Niedenfuer got the last 8 outs for his 17^th save.

Toby Harrah came off the DL and was sent to Albuquerque for rehab.

6/15 5-2 W over the Astros
LA pulls off the sweep. John Denny (5-5) cruised through 8 innings and Ken Howell finished for his 2^nd save. The Dodgers went up in the first and never looked back. In the 5^th we saw back to back home runs from Willie Randolph (2) and Mike Scioscia (6). Randolph ended up 2-4 on the day with 2 runs scored.

PilotMan · 05-26-2017, 07:29 AM

6/17 5-4 (11) W over the Padres
The Padres are the new leaders in the West and this is where the new season begins. Jimmy Key and Fernando Valenzuela went pitch for pitch and the score was knotted at 3 going into the 8^th when the oddest thing happened. San Diego reliever Henry Warner, a rookie, had come and and was batting. He took the Valenzuela pitch and put it in the left field seats for his first career hit and home run. That gave the Padres the lead until the bottom of the 9^th when Mike Scioscia singled home Steve Sax who had pinch hit and singled, to tie it up. In the 11^th Stubbs walked, stole 2^nd, then was singled home on a Ron Kittle, walk-off, pinch hit to end it.

6/18 3-0 L to the Padres
Jim Beattie (0-4) had his best start of the year, but it was Bob Ojeda that shut us down instead. Beattie went 8, struck out 4 and allowed the 3 runs. Stubbs had previously been 0-11 against Ojeda, went 2-3 for our only bright spot. This snaps our 5 game win streak.

6/19 11-2 W over the Padres
Rick Rhoden (8-4) came within 1 out of a complete game, but he wasn't the highlight of the game. The offense jumped all over Tandy Charley (6-3). Sid Bream went 3-4. Both Franklin Stubbs and Roy Smalley hit their 7^th homers. We've cut the Padres lead to 1.5 games.

6/20 4-3 L to the Astros
Stubbs (8) and Bream (6) hit solo homers, and LA had the tying run on third with 1 out in the 9^th. Don Aase struck out the side in the 9^th to shut down the rally. Stubbs was 2-3 in the game, raising his average to .252, from the Mendoza line where he had been residing. John Denny (5-6) took another hard loss, but even his 7 innings wasn't good enough for us.

6/22 10-7 W over the Astros
This was a lost game. By all rights, this game was over. The score at the middle of the 5^th was 7-0, Houston. Valenzuela didn't even make it out of the 5^th. This team hasn't had an explosion like this all year long. Pena (2-2) and Niedenfeur (18^th S) pitched the last 5 scoreless while we scored 3 in the 5^th, 4 in the 6^th and another 3 in the 7^th. Dwight Evans hit number 8, Bream (7) and Nettles (4) went back to back in the 6^th. Evans had 4 RBI's.

6/23 5-3 L to the Astros
Frank Tanana went 7, struck out 11, but suffered the gopher ball curse yet again. He left with the game tied, but it was Ken Howell (0-2), the rookie, who served up a 2-run homer to Dale Murphy that cost us the game. Dwight Evans hit his 9^th homer of the year. Mike Scioscia, who has had a great June, went 2-4 in the losing effort.

Toby Harrah has finished his rehab stint. He batted .077 in 4 games. Sax, who batted .281 in 27 games was optioned back to AAA.

6/24 4-1 L to the Astos
Rick Rhoden (8-5) allowed 11 hits in 7 innings, and Doyle Alexander (7-6) allowed 5. Mike Scioscia and Dwight Evans had 2 hits each, which means that the other 7 players combined for 2 hits. Soooo, not a whole lot of offense or even danger for Houston. Back to back losses again.

6/25 5-4 L to the Padres
The first game against the first place Padres just kept our losing streak going. Jim Beattie pitched 6 innings and left losing. LA rallied to let him off the hook, but it was former Dodger Bob Brenly that hurt us today. Among the league leaders in homers, he hit his 17^th HR off of Steve Howe (2-2) to put the Padres up in the 8^th inning. We got a runner on second before Gary Lucas shut us down the rest of the way.

6/26 4-3 W over the Padres
LA built up a 4-1 lead after 2 innings thanks in part to Stubbs and his 10^h homer of the year. He's our first to double digits, and he didn't start getting playing time until Murphy went down with the injury. Mike Marshall and Toby Harrah went 3-4 and Marshall had a couple RBI's. Denny (6-6) went 8 and Niedenfeur got in trouble in the 9^th, gave up a home run and had the tying run in scoring position, but hung on for his 19^th save.

6/27 3-2 L to the Padres
We end up dropping a game in the series, which is bad news when we had dropped a couple before that already. Valenzuela (8-3) started, and went into the 8^th, but stayed in too long. Mike Scioscia had another couple hits, and has been the most dangerous hitter on the team for June. The Dodger killer, Luis Salazar is hitting .210 on the year, and has been quiet so far, but managed another home run, off of Valenzuela, that ended up tying the game at 2.

6/28 7-5 L to the Braves
We've dropped 5 of our last 6 games now. At one point we were losing 7-0. To say we got close is good, but seriously, we didn't win, so who cares. Jose Rijo (2-7) pitched probably his best game of the year, keeping us off the board for 6 innings. Frank Tanana (4-4) got the start. When Jose Rijo, and his 1 career hit, hits a bases clearing triple in the 2^nd inning and Brad Komminsk, who is hitting .156 goes 3-5, with 3 RBI and a HR, and you commit 3 errors, you're not going to win. Such is the '85 Dodgers.

6/29 12-6 W over the Braves
Man, the balls were flying out of Chavez Ravine tonight! LA scored in each of the first 6 innings to go up 12-3. Roy Smalley hit #8. Mike Marshall hit #9 and Dwight Evans had his first multi homer game of the year as he went deep with #10 and #11. Ex- Dodger Candy Maldonado also hit #7 of the year. Almost all of that offense came against Jim Deshaies in his second career start. Rhoden goes to 9-5.

6/30 6-5 W over the Braves
Beattie pitched the best game of his season going 7 allowing 2 runs. In the 8^th Ken Howell served up a 3-run home run to Braves catcher Mike Bishop that put Atlanta up 5-2. Jim Acker came on to close things out. Leadoff triple from Toby Harrah, Smalley walked. Buck Martinez became out #1. Willie Randolph doubled home Harrah. Frank White became out #2, but Smalley scored to make it 5-4. Evans singled home Randolph to tie the game. A wild pitch moved over Evans. Acker was lifted for Brian Fisher who gave up the walk off single to Stubbs that scored Evans. Nice comeback. Niedenfeur gets the win to go to 2-3. Greg Nettles came out of the game after hitting a double. Word is that he's day to day with a groin strain.

PilotMan · 05-26-2017, 08:11 AM

June Recap

We finished 1 game above .500 for June with a 14-13 record. Even worse than our May record. We did suffer some really big injuries that have big holes in the rotation and lineup (Beattie for Eck, and Stubbs for Murphy), so that's disappointing. As we head toward the All-Star Break and trade deadline you have to wonder if there might be a move here or there.

I have some real concerns for this team long term. The farm system isn't very strong. Once you get past a couple of pitching prospects and Steve Sax, there's is nothing there. Our AAA team in Albuquerque is one of the worst. So the idea of trading away what we do have there for a run this year is either a last gasp or else we try with what we have to make the run.

Eckersley and Murphy are both still good on the healing front. They might be back in September. I have to hope that we're still in the hunt. The good news right now, looking at the race is that we're in 3^rd, 2 games back of the Reds. Our division is the weakest of all 4, so with our 40-33 record, we are still in this thing.

The Expos are 4.5 in front of the Pirates. The Blue Jays are 3 in front of the Yankees, and in the AL West, the Mariners (with young stud, Sid Fernandez) are out front by 3.5 on the Royals (with young stud Orel Hersheiser). Bitter much? Yep.

Speaking of the All Star Game, we have 4 guys who are third in voting in their categories. Scioscia, Bream, Murphy and Randolph. Randolph had the lead, but he's dropped behind Sandberg and Whitaker now. Murphy is out, so he won't make it for sure. Good chance for Neidenfeur to go again, he's among the leaders for relievers.

Our overall numbers show that we're good, but not great.

5^th in Runs, OBP, HR and Runs against. 6^th in average. Starters ERA is 7^th and our Bullpen is #1. Defense has seen a massive drop. We lead the league last year, now we're 9^th out of 12. How much of that is White at third for so long, and losing Murphy?

Our best performers in June were Willie Randolph (.339/.414/.452) and Mike Scioscia (.341/.406/.443). Franklin Stubbs was the best power hitter (.277/.324/.505). Meanwhile, it was an awful month for Dewey (.226/.363/.452) and Marshall (.243/.282/.379). Sid Bream also fell back to earth from his big May (.240/.295/.375).

John Denny was, without a doubt, the top starter for the month (3-2, 1.95 ERA, 1.05 WHIP). Everyone else was super average, except for Beattie. He was bad ( 0-3, 5.52 ERA, 1.65 WHIP). I have no idea why he's still in the rotation at this point, when we have Pena and Reuss or hell, even Milt Wilcox, any of them would be better options. I know he won 19 games last year with a 2.61 ERA, but it looks like we spent a shit load of money on a flash in the pan pitcher. We're never going to see that level of production from him.

July might make or break us. The offense has to find a new gear, Lasorda needs to get more from his pitching staff, and the front office needs to decide what direction this team is going in as we head to the deadline. After 3 straight 100+ win seasons, we're in real danger of missing out this year.

PilotMan · 05-27-2017, 09:39 PM

7/1 6-1 L to the Reds
We drop game 1 against the West leader. Jack Morris (8-5) went the distance and would have had the shutout if not for Mike Marshall hitting his 10^th of the year. It was our only bright spot in an otherwise dim game. Denny (6-7) took the loss in his worst performance in a month. Pena did pitch 3 good innings in relief. Maybe there's hope he'll get to the rotation sooner than later. Randolph had 2 hits.

7/2 2-1 L to the Reds
We came so very close, but we just couldn't get that single run. Charlie Liebrandt (6-2) outdualed Valenzuela (8-4). LA only had 3 hits, Toby Harrah had 2 of em. Ex Dodger, Dave Anderson, bagged a couple of hits to help make our day miserable. Ex Dodger, Ted Power, picked up his 18^th save. This is not how we wanted to start July.

7/3 9-4 W over the Cardinals
Rick Rhoden (10-5) was on but his control wasn't. He walked 6 against 4 hits 1 out shy of a complete game. The offense showed up today though, drawing 6 walks of our own and getting a couple of big hits in the 2^nd, when Roy Smalley hit a solo shot (9) early on, and Mike Marshall getting a grand slam (11) later on. That blew the game open at that point. We had 5 unearned runs. Both Randolph and Scioscia got on base 4 times in 5 plate appearances.

7/5 4-1 L to the Cardinals
If not for a Dwight Evans solo shot (12) in the first Dave LaPoint would have carried the shutout all the way. Our batters were off balance and wasted a really good outing by Frank Tanana, one of his best of the year. He gave way to Ken Howell (0-3), the rookie, and the Cards put some hits together and broke the tie. Evans went 2-4.

7/6 4-3 L to the Cardinals
LA took a 3-1 lead in the 5^th and John Denny (6-8) had been pitching pretty good, but it all fell apart in the 6^th. Control became an issue and a Terry Pendleton (3) home run put the Cardinals in the lead. The Cards bullpen kept us in check in the last innings. Dwight Evans went 1-1 with 3 walks.

7/7 2-1 W over the Cardinals
We had to count on Valenzuela (9-4) to play the stopper yet again. He went 8 and struck out 6. But once again run support was an issue. A solo home run from Nettles gives him 5 on the year, but we could barely get any more. Niededfeur pitched the 9^th for his 20^th save. Randolph, yet again, did his thing. 2-3, 2 walks and a run. Last year Fernando was getting 4.74 RS/gm, this year it's down to 3.67.

7/8 5-4 L to the Pirates
Jim Beattie (0-5). Sid Bream hit a grand slam off of a left handed pitcher. He's been batting .236 against southpaws, and his homer gave us a 4-3 lead. Beattie probably should have been yanked then, just to keep him from blowing it, but he wasn't and he did. Beattie is not even getting 2.5 RS/G this year. Last year with the Yankees, when he won 19 games, he got over 5. That's not his fault, but perhaps it explains why he looks so bad. Mike Marshall went 3-4. Ironically, Frank White, came within 5 feet of tying the game up in the 9^th, but ended up on second. It was Willie Randolph, our most reliable weapon, who made the last out.

7/8 10-4 W over the Pirates
We split the double header and this was over well before the end. Rick Rhoden (11-5), pitching on 3 days rest took a no-hitter to the 7^th. He was gassed when it ended, but it was Ron Cey with double, then thrown out going to third that broke it up. Milt Wilcox had some sketchy relief pitching, walking 4, and giving up 2 hits on 37 pitches in 1/3 of an inning. Roy Smalley hit his 10^th, a 2-run shot and Ron Kittle, getting a rare start went 2-4, and hit his first of the year. Randolph went 3-4 with 2 RBI's.

7/9 5-4 (10) W over the Pirates
Weird game. Jose DeLeon gassed out early against our picky lineup and the Pirates ended up emptying their bullpen. Tanana had a great outing, but Niededfeur (3-3) blew it allowing a game tying homer to Dan Gladden (2). In extras the Pirates, instead of sending out a tired starter turned to veteran outfielder Ron LeFlore. He got in trouble right away loading the bases with nobody out. LA squeaked 1 run home before he struck out Randolph and forced a double play to get out pf the inning. Ken Howell pitched the 10^th for his 3^rd save.

7/10 3-0 L to the Pirates
You'd think that going against a team whose bullpen is just exhausted, who starter is going on 3 days rest, even on the road, that we'd be able to score some runs! Mike Scott (11-5) allowed 2 hits over 7 innings and I thought that once we broke into the pen, we'd open up. Nope. Didn't happen. John Denny (6-9) served up 2 homers, and took the loss. Everyone sucks.

7/11 7-6 W over the Cubs
Stubbs hit a late home run (11) in the 9^th that looked like it was just icing. Valenzuela (10-4) struck out 7, but control issues plagued him again, he did go 2-3 at the plate too. Nettles went yard for #6. Niedenfeur came on in the 9^th and struck out the first batter, but left immediately with some kind of injury. Oh boy. Ken Howell came on (4 S)and served up a gopher ball that cut the lead to 1, making Stubbs HR in the 9^th the difference.

7/12 3-0 W over the Cubs
We need to play the Cubs more often. Rick Rhoden (12-5) pitched another great game, allowing 2 hits in 8 innings without walking anyone. The Cubs sent rookie David Cone (4-5) to the hill and he walked 8 in 5.1. 113 pitches. Gary Maddox got the start in RF and had a couple hits. Our only extra base hit was Scioscia. Rhoden had another bases loaded double. With no Niedenfeur, Lasorda turned to Howell again. He struck out 2 and picked up his 5^th save.

Blue Jays pitcher Danny Darwin threw a no-hitter against the Angels. He walked 3, struck out 8.

LA dropped a press release on Niedenfeur. He's got an elbow strain and is heading to the DL. He's going to be out until September at least. Damn. This is bad news. John Franco was recalled to take his place, and looks to be taking the closer role too.

7/13 13-9 W over the Cubs
This is the biggest WTF game of the year so far. The starters were Jim Beattie and Cubs prospect Mark Vaji, who was getting his second career start. Both sucked, neither figured in the end. Beattie allowed 9 in 5.2, and Vaji 5 in 5. Dodgers walked a total of 10 times and Beattie had a game score of 10. Good grief. LA went up 2-0, Cubs get it back go up 3-2. LA goes up 5-3. Cubs answer with 6 to make it 9-5. LA goes and scored 8 unanswered the next 2 innings. Just WTF? No homers, everyone except Marshall and Beattie got a hit. Wow.

7/14 12-5 W over the Cubs
Greg Nettles was the only starter to go hitless. Frank Tanana (5-4) finally got some run support, struck out 7, but wasn't exactly stellar. Mike Marshall and Sid Bream were the big boys in this one. They combined to go 5-10 with 2 HR and 8 RBI. That was Marshall's 12^th and Bream's 8^th. Even Tanana got into the act with a single and 2 RBI's. Mr Reliable went 3-5.

PilotMan · 05-27-2017, 10:43 PM

The 1985 All Star Teams are finalized. Here are the current and former Dodgers represented:

Sid Fernandez – SEA – 9-8, 2.75 ERA, 1 AS
Bobby Grich – TOR - .256, 5 HR, 7 AS
Fernando Valenzuela – LA – 10-4, 3.09 ERA, 5 AS
Alejandro Pena – LA – 2-2, 2.14 ERA, 2 AS
Tom Niedenfeur – LA - 3-3, 2.18 ERA, 20 S, 3AS
Mike Scioscia – LA - .292, 6 HR, 1 AS

The Dodgers aren't well represented. Well, they are, but not compared to the last couple years anyway. Niedenfeur is out, but the rest should get some time.

The AL blows the doors off the NL 11-5.

The AL has won the last 3 Series, and now they blow the NL out again in the AS game. Cal Ripken Jr. hit 2 HR's and took home the MVP.

PilotMan · 05-29-2017, 09:37 AM

7/18 2-1 (15) L to the Cardinals
Rick Rhoden lost a no hitter in the 9^th inning. Frank White had given LA a 1-0 lead with a pinch hit homer in the 8^th inning and Rhoden had his chance to get the no-no. Alas, it wasn't to be. The bullpen did great, but an Andre Thornton error in the 15^th set up the Cardinals winning run.

7/19 6-4 L to the Cardinals
Tanana (5-5) and the gopher ball. He served up 2 more in his 4 innings of work, but he also allowed 12 baserunners on. Pena came on, pitched 4.2, allowed 1 hit and struck out 7. Stubbs hit his 12^th in the first inning and the top 4 in the order produced 8 of our 9 hits. It was crickets after that.

7/20 5-3 L to the Cardinals
And as quickly as we rise, we fall. Three in a row by the Cards, at home, really crushes the momentum we were building. John Denny (6-10) didn't allow a hit until the 5^th inning, and had been staked to a 3-0 lead. The Cardinals beat you with speed and defense, most of the time. They took over in the 7^th, on a bad inning for Denny. Stubbs cracked another homer. This is his 13^th now, and along with Evans and Randolph went 2-4 in the game.

7/21 5-2 W over the Cardinals
Valenzuela (11-4), our top dog, showing why he's the top dog. No hits through the first 4 innings. Struck out the first 4 batters he faced (his opponent, John Stuper walked the first 3 he faced), ended up with 10 K's in the game. LA got three long balls, first was a solo shot by Scioscia (7), later in the inning Mike Marshall hit #13, and later in the 7^th, when the Cards had crept up, it was Valenzuela himself with his first long ball of the year, second for his career. John Franco got the final 5 outs for his first career save.

7/22 5-3 W over the Pirates
Jim Beattie with another start, and you know, aside from the 2-run homer he served up to Jim Dwyer in the first inning, this was one of his better starts. He struck out 6, but was still in trouble nearly every inning. He didn't get the win though, as we were down 3-1 when he left. In the 7^th Mike Scioscia tied the game with a 2-run double. Later on, after a slew of lefty/righty swaps by Lasorda, Andre Thornton hit a pinch hit, 2-run double that put us up for good. Reuss (4-2) got the win and Franco got the last 6 outs for his 2^nd save.

7/23 3-0 W over the Pirates
We still aren't racking up the runs, but we didn't need to today. Rick Rhoden (13-5) was in charge and threw the first complete game shutout in a long, long time. He allowed 5 hits, struck out 6. LA drew 7 walks to go with their 5 hits.

7/24 9-7 W over the Pirates
Ron Cey bashed 5 hits against Dodger pitching and Jose DeLeon was well on his way to his 14^th win in the 7^th inning. Mike Marshall his a completely useless solo shot (14) that looked pointless, because it made the score 7-3. Bottom of the 8^th though, things started to happen. Frank White reached on an error, followed by a Randolph single. Buck Martinez sac flied home White, for 1 out. Dwight Evans flew out for the second out. Stubbs hit a double to left-center that moved Randolph to third, and Mike Marshall smoked the ball to the left power alley for his 15^th and that tied it up. Guante came in to face Sid Bream, who singled. Then Graig Nettles pounded the first pitch into the right field corner for his second home run of the game (7,8) and that was the difference. Reuss (5-2) had come on in relief of Tanana got the win and Franco closed for his 3^rd save. If we could keep this up....

7/25 5-2 W over the Cubs
John Denny (7-10) went 8, striking out 8. He was helped along by Mike Marshall and the 3-run home run (16) off of David Cone (4-7) in the 3^rd inning. That was enough for us. Mike Scioscia went 3-4. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th for his 6^th save. The Cubs have dropped 12 straight. I'm sure they'll get one against us.

7/26 7-2 W over the Cubs
Good outing from Valenzuela (12-4) as he pitches deep and allows our bull pen to get more rest. He struck out 8, while the bats beat up Kurt Kepshire (4-9). LA broke out 5 runs in the 3^rd inning, with the big hit belonging to Graig Nettles, who continues his July hot streak, with his 9^th home run.

7/27 4-3 L to the Cubs
See?! This was a rematch of Jim Beattie and Mark Vaji (1-2). Vaji got his first career win, he pitched 8 good innings, and we should have been able to do better than that. Beattie, shockingly, shut out the Cubs through 5 innings, allowing only 2 hits. Then he left the game with discomfort. Jerry Reuss came on and gave up runs, John Franco (0-1) came in and he served up a home run to Tony Armas, who was pinch hitting, that put the Cubs up for good.

Beattie just has some shoulder tenderness and he's only expected to miss 1 start. Not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Huge blockbuster trade, but not for LA. The Yankees have sent pitchers Mario Soto and Mark Gardner to the Royals for the aging hot corner man, Mike Schmidt. I've mentioned before that the Yankees have pitching depth. This gives them another big bat in the middle of the lineup to go with Mattingly and Keith Hernandez. The Royals lose their DH and clean up hitter, but gain a big arm. They lost Bob Welch for the season earlier. Their problem is that they can't replace that power. Carney Lansford is expected to take over at DH. The Yankees are .5 game back, and the Royals are 2 back. This could work for both of them. Or just as easily, not.

7/28 13-6 L to the Cubs
Thank god that crappy games only count as 1 loss, because this one should have counted for 3. Forget that Randolph went 2-3 or that Scioscia went 2-5 and hit a 3-run homer (8). The Dodgers committed 5 errors, Rick Rhoden (13-6) was awful, Ken Howell gave up 5 runs in relief. It was bad. Happy it's only worth 1 loss.

7/29 4-2 L to the Giants
We have now dropped 3 straight to a couple of the worst teams in baseball. The season is slipping away. We were stopped today by our old friend Floyd Bannister (7-10). Tanana (5-6) gave up 3 in the first and we played behind from the start. Frank White just punished a ball to center for his 4^th HR of the year. Brought us to 1, but that's as close as we got.

7/30 7-6 L to the Giants
John Denny (7-11) went 5, allowed 5, struck out 6. The Giants had a 5-1 lead by the time Denny was out of there. In the 7^th Sid Bream hit #10, and went 2-3 in the game, to make it 5-2. The Giants would add 2 more in the 9^th as a result of 3 errors in 1 inning. It didn't seem like much at the time, but when LA scored 3 times, on walks, 3 in a row, it got close. The tying run got on third, but they just couldn't get home. Those errors cost us. Now we've dropped 4 straight.

7/31 8-7 (13) W over the Giants
LA tied the game in the bottom of the 9^th inning when Mike Marshall his a 2-1 pitch, with 2 outs, dep to left and out. It was his second home run of the game, and his 18^th of the year. Valenzuela had started, and struck out 8, but he didn't pitch great today. The Giants bullpen tired out as the innings wore on and it was Bob Stanley (0-6) who had to carry the load. He would end up walking Dwight Evans with the bases loaded to walk us off. Pena (3-2) pitched the last 2 for the win. Mike Marshall went 4-6, with 4 RBI's.

PilotMan · 05-29-2017, 09:38 AM

July Recap

We're seeing a running theme here so far. LA had a record of 15-13, 2 games above .500, and the best we've had this year is 3 above .500. This team just isn't good enough to be better than that. The good news is that we're only 4 games behind the Padres. The Reds and the Padres are going back in forth, and we just need a little run to close that gap. Our current record is 55-46.

The front office didn't make any moves, one way, or the other to the team. So these are the guys that have to get us to the end. All three, Niedenfeur, Murphy and Eck are going to be back at roughly the same time, the middle of September, when we'll have 2 weeks left of the season. Now, it'll be too late if we aren't in it by then, which means that we have to do it without them. I'm much less worried about the bullpen than I am the rotation. Our starters have been really up and down all year long. We need some real consistency, and we need it now.

Rick Rhoden was our pitcher of the Month for July. He had a 4-1 record with a 1.40 ERA. He allowed 24 hits in 45 innings and each month he's gotten better. Valenzuela is doing well too, but after than neither Denny, Tanana, nor Beattie is regularly good enough to help this team get where they need to go. I wish that Lasorda would move Pena or Reuss up. Both guys are doing really well this year and should have the chance over any of the others.

Batter of the month for July was Nettles. Finally, he finally did something. Nettles' avg for July was .282 and he hit 5 HR's. Marshall found his power stroke and crushed 9 homers to take the team lead, but that .299 OBP isn't doing us any favors.

Dwight Evans had the worst month of any for his time here. Evans batted .216 and only had 1 HR for the entire month.

The team scored more runs in July and have moved up to 3^rd in runs scored, but they are still a lowly 7^th in average. 2^nd in OBP and 3^rd in HR's. The pitching has gone the other way. 6^th in runs against, and 7^th in starter ERA. The bullpen is strong at #2 and defensively, we're in 8^th.

I thought that July might be the make or break month, but we're still hanging around. August is where it'll be.

In the National League, no surprise that the Expos have the best record in baseball. They're still in a race for the division though, as the Cardinals are only 3 back, and the Mets are 5.5 back. In the AL the Yankees and world champion Blue Jays are tied for first and the Red Sox are 5 back, but it's really going to come down to the Yankees or Jays, just like last year. In the West things have gotten nuts. There are 4 teams, all of which have a better record than both the Yankees and Jays. All of which are over .600 winning percentage. Right now it's Seattle in front, with the White Sox and Royals a half game back, then the 2-time winners, the Twins 1.5 back. Even the Angels, winners of 6 in a row, are only 4.5 back. Every race is still for the taking.

PilotMan · 06-17-2017, 06:35 PM

8/2 3-2 W over the Reds
LA got 2 hits in the first, and one of them was Mike Marshall crushing another homer to left (19). His 3-run shot put us in front early. We'd only get 2 hits the rest of the game. Rick Rhoden (14-6) scattered 8 hits over 6 innings and the bullpen took care of the rest. Franco pitched the 9^th for his 4^th save. Dwight Evans was hurt on a defensive play in the 3^rd inning. Kittle came on to replace him. No word yet on the nature of it.

8/3 5-4 W over the Reds
I find it amusing that the final out was John Franco striking out Dave Anderson to get his 5^th save of the year. As I'm sure you know, in real life, in 1985, they were on opposite teams in a similar situation at some point. Tanana gave up a run early again, so we were playing from a hole. Evans was out, with Kittle in right in his place. We got the lead in the 4^th on a Roy Smalley, 2-run HR. His 11^th. Then we tacked on 3 more in the 6^th when we hit a bases loaded double. Smalley finished 2-2 with 4 RBI's, a HR, and 2 walks. Tanana (6-6) spread 10 hits to get the win.

Dwight Evans has a torn thumb ligament and he's on the DL. The timetable for his return is early September. Ugh. August is going to be a long month. Tony Brewer (.309/9/33, in Albuquerque) is called up to take his spot. Mike Marshall is going to slide over to right with Kittle taking over in left. The good news is that Kittle can still give us that power punch, but he can't get on base like Evans can, and we lose another big defensive weapon. Evans has a cannon.

8/4 3-2 (10) L to the Reds
Danny Tartabull hit a walk off home run (15) off of Ken Howell (0-4) to end the game. I had a bad feeling when he stepped up too. The Reds had been close all game long, and their line up is dangerous throughout. Both John Denny and Tom Browning pitched well. Roy Smalley hit another homer, this was a solo home run (12) that put us in the lead for a very short while. He went 2-3 on the day. Gary Maddox had come on as a defensive substitute, and then had to leave after he got hurt making a catch. It didn't look too serious.

8/5 3-1 W over the Braves
LA bashed out 12 hits off of Bob Walk (8-13) and Bob McClure. Four players had 2 hits in the game. Fernando Valenzuela (13-4) walked 6 in 7 innings of work. It was sloppy, but it got the job done. John Franco got the final 8 outs for his 6^th save of the year.

8/6 13-6 L to the Braves
Jim Beattie (0-6) strikes again. Seven runs allowed in 3.2 innings of work. Jerry Reuss did some crappy relief work. Sid Bream went 2-3. Ex-Dodger Candy Maldonado hit his 12^th of the year, off of Beattie. The Braves 1-4 hitters went 11-18 with 8 runs scored, 5 SB's, 1HR and 10 RBI's. That is the fearsome lineup of Milt Thompson, Brad Komminsk, Brook Jacoby, and Candy Maldonado. Sad.

8/7 8-5 W over the Braves
Neither Rhoden nor Rijo made it out of the 5^th inning. By the end of the 3^rd inning Rijo had thrown 109 pitches and had walked 10 batters. Yet LA only got 6 runs out of that. LA walked 13 times in the game. Mike Scioscia went 3-5. Both Randolph and Bream walked 3 times. Then there was Marshall, 0-6 with 4 K's. Roy Smalley tacked on another run in the 8^th when he hit his 13^th homer of the year. Alejandro Pena (4-2) got the win. Ken Howell got the last 8 outs for his 7^th save.

8/8 1-0 W over the Reds
Frank Tanana (7-6) was amazing, unstoppable, dominant. He went 8 innings, allowed 2 hits, no walks, and struck out 8. LA only got 4 hits all game, 2 from Scioscia and 2 from Randolph. Stubbs had the only RBI. John Franco pitched the 9^th for his 7^th save. Roy Smalley was knocked out of the game in the 2^nd inning after a collision at 2^nd base. His condition is under review.

8/9 7-0 W over the Reds
The Big Red Machine really is hitting this year, and we just shut them out over 18 innings. That's a very good sign. Even better it was with Tanana and Denny (8-11). Denny struck out 9 in 8.1 and Lasorda wouldn't let him finish even with the comfortable 7 run lead. LA also whacked 4 home runs that accounted for all the scoring. In first it was Randolph with his 3^rd. In the 2^nd it was Bream (11). In the 3^rd it was Marshall (20) and in the 6^th it was Buck Martinez (3). Both Randolph and Martinez went 3-4. We just got production from really unlikely places, but we'll take it!

With that win LA has moved back into 2^nd place. We're 7-3 in our last 10, we've won 3 in a row, and we're only 1.5 games behind the Padres. Lets GO DODGERS!

There's some bad news again though. Roy Smalley is done for the year. He ruptured a tendon in his finger in the collision and he's out at least 3 months. He hit .222 with 13 HR and 52 RBI's for us. His slash stats were .222/.310/.346. Not awesome. Tony Phillips (.296/.397/.468 in Albuquerque) was called up to replace him and should do a commendable job. Initially it looks like Lasorda plans to platoon Phillips against righties and White against lefties, even though Phillips is a switch hitter and White is god awful at short stop.

8/10 4-3 W over the Reds
Woohoo! Valenzuela should have gotten the win. He went 7.2 innings and struck out 13, and walked only 1. He was in control to say the least and he left with a 2 run lead. John Franco (1-1) blew his 2^nd save, but in the 9^th it was the Reds Greg Harris that started by walking the bases loaded, then after a strikeout, gave up the game winning single to Mike Scioscia. Scioscia was 3-5, with 2 Rbi's. One more game to go for the sweep.

8/11 6-4 W over the Reds
Jim Beattie is still winless. He had 2 bad innings where we fell behind, but otherwise was able to go 7. It was Frank White, only playing because Nettles had left with an injury earlier in the game after a collision with the 2^nd basemen trying to break up a double play, who popped a 3-run hr off of former Dodger pitcher Joe Beckwith, that gave us the lead. It was his 5^th. Scioscia had hit a 2-run HR earlier in the 8^th (9) to put us within striking distance. Ken Howell (1-4) got the win and Steve Howe got his first save of the year in the 9^th.

8/12 4-1 W over the Braves
LA jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Stubbs (14) HR in the 4^th. Atlanta answered, but LA came right back. They got an insurance run in the 7^th. Rhoden went 8, and got the win to run his record to 15-6, while Franco pitched the 9^th for his 8^th save.

Cincinnati shut out the Padres, and with LA on a 6 game win streak, we've move into a percentage point lead for first in the West!!!!! Fuck yeah! Get going guys!

8/13 6-3 L to the Braves
There goes the win streak. Frank Tanana (7-7) takes the loss in an ugly game. LA committed 4 errors and their first hit was a Stubbs solo shot (15). Toby Harrah started at third as Nettles injury is still undetermined and looks worse every day. High spot was Reuss going 3 innings and striking out 4 in relief.

8/14 3-2 L to the Braves
LA got no offense against Larry McWilliams (9-10). Denny (8-12) allowed 3 unearned runs thanks to his own error. LA got back into it with a 2-run homer from Sid Bream (12) with 2 out in the 9^th, but it was too little, too late.

The word on Nettles is a broken thumb and he's out for 6 weeks. That puts us right at the end of the regular season for his availability. That's now 6 starters on the DL long term. Sax was recalled from AAA (.324/.383/.439) to take his roster spot. Toby Harrah is planning on taking the starting job at third.

8/15 6-3 W over the Braves
Series split was the best we could hope for tonight. Valenzuela (14-4) got the W, but barely made it 6 innings before he gassed out. LA jumped all over Bob Walk (9-14) early and gave Fernando the support he needed. LA got a 3-4 show from Ron Kittle, and 2-3 from Stubbs with 2 doubles. Franco pitched a 1-2-3 9^th for his 9^th save.

PilotMan · 06-18-2017, 10:10 AM

8/16 5-1 W over the Giants
If you told me that the $5.5 million dollar man, Jim Beattie, would pitch until mid August before he finally got a win, I'd hang my head and cry. Well, this was it. He finally got that W to go to 1-6. He threw 7 innings of 4 hit ball and 0 runs allowed. Toby Harrah went 2-4 and hit his first HR of the year. Poor Jim Beattie, even with this Dodger team, he's only getting 2.92 runs of support per game (he got 5.16 in his 19 win season last year). But he's only thrown 4 quality starts in 12 chances, so that's not helping himself either.

8/17 7-2 W over the Giants
Rhoden ran his record to 16-6 with 7.2 solid innings of work. Kittle grabbed a couple hits, but it was Rhoden and his 4 RBI's (2-run triple and 2 sac flies) that powered the team. LA beat up on Mark Dempsey who walked 8 in 4 innings and allowed 7 hits.

8/18 6-3 W over the Giants
Tanana (8-7) had another rough first inning. He's been getting beat up early all season long. We fought back with 2 in the 5^th and in the 6^th Stubbs hit a grand slam (16) that put us up. Reuss and Franco each pitched 2 scoreless and Franco picked up his 10^th save.

8/19 11-7 (12) L to the Phillies
LA handed the ball over to Franco with a 7-5 lead in the 8^th that got away from us. In the 12^th Alejandro Pena (4-3) served up a walk off grand slam to Dave Clark. Highlights for the Dodgers were Kittle going deep with 2 solo shots (3). He's done almost nothing up to this point of the year. He also pimped his avg to .274 with a 4-5 game. Valenzuela started and pitched like crap.

8/20 6-5 (10) L to the Phillies
This fucking Phillies team is one of the worst in baseball and now they've taken 2 extra inning games from us. We came from down 5-1 in the 9^th to tie this only to see it lost in the 10^th. Ken Howell (1-5) took the loss. Willie Randolph knocked home the tying run in the 9^th with his 2^nd hit of the game. John Denny got the start today, and it should have been enough, but another couple errors lead to unearned runs and cost us.

LA is still only a game behind the Padres at the moment. The Reds have fallen 4.5 back. In the NL East, the Expos are 6.5 up on the Cardinals. The AL has good races too. In the East, it's the Yankees 1.5 up on the Champion Blue Jays, and 3.5 up on the Red Sox. In the West, it's a tie between the Royals and Mariners, with both the White Sox and Angels 2.5 back, the Twins are 5 back. We'er hearing rumors that both Dwight Evans and Dennis Eckersley could be activated within a week. Niedenfeur and Dwayne Murphy might not be far behind, but don't count your chickens just yet.

8/21 3-2 L to the Phillies
Ouch. Just ouch. Steve Balboni hit his 22^nd HR off of Rhoden (16-7) in the 3^rd and that gave the Phils a 3-0 lead. Stubbs hit #17 in the 4^th that brought us back within 1, but we never could put that last runner across the plate. Luckily, we're still only 1 game back of SD after dropping 3 in a row.

8/23 3-2 (12) W over the Expos
Bob Knepper took a no-hitter into the 7^th inning only to have Randolph break it up, then later tie the game when he scored. LA went up in the 11 when Randolph drove in the go ahead run, but once again, Franco couldn't nail the game down and it kept going. In the 12^th, Mike Scioscia hit a go ahead, solo homer, his 10^th off of Jeff Reardon (5-2) to go on top again, and Franco closed out the 12^th for the win (2-1).

8/24 4-2 L to the Expos
LA struck first on a Toby Harrah HR (2), but the Expos would have success against Jim Beattie early. A hour plus long rain delay cost both teams starters though, and LA tied the game back up in the 4^th. The Expos had more success against Jerry Reuss (5-3) picking up runs in the 7^th and 8^th. LA brought the tying run to the plate in the 9^th, but it was no good.

8/25 3-2 L to the Expos
Coulda, shoulda, woulda. Valenzuela went 8 strong and had only allowed 2 hits, striking out 10, until Mike Greenwell tied the game with a 2-run homer in the 8^th. Then came the 9^th. After we failed to score it was on Ken Howell (1-6). He gave up a leadoff hit, then Raines stole 2^nd, so he walked the next one. Raines stole third, so Howell walked the next one to load the bases, then he walked in Raines. Not the most glorious ending to a game.

8/26 3-0 L to the Mets
Good pitchers dual between John Denny (8-13) and Ron Darling. Both pitchers went 0's until the 8^th inning. Darling got pulled and Lasorda left Denny out there to allow back to back, 2-out singles, then a 3-run bomb to Strawberry (32) and that was that. Offensive highlight of the day? Sid Bream walked 4 times. That's it. John Denny is getting 2.46 RS/G this season. That's even worse than Beattie.

8/27 1-0 L to the Mets
The Mets are winners of 8 in a row right now, and are trying to climb back into the race in the East. We've dropped 4 straight, and haven't scored a run in over 20 innings and over 8 hours. Rick Rhoden (16-8) and Walt Terrell (12-12) went 0's again for 7 full innings. In the 8^th Dykstra lead off with a single, stole second and scored on a single by Bobby Bonilla. Dodgers offensive highlight? Ron Kittle had 2 singles. Wooowooo.

The first bit of good news is trickling out of Dodgertown. Eckersley, after some enough successful side throwing sessions was activated and sent to Albuquerque for rehab. We need him back ASAP. Evans and Neidenfeur are both expected back very soon.

8/29 5-1 W over the Phillies
Both teams come in with 4 game losing streaks. LA is back home again after a rough finish to the road trip. LA breaks the scoring drought in the first inning when Stubbs drills a 2-run homer into the right field seats (18). The rest of the scoring came on a Toby Harrah 3-run home run to left-center (3). Frank Tanana (9-7) went 8 and didn't allow that killer first inning run either.

8/30 5-1 W over the Phillies
Fernando (15-4) has the best game of the year. He goes the distance, allows 3 hits, 1 walk, and strikes out 15. We didn't need much offense but we did get another big fly from Toby Harrah (4). This one a 2-run shot in the 7^th off of Ken Dixon (8-13). Valenzuela struck out the side in the 3^rd, 6^th and 7^th innings. Had a streak of 7 in a row at one point and struck out the last 2 guys to end the game. Straight dominance. His performance overshadowed another sick show from Gooden who threw another 4-hit shutout (6 on the year) and got 14 K's. It goes down as the #2 overall pitching performance of 1985 behind a Bret Saberhagen 1-hitter, but ahead of the Danny Darwin no-hitter. Between Gooden and Valenzuela they have 7 of the top 12 in all of baseball. Wow!

Eckersley went 8 innings for the win in his rehab start, striking out 7. Dwight Evans was activated and Tony Brewer was optioned to make room. Evans' return pushes Marshall to left and Kittle out of a starting job.

8/31 6-1 W over the Phillies
Always love to beat up on a struggling team. John Denny (9-13) went 6.2 innings of shut out ball before giving way, and Dwight Evans made his return known. His first at bat he tripled then scored on a Mike Marshall 2-run homer (21). Later he doubled. Frank White added 3 more with his 6^th in the 5^th. We get 1 more game against the Phills, go sweep!

PilotMan · 06-18-2017, 10:10 AM

August Recap

No question, that August was the best month for Dodger baseball this year. The team put together a 17-11 record to push our overall record to 72-57. We started the month 4 behind the Padres, and finish it .5 games in first place. So August was make or break, and it made us. We are still in this thing!

The returns of Evans, Neidenfeur, Eckersley and Murphy should be a very good thing. Our bullpen has managed very well without our big closer. The emergence of John Franco, even with his 4 blown saves, has been a stabilizing force. Kittle wasn't the force that we hoped he would be, so seeing Evans back in the lineup makes me happy.

The real reason we had a good month was pitching. Pitcher of the month was seriously Frank Tanana. He went 4-1 with a 2.13 ERA in 6 starts. A season best 0.99 WHIP, and 34 K's in 42 IP. John Denny was the other good one. He suffered from no support to a 2-2 record, but his 1.40 ERA was best of the best, as was his 0.96 WHIP.

There's so little good news from our lineups. The top hitter was actually hitters. No surprise it was between Scioscia (.316/.398/.429) and Randolph (.304/.454/.348). Stubbs lead the team with 5 HR, but guys like Bream (.186/.364/.314), Marshall (.180/.212/.288) and Stubbs (.216/.266/.431) really brought us down. Like I said, we really needed Evans back, and hopefully, Murphy will be close behind.

With pitching staff finding it's groove, the team is 2^nd or 3^rd in most pitching stats in the NL. Tops in strikeouts, but a god awful 7^th in defense. Seeing Frank White at short or third makes me cringe every time. Stubbs in center hasn't been great either.

On offense, the team is down to 9^th in team batting. Meanwhile, our team OBP, is 4^th in the league. We do have some patient hitters. We also have some power, as we are 3^rd in the NL in HR's, with 122, but 8^th in extra base hits.

So, the moral of the story with this team is that we really need our pitching to keep pulling us along. The offense, if it comes, will win us games, but in order for this team to go far, the pitching has to be strong. Whenever Eck comes back, that will really solifify our rotation. Beattie should go back to the pen and Tanana or Denny slide down to the #5 slot.

September is here. That means roster expansion. The team made 3 three moves overall. The only pitcher who was called up was Kelly Downs. Downs (0-1, 3.65 ERA, 12.1IP in AAA) tore his rotator cuff in his first game and just came back last week. The other players were OF Tony Brewer (.429/.429/.571 in 17 games with LA) who was just sent down 3 days ago, and IF Ross Jones (0-1 in 4 games in LA).

The rest of the league is embroiled in battles too. While we sit .5 game up on the Padres in the West, the Reds are lingering just 3 back. In the East, The Expos are solidly up 8 games over the surging Mets, who have won 11 straight. The Cards have dropped to 10 back.

In the AL West, it has been a 5 horse race, but it's getting closer to a 3 horse, as both the Angels and Twins find themselves 5 games back. Only 1 game separates the Royals, Mariners and White Sox.

And in the East, the defending champs, Toronto, are 3 games behind the Yankees. The Red Sox are now 6.5 back. In a week or so, the playoff probabilities start to come out. We have to get some W's and keep this winning way going.

PilotMan · 06-19-2017, 10:07 AM

9/1 5-0 W over the Phillies
We sweep and outscore the Phillies 21-3 in the 4 games. Rick Rhoden (17-8) throws 8 scoreless and Ken Howell finished. The big swing was Franklin Stubbs 19^th HR of the year. This was a 3-run shot in the 5^th off of Charles Hudson (0-4). That gave us the breathing room we needed to get the W. Scioscia, Randolph and Bream all added 2 hits, and Kittle had a pinch hit, 2-rbi single.

Niedenfeur was activated and sent to Albuquerque for rehab.

9/2 3-1 L to the Expos
Jim Beattie (1-7) went 8 and pitched well except for the 1 bad inning. Sid Bream hit a solo shot, #13, for our only run.

9/3 4-3 (10) W over the Expos
Willie Randolph went 3-3, scored 3 times, walked twice. He also scored the winning run when he tried to steal third, then went home on a throwing error. Dwight Evans hit his first dinger since his return. That was his 13^th on the year. Tanana pitched great, but John Franco blew his 5^th save when the Expos tied it up in the 8^th. Ken Howell (2-6) got the win instead.

It doesn't look like LA is going to call up Sparky Lyle. At 41, he's been playing in Albuquerque this year. In 17 games, he's thrown just under 30 innings of work, and has a 2.43 ERA.

9/4 4-3 (12) L to the Expos
Tight series, but another loss. Ugh. Wasted good start by Fernando. Tony Phillips hit his first HR of the year in the 8^th to tie the game, then Dewey threw a runner out at home to end the 9^th. Stubbs hit his 20^th HR of the year earlier. Only the 2^nd Dodger player with 20 HR's. Still, Ken Howell (2-7) couldn't keep the Expos from taking the lead. The Candyman shut us down in the bottom half easily for his 3^rd save of the year.

9/5 2-1 W over the Mets
Rhoden (18-8) and Darling (12-10) in another pitchers dual. Dewey got us on the board in the first with a solo shot, his 14^th. LA put another up in the 2^nd, then Rhoden took care of the rest. Scioscia went 2-2 and Steve Howe pitched the 9^th for his 2^nd save.

9/6 4-1 W over the Mets
Time to cool off these Mets. Mike Scioscia tied the game in the 5^th with a solo-homer, and even John Denny got in the action with an RBI single later on. Denny (10-13) kept his August run going going 7.2 allowing 1 run. John Franco got the last 4 outs for his 11^th save.

Niedenfeur got 1.1 innings and a save in a night of work in Albuquerque. After the game, and the good result he was called up to the main roster. is expected to take over the closer role from Franco, with Franco moving to the set up role. Eckersley went another 7.2 innings the night before, to less success than he had previously, but he still picked up the win. He remains in Albuquerque.

9/7 10-0 L to the Mets
Jay Tibbs (13-8) pitched a complete game, 2-hit, shut out. The Mets scored in each of the first 5 innings. Strawberry hit 2 home runs. Mitchell added another. The Mets had 7 extra base hits in total. Kelly Downs saw his first game action of the year. It didn't go well for him. Alejandro Pena struck out 5 in 2.2 innings of work.

Dave Dravecky pitched the game of the day. He threw 8 innings of no-hit ball, but allowed an unearned run in the 3^rd. The Padres couldn't get a run and he was pinch hit for in the 9^th. The Padres went on to lose 2-0 on 1 hit, a Pedro Guerrero home run (13) in the 9^th.

Eckersely was called up to the main club last night. Right now, he's slotted in as the #5 with Jim Beattie heading to the bull pen. Dwayne Murphy also was activated from the DL and sent to Albuquerque for rehab.

The Yankees have opened up a 3.5 game lead on the Blue Jays. The Royals are 2.5 up on the M's and 4.5 on the White Sox. The Twins and Angels are nearly out of it. The Expos are red hot, and have a 9 game lead on the Mets and 9.5 on the Cardinals. They are a 99% probability to clinch the East. LA is riding in first a scant 1.5 game lead on the Padres and 4 up on the Reds. First is first though.

9/10 5-3 W over the Braves
Fernando Valenzuela (16-4) struck out 10 in 8 shut out innings. Tom Niedenfeur made his first appearance since his injury and allowed 3 hits, a walk and 3 unearned runs, courtesy of a Tony Phillips error. LA got a 2-4 game from Mike Marshall and drew 5 walks on starter Jose Rijo (4-16).

9/11 5-2 L to the Braves
Rick Rhoden (18-9) was alright, but not good enough. Larry McWilliams (10-14) was in charge of the game with his only real mistake being a pitch to Mike Marshall that he took out of the park for his 22^nd home run of the year. Dwight Evans left the game early in the 8^th. No work on why he was removed.

Freaking Dwight Evans strained an oblique on a defensive play. He's back on the DL. Fuck.

9/12 6-5 L to the Braves
Losing to a bad team isn't going to get this done. John Denny (10-14) pitched like shit, although he did strike out 6 in 5.2 innings. Frank White hit his 7^th homer of the season in the losing effort. LA brought the tying run all the way to 2^nd base before the final out was made.

Keeping an eye on Dwayne Murphy in AAA. He's 1-15 in his first 4 games in rehab.

9/13 13-7 W over the Braves
Frank Tanana (10-8) missed the extra point, allowed 6 in 5 innings, and still got the win. LA hammered 16 hits and 5 home runs. Tony Phillips started the game off with his 2^nd home run of the year. Both Mike Scioscia and Franklin Stubbs cracked 2, count 'em 2 homers each. That's 13 for our catcher and 22 for our center fielder. Bream, Randolph and Stubbs had 3 hits each. Stubbs knocked in 6. I wish we could have banked some of this offense for when we needed it.

9/14 8-7 (11) L to the Reds
This game was back and forth all throughout, but lets skip to the bottom of the 8^th when a bad performance from Niedenfeur blew his first save since coming back. Jose Canseco plopped a 2-run shot to put the Reds in front. Frank White tied it back up in the 9^th with his 8^th. He was 4-5 in the best game of his year so far. LA scored again in the 10^th, but Ken Howell (2-8) blew a save when Dave Kingman hit a pinch hit homer to tie it again. The Reds took it home in the 11^th thanks to a single by former Dodger prospect Dave Anderson. Ron Kittle hit his 4^th earlier, then he left with an injury later. WTF? Brewer finished the game in left. Now we need Murphy back.

9/15 7-4 (10) W over the Reds
John Franco (3-1) blew his 6^th save of the year, but came back after Stubbs hit his 2^nd home run of the game and 24^th of the year. This was a 3-run shot that gave us the win. Franco came back and struck out the side in the 10^th. Both Valenzuela and Jack Morris went deep, but neither factored in the final decision.

PilotMan · 06-19-2017, 10:05 PM

9/16 2-1 L to the Padres
We needed to win so this is a tough loss. It tightens up the division. They've had our number all year long. Rick Rhoden (18-10) went 7 strong, but he was bested by Bob Ojeda (13-11) who went 1 better. Mike Marshall homered in the 7^th to tie the game up, his 23^rd of the year. He also had 2 of the team's 5 hits. We're a game up on the Padres right now.

Bad news Dodger fans. Slugger Ron Kittle is down with a shoulder injury. He's most likely done for the year. He finishes with 4 HR and a slash line of .257/.324/.375 in 152 AB. Not really what we were hoping for in the production department. But losing him takes away that depth that we had been resting on. Prospect Ralph Bryant was called up to take his place on the roster. Bryant has steadily moved up the system and has hit 24 HR in '82 in Class A ball and 26 in '83 in AA. But since then has only hit 29 between AA and AAA the last 2 years. He played sparingly this year in only 39 games, where he batted .408, hit 8 HR and 24 RBI in 98 AB. He can play all three outfield positions, but his star as a high prospect has faded considerably. Meanwhile we wait for Dwayne Murphy who is hitting .143 in Albuquerque, but does have 3 HR in 8 games.

9/17 4-2 W over the Padres
John Denny (11-14) was on form and got player of the game with 7.1 innings of work, but 11 baserunners allowed though. Niedenfuer was on form as well, getting 5 outs, 2 K's and his 21^st save. Marshall got a couple RBI's as the Dodgers took 6 free passes on Padre pitching. Now the bad news. Willie Randolph, the guy who has carried our team was hit by a pitch in the 8^th inning and had to leave the game.

Good news on Randolph. He's got a bruised knee, and is listed as day to day for a couple. I'm sure that Sax can fill in, but I've grown rather fond of both his fielding and his ability to get on base. Besides, Lasorda has been batting him 3^rd lately and I think that's been helpful to our overall run production.

Odd random note: Mark “The Bird” Fidrych was signed by LA in May, is only 31, and has been toiling in A ball Bakersfield all year, and has been just plain awful this year. He hasn't pitched in the Majors since 1980 with the Tigers. On the year he is 3-9, in 17 games, with a 9.08 ERA, a 2.29 WHIP and a 20.8 BR/9 ratio. Woof.

The Yankees dropped 3 in a row to the Blue Jays and now only lead by .5. It's nearly a coin flip, but the Yankees are still slightly favored.

The team moved IF/C Scotti Madision (.259/.332/.406 in AAA) to the main roster.

9/18 9-2 L to the Astros
Dodger pitching served up 17 hits, and 6 walks. Tanana (10-9) gave up runs in each of the first 4 innings before he was lifted. Randolph had a 2 hit day and Kelly Downs threw 3 scoreless innings in relief. You couldn't say that about the appearance Jim Beattie made. He allowed 8 baserunners and 3 runs in 2 innings of mop up.

Dwayne Murphy has been called back from his rehab. He batted .143 in 10 games with 3 HR. He will start in CF with Stubbs moving over to left. Good to have him back. Let's hope he finds his bat again.

9/19 8-0 W over the Astros
Eck (5-1) was in fine form tonight! 7 2/3 innings and 3 hits allowed, no runs. LA also welcomed back Dwayne Murphy who made his presence known in the 4^th when he broke the game open with a little grand slam. It was his 5^th. Mike Scioscia follwed with his 14^th and later Mike Marshall added number 24. It was close to the perfect game for Dodger fans.

The Expos magic number is down to 8 and every other race is separated by 1 game.

There are 16 games to play. Graig Nettles is scheduled to be back before we're all said and done.

9/20 5-3 W over the Giants
Valenzuela gets his 17^th win of the year in another 10 strike out effort. He did serve up a big 3-run homer to Chili Davis (2), but other that that he was solid. Niedenfeur got the final 4 outs for his 22^nd save. LA got the lead early on a 3-run home run from Stubbs (26). Randolph added another with his 5^th in the 6^th.

9/21 3-2 L to the Giants
LA couldn't get anything done against the Giants starter Jeff Stember, whose numbers on the year improved to 7-18 with a 5.54 ERA. Rhoden (18-11) went the distance and struck out 8 enroute to his loss. LA brought the tying run all the way to 2^nd after Stubbs doubled in 2, but Marshall struck out to end the rally. The Padres fell at home to the Braves so we stay 2 up with a magic number of 13.

9/22 4-3 W over the Giants
These wins over a 100+ loss team aren't very convincing. Mike Marshall was 1-2 with a couple RBI's and the team drew 7 walks off of Giant starter Craig Swan (1-16). John Denny went 8 innings and got the win to move to 12-14. Niedenfeur pitched another shakey 9^th. He allowed 3 hits and error by Ralph Bryant, who had come on as a defensive sub, helped the Giants pull within 1 and put the tying run in scoring position. SS Randy Kutcher knocked a single to left, and pinch runner Ivan DeJesus tried to score the tying run, but a great throw by Stubbs caught him at the plate to end it. Both the Padres and Reds won to keep pace. Magic number drops to 12.

The Blue Jays have pushed past the slumping Yankees and now lead the AL East by 2 games. Royals and M's both still just a game apart. Expos magic number down to 6.

9/23 6-4 L to the Astros
Frank Tanana (10-10) allowed 3 gopher balls, lost the lead or tie 3 times, and just generally was unreliable. Tony Brewer got the start in left and went 2-3 in addition to hitting his first career home run. The ball was traded for an autographed Valenzuela ball, but at least he got it back. Barry Larkin single handedly killed us. The rookie hit a triple in the first, then a homer (10) in the third, he doubled in the 5^th, and when he came up in the 7^th needing a single for the cycle, he hit another triple. He had 12 total bases. The Padres pick up the win and move to within a game.

9/24 5-2 L to the Astros
Eckersley drops to 5-2 surrendering 8 hits in 6.2 innings of work . A big homerun by Larry Parrish in the 7^th broke the game open and put us on the back foot. Ken Howell had another poor game in relief. Mike Scioscia went 3-3 in the losing effort. The Padres win again to pull into a tie for first.

Nettles was activated and sent on a rehab assignment.

9/25 5-2 L to the Astros
Damn. Three in a row to the lowly Astros. Tough start to the end of the season. Valenzuela (17-5) was not on his game today. The Astros beat him up for 9 hits in 6 innings. Sid Bream was the man of the match for the Dodgers. He smacked 2 solo homers to bring his total to 15 on the year. He added a single and 2 walks. Too bad we couldn't build on that. Padres lose too, but the Reds win to climb to .5 game back. Magic number is at 11.

We have 10 games left, all at home. The percentages still favor us, but they favor the Reds over the Padres. We play 2 against the Padres and 3 against the Reds. The rest are against the Braves and Giants. Gotta win those matchups, or we're done for.

Reds win on an off day and now it's a 3-way tie in the West. Ten to play, it's down to all or nothing.

9/27 10-5 W over the Giants
Had to get back to our winning ways by beating on the lowly Giants. We had 10-2 lead at one point and John Franco served up 2 homers that cut the lead down. Niedenfuer came on to finish, but he wasn't perfect either, but at least he got it done. Rhoden wins his 19^th, while Jeff Stember loses his 19^th. Rhoden went 2-3 with 3 RBI's, one a bases clearing double. He had 2 doubles in the game. Marshall, Stubbs and Bream all had 2 hits. The Padres lose in the bottom of the 9^th to the Braves and the Reds win in extras over the Astros. Magic number is 10.

9/28 7-2 W over the Giants
LA went deep 4 times with Marshall starting us off in the 4^th with a 2-run (25). Stubbs followed in the 5^th with a 2-run (27). Scioscia hit number 15 right after to go back to back. And in the 6^th it was Bream with number 16. Denny (13-14) walked 6 in 6 innings and got lucky a fair number of times. Like in the first when back to back errors by Frank White put guys on 2^nd and 3^rd with no out, and we got out of it for free. Marshall went 3-4 with 3 RBI's. Both the Reds and Padres won to keep pace. Magic number falls to 9.

9/29 3-1 L to the Giants
Eck got little help today. We met our old friend Floyd Bannister, on the verge of losing 20 games, and he held us to 1 hit through 7. He allowed 2 through 8. Bob Stanley came on and Dwayne Murphy took him deep (6). Too bad we didn't have a couple on for it. Both the Reds and Padres won. That puts us down a game to the Reds. Magic number falls to 7.

9/30 11-5 W over the Padres
The offense lit up today, just when we needed it. LA hit 2 home runs, both coming off the bat of Mike Marshall. Marshall finished 4-5, homers 26 and 27, and 6 RBI's. Dwayne Murphy went 3-5 with 3 RBI of his own. Valenzuela (18-5) was the beneficiary of the offense and he didn't have his best game, allowing 5 runs in 7 innings. Niedenfeur got the last 8 outs for his 24^th save. Toby Harrah left the game after a collision at third. Ross Jones took his place.

PilotMan · 06-20-2017, 10:07 AM

September Recap

This month was a hard one. We stayed in the hunt, but we didn't separate ourselves and time is running out. The team was only 14-13, bringing our record to 86-70. We are 1 game behind the Reds, and 1 game ahead of the Padres. Losing Dwight Evans, just when every one was starting to come together didn't help us and the pitching came back to earth too.

Our offense is sad. Team batting average is now 10^th in the NL at .246 and hits are there too. We are 2^nd in the NL in homers though, with 158. Even OBP dropped to 6^th. So while our pitching dropped off, our hitting did too. The team ERA is still 2^nd in the NL, and starters are 3^rd, we're 4^th in runs allowed, if we can't get the runs in we're doomed.

The pitcher of the month for September was Rick Rhoden. Rhoden was only 3-3, but his 2.45 ERA was the best among all the starters. Tanana, as if it's no surprise, was no question, the worst. His month was so bad, that people were pining for the days of Jim Beattie starts. Tanana went 1-3 with a 9.12 ERA in 25.2 innings of work over 5 starts. His 15.8 BR/9 was also worst.

The top hitter for the month was Franklin Stubbs. Stubbs rebounded from a poor August to hit .298/.405/.670. He pounded 9 HR's, his best month of the year. Mike Marshall also came around batting .303/.305/.545 and he hit 6 of his own. Dwayne Murphy came back and hit 5 HR's too, but his .197 AVG didn't produce like we would have hoped. Randolph had a solid month too, but he lacks the power to be a real game changer like either Stubbs or Marshall.

Dwight Evans should be back within a week, pending any sort of rehab assignment. However, we are still down a game. There are 3 games before the Reds series, but we can't count out the Padres either. If we drop 2 against the Reds it's going to be over. The Reds have won 7 straight and 9 of the their last 10. We have to keep pace.

Toby Harrah has a severe sprained ankle. He's done for the year. Graig Nettles was immediately recalled and will start at 3^rd.

The Expos was won the East. They will eclipse the 100 win plateau for yet another year. The Mets are in 2^nd and the Cards in third.

In the AL East, the Blue Jays, who at one time looked to be on the way out, and unable to defend are down to a number of 4. Winners of 9/10 they are 3 games ahead of the Yankees. It's not over yet, but the Jays will clinch 9/10 times.

The West is nearly settled now too. It's the Royals that have separated from the pack. Even though the M's are 2 back, the Royals have all 6 of the remaining games at home, while the M's are on the road. The Angels have 90 wins, 4 more than us, and they are not even going to sniff the post-season.

So who is the worst? It's the Giants. Losers of 107 games they are 38 games behind the Reds. The Indians, Brewers, A's and Rangers are all going to hit the 100 loss mark this year too. That's some bad baseball.

Even if we make the playoffs we stand next to no chance to do anything this year. Hopes are very low, and that's IF we win the division.

Six games remain.

PilotMan · 06-22-2017, 02:39 PM

10/1 2-1 (10) W over the Padres
LA lined up 6 lefties against southpaw Bob Ojeda. Mike Scioscia hit a triple in the first came home to take the lead early. Frank Tanana, coming off of the worst month of his career pulled it together and dominated to allow 2 hits over 8 innings, while striking out 5. The Padres did tie the game in the 4^th, and in the 9^th, Niedenfeur came on but got into trouble right away. With 1 out Gwynn singled, stole 2^nd and took 3^rd on a Scioscia throwing error. He got Bob Brenly to ground out weakly back to the pitcher. He walked Kruk, then struck our former Dodger prospect RJ Reynolds to keep the game tied. Bottom of the 10^th Stubbs took us home with a 407ft shot over the center field fence (28).

The Reds destroyed the Giants 14-1 to win their 8^th straight. The Giants shortstop Dave Concepcion got his 2000^th hit in the game. The magic number is down to 5. The Padres are nearly eliminated from the race.

10/2 6-1 L to the Braves
Another lefty Zane Smith (8-15) handled us with ease. Smith went 7 and was always in command. He lowered his ERA to 5.46. Damn. I mean, it's not like we shouldn't have beat him up. LA just doesn't have a good lineup against lefties at all. Graig Nettles. Fuck this guy. I hope he never plays here again. He committed 4 errors in the game today that lead to 4 unearned runs. Unreal. Rhoden (19-12) walked 5 to help his cause. Sid Bream hit an RBI triple. Wooowooo.

Tandy Charley (12-12) shut out the Reds to break their win streak. Magic number is 4. Reds up 1 on us, 2 on the Padres.

10/3 1-0 L to the Braves
John Denny (13-15) pitched a great game. He went 8 innings, allowed only 3 hits, and struck out 7. He had no backup. Thanks to another lefty. Jim Deshaies (7-6) allowed only 1 hit over 8 innings. In fact, only 1 hit the whole game. We'd have been no hit if not for the big bat of John Denny. That's right, a double from our pitcher was the only offense that we could muster. We were that close to getting no-hit in the middle of a pennant race. A Gerald Perry solo shot (15) was the only offense for either team.

The Padres won again over the Reds 6-1. So now we get to play the Reds, who have a 1 game lead on us and the Padres. The magic number is down to 3. The final 3 games are at home against the Reds. We need to win them.

Sparky Lyle finished his career in the Dodger minor league system. He announced his retirement at the age of 41. Dwight Evans was activated off the DL and will take his rightful place in right field. So that means that there's no place for our leading home run hitter, Franklin Stubbs. His 28 HR's will be coming off the bench. I kind of wish that Lasorda would consider starting him at first in lieu of Bream, who's production has fallen off.

10/4 4-3 W over the Reds
Money baby. That's 1. The Reds got on the board, but we tied it in the first. Eckersley and Jeff Russell pitched well, but Tony Phillips was our savior today. Not only did he get a 2 run single in the 7^th, that we thought would be enough, he cracked a lead off triple in the 9^th and scored the winning run. He was 3-5 overall. Niedenfeur served up a 2-run homer to Dave Parker in the 8^th for his 5^th blown save on the year. He did strike out 4 in his 2 innings of work, and improved his record to 4-3.

The Padres won again. Jimmy Key got his 20^th win on the season. Now it's a complete, 3 way tie for the division. Magic number stays at 3 with the tie. 2 games to play. The Blue Jays have clinched the AL East.

10/5 3-2 L to the Reds
Uh oh, we're on the brink. Guess what? Another lefty. Charlie Liebrandt (11-9) held us down, and Ted Power finished us off. Frank White committed his 28^th error of the year and that lead to an unearned run that might have been the won that cost us the game. Valenzuela (18-6) takes the loss and we waste an otherwise solid effort. Our sole run came from Frank White's 9^th homer of the season and Dwight Evans went 3-4 in the losing effort.

The Padres fell to the Astros 2-1. They need an LA win and a win themselves to stay in the hunt. The Royals have clinched the AL West on the second to last day of the season. They will play the Blue Jays in the ALCS. Someone will still have to play the Expos. Our must win game will be with Frank Tanana on the hill. He'll face off against Jack Morris.

10/6 3-2 W over the Reds
We live to fight another day. Frank Tanana did his thing. He didn't allow a run in the first, he pitched into the 9^th inning and made 1 really, big mistake. Top 6 Eric Davis mashed a ball 450ft (15) nearly out of the bullpen in left. Mike Marshall didn't even move when he hit it, it went so far. There was much cursing. Jack Morris kept us silent through 7 innings before turning it over to the pen. Bottom of the 8^th Willie Randolph got a single, followed by a Bream walk. Dwight Evans then put a ball into the power gap for a double that plated both guys. That saved us temporarily, but Niedenfeur (5-3) was on to pitch in the 9^th. He walked Eric Davis, who then stole 2^nd. He got Kal Daniels to ground out, but Davis went to 3^rd. Dangerous Danny Tartabull hit a ball to the warning track, but it stayed in the yard. In the bottom of the 9^th Graig Nettles sent us home with his 10^th home run of the year.

The Padres won too. They won 6-5 (11).

So now we fly to Cincinnati for a playoff game. The season is over. There's a 3 way tie for West. There's no game for the Padres, but they aren't officially eliminated either, so I'm not sure what's happening next.

10/7 5-0 L to the Reds
Another lefty. Tom Browning, but it wasn't only him. A 77 min rain delay knocked out both starters, but even after, we didn't do much. Although, we had the chances. LA left 12 runners on base, without getting anything out of it. Rick Rhoden (19-13) was the victim of another Frank White error in the 2^nd inning. That lead to an Eddie Milner 3-run homerun (13). Later Danny Tartabull would add extra runs with his 23^rd. We lost Frank White in the 4^th when he was hurt while running the bases.

The Reds then traveled to San Diego for a game against the Padres. They pulled that won out too with a 5-4 win on the road. Long season, no playoffs for LA this year. The first miss since 1980.

PilotMan · 06-22-2017, 09:33 PM

1985 Playoff Preview

AL

Blue Jays v. Royals

The Jays are the defending champs but they aren't the favorites to take the title. Having finished the most recent power poll at #4 they are the third best team in the playoffs. That doesn't mean they are a bad team though. The Jays finished with a 97-65 record, 4 games in front of the Yankees. They are the best hitting team in the AL, and the best in runs scored. Not only are they 2^nd in home runs, they also are 2^nd in stolen bases. The pitching staff is 5^th in the AL in ERA, but they have the best bullpen. They are also 2^nd in team defense.

The offense was powered by OF George Bell (.317/.370/.580 and 39 HR) and Jessie Barfield (.302/.389/.571 and 25 HR in 103 G). Lloyd Moseby hits leadoff, played every game, and he hit 29 HR and stole 33 bases. Every player in this lineup is dangerous from those above to Ricky Henderson (.279/.388/.457 and 48SB), Tony Fernandez (.336/.386/.446), former Dodger Bobby Grich (.281/.393/.437) and Ernie Whitt (.280/.346/.458). The pitching staff was lead by Danny Darwin (19-4, 3.07) who threw the only no-no all year. The rest of the guys aren't so special. Jim Clancy (16-11, 3.23) and Mark Thurmond (17-9, 3.69). Gene Garber with 33 saves and a 2.12 ERA anchors the bullpen. They also have old guy 42-yr old Ron Reed, who was the closer last year, in the pen.

The Royals took longer to clinch, but they are #2 in the MLB power rankings. They won 100 games against 62 losses and had to deal with the losses of ace Bob Welch (6-6 3.76) and closer Lee Smith (31S, 3.05 ERA). Neither will be back this year. The Royals are 4^th in runs scored and 5^th in team avg and HR's. So they're not as potent as the Blue Jays. The pitching staff is 4^th in team ERA, 7^th in OBA, and the defense is 11^th in the AL. On paper the Jays look stronger all around.

The Royals made 1 big move at the trade deadline and it might have been crazy at the time, but it did address the loss of Welch. The Royals had signed Mike Schmidt in the offseason and he was playing DH while George Brett played 3^rd. Schmidt was sent to NY for SP Mario Soto and a prospect. Soto had been 11-7 with a 3.31 ERA in NY, but when he came to KC he didn't fare as well. He still went 5-5, but with an ERA of 5.25. Meanwhile, Schmidt only had 12 HR and a .241 avg for the Royals, he went on to hit 19 HR with a .247 average for the Yankees. So it was a gamble. The Royals used Rod Carew to take over at DH for Schmidt.

The Royals offense is powered by George Brett (.337/.415/.567 and 27 HR), Fred Lynn (.314/.412/.533 and 26 HR's) and Carney Lansford (.290/.342/.443 and 15 HR's). But they've got power throughout too. They aquired Terry Pendleton from the Cards at the deadline, and that helped make that move to get rid of Schmidt.

The pitching staff is lead by ace Bud Black (21-10, 2.80 ERA), but also by former Dodger top prospect Orel Hersheiser (19-6, 3.18 ERA) and Mario Soto (16-12, 3.96 ERA). They're plenty deep to hang with the Jays there. The loss of Lee Smith hurt, but the team went to Vern Ruhle and he got 14 saves. For the post-season though, the team is planning on using starter Mark Gubicza (15-12, 3.70 ERA) as the closer. The rest of the pen is a bunch of unfamiliar names like Nate Snell, Bobby Castillo and Ed Olwine.

NL

Expos v. Reds

The Expos are the top ranked team in the MLB power rankings. The #1 team. No question. This team is talented, like they have been the last few years. Even though they only won 103 games, the worst for them in a while. They should be considered the favorites.

They were #2 in team batting and #1 in on base percentage. The offense was lead by MVP candidate Tim Raines. Raines lead the NL in batting with a .376, a .479 OBP. He didn't lead the NL in steals though, he was #2 with 63 steals. He is super dangerous. Of course, they also have Gary Carter (.282/.343/.485 in 106 G), Andre Dawson (.286/.332/.454) and Lou Whitaker (.279/.353/.412).

The pitching staff is 3^rd in the NL and anchored by 2 twenty-one game winners in Bryn Smith (21-7, 3.48) and Rick Reuschel (21-8, 3.35). They also have last year's 20 game winner in Bob Knepper (18-8, 3.04). The bullpen is nuts. They've not only got last year's Cy Young winner, John Candelaria (4-6, 3.24), Jeff Reardon (3.42) and Dan Quisenberry (40S, 1.67 ERA). This team should be heading to the Series.

The Reds finished at #13 in the NL power rankings, behind both the Dodgers and Padres. You know they've got an insane offense with some big power hitters. The Reds are 3^rd in team batting and offense. Second in HR and OBP. With that offense, they've also got good pitching. They are 5^th in the NL in pitching, and 5^th in team defense. Even with a record of 91-73, they've got a good team. Wish is was LA, but this was the better team.

The Reds offense is powered by Dave Parker (.286/.340/.469 and 29 HR's), Eric Davis (.254/.360/.469 and 15 HR and 39 SB in 89 games) and Danny Tartabull (.292/.358/.513 and 24 HR's). The Reds are without however, Nick Esasky, the power hitting first baseman (.246/.331/.466 and 24 HR's) He is done with a bad ankle sprain. On the bench though is Jose Canseco (.274/.367/.491 and 22 HR). The team just can't figure out a way to get all those bats in the line up together.

The Reds pitchers are ace Jack Morris (15-10 2.65 ERA), Charlie Liebrandt (11-9 3.64) and Tom Browning (15-13 4.21 ERA). The bullpen closer is former Dodger Ted Power (35S, 3.56).

All in all you have to look at these teams and wonder if the AL again, will simply overpower and blow out the NL. The AL has won the last 3 series. If the Expos take out the Reds, it'll be just the Dodgers and Expos for the NL for the last 5 years. Can the Blue Jays take out the Royals and go on to defend their title? We're about to find out.

PilotMan · 06-22-2017, 09:57 PM

ALCS

Royals over the Blue Jays 4-0
The Royals sweep and dominate the Jays. Fred Lynn is the ALCS MVP with 3 HR and a .412 batting average. Each and every game was close, 3-2, 5-3, 7-2, and 4-3. The Royals pitching just owned the Blue Jays. The Jays pitching couldn't handle the Royals hitters. Mark Gubicza picked up 2 saves and a win in his 3 appearances.

NLCS

Expos over the Reds 4-3
It was close right to the end. The Reds took a 3-2 series lead back to Montreal and couldn't get that last win. Tim Raines was the NLCS MVP. He batted .333 and had a .464 OBP. The Reds out homered the Expos 7-2. The key game was in game 6. The Reds went to the bottom of the 9^th ahead 4-3 with Ted Power on the mound. Vance Law lead off with a double, then he got Gary Pettis out on strikes and Tim Wallach to pop out to 2^nd base. Tim Raines walked and Mike Greenwell took the first pitch he saw and pulled it into the left field seats for a walk off 3-run HR to win it for the Expos and save them from defeat. Reds fans were crushed, and the Expos would take game 7, 6-2 behind another Greenwell HR and the pitching of LaMarr Hoyt.

It's the Royals versus the Expos in the 1985 World Series.

PilotMan · 06-23-2017, 08:36 PM

Game 1
Expos crush the Royals 8-1. Bob Knepper goes the distance.

Game 2
Expos walk off 1-0. Pitching dual between Bryn Smith and Orel Hersheiser.

Game 3
Expos drown the Royals 5-0. Reuschel allows 3 hits over 8.1. The Expos have allowed 1 run, unearned the entire series so far.

Game 4
Royals survive with a 3-2. Rod Carew hits a walk off HR to save the season. His first HR in over a year.

Game 5
Expos win the series in KC 3-2. Knepper goes another 8 innings and goes home with the Series MVP. He went 2-0 in 17 innings with a 1.06 ERA.

Everyone celebrates 1985 in Montreal, a year after the Blue Jays brought home the first title to Canada, the trophy stays there and the Expos follow with their first franchise World Series Championship.

That's it for this year. Awards are next.

PilotMan · 06-24-2017, 01:26 PM

1985 Post-season and Awards

The Dodgers pitching coach Jordan Aviles has retired along with CF Gary Maddox.

The team bought out the contract and declined the option on Frank White.

Dennis Eckersley declined his option year.

LA makes the first big move in the offseason and I hate it. As if they had any talent in the minors left, now that's completely gone. LA shipped away P Ramon Martinez, OF Jose Gonzalez, IF Cecil Espy, OF Ralph Bryant and OF Todd Brown. They're all heading to Houston for 3B Larry Parrish. That's a mighty steep price to pay for a 31-yr old, questionable fielding guy with 1 year left on his contract. Parrish was acquired by the Astros, from the Angels for Tony Bernazard. That's it. All that, for Tony Bernazard. Parrish is a 2-time all star who hit 24 HR. Is RIGHT handed, and has 193 career homers. LA didn't have a HR problem last year. Martinez and Espy were two of the top prospects in LA. The team is clearly signaling the desire to put it together next year.

AL Gold Glove Winners

P Dave Stieb – MIN
C Jim Sundberg – TEX
1B Pete O'Brien – TEX
2B Glenn Hubbard – NYY
3B Tom Brookens – TOR
SS Cal Ripken Jr – BAL
LF George Wright – TEX
CF Ricky Henderson – TOR
RF Jesse Barfield – TOR

NL Gold Glove Winners
P Bob Ojeda – SD
C Mike Bishop – ATL
1B Steve Balboni – PHI
2B Wally Backman – NYM
3B Tim Wallach – MON
SS Ozzie Smith – STL
LF Marvell Wynn – NYM
CF Eddie Milner – CIN
RF Tony Gwynn – SD

Guess who the newest Expos pitcher is? Nolan Ryan. How??? Basically for Jeff Sellers and John Dopson.

AL Rolaids Reliever of the Year
Bill Campbell – BOS (4-2, 7S, 1.51 ERA)

NL Rolaids Reliver of the Year
Dan Quisenberry – MON (5-2, 40S, 1.67 ERA)

AL Silver Slugger Awards

C Rich Gedman – BOS
1B Greg Walker – CHI
2B Bobby Grich – TOR
3B George Brett – KC
SS Cal Ripken Jr – BAL
LF George Bell – TOR
CF Barry Bonds – CHI
RF Jessie Barfield – TOR
DH Alvin Davis – SEA

NL Silver Slugger Awards

P Jeff Russell – CIN
C Bob Brenley – SD
1B Leon Durham – CHI
2B Ryne Sandberg – CHI
3B Kevin Mitchell – NY
SS Danny Tartabull – CIN
LF Tim Raines – MON
CF Lenny Dykstra – NYM
RF Darryl Strawberry – NYM

AL Rookie of the Year
Barry Bonds – CHI (.265/37/103 and 41 SB)

One helluva rookie season.

NL Rookie of the Year
Barry Larkin – HOU (.282/13/63 and 22 SB)

AL Manager of the Year
Dick Howser (RIP) – KC

NL Manager of the Year
Jim Fanning – MON

AL Cy Young Award Winner
Sid Fernandez – SEA (21-11, 2.65 ERA, 254 K's)

The price we paid for Willie Randolph. Granted, he's had moments where he's carried the team, and has batted at or near .300 while being #1 or #2 in the league in OBP, but it was still a steep price.

NL Cy Young Award Winner
Doc Gooden – NYM (25-6, 1.86 ERA, 296 K's)

AL MVP Winner
George Brett – KC (.337/27/96)

NL MVP Winner
Doc Gooden – NYM

Now the real drama begins. Where will our team go this offseason? We already know the youth movement isn't underway. It's all about finding that right combination. We have a lot of free agents to deal with. Who will or won't be back. There's also some really bad contracts in LA. That's going to hurt us too, but being in a big market will always help that out some.

PilotMan · 06-26-2017, 12:37 AM

1985 Hot Stove Notes and Updates

It's not a great start to the year. The Dodgers have brought on a total unknown pitching coach by the name of Jim Gulley. He does a better job with groundball pitchers, but overall is a total unknown.

LA has resigned a few players to 1-year deals -

Stubbs, Sax, Pena, Niedenfuer, Marshall, Kittle, and Tony Phillips are all coming back on affordable deals. They also resigned Nettles to a cheap deal. At the age of 41, you can't expect much from that deal though.

Free Agency is ugly for LA. It's a complete turnover. The team didn't extend a lot of the guys. Here's a list of the current Dodgers, who have just filed for free agency:

1B Andre Thornton, IF Toby Harrah, C Buck Martinez, P Dennis Eckersley, P Jerry Reuss, IF Frank White, P Milt Wilcox, OF Dwight Evans, 2B Willie Randolph.

That's 9 guys from the 24-man roster. Maybe someone will be back, but not before they go out into the world. Meanwhile, we have plenty of room for new blood. I expect a busy off season, except that the budget might be constrained.

LA locked up a key starting pitcher by getting Rhoden, who was going to be a free agent after this, extended for 3 more years. Rhoden has been 35-22 for LA and been the #2 guy in the rotation. Same pay as Jim Beattie, better return.

We lose Willie Randolph to the Mariners. He gets a 6-yr deal worth over a mil per.

LA's first off season signing is inning eater Allen Ripley. Ripley went 12-14 for the Tigers last year, and boasts a 58-84 career record with a 4.32 ERA. He lead the NL in losses in 1984, losing 18 for the Cubs. He did win a Gold Glove in 1983. He gets a 1 year deal.

LA's outfield situation appeared to be settled with a mix of Stubbs, Marshall, Kittle, and Murphy. However, the team wasn't satisfied with that set up. With Evans still out there the team has gone and spend 2.56M over the next 2 years for Fred Lynn. Lynn, a center fielder makes Murphy's spot on the roster questionable. Murphy has 4 years left on his contract at 1.2M per. Meaning that the team is currently spending about 2.5 M on 1 position. That's a little disheartening. Murphy didn't have a very good year last year, hitting .260 with 6 HR over 49 games. Lynn will be 34 when the season starts, but his resume is much deeper. He's a career .296 hitter with 211 HR's. He hit 26 last year while batting over .300. He's a ROY, MVP, 4-time Gold Glove, and 9-time All-Star, most recently last year.

1985 First Year Player Draft
LA picks #25 out of 27 in the first round.

Bernie Williams is the #1 overall pick, but the Giants.

First 5 rounds for LA

OF Paul Sorrento (1^st)
OF Pete Incaviglia (Sup 1^st)
OF Jerome Walton (2^nd)
OF Billy Beane (3^rd)
P Ricky Bones (4^th)
IF Hensley Meulens (5^th)

It looks like outfield was important for the team with 4 picked with the first 4 picks. There aren't any huge names in there, but there's a couple of guys who had nice careers. Not terrible, but nothing to get too excited about. There might be some trade fodder in there too as LA is known to use.

The Blue Jays made a steal of a trade with Baltimore. The Jays didn't pursue Willie Upshaw in free agency and instead sent prospects Mike Macfarlane, Willie Fraser, Chris Johnston and Alexis Marte to the Orioles for 29-year old 5-time All-Star, 2-time Silver Slugger Eddie Murray. Eight days later they sign a contract extension for 6 years with a team option to 7. Wow.

The Expos are going to repeat as champions. You'll see why later.

Dwight Evans has signed a 2 year deal with the Mariners for 1.17M per year. Reuniting with Randolph.

LA has signed 2B/3B Jim Morrison for a cheap 142k for 1 year. Morrison is a pretty good fielder and a .257 career hitter with 95 career HR's. He played 72 games for the Royals last year and batted .210.

Joe Torre becomes the only HOF inductee this year with 78.6% of the vote.

Milt Wilcox has signed a 1 year deal with the Cardinals.

Failure. Of LA's draft picks in the first 5 rounds, only Sorrento and Incaviglia sign.

Another 1 year deal for the Dodgers. This time it's 33yr old, corner infielder, Ray Knight, he will earn 304k for the year. Knight is a 1-time selection to the All Star game and Gold Glove winner. Knight is a career .281 hitter with 50 HR's. He's got limited range, but decent skills in the field. He played for Houston and Milwaukee last year and played in 107 games, batting .311.

Guess third is a sticking point for LA. They've signed another old guy. This time it's 35 yr old Doug DeCinces. DeCinces spent the last 2 years in Detroit where he hit 38 HR's. His only award was a Silver Slugger back in '82 with the Angels. He's been a regular starter, but hasn't played more than 108 games in a season the last 2 years because of injuries. He's better defensively at third than any of our other options like Knight, Smalley, Morrison or Phillips. His deal is for 3 years/2.66 M with the third year a vesting requirement based on plate appearances.

LA is going to need a nursing home for all these old guys. The newest face in LA is a 6-time All Star and for MVP and Cy Young winner, but all that was a long time ago. 36-year old Vida Blue is going to be in Dodger Blue. Seems like a perfect pairing. He gets a very affordable 1 year, 270k deal. He spent the last 2 years with his former club the A's where we went 23-20 and averaged 34 starts. He's got 223 career victories and 2312 K's in his career.

Jerry Reuss heads to Detroit for a year.

Buck Martinez and Steve Garvey end up in SoCal with the Angels for a year each.

Frank White lands a 1 year deal with the Red Sox.

LA sustains a couple significant injuries that will impact the year. The biggest is to Allen Ripley. Ripley was projected as the #5 starter initially has blown out his elbow and he is done. His contract will expire before he ever gets to the field in Dodger blue. Next, Vida Blue, who might have been in line to take his place has a strained shoulder is is going to miss all of April at least. Last, is to Tony Phillips. Phillips was looking to have short locked up, but he's sprained his thumb and is projected to be back by mid May.

That's it for this offseason. LA added some players, but I'm feeling pessimistic about the value of the guys that were brought in. The bullpen looks amazing, and the rotation looks about average. The starting lineup looks to have talent, but with these old guys, you really don't know what kind of performance you're going to get from them.

The preseason prognosticators have us predicted to win the West, but it'll be close with the Padres right on our heels. The Reds are down in 4^th. The Expos are predicted to have the best record in baseball with at least 104 wins. The big surprise though is that the Mets are also expected to have 104 wins, so that might make for a good season.

So the Expos. They're going to repeat. Their starting lineup is bonkers and the rotation isn't quite on that level the bullpen is. The lineup has 23 All Star appearances, 6 Gold Gloves, 14 Silver Sluggers, 1 MVP and 2 ROY's. The pitching staff has 20 All Star appearances, 1 Cy Young, and 2 Reliever of the Years. What does that line up look like? Well...

Young prospect Andres Gallaraga takes over at first. Second is Lou Whitaker. Third is Paul Molitor. Short is Vance Law. Left is Tim Raines. Center is Robin Yount and right is Andre Dawson. The Expos still have Reardon and Quiz in the pen with the Candy Man. The rotation added the Ryan Express. As a Dodger fan, it's a bunch of bullshit.

PilotMan · 06-26-2017, 10:32 PM

1986 Opening Day Roster

Starting Rotation
L Fernando Valenzuela (18-6, 3.01)
R Rick Rhoden (19-13, 2.82)
R John Denny (13-15, 3.16)
L Frank Tanana (10-10, 4.32)
R Kelly Downs (0-0, 3.68)

The top 4 are exactly the same as last year and I think that it'll be good enough provided the offense can get going. Downs would be in the pen or the minors, if we hadn't lost Ripley. Blue might get the 5 spot when he comes back in a month. Have to say it's nice not seeing Jim Beattie in there.

Bullpen
R Jim Beattie (1-7, 5.38)
L Steve Howe (2-2, 1.78)
R Alejandro Pena (4-3, 1.45)

R Ken Howell (3-8, 4.14)
R Tom Niedenfeur (5-3, 2.28, 24S)

L John Franco (3-1, 1.89, 11S)

So the pen is pretty stacked right now. No new faces. John Franco gets the closer role, while there are other 4 guys, except Beattie, who can close too. The lack of another southpaw might cause an issue down the road.

Catcher
Mike Scioscia (.295/15/60)
BJ Surhoff (.339/2/32 in rookie, A and AA last year)

Scioscia is the no question starter and former first pick Surhoff makes the big jump up from AA, but actually he was in A ball most of last year. Scioscia is still a very good defensive asset, who is a decent contact hitter. Have to think that his power output was a bit of an anomaly last year, but his average was great. Surhoff has a great guy to learn behind.

First Base
Sid Bream (.259/16/63)
Ray Knight (.311/5/33)

Bream is just about as average a player as you'll ever find. He's solid, but unspectacular everywhere. So he isn't going to jack 30 homers, or 100 RBI's, but he steady defense and good all around skills are still an asset. Knight gives us a right handed option, that is solid on defense at first, and a below average hitter.

Second Base
Jim Morrison (.210/8/31)

Where the fuck is Sax? Oh yeah, the team optioned him back to Albuquerque to start the year. Seems like he must have pissed off someone to not get on the roster. Tony Phillips is hurt, and he can play 2^nd and pretty well too. How are we going to survive with Morrison as the mainstay at second? It's a poor option. Can't believe that Sax isn't here right now. This is a major downgrade from Randolph.

Third Base
Doug DeCinces (.251/21/68)
Graig Nettles (.229/10/26)
Larry Parrish (.240/24/67)

For some reason Parrish is stuck in the same place that Thornton was in. As in, he's got no place to play and he's treated like he's not even going to play. Larry Parrish, at 32, is the young guy. Seems like this isn't that big of an upgrade either. Parrish was traded for a couple of high draft picks and now he's on the outside looking in. It's not a good look.

Shortstop
Roy Smalley (.222/13/52)

Average defender, not getting any younger. Offense has dropped each of the last 2 years. Not sure if Phillips is going to displace him or Morrison when he comes back. The team is drastically overpaying for him and his contract is for another 2 years.

Left Field
Franklin Stubbs (.246/28/84)
Ron Kittle (.257/4/14)

Similar look to last year for left. Lots of power, but not much else in the way of regular hitting. Neither guy is very good in the field, but at least we can hide them in left. Kittle just isn't going to be the regular guy for us, so it's going to be up to Stubbs to stay hot.

Center Field
Fred Lynn (.314/26/80)
Dwayne Murphy (.260/6/20)

Lynn is a new face this year. He's over 34 now, but he can still hit. He's a bit of a weak spot defensively as he just can't cover the ground in center like he should. Murphy is a defensive wiz, but his swing doesn't look like it used to. He was limited to 49 games last year, and lost his job to Lynn in the offseason. He can't play any other positions.

Right Field
Mike Marshall (.240/27/104)

Marshall was the definition of our team last year. Good power, but really struggled to get on base regularly. His OBP was under .300, despite his power. He's a good defender with a strong arm and he's got a big bat. We'll need him hitting well in the cleanup spot this year if we're going to the playoffs.

That's our roster for the start of this year. Lots upon lots of questions. Good hitting, great bullpen, so-so rotation. The expectation of the playoffs. Let's see how it goes!

It's time for Dodgers baseball! 1986!

PilotMan · 06-27-2017, 10:12 AM

4/7 2-0 W over the Padres
LA wins on opening day! Valenzuela (1-0) was 1 out from the shut out before being lifted for Franco who got the save. Mike Marshall was 2-4 and hit the first home run of the year. A 456-foot bomb, that had the left fielder stuck in his shoes just watching it go.

4/8 15-4 W over the Padres
The bad news is that Niedenfeur gave up 2 runs on a Rick Dempsey HR (1). But that was the bad news. LA hit 4 HR's. Two each for DeCinces (2) and Stubbs (2). They had 10 RBI's together. DeCinces had 4 hits. It was a bash fest. Jimmy Key had a game score of 3. Rhoden (1-0) went 8 for the W.

4/9 2-1 W over the Padres
LA got 8 innings from John Denny (1-0) and a great game overall to take the Dodgers home for the win. DeCinces hit his 3^rd of the year in the 6^th to break the tie, after Scioscia had gotten the team off to the start with his first homer in the 6^th. John Franco struck out the side in the 9^th to get his 3^rd save .

4/10 4-3 W over the Padres
It looked like Tanana (1-0) was going to get shelled. He struggled with control and had a high pitch count by the 5^th inning. It wasn't until LA rallied behind a Jim Morrison 3-run shot (1), that put LA in front, did he settle down. It was his 150^th career win. John Franco pitched 2 innings for his 3^rd save. A sweep to start the year.

4/11 4-3 W over the Giants
Kelly Downs spread 10 hits out over 7 innings and getting some defensive help when Lynn cut down a runner at the plate in the first. But his first win eluded him once again as he left with the score tied. In the 9^th Parrish lead off with a double, then took third on a Scioscia single. Ray Knight hit a single over the 2^nd basemen to plate Parrish. Niedenfeur (1-0) pitched 2 innings and Stubbs hit his 3^rd HR of the year to tie the game in the 5th.

4/12 4-3 W over the Giants
Doug DeCinces is on freaking fire. He goes 3-4 with 2 HR's (5) and 3 RBI's, including the go ahead HR. Valenzuela (2-0) went 8 innings and allowed 3 unearned runs, thanks to 2 Morrison errors. LA has won their first 6 to start the year. While DeCinces has 5 HR's, Fred Lynn has started the year with 1 hit so far. Just 1. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th for his first save of the year.

4/13 2-0 W over the Giants
Rick Rhoden (2-0) survived a dual with Atlee Hammaker (0-2). Rhoden allowed only 2 hits on his way to the complete game shutout. He was in command needing only 99 pitches to finish, and it's the 3^rd best pitching performance of the young season. A Fred Lynn RBI single was the difference. Rhoden went 1-3 with a run with the bat. LA sweeps the Giants to end the homestand. They head to San Diego for the next series.

4/14 6-1 L to the Padres
The run comes to an end on a day when John Denny (1-1) served up 14 hits and LA lost the mojo against lefty Dave Dravecky (1-0). LA got a couple of hits from Sid Bream, but the most exciting thing was the major league debut of top LA prospect BJ Surhoff. Surhoff started at catcher and got his first major league hit, a triple, high off the wall in right. He was score LA's only run.

4/15 4-3 (10) L to the Padres
Neither Tanana nor Dennis Leonard figured in the final, but both pitched well enough. LA played catch up all game long after a Gwynn 2-run homer in the first. Leonard kept LA off the bases until a Morrison single was followed by a Stubbs home run. His 4^th. Mike Scioscia tied the game in the 8^th. Ken Howell (0-1) served up a Kevin McReynolds, walk off, home run in the 10^th to end it. The wheels are now falling off the season.

Balldog · 06-28-2017, 08:42 PM

heck of a start to the season!

PilotMan · 06-28-2017, 10:40 PM

4/16 4-2 L to the Padres
One good sweep deserves another as we get taken to loser town again. Kelly Downs (0-1) goes 6 solid, which is all we expect from our #5 guy, and the offense takes a dive against young lefty, Greg Mathews (1-1) who gets his first career win. Roy Smalley and Mike Scioscia each had 2 hits, and Doug DeCinces stayed hot hitting #6 for the month of April. Ozzie Guillen torched us for 4 hits and 7 total bases.

4/17 12-1 L to the Braves
Zane Smith (2-0) had to feel pretty good staked to a 12-0 lead after 3 innings, but after that LA outscored the Braves 1-0. So there's that. Valenzuela (2-1) was pummeled and Jim Beattie who came on fared even worse. Fred Lynn had 2 hits to bring his season total to 4, and Doug DeCinces nearly matched his season total with 3 hits of his own.

4/18 7-6 (11) L to the Braves
Alright, this shit is getting ridiculous. LA got back to back blasts from Bream (1) and DeCinces (7) to take a lead. The Braves came back on Rhoden, but LA answered with 4 in the 7^th, helped by Marshall's 2^nd home run. The pen couldn't hold the lead though, and Atlanta stole it back in the 8^th, then won it off of Niedenfeur (1-1) in the 11^th. Sid Bream went 3-5.

4/19 11-6 W over the Braves
Hey! We are going to win again! I don't think we'd had a 5 game losing streak in any of the other playoff years so that doesn't bode well. John Denny wasn't good, and after his 6 innings, and the tired bullpen we were down 5-1 and it looked like another sweep was upon us. Enter Doug DeCinces. Top 7 he hits a grand slam (8) and we are tied. Just like that. Top of the 8^th Franklin Stubbs hits a 3-run shot (5) and then Mike Marshall added a 2-run shot (3) and then we were up. Steve Howe (1-0) got the win, and Jim Beattie pitched a scoreless 9^th to lower his ERA to 27.00. Oh, and Fred Lynn, who had 2 whole hits in the game left with an injury after a defensive play.

Jim Morrison was placed on waivers and designated for assignment. Steve Sax was called up to take his roster spot.

4/20 7-4 L to the Giants
I'm seeing a new trend. Starting pitching unable to keep the other team down. After a great start, our pitching has just given up. We've given up 4 or more runs 6 games in a row now. Tanana (1-1) takes the loss, raising his ERA to 4.50. Stubbs went 2-4 in the losing effort.

Fred Lynn has gone to the DL with shoulder tendinitis. He's expected to be out until mid May. 28-yr old Dodger minor league vet, Tom Beyers, has been called up for his first major league action. Beyers batted .284 with 9 HR and 91 RBI in Albuquerque last year. Dwayne Murphy is expected back in center with Lynn out.

4/21 2-0 L to the Giants
Kelly Downs (0-2) struck out 7, but his first career win eluded him. It was a Chili Davis double that put 2 on and no outs. Both would score. LA could only manage 4 hits off of Giant pitching and Jeff Stember (1-0) went 8 and only allowed 3.

4/22 2-1 L to the Giants
Atlee Hammaker (2-2) took a no-hitter into the 9^th inning. Ray Knight pinch hit for Fernando Valenzuela (2-2) and hit a triple over the right fielders head. That was that. He'd score on a wild pitch, but that was all we'd get. One hit. Valenzuela went the distance in the loss. What an end to a disastrous road trip. We got 1 win. Just 1.

4/23 6-0 W over the Braves
Home is a wonderful place. Rhoden (3-0) gives us just what we need. A complete game shut out. Helped along by a Stubbs 2-run homer (6), LA finally got a solid output of offense. Ok, so as crazy bad as we've been, we're tied for first with a 9-8 record.

4/24 5-2 L to the Braves
John Denny (1-2) got beat up good again. He allowed 10 hits and 5 runs in 5 innings of work. Steve Sax missed a bunt attempt then belted a lead off home run. His first and first hit of the year. Doug DeCinces added number 9 in the 4^th to keep it close, but it really wasn't.

4/25 6-0 W over the Braves
Frank Tanana (2-1) just pitched the best game of his career. At home against the Braves he surrendered a lead off double to Milt Thompson and then wouldn't allow another hit the entire game. He walked only 1. Both Dwayne Murphy and Steve Sax went 3-4, and Sax added 3 RBI's. His game is the top pitching performance in MLB to date this year.

4/26 8-3 W over the Braves
Well Kelly Downs finally has his first career win in 3 years of professional baseball. Almost 120 innings pitched in that time. Steve Sax scored a couple runs and got on base 3 out of 4 plate appearances and stole the teams league worst 3^rd base of the year. Doug DeCinces became the first player to 10 home runs, and the month isn't over yet. We're still in a tie for first, which sounds crazy, because it doesn't feel like it.

4/27 1-0 (15) L to the Pirates
What a fucked up game. The Pirates started Gene Garber, who being a reliever, you'd think wouldn't fare all that well. Except, LA was swinging at everything. Garber threw 72 pitched in 7.2 innings of work and allowed 9 hits. Valenzuela threw 9 shutout innings. Twice LA had the bases loaded in extra innings with 1 out and failed to score. LA left 14 runners on the Pirates 13. Niedefeur (1-2) took the loss although he pitched well. Dwayne Murphy popped 3 hits. Suckage.

Jim Morrison was claimed off of waivers by the Padres.

LA claimed OF Mike Fuentes off of waivers from the Giants and optioned Beyers and his Major League Dream back to AAA. Fuentes has played for the Expos and Giants. He's a 27 yr old, right handed bat with a career .229 avg and 29 career HR's. He plays all the outfield positions, but none of them very well and his best attribute is that you could say he's patient at the plate.

4/28 6-1 W over the Pirates
Rick Rhoden (4-0) stays perfect and lowers his ERA to 1.54, going the distance tonight. LA was powered, once again, by the longball. Tonight it was Roy Smalley hitting his first of the year, and Franklin Stubbs providing the cushion with his 8^th. LA is one of the worst hitting teams in the NL, yet they lead the league in homers.

4/29 2-0 W over the Cubs
John Denny (2-2) throws 8 innings of 1 hit ball tonight and looks like he was back in his old form after a few horrendous starts. John Franco pitched the 9^th for his 4^th save. LA lost Steve Sax after he appeared to hurt himself after he threw the ball. He complained of tightness in his back. He might be rested until it heals, as he is day to day.

4/30 1-0 W over the Cubs
Frank Tanana (3-1) has just done that only a very small handfull of pitchers have every done. That is, throw back-to-back 1 hitters. Tonight, he once again, had his stuff working. He struck out 9 and again, the only hit he allowed was in the first. This time to the 2^nd batter, Ryne Sandberg. His game score was even better than his last one, giving him now, both the top 2 pitching performances of 1986. Doug DeCinces got the RBI when he knocked in Sax. Great way to finish the month.

PilotMan · 06-30-2017, 09:11 PM

5/2 10-1 W over the Cardinals
Hey! Kelly Downs (2-2) wins again! He did have a little bit of help though. No need to do all the heavy lifting. LA crushed 4 more home runs. DeCinces picked right up with a 3-run homer in the first to get us going (11). Roy Smalley got #2 in the 3^rd. Then Stubbs (8) and Marshall (3) went back to back in the 5^th. Floyd Bannister (2-2) never knew what hit him. Well, that's not totally fair. Bannister gave up the first 2, and Ex-Dodger, Milt Wilcox gave up the back to back shots. Both Marshall and DeCinces went 3-5.

Vida Blue was activated and sent to Albuquerque for rehab.

5/3 3-2 W over the Cardinals
Two out in the 9^th, down by 1, LA got 4 singles and a hit batsman and won the game. Both Ron Kittle and Larry Parrish had pinch hit singles to put LA over the top. Valenzuela struck out 10 in 8 innings, and John Franco (1-0) picked up the win. LA had 0 extra base hits.

5/4 4-2 W over the Cardinals
Graig Nettles, playing 2^nd base, goes 4-5 in an odd role leading off. It worked out. Roy Smalley cleared the bases with a double in the 7^th inning. The Cards Mike Smithson pitched the best game of his life. For his career he averages about 5 K's per 9 innings. He struck out 10 in 6.2 innings today. Rhoden (5-0) lowered his ERA to 1.47 as he got his 5^th win. Franco served up a dinger, but got his 5^th save.

5/6 9-3 (8) W over the Cubs
A rain shortened win for LA tonight. Both Mike Marshall and Doug DeCinces had 3 hits . Marshall hit his 5^th homer, and Dwayne Murphy hit his first of the year. John Denny (3-2) went 7 and allowed 3 in a qualtiy start.

5/7 7-1 W over the Cubs
Frank Tanana (4-1) pitched his 3^rd straight complete game, and came thiiiiiis close to extending his scoreless inning streak to 27 innings. As it was, it ended at 24. Mike Scioscia hit a bases loaded double to clear the bases and break the game open. Steve Sax got on base 4 times in 5 plate apprearances. LA has won 8 straight games.

5/8 4-3 W over the Cubs
That's 9 in a row now. This is a fun run. Valenzuela (3-2) worked an efficient 8 innings of work, but wasn't overpowering. We were down 3-1 going into the 8^th when Roy Smalley blased a 2-run shot (3) to tied the game, and in the 9^th it was another blast by Sid Bream (2) that gave us the winning run. John Franco pitched another great 9^th for his 6^th save.

Vida Blue has been called back from his rehab assignment. He had 1 start where he went 7.1 for the win. He struck out 8 and walked 7. Kelly Downs was optioned back to Albuquerque.

5/9 3-1 L to the Expos
Of course, it's a road game against the Expos that cools us off. Rick Reuschel (3-2) handles us with ease. Rick Rhoden (5-1) takes his first loss, but had to spread out 10 hits just to keep it close. Sax went 2-4.

Fred Lynn was activated from the DL. He was placed on the main roster. To make room, Mike Fuentes was placed on waivers and designated. (1-5, 3G).

5/10 4-3 (14) W over the Expos
Two out in the 9^th and Dwayne Murphy put a ball into the center field seats (2) off of Jeff Reardon. It was Reardon's first blown save in 11 chances this year. Vida Blue and Nolan Ryan started and combined for 16 K's over 13.2 innings. After that it was a battle of the bullpens. BJ Surhoff singled, took 2^nd on a Sax sac bunt, then scored on a Fred Lynn single through the middle to give us the go ahead run. Lynn was 2-6 with an RBI. Ken Howell (1-1) got the win.

5/11 10-1 L to the Expos
This game was over in the first inning. LA got the bases loaded with no outs and David Palmer got out of it with 2 strikeouts and a groundout. John Denny (3-3) got in the same position and ended up giving up 8 runs, including a grand slam to Paul Molitor. Could have called the game right there. Steve Sax went 4-4.

Tony Phillips was activated off the DL and sent to Albuquerque for rehab.

5/13 4-3 L to the Cardinals
LA got Fernando (3-3) a 3-1 lead and he couldn't hold it. Doug DeCinces has been just as cold as he was hot, but he cracked his league leading 12^th HR. Roy Smalley hit number 4. Otherwise, that's all the O that we could manage.

5/14 6-2 W over the Cardinals
Steve Sax is hot. He went 3-5 and knocked in 2 in the win. Stubbs went 3-4 and hit number 9, a solo shot, in the 8^th to pile on. Rhoden (6-1) worked hard through 6 and the Howell and Franco kept the Cards from making a comeback.

Mike Fuentes was claimed by the A's. His 3^rd team this year.

PilotMan · 07-02-2017, 07:26 AM

/16 2-1 W over the Mets
Not really sure where Tanana has found his good stuff, but he's got it right now. Tanana (5-1) goes 7.1, and Franco came on in a high leverage situation to get out of trouble. LA didn't get a hit until the 6^th inning. In the 7^th, down 1-0, Stubbs hit a 2-run homer (10) to give us the winning margin. Franco got his 7^th save.

Tony Phillips was recalled from his rehab stint. To make room, Graig Nettles was placed on waivers and designated for assignment.

5/17 9-8 W over the Mets
LA lead 6-0 after 2 innings. Fred Lynn finally hit his first HR of the year. It's about goddamn time. Mike Marshall hit a grand slam in the 2^nd inning. That was his 6^th. So it was blown open, however...John Denny was pitching. He got hurt in the 5^th and was taken out. Jim Beattie lraised his ERA to 11.57 by allowing 3 in 2 innings. The Mets came back with 3 in the 7^th, another 2 in the 8^th and another in the 9^th as the bullpen just sucked. In the bottom of the 9^th the Mets brought on Roger McDowell. He's been perfect all year long, until now. He allowed 3 hits and 3 walks in an incredible show of offense by LA on the ropes. We had to score 3 to win, and the win came on a bases loaded walk. Tony Phillips' first game back he went 3-4.

Denny will be alright. It's a slight abdominal strain and he isn't expected to miss any time.

5/18 7-3 W over the Mets
Fred Lynn is starting to wake up. He went 2-3 with a 3-run homer (2) and 4 RBI's today. Stubbs added #11 an inning later. Valenzuela (4-3) went 8.1, striking out 8 and walking 5. He was doing better until he served up a Kevin Mitchell 2-run shot (12) in the 8^th inning. The Dodgers drew 5 walks off of Walt Terrell (2-4) including 3 in the first to load the bases.

5/20 5-0 W over the Expos
Well pitched game from Rhoden as he wins his league leading 7^th game to go to 7-1. He walked none, gave up 8 hits and struck out 8. LA was able to do all the damage on Rick Reuschel (3-3) in the first 4 innings. Mike Marshall earned player of the game, going 3-4 with his 7^th HR of the game. Tony Phillips hit a 2-run shot, that was his first of the year. Rhoden lowered his ERA to 1.68 and Franco pitched a scoreless 9^th to lower his to 0.47.

Graig Nettles was claimed by the Reds. So he is gone. He went 4-8 this year coming off the bench for us.

5/21 3-2 W over the Expos
Just like last time, Ryan Express (3-3) and Frank Tanana (6-1) went toe to toe. Both pitchers went 8 innings and combined for 14 strikeouts this time. Tanana got the better end of the day however. LA only managed 6 baserunners the entire game, but made the most of what they did have. Doug DeCinces hit his 13^th, a solo shot in the 3^rd. Franco pitched the 9^th for his 8^th save.

Jim Morrison has been on fire for the Padres. Since he was let go on waivers he is batting .355 in 23 games, with 4 HR's, a .380 OPB, and .527 SLG. He's starting at third for the Padres.

5/22 2-0 L to the Expos
Charlie Liebrandt (3-1) shuts us down again. This offseason we just didn't overcome that weakness to lefties. Even so-so lefties. Liebrandt is better than so-so, but he looks way better when he's playing against us. LA left 8 guys on base tonight, and only Tony Phillips got more than 1 hit. It was a good start for John Denny (3-4), but with no offense how are we supposed to win?

5/23 10-3 L to the Phillies
Philly put up 8 runs on Valenzuela (4-4) in the 6^th inning and the game was over. He just couldn't get out of the inning as the hits and walks just kept coming. All in all Fernando allowed 11 hits and 3 walks in 5.1 innings of work. One of his shortest outings of the year. Mike Marshall hit a solo-homer (8) in the 4^th to top a 2-3 day.

5/24 4-1 L to the Phillies
One thing should be said. The Phillies are the worst team in the NL East. Having said that, how can we play like this against a team like that? The Phillies sent Rodger Cole (1-0) to the mound today. He was making his major league debut, and boy did he have a good day. He only needed to go 5.1 before he was lifted, but he struck out Sax to start the game. Then he not only got a hit in his first career at bat, he got another in his second. He also got his first career RBI. What could we hope to do against a guy with a 30-34 record and a 5.95 ERA in AAA? Vida Blue (0-1) took the loss and looked every bit a 5 starter. Mike Marshall went 3-4 to power our non-existent offense.

5/25 5-1 W over the Phillies
Rhoden (8-1) had 9 strikeouts in 7.1 innings of work and kept his ERA below 2. Doug DeCinces went 2-3 and Franklin Stubbs hit a massive 3-run homer that put LA up in the first inning. It was Stubbs 12^th home run of the year.

5/27 4-1 W over the Mets
No idea what's gotten into Frank Tanana but I like it. Tanana had another shot at a shutout, but it got away in the 9^th. He gets the win and runs his record to 7-1 on the year and his ERA to 1.91. Steve Sax went 4-5 and DeCinces hit his 14^th HR, another solo homer, in the 4^th. Franco came on to lock the game down for his 9^th save on the year.

5/28 3-1 (11) W over the Mets
Ron Darling owned LA today, striking out 8 in 8 innings of work. Valenzuela nearly matched him pitch for pitch except for 7 walked, including walking in the go ahead run. The Mets turned it over to Roger McDowell and we got to him right away. Back to back doubles by Smalley and Bream tied it up. In the 11^th Steve Sax had a 2-out single off of Orosco (0-3) to plate 2 and then John Franco came in again and locked it down for the 10^th time.

5/29 14-5 L to the Mets
The Mets are the most explosive team in baseball, and if they can find some pitching could really challenge the Expos and I'm not saying that lightly. Strawberry smacked 2 HR's for his league leading 16^th homer. They've got a very talented and very young team. Marshall and Sax went 2-5 each, and John Denny (3-5) did his best Jim Beattie impression allowing 7 in 3 innings of work. John Denny said after the game, “Blame it on the rain, that was fallin', fallin'.”

5/30 6-5 L to the Pirates
What a wacky game. Rick Rhoden took a no-hitter into the 6^th. Rhoden was clinging to a 1-0 lead in the 8^th when the Pirates erupted for 4 runs to take the lead. Tom Henke came on and with 2 outs, LA put together 4 straight hits, that ended with a Dwayne Murphy 3-run HR to give us the lead again, 5-4. Franco (1-1) came on in the 9^th and gave up a couple hits and a walk. The Pirates tied the game then loaded the bases, Franco then struck out 2, and with 2 out, he walked in the winning run.

5/31 4-2 L to the Pirates
Vida Blue (0-2) pitched better than his last time out, going 7 innings, but he got bit by the gopher ball, first to Dave Hengel, who's first career hit, happened to be that dinger, and then by Johnny Grub, a 3-run shot that gave the Pirates the winning margin. LA threatened in the 9^th, but couldn't break through on Gene Garber.

PilotMan · 07-02-2017, 07:24 PM

May Recap

This was a great month. The best month that we've had in a long time. The team turned in a 17-9 record , pushing us to 30-19 on the year. That's good enough for first place by 1.5 over the Astros, for now. It could've been even better if we hadn't dropped our last 3 games.

This team has been a strange one. Our record at home is 22-5, while our road record is 8-14. We're pretty much as good against lefties as righties. I'm not really sure how our season is turning out right now, but I have a theory.

Every team in the NL West is .500 or better. The last place Braves are only 5.5 games behind us, so a bad run and we could be looking up very, very far. I think we did well this month because we played a lot of teams from the weaker East. We beat up on them, and we took a break on the West teams. We might not be as good as we thought we were.

The strength of this team right now is on the mound. Up until the last couple days, we were first in every single pitching metric in the NL. The only one's that we are in 2^nd in right now are starters ERA, and hits allowed. Oh, and we're 3^rd in K's. Everything else is tits.

Then there's the field. Goodness. This is a power team. All power, all homeruns, all the time, and we play in a pitchers park. LA is 2^nd in the NL for HR's powered by DeCinces and Stubbs. We got guys back who had been hurt and I think that helped too. The glaring shortcoming though is that this team is the worst team in avg, and we're 11^th in nearly every other hitting stat. It's really incredible that we are even having any success at all. Thank god for pitchers. If they stop performing we're going to really be screwed. We're still the best defensive team in the NL.

May was the month for both Steve Sax and Mike Marshall. These guys were the best players. Sax roared up from the minors to hit .330/.405/.379. He added 14 stolen bases and is the only real speed threat on the team. He is really helping us to forget Randolph. If he can keep this kind of performance. If Sax set the table, Marshall did the heavy lifting. For May, Marshall was .352/.379/.565 with 5 HR's and 18 RBI's. It's a nice rebound from his crappy April. On the downside, we've got a ton of guys who are really not pulling any weight at all. From Scioscia (.155/.268/.226), to Bream (.167/.237/.226), to Fred Lynn (.246/.324/.361). Even Doug DeCinces crashed out in May (.240/.307/.375 and 4 HR's).

You know the pitching staff had a good month. None better than Tanana. Tanana won the NL Pitcher of the Month. He was 5-0 with an ERA of 1.08 in his 5 starts. The best month of his career. I hope he never slows down. John Denny might have had the worst. Denny went 1-3 with an 8.25 ERA in 5 starts. In the pen it was Alejandro Pena who wasn't doing so well. In 5 games, he allowed 3 HR's, the same number of strikeouts, and posted a 7.27 ERA.

As we turn toward June, the team has to decide if the starters that aren't performing are worth keeping on, or if it's time to move on. Scioscia's only saving grace is his arm. He was great last year, and he's terrible with the bat this year. BJ Surhoff is getting regular playing time, but it's clear that pitchers like Scioscia better. There's really nobody in the minors who might be getting called up, based on performance. There's not a lot of high level talent down there and the talent that is there is in the outfield, which as we can see, isn't short of talent. So that means that maybe there's some trades on the horizon. LA has the 3^rd highest payroll and a few million to spare even now. There's room for more, at the moment. I'm sure the GM is just itching to move the rest of those 2 star prospects.

BYU 14 · 07-02-2017, 08:13 PM

Tanana has had a real rebirth this season and just crazy you technically have three closers in the bullpen, you should never give up a lead after 7.

PilotMan · 07-03-2017, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Tanana has had a real rebirth this season and just crazy you technically have three closers in the bullpen, you should never give up a lead after 7.

If we could only have guys on base when all these homers are flying out we'd win all the time! But....these guys can't hit, except homers.

PilotMan · 07-06-2017, 09:16 PM

6/1 7-6 (10) L to the Pirates
LA and Tanana wasted a 6-1 lead. Lasorda left Tanana in too long, when he should have gone to his big bullpen and it cost us the game. Niedenfeur (2-3) was victimized by a Tony Phillips error in the 10^th that gave the Pirates the life they needed. DeCinces hit number 15. Tough to get swept on the road by the worst team in the NL East.

6/2 6-5 L to the Phillies
Another disheartening loss. Valenzuela was rolling and we were on our way. Fred Lynn and DeCinces went back to back with solo home runs, #3 and #16 respectively. The Phills grabbed one back in the 7^th and came on in the 8^th. Ken Howell was brought in and gave up runs that put the Phillies ahead. LA tied it up in the 9^th, but it was the bat of Rudy Law, in the bottom of the 9^th. Yes, Rudy Law, 12 career HR's, who put it over the left field fence to walk off for the Phillies. Unreal.

6/3 5-3 W over the Phillies
I'm glad we didn't drop a 6^th straight to a lowly team. John Denny (4-5) went 7 to get the win. Franco pitched the last 2 innings for his 11^th save. LA got a good game from Marshall, who was 3-4 and Phillips who was 2-4.

6/4 10-2 W over the Phillies
We bashed out 18 hits against Phillies pitching. Think about this, our 3-4 hitters combined for 2-10. Everyone else got in the game. Sax had 4, Phillips and Scioscia had 3 each. Bream scored 3 times. Scioscia had 3 RBI's. Tony Phillips hit his 2^nd HR of the year, in the 4^th inning. Rhoden goes 7.2 and gets his 9^th win (9-1).

6/5 9-6 L to the Astros
Houston pounded out 21 hits and the 2 teams combined for 33 hits in the game. No way this game took under 3 hours, it felt like 4.5. Vida Blue (0-3) takes the loss and allowed 13 hits and 7 runs in 4 innings of work. Jim Beattie came in and kept that run going, allowing another 5 in 2.2. LA went yard back to back again. This time it was a Stubbs 2-run homer (13) followed by a Bream (3) solo shot. Vida Blue's game score was 7.

6/6 7-5 W over the Astros
Tanana went 8, but revisited his old issue, gopher balls in the first. Benito Santiago touched him for 3, and we were behind all day. It wasn't until the bottom of the 6^th that we pulled back in front. Sid Bream hit a triple to tie it. Later it was BJ Surhoff with a 2-run single. He was 3-4 for the day. Tanana goes to 8-1, and Franco gets his 12^th save.

Vida Blue was put on waivers and designated for assignment. Kelly Downs was recalled to take his place. That didn't take long.

6/7 3-2 W over the Astros
Valenzuela (5-4) struck out 8 in 7 innings, but had to scatter 9 hits. LA fell behind 2-0 early on, but a Lynn HR (4) and a Bream 2-run shot (4) gave us all the runs we needed. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th for his 2^nd save.

6/8 3-0 (13) L to the Astros
John Denny and Jeff Sellers threw over 18 innings of shut out ball. LA only had 6 hits the entire game and Mike Marshall had 2 of them. One of his hits was the only extra base hit for LA too. LA turned 4 double plays, 2 of them with a runner on third to get out of an inning. It was lucky that we held on that long. Niedenfeur (2-4) took the loss when the Astros got to him.

23yr old, Ex-Dodgers prospect, Sid Fernandez threw a no-hitter against the Rangers. He's 8-2, with a 2.36 ERA this year. So Cy Young, no now hitter for Fernandez.

Former Dodgers, Bobby Grich and Tony Bernazard are 1-2 for 2^nd base AL All Star voting. Also, both Sid Fernandez and Orel Hersheiser are among top vote getters.

6/9 7-5 L to the Reds
Fred Lynn hit 2 HR's, one outside the park and one inside the park. Let me say, it was impressive for a 34 yr old outfielder. Rick Rhoden (9-2) took the loss and served up 3 HR's in his 5 innings of work, 2 to Eric Davis (15) and one to former Dodger Dave Anderson (3). Steve Sax also went deep for LA (2). By the end of the third, LA had come back from being down 5-1 to tie the game, but the Reds would score in the 5^th (Davis HR) and Beattie gave up another in the 8^th to secure it for Cincinnati.

Vida Blue didn't have to travel far. He was claimed by the Reds off of waivers.

6/10 4-2 L to the Reds
Fred Lynn went 3-4 with another HR, his 7^th of the year. The rest of the team only had 3 hits all together. Kelly Downs took the loss (2-3), but he didn't pitch poorly. The offense just didn't pick him up.

6/11 10-4 W over the Reds
It didn't take long to see Vida Blue in a new uni. He pitched today, and was really good, for 5 innings. In the 6^th, down 2-1, the Dodgers put on a hit parade and posted 6 runs to take the lead. Tanana (9-1) once again, would get good run support, even if he didn't dominate. He struck out 8 in 7.1, but allowed another 3 HR's. Sid Bream had LA's only homer, his 5^th in the 2^nd inning off of Blue. Both Bream and Dwayne Murphy went 2-4 with 2 runs and 2 RBI's. It would have been really, really embarrassing if Blue would have beaten us today.

6/13 5-4 L to the Padres
LA, behind Valenzuela had a 4-2 lead, but Lasorda stuck with his ace a little too long and it cost him. The Padres tied the game up in the 7^th and the Dodger bullpen, as good as they are, couldn't hold it. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th and needed a cannon from Mike Marshall in right to nail Ozzie Guillen at third. With a runner on first, and 2 out, Tony Gwynn hit one to the gap, that rolled to the wall and scored the winning run. Booo. Howell, falls to 1-3.

6/14 5-3 W over the Padres
The top of the order went 7-15, we pounded out 11 hits off of Jimmy Key. Meanwhile, Rick Rhoden went 7 strong to get his 10^th win of the year. Ron Kittle finally hit his first homer of the year. It was only his 3^rd hit, and it was his first pinch hit. John Franco pitched the final 2 for his 13^th save.

6/15 3-2 (11) L to the Padres
I'm starting to think that when Ken Howell (1-4) comes in to pitch that we will lose. John Denny with another not so shitty start. LA needed HR's by Fred Lynn (8) and Tony Phillips (4) to tie the game. Howell gave up the walk off single to Tony Gwynn.

PilotMan · 07-08-2017, 04:34 PM

Fred Lynn picked up the player of the week award in the NL with 4 HR's in a week and a .526 avg.

6/17 5-4 L to the Braves
Man, these one run losses are really piling up. This is the 3^rd in 4 games. The last few years these have been our wins. It also looks like my theory on this team is starting to hold true. The NL West is stronger, and we do well beating up on the East teams, but back in the 'hood, we struggle. Old friend, Candy Maldonado hit an 8^th inning HR off of Frank Tanana (9-2) that put the Braves up for good. It had looked like LA was going to win on the backs of a Mike Marshall 2-run HR (9) and another Tony Phillips solo homer (5). Tanana gave up 3 more HR's. That's 15 on the year, in just over 100 innings of work. Braves rookie thirdbasemen, Criag Worthington got his first career HR today. It raised his season avg to .087.

6/18 4-0 W over the Braves
Valenzuela (6-4) went 8.2 and was yanked an out prior to his shutout. Valenzuela got some good defensive support, including a big throw from Marshall to the plate. Fred Lynn knocked his 9^th HR of the year, a 3-run blast that opened the game up. Sid Bream went 2-4.

6/19 4-2 W over the Braves
Stubbs smashed a 400+ft, 2-run HR in the 6^th inning that gave the Dodgers the lead, and Mike Marshall went 2-4 in the winning effort. Rick Rhoden pitched 7 and moved his record to 11-2, while John Franco pitched the final 2 innings again for his 14^th save of the year. The Braves Jim Deshaies left the game in the 2^nd inning with an injury and the Braves had to rely on 5 guys from the pen to keep it close.

Bit of a surprise move in LA. Sid Bream is optioned to Albuquerque, and getting the call up is last years #2 pick (first round sup), Pete Incaviglia. Incaviglia started the year in AA, San Antonia, and has only played 16 games in AAA. Combined, he's hitting .314/.410/.545. He's hit 9 HR's, but only 1 in AAA. We'll see if that translates to the majors, if he gets any playing time. He doesn't play first base, so this is a bit of a strange move, but both Stubbs and Marshall can pick up time there.

6/20 3-2 (10) L to the Padres
Wasted a great game by Denny. He went 8, and struck out 6, only allowing 1 run. In the 9^th Lasorda went to Ken Howell. Howell walked RJ Reynolds (this whole Padres team is Ex Dodgers), Bob Brenly (see?) bunted him over, Jim Morrison (yep!) struck out, then Lance Johnson singled Reynolds home to blow the save. Howell would face 1 batter in the 10^th, getting Wiggins to fly out, then left the game with some kind of injury. I honestly breathed a sigh of relief when Neidenfeur came in. Next batter, first pitch, Cecil Cooper drove the ball into the right field pavilion. This game also saw the Major League debut of Pete Incaviglia. He singled in his first at bat, doubled in his second and got his first RBI. He started in left, with Stubbs shifted around to right. Marshall sat. Lasorda started Roy Smalley at first tonight. Doug DeCinces smacked #18 in the first. I thought it was going to be a good night, but our top rated bullpen failed.

6/21 4-1 W over the Padres
Kelly Downs (3-3) took all the pressure off the pen by throwing all 9 innings for his first complete game. Mike Scioscia, who has been completely absent this year, found something and went 3-4, with a double.

Our AAA franchise, Albuquerque is so bad, that our team ERA leader, Michael Cunningham has a 6.61 ERA. He's tied with the team lead in wins, with 3. His record is 3-9. The team is 16 games under .500, and 20.5 back. This does not look good for our future.

6/22 5-2 W over the Padres
Starting pitching FTW! Frank Tanana (10-2) goes the distance and only allowed 1 gopher ball. Ex Dodger Bob Brenly went deep on him in the 2^nd. LA brought it's own power though as Pete Incaviglia hit his first career dinger, a 345-ft shot to left field that plated 2. Doug DeCinces also got in on the act with his own in the 3^rd (19). Ray Knight has taken the starting job at first and went 2-4 batting in the 2 hole.

Brewers centerfielder, Mickey Brantley in an 11-5 loss to the Tigers. He hit his HR in the 9^th inning off of Doug Bair. Brantley is a .249 hitter this year with 9 HR's.

Incaviglia was optioned back to Albuquerque and Bream was recalled. Bummer. Looked like that was a positive move to be made. Bream hasn't done shit this year.

6/23 5-2 L to the Braves
What a waste!!!! Valenzuela pitched the game of the year and we lose?!?!?! Fernando pitched 8 and struck out 15 Braves batters. He left with the game tied at 2. John Franco (1-2) came on in relief. The leadoff hitter reached on a Tony Phillips error, then he walked the next batter. The third batter, Dave Meijer smacked the ball into the right field pavilion (3) to give the Braves the lead for good. So sad. Valenzuela had struck out 10 through 5. He was really something today.

6/24 3-1 W over the Braves
Steve Sax went 3-4 with 2 RBI's, his 3^rd HR and 22^nd stolen base. He supports Rick Rhoden who pitched 6.2 and struck out 7 while allowing 9 hits. Rhoden raises his record to 12-2 and lowers his ERA to 2.21. Both Ken Howell and Tom Niedenfeur pitched and we didn't lose! Alejandro Pena pitched the 9^th for his first save of the year.

6/25 1-0 L to the Braves
John Denny and Braves rookie John Mitchell (2-5) went toe to toe in this dual. Denny was pulled after 7 shutout innings and Mitchell pitched 8. LA could only muster 2 hits all game. Atlanta scored in the top of the 9^th inning off of Tom Niedenfeur (2-6). With 2 outs, Milt Thompson beat out a ground ball and got on first. Then Gerald Perry took a ball deep to the fence and the speedy Thompson scored. Another 1 run loss on the bullpen. Woof.

6/27 4-1 W over the Astros
Frank Tanana's All-Star season continues as he goes 8 and allows only 4 hits. Of course, 1 of those was a Bill Madlock HR (4), but he did lower his ERA to 2.73. LA had 2 of their own, of course, because we can't score any other way. This a Mike Scioscia 3-run homer (3) in the 2^nd and Sid Bream solo shot (6) in the 6^th.

6/28 8-5 L to the Astros
Fernando (6-5) got rocked early and took an early shower during the 5^th. He allowed 11 hits, and was on the hook for 7 of the runs. We hit Tom Candiotti (9-6), sort of. I mean, he threw a few wild pitches and we scored 4 on 3 hits. Steve Sax and Doug DeCinces both went 2-4 and DeCinces hit #20, a solo shot, because of course it was.

6/29 10-3 L to the Astros
Rick Rhoden (12-3) was off his game. He was touched for 10 hits in 4 innings and we had to experience Jim Beattie and and Alejandro Pena. Dale Murphy went deep twice (12,13) and Rick Sutcliffe (3-7) allowed 11 baserunners, but we just couldn't get anything in. Stubbs went deep in the 4^th for number 15, another solo shot.

6/30 7-3 W over the Reds
John Denny (5-5) went the distance with 7 strikeouts. We went against Vida Blue (1-5) again and again we got the better of him. Both Stubbs (16) and Marshall (10) hit solo home runs (dang this is a real problem). They also carried the team going 6-9 with 4 runs and 4 RBI's. The Reds have hit 20 more HR's than we have and have scored over 400 to our 300 runs this year. Their offense is just head and shoulders over ours.

PilotMan · 07-08-2017, 04:34 PM

June Recap

As good as May was June was the worst. Simply the worst. LA went 13-14, putting together the worst record for a month in a couple years. Our overall record stands at 43-33, and the lead that we had a month ago is gone and we're a game behind the Reds. No idea how, after this month, how we are only a game back. Just like last year, we're still in this as we head to the break.

The West is a little more open now than it was, but the race at the top is tight. The Dodgers, Reds, Astros and Padres have all been swapping out and only 2 games separate them. The Giants have fallen back and the Braves 10. The Expos have ceded the lead to the Mets in the East. In the AL it's the Blue Jays on top of the Red Sox and the West has the best team in baseball in the Angels. They're 6 up on the Mariners in the most comfortable lead in baseball.

Top pitcher for the month, was John Denny. Holy Crap. John Denny, coming off of the worst month of his career, he rebounded with a 2-0 record in 6 starts. His 1.34 ERA and 0.96 WHIP were the best. The worst of the month doesn't belong to one person, it belongs to our bullpen. The entire bullpen. The pen had a combined record of 0-8 with 7 saves. Maybe you can blame the offense for some of that, but 0-8? There's plenty of fail to go around.

The best hitter for June was Fred Lynn. Lynn wasn't lighting the world on fire, but his numbers were better than anyone else. For June Lynn batted .293/.363/.565. He hit 7 HR's, but only with 13 RBI's. His season average is up to .242 now and he has 9 HR's on the year. Sid Bream also rebounded from his demotion to post some solid numbers. His slash line was .298/.355/.583 with 5 HR's. There are too many guys who aren't performing up to par. June was no different, but we're really in a pickle the longer that Scioscia stays in there. Something has to be wrong with him. He's hitting nearly 130 points lower than he was last year, 130 less OBP than last year, and almost 180 points lower slugging. For June his slash line was .167/.244/.244. He had 13 hits all month, 4 for extra bases. It's bad right now. The hitting is so poor that our offense and overall record are taking a beating. Why did we waste a trade for Larry Parrish, who hit 24 HR's last year, and cost us 5 prospects, including our top pitching prospect if we aren't going to play him? He's in the last year of his deal. He's not coming back. Why?

Our team offense is still worst in avg with a team avg of .237. We're last in hits, next to last in OBP, and OPS, 9^th in SLG and Runs, and 2^nd HR's (behind Cincy). The pitching staff isn't as dominant as it was last month. We're 1^st in team ERA and runs allowed, while we're 2^nd, 3^rd, or 4^th in just about everything else. The team is the 3^rd best defensively in the NL. The bones are there for a winning team, but unless we can figure out how to get on base and score we're not going very far.

July we'll have to stay good. We should have a couple guys in the All-Star game, and the trade deadline will loom. I wonder if the front office will shake things up at all? With little to no prospects in the pipeline, what tools do they have to bargain with?

PilotMan · 07-10-2017, 07:19 AM

7/1 9-2 W over the Reds
Another good road win against the leading Reds. LA punished Bruce Berenyi for 5 in the first and 3 in the second. Mike Marshall homered in both innings (11,12). Sid Bream hit his 7^th in the second too. Tony Phillips was 3-5, and even Kelly Downs went 2-4. For his own part, he went 8.1 and Ken Howell came on to finish. We are tied for first.

7/2 6-5 L to the Reds
Should have completed the sweep. No question. Good Frank Tanana showed up today and went 8 innings, striking out 7 and allowing 1 earned run (2 total). LA opened the game up to a 3-0 lead in the 2^nd when Scioscia went deep for 2. His 4^th of the year. LA added another in the 4^th and 5^th, but Cincy clawed one back in the 8^th. We headed home with a 5-2 lead, and John Franco coming in. Franco gets Esasky to strikeout to start the inning, then allows a double to Danny Tartabull, followed by a walk to Bob Horner. Mike Stanley then came up and cracked a line drive over Tony Phillips head that scored Tartabull. Dave Valle was next and he hit a 1-1 pitch 403ft to left-center that sent the fans home happy. Terrible. Franco's ERA doubled to 2.60 with this outing.

7/3 7-4 (11) W over the Pirates
LA jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on a pair of HR's. One by Lynn (10), one by Stubbs (17). With Valenzuela up, the Pirates cut the lead to 1 on a Leon Durham 2-run homer in the 6^th. The Pirates tied it in the 7^th and Lasorda turned it over to the pen. Dwayne Murphy answered right away with a pinch hit blast (solo-homer) that put us back on top. In the 8^th LA loaded the bases and had John Franco come to bat, rather than replace him for the 9^th. He got out, we didn't get more runs. In the 9^th, Franco blew his 3^rd save of the year, and 2^nd in a row. He was replaced by Niedenfeur (3-6) who pitched the final 2 innings. In the bottom of the 11^th LA put 2 on and it was Fred Lynn again, putting the ball out of the park (11) to let us walk off and go home.

7/4 1-0 L to the Pirates
Mike Scott (6-9) threw a 3-hit shutout over the Dodgers. Sid Bream had 2 singles and Doug DeCinces had a double. Scott struck out 11 and walked 0. Rick Rhoden (12-4) takes the loss, but the only run was because of a Doug DeCinces error in the 8^th. He was right there throwing pills all game too.

7/5 4-2 L to the Pirates
John Denny pitched a complete game, striking out 7, but he was undone by the Pirate pitching yet again. Denny himself hit a triple and scored a run, and Lynn added 2 hits, but the Pirates did a better job of executing and making their hits count. LA was never really as close as the score tells. They were overmatched today.

7/6 4-3 L to the Pirates
And we drop 3 straight to the 5^th place team in the East. Unreal. The Pirates throw Cecilio Guante (3-1) on the mound to start and he goes 5 and we score 3. Then the rest of the pen came in. Downs (4-4) took the loss, didn't earn the quality start. Phillips and Lynn each went 2-4. This run is starting to fall off.

7/7 3-0 W over the Cardinals
We turned to Tanana (12-2) once again to stop the bleeding and once again, he delivered. Tanana pitched 7.2 innings of shut out baseball and struck out 9. Stubbs and Lynn both went 2-4 as we found out how to win without hitting a dinger. Niedenfeur came on in the 8^th inning and got 4 outs for his 1^st save of the year.

7/8 5-1 W over the Cardinals
LA put up 2 in the first helped by Tony Phillips and his 6^th HR of the year. Fred Lynn had a good day with a double in the first and an 8^th inning HR (solo) (12). Valenzuela (7-5) was an out from a shutout, but things fell apart in the 9^th. He still pitched a great game, with 7 K's. It's the kind of game that we need to see more of.

7/9 9-4 L to the Cardinals
Rick Rhoden is not on a good streak. He was hit 13 times in his 6 innings of work, and lucky for him, left with the game tied at 4. LA stayed close throughout thanks to a solo homer by Rhoden (1) himself. Too bad there wasn't anyone on base. Ron Kittle got the rare start and clocked his own solo homer in the 5^th (2). The wheels fell off late in the game when Niedenfeur and Franco combined for 5 runs allowed in 2 innings. Franco was completely useless again and his ERA is now up over 3.

7/10 3-1 (10) L to the Cubs
Young Cubs prospect David Cone is having an awful year and might need to go back to AAA, but the Cubs are also awful so it doesn't really matter. Today, he allowed 2 hits over 6 shut out innings. John Denny also threw zeros on the board for 6.2, before giving way to Ken Howell. In the 7^th, Howell served up a Mike Pagliarulo blast (15) that put the Cubs up. LA answered in the bottom with Sax coming around to score and it stayed like that. In the 10^th LA had John Franco (1-4) on the mound and with a runner on and 1 out, pinch hitter and prospect, Shane Mack came up and cleared the bases for his 2^nd career homerun. Franco is really having a rough go of it. It may cost him an All-Star spot.

7/11 5-4 W over the Cubs
Phillips, DeCinces and Marshall, the 2,3,4 went 6-11 with 3 RBI's in the winning effort. LA scored 3 in the first, the Cubs answered in the 2^nd, and LA scored again in the 3^rd. It looked like Kelly Downs was going to get the win until the Cubs tied it up in the 7^th. Alejandro Pena (2-0) came on and dominated. He struck out 4 in his 2 innings. Roy Smalley walked and took 2^nd on a wild pitch. Steve Sax hit the ball to the fence and Smalley scored to end the game.

7/12 3-2 W over the Cubs
It was Frank Tanana day in LA today. But at first it was old Frank who was back. He allowed 1 in the first, partially due to a Tony Phillips error. LA would answer in the bottom of the inning and push out to a 2-1 lead. The Cubs sent rookie starter Roberty Kennedy to the mound and his near 9 ERA. LA could only manage 5 hits all day off of him. Tanana did his job, until that is, he left the game in the 4^th with an injury. The crowed quieted and politely applauded, but you could just tell. Jim Beattie came on and pitched 3 shut out innings, then gave way to Ken Howell (2-4), who served up a HR to Joe Carter and blew another save, but he did end up getting the win when he was bailed out by a Kittle, pinch hit, solo homer to give us the winning edge. Niedenfeur pitched the 9^th for his 2^nd save. There's big concern for Tanana. Big concern.

The Pirates Leon Durham hit for the cycle in a 6-2 in over the Giants.

1986 All Star Rosters have been announced. Here are the current and former Dodgers who have made this years team:

AL
Dennis Eckersley – MN – 9-4, 2.45 2 AS
Sid Fernandez – SEA – 11-2, 2.78 2 AS
Jerry Reuss – DET – 2-1, 2.14 4 AS
Bobby Grich – TOR - .272/.368/.413 7 HR 8 AS

NL
Rick Rhoden – LA- 12-4, 2.57 2 AS (first in 10 years)
Fernando Valenzuela – LA - 7-5, 3.26 6 AS
Tom Neidenfeur – LA - 3-7, 2.58 4 AS
Doug DeCinces – LA - .271/.340/.498 20 HR 1 AS

Notable absences

John Franco – 1-4, 3.40, 15S – He was among the top 5 in votes for relievers. His horrible last few outings had to have kept him off the team.

Frank Tanana – 12-2, 2.42 – Straight up deserved this. It had been since 1978 since he's gone, and he earned this, but was shafted. The MRI on his shoulder was negative, so that was a huge relief. He's on the 15 day DL, but not expected to miss more than that. Very good news for us.

With Tanana heading to the DL, Lasorda said to expect Jim Beattie to get the spot in the rotation. To fill his spot in the bullpen, 2-time minor league, all star, and former A's prospect, Charlie Kerfeld was called up. Kerfeld is 0-2, with 9 saves in Albuquerque. His 6.33 ERA would be good for #2 on the team if he had enough innings. He's still young. At 22, the jury is still out on his future.

7/13 5-0 L to the Cubs
The Cubs just combined to 2-hit the Dodgers. This might be a new low. The Cubs have the worst record in the NL. They have a pitching staff that looks like it's straight from AAA and their team ERA is over 6. The pitchers they used were, Mark Vaji (6-9, 6.22), who walked 6. Rene German (1-2, 6.70), Doug Jones (0-0, 2.08), and Sixto DeLaCruz (0-0, 5.97). This group 2-hit us. Fernando (7-6) was doing alright. He was in solid control until the 8^th inning when the Cubbies got 4, somehow. Valenzuela would finish the game and strike out 8.

7/15 7-2 AL All Stars defeat the NL
Don Mattingly was the MVP going 4-4 including a HR. Rhoden threw 6 pitches to get his inning out. He even allowed a hit. Valenzuela struck out the side on 18 pitches. DeCinces went 1-3 with an RBI and started at 3^rd.

PilotMan · 07-13-2017, 10:02 PM

7/17 5-4 L to the Cardinals
Lasorda just loves to leave his starters in there as long as he can. LA had a 4-1 lead at one point. We scored first with back to back solo home runs in the 2^nd from Stubbs (18) and Bream (8). Andy Van Slyke (9) answered with his own solo shot in the 3^rd. LA put up 2 more in the 6^th, but Denny couldn't keep the Cards from answering in the bottom thanks to Willie McGee (4). The Cards got another in the 7^th and things just didn't feel right when Denny came out in the 8^th. McGee lead off with a big double, and Will Clark followed with a HR to right (19). LA had nothing in the 9^th to drop another 1 run game. Denny went the distance and allowed 10 hits and all 5 runs.

7/18 5-2 L to the Cardinals
Steve Sax lead the way going 3-5 with an RBI. Kelly Downs got the start and he pitched well, but there was a rain delay in the 5^th and he got yanked afterward. Things kind of went downhill from there. Charlie Kerfeld (0-1) got his first ML appearance. On his 2^nd pitch, Curt Ford, who had just replaced an injured RJ Reynolds (recently acquired from the Padres), hit a ball deep to right. It took a funny hop and Ford was able to complete the inside the park home run. Quite the debut for Kerfeld. He was also victimized by a Fred Lynn error that allowed 2 more to score in the inning. He took the loss, and got his first blown save! But it gets better! After 27 pitches, he complained of an injury and had to be replaced! Now that's a full blown, shitty, debut!

Former Dodger backup catcher Buck Martinez has announced that he is retiring. He's still in SoCal with the Angels.

The first blockbuster trade of the season is here. The Cubs and White Sox fashioned a cross town swap that sent Joe Carter to the White Sox (joining Bonds and Baines) in exchange for the #14 prospect in baseball, P Scott Bankhead and reliable veteran reliever Kevin Saucier. Carter his 40 HR's last year. The White Sox have been hit hard with injuries this year, and their pitching staff is now much more maligned without those 2. Only the future will judge this trade.

Kerfeld only has some wrist soreness, and he's not on the DL and is day to day.

7/19 5-3 (14) W over the Cardinals
Would you believe that John Franco blew his 3^rd straight save? Guy has gone from being unhittable to untrustworthy. Would you also believe that Jim Beattie started? Went 8? Allowed only 2 hits? Me either. Tied at 2 heading to the 9^th LA put the go ahead run on the board when Tony Phillips singled home DeCinces. Franco came on and walked Dave Winfield, walked Ozzie Smith, served up a single to Bo Diaz and Winfield came in to score. At least he didn't lose it for us. Top of the 14^th Stubbs lead off with a double and Bream doubled him in. Ken Howell picked up the win to go to 3-4.

7/20 3-2 W over the Cardinals
Rick Rhoden (13-2) pitched very well today. He threw 8 shut out innings allowing only 2 hits. John Franco almost happened again. Sax went 3-5 to lead the charge on offense and we were rolling. Franco's 9^th went down like this: Walk, Single, Out, Walk, Out/Tag/Score, Single, Single/Score, Out. The Cards had bases loaded and Tom Herr and he could've killed it for us. His ERA is up to 3.80 and it's his 16^th save.

7/22 5-3 L to the Pirates
Two errors by Tony Phillips at short cost us the game today as it lead to 3 unearned runs. Valenzuela (7-7) threw 130 pitches in 7.1 innings and again, it was that 7^th inning that cost us. LA had put up 3 in the 3^rd on a double by Lynn and a 2 run single by Stubbs. From there it was Fernando, until the Pirates came up with 2 in the 7^th and forged ahead. Without the Phillips error, we'd have been out of there, but that breathed life into the Pirates and Leon Durham punched them both in on a single. We're going to rue losses like this later on.

7/23 10-4 W over the Pirates
We need to bank some of this O. Eighteen hits, 10 runs, Stubbs went 3-4, with 5 RBI's and his 19^th HR of the year. Sid Bream bashed his 9^th late, and Fred Lynn hit #13. Even John Denny (6-7) got in on the action with a 2-4 game and 2 RBI's. Denny pitched 8 innings to get the win.

7/24 6-1 W over the Pirates
Kelly Downs (5-4) pitched 7 innings, only threw 92 pitches, and got plenty of support today. Mike Scioscia knocked in 2 in the 2^nd that would've been enough, but Downs picked up 2 on his own single later on.

7/25 3-2 L to the Cubs
The Cubs got on the board first, but LA took the lead on a massive Stubbs 2-run HR (20). The Cubbies answered right away when Rhoden (13-5) got tagged by by Tony Armas' 4^th HR of the year. Cubs newly acquired rookie Scott Bankhead (3-1) struck out 9 over 8 innings.

7/26 6-4 W over the Cubs
The big news in this one was the great game and luck that Jim Beattie played today. Beattie (1-0) picked up his first win of the year by spreading out 11 hits and not allowing any runs. He gave way to Niedenfeur in the 9^th, and he couldn't get out of the inning until 4 runs were in and Franco had to come in to get the last out, his 17^th save. The last time LA saw Mark Vaji he put us down, but we got to him early, and rode that 3-0 lead until the 9^th, when we were able to add another 3. If not for those runs, the Cubs might have come back to take this one.

7/27 2-0 (12) W over the Cubs
Valenzuela pitched 10 shut out innings against the Cubs, and LA couldn't get anything going against David Cone and his 7 ERA. Cone again kept us quiet and ultimately it was the failing of the bullpen of the Cubs that we scored. Sax went 3-6 and got the single that plated 2 in the 12^th. Marshall and Stubbs struck out 7 times. Franco picked up the win (2-4) and Howell got his 3^rd save.

7/28 4-2 L to the Giants
Mike Marshall went 2-4 then left the game after pulling up lame while running the bases. Frank Tanana (12-3) made his return from the DL and took his first loss of the season, at home. He allowed 4 in his 7 innings of work today. He could've had the win with some support, but it's one of his worst outings of the year.

7/29 6-4 L to the Giants
Down 4-1 in the bottom of the 8^th LA found a way to tie the game off of Bob Stanley. A 2-run triple by Mike Scioscia and a sac fly by Roy Smalley tied it up. LA brought in John Franco (2-5) for another shockingly bad performance. Franco allowed 2 hits and 2 walks, and 2 runs. LA couldn't get anything going in the 9^th and basically gave this one away.

7/30 5-2 W over the Giants
Bream went 3-4, along with Phillips. Rhoden (14-5) went 8 and won his league leading 14^th game, striking out 8. Coincidentally, we failed to his a HR in another game. Niedenfeur pitched the 9^th for his 3^rd save of the year.

PilotMan · 07-14-2017, 10:14 PM

July Recap

Bad News, Good News. On the downside, a month of 13-13 baseball doesn't inspire hope and optimism for the rest of the season. In a month where we played a lot of teams from the East, we just couldn't make headway at all. On the bright side though...we are .5 game out of first place. How? Fuck if I know. Only 5 games separate the top 5 teams. It's really anyone's division.

Our record on the year is 56-46. In the last 2 months we are a game below .500. We are the #2 team in the NL in HR's and 8^th in extra base hits. But, like every other month, we're 12^th in team average with a .242. 11^th in OPB, runs and hits. And 10^th in OPS. We've gone from being a feared hitting team to a team that can easily be pitched around. Rookies have dominated us and there's no help coming.

The team elected to not make any moves at the deadline, meaning that our prospects are in tact, but also that our team is pretty much going to stay where it is. This looks a lot like last year. We might win, or we might not, and even if we do, we'll be huge underdogs against the Expos or Mets.

One area that we should be killing it in is close games. Our bullpen is very strong, yet our team record in 1-run and extra inning games is 3 games under .500 for both. If that was just 3 games above, we'd be looking at a 6 game swing in our overall record. 62-40, would be whole lot better than our 56-46.

Fred Lynn was the no doubt, player of the month. In fact, outside of Scioscia actually having a 'normal' month, everyone else just sucked. Lynn batted .302/.358/.570 and hit 4 HR's for the month. He's still under performing the season, and well on his way to his worst season in 3 years. Doug DeCinces fell off a cliff. He hit 1 HR and had a slash line of .220/.269/.350. That was the guy we had hitting cleanup. No wonder we can't score runs. Between Lynn early on, and DeCinces now, or really anyone else now, we simply can't get anything going.

With the hitting doing so bad, you'd have to think that it wouldn't matter how good these guys are doing. Can't win throwing a shutout if you never score, right? Starting pitching was lights fucking out. Top pitcher for the month was Tanana, except he was hurt. He still went 1-1, with a 1.73 ERA and 0.92 WHIP. Where he served up 11 HR's in June, he allowed 1 in July. We're not done. Valenzuela went 1-2, and had a 1.70 ERA! Losing record with a 1.70 ERA! His WHIP was slightly higher at 1.04. I don't think it's a secret as to who the worst of the worst was for July. Our closer, John Franco had one, historically bad, month. Franco pitched in 11 games, went 1-3 with 2 S and 3 BS. More blown saves, than actual saves. His ERA was a sad 10.64. His WHIP was 2.27. Rookie. He cost us plenty in July.

August will separate the men from the boys. Where will we fall? We're in the thick of it right now, can we hang on or go on a run? We start the month with a 3 game series at home against the first place Reds.

PilotMan · 07-17-2017, 10:43 PM

8/1 4-1 W over the Reds
Fernando Valenzuela (8-7) was in old form today. He went the distance, struck out 9 while allowing only 4 hits. LA scored everything in the first 2 innings and relied on Valenzuela's arm after that. Sax had a 2 run single in the 2^nd to open the game up.

I always love the cup of coffee player. The guys that bust their asses for years just to get that moment they can hold onto for life. Once such real life player was a guy with one of the most unique names was Razor Shines. I must have 50 of his baseball cards. Well, seems like 50 anyway. Real life he had 81 career at bats, and a .185 avg. He had 15 career hits, 1 extra base, no HR's. So, Razor just got his first call up to the majors. He just turned 30. He's been hitting .332 at AAA and he has 74 career minor league home runs. He just got his first major league hit, in his second game starting at catcher for the Expos. Leading off against Ron Darling he hit a 368ft, 1-0 pitch to left field for a HR as his first ML hit. You go Razor.

8/2 7-3 W over the Reds
Two guys did it all, well 3. Tanana (13-3) did it on the mound yet again. He went another 8 innings with 0 walks and 7 K's. He allowed all 3 runs, but only 1 was earned. A gopher ball. The other 2? Stubbs went 2-4, with 3 RBI's and the other was Sid Bream, who went 1-1 with 3 walks, and a 3-run homer (10). Breams homer put LA on top, after the Reds had taken the lead in the 5^th. Franco got work in the 9^th and put them down in order.

8/3 5-3 W over the Reds
LA completes the sweep of the former first place Reds. John Denny (7-7) got the start and looked rough early. He allowed a 2-run homer to Danny Tartabull (19) in the first, and we went down 3-0 early. But LA rallied for 2 in the bottom off of Vida Blue (3-9). Bream put LA in front in the 4^th on a 2-run homer (11) and Ron Kittle added a pinch hit homer in the 8^th (4). John Franco pitched a good 9^th for his 18^th save.

8/4 3-2 (10) L to the Astros
Rick Rhoden pitched 8 innings, 0 walks, and 7 K's, but it was wasted. Tony Phillips went 4-5 and hit his 7^th HR of the year to put LA up 2-0 early. The game ended in the 10^th when Astros rookie catcher Benito Santiago hit for the pitcher and cracked his 4^th HR off of Niedenfeur (3-8). Tough loss.

8/5 5-3 W over the Astros
Kelly Downs (6-4) started today and the Astros scored first in the first. Bottom of the 2^nd Stubbs tied it up with HR number 21, a solo shot. Bottom of the 3^rd LA put a 4 spot on the board, with 3 of them coming from a big Sid Bream bomb (12). Franco pitched the 9^th for his 19^th save.

8/6 5-4 (10) W over the Astros
Valenzuela pitched great through 5. We held onto a 1 run lead until the 6^th when 3 extra base hits by the Astros resulted in 3 runs and put Houston on top. In the bottom of the 6^th LA got one back when Stubbs went deep again (22), then in the 7^th, for the second game in a row, Bream blasted a HR (13) and tied the game. Fred Lynn also went deep, for his 14^th. John Franco (3-5) pitched 2 scoreless for the win.

8/7 9-8 W over the Reds
Tanana pitched 6.1 and allowed 3 HR's today. The Reds scored in the 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th. That was after we put up 3 in the first and 2 in the 3^rd (courtesy DeCinces's 22^nd). By the 8^th inning LA put up 3 in the top to take the lead again. Franco came in to pitch the 8^th and it looked like his 3^rd game in a row. He blew his 5^th save of the year. In the 9^th a pinch hitting Ron Kittle cracked his 4^th pinch hit HR of the year . Franco came back in the 9^th and survived, yep, survived. He runs his record to 4-5.

8/9 9-1 W over the Reds
Rhoden and Blue (3-10) got the start and after 1 it was tied at 1. Neither pitcher would give anything up. Mike Scioscia went 3-4 tonight, and for the first time all year, his batting average is .200. In the 8^th LA went nuts, scoring 8 in the 8^th and burying the Reds. Ken Howell (4-4) got the win to even his record.

8/10 9-2 W over the Reds
Holy offensive explosion Batman! Three straight games against the Reds scoring 9 runs?!?!?! Sid Bream is a man on a mission. He homered again (14) and went 4-5. The Reds scored first in the first off of starter Denny (8-7), but he would lock it down and pitch 7. In the 3^rd, Lynn homered to put LA on top (15). The horses were off then, with runs in the 4^th, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th. Jim Beattie and Steve Howe pitched scoreless innings to close it out.

8/11 3-1 W over the Astros
Stubbs put us on the board in the 2^nd with his 23^rd of the year. We added 2 more on a Scioscia 2-run single in the 7^th. Fernando did the rest going 8 and allowing 1 run, a pinch hit, gopher ball to Barry Larkin. He improves to 9-7, while Franco came in to pitch the 9^th and made it interesting again. He allowed a walk and a single before forcing a game ending double play for his 20^th save.

8/12 7-6 (10) L to the Astros
Fred Lynn homered in his first 2 at bats and LA went up 2-0, but in the bottom of the 5^th our luck ran out and Kelly Downs was chased after allowing 5 runs. In the 7^th LA got 2 back on a Marshall HR (13). Houston pulled ahead again in the bottom, but LA got 2 in the 8^th to tie the game up again. In the 10^th it was Franco (4-6) who came on and 2 walks, a K, and 2 hits later it was over. Sid Bream has a 15 game hitting streak, and our 5-game win streak is done.

8/13 6-5 (11) L to the Astros
LA put up a 3 spot in the first thanks to 2 HR's. One by Marshall (14) and one by DeCinces (23). That couldn't save LA from old school Frank Tanana. Tanana gave it all right back on 2 HR's of his own in the 1^st and 2^nd. By the 7^th the Astros had pushed the lead to 5-3 and LA was deep into the pen. Tired from all the extra work over the last few days the options were few. In the 9^th, on an 0-2 count with 2 outs, Mike Marshall tied the game with a single, scoring Phillips. We had to turn to Beattie (1-1) in the 11^th and like Franco, 2 hits, a K and 2 walks and it was over. Bream went 0-5.

Three time All Star Steve Rogers was signed by the team to a major league contract. Rogers has 170 career wins and a 3.30 ERA. He's just a handful of days prior to his 37^th birthday and was cut from the Yankees about a month ago. He's 1-0 on the year with a 3.67 ERA in 27 innings of relief. He is clearly on the backside of his career right now.

8/14 6-2 W over the Astros
Rick Rhoden (15-5) gave the bullpen a huge break. The big man went the distance and struck out 7. He was helped along by Sid Bream, who really only took 1 game off. Bream earned POG status going 2-3 with a massive 7^th inning 3-run shot (15). Mike Marshall also cracked his 15^th and went 2-5. Fred Lynn shocked the world with his 3^rd stolen base. Steve Sax missed the game with a stomach bug. He's day to day.

8/15 10-2 W over the Giants
Steve Sax missed his 2^nd game and it was Larry Parrish getting the start. He might have cost us with a couple of errors in the field, with the bat, he was dangerous. Parrish went 3-6 with 4 RBI's and his first HR of the year. John Denny started and pitched into the 8^th, but it was his bat that was shocking. Denny went 3-4 with a double. Crazy. Fred Lynn left the game in the first after a busted play in the field. No word on the severity.

PilotMan · 07-21-2017, 10:47 PM

8/16 2-1 W over the Giants
Valenzuela (10-7) scattered 8 hits and only had 1 K in a hard working effort. A Mike Scioscia (up to .206 now) single plated 2 in the 2^nd, and that was all we would get. Larry Parrish started his 3^rd straight at 2^nd and went 2-4. Franco pitched the 9^th, but the Giants got the winning run all the way to 2^nd before Franco got the final out for save number 21. This was Fernando's 100^th career victory.

8/17 7-1 W over the Giants
Kelly Downs on the hill, and wins again, moving his record to 7-4. Not too shabby for our 5 starter. He pitched into the 8^th before Niedenfeur came on. The only run was unearned and his ERA dropped to 3.34. Even though the Giants scored first LA tied it on a Sax double that scored Scioscia. Scioscia was 2-3 (avg up to .210) and Downs had 2 RBI's too. LA drew 7 walks, which isn't very common without Evans and Randolph in the linup. The score could have been even higher as we left 11 runners on base.

Still no info on how long Lynn is going to be out. It's not looking good at all.

8/18 7-2 L to the Mets
Old Tanana back once again. Well, that's not entirely fair. It would be fair to say that the Mets are a very good team, and that the top of their order killed us. Backman 2-5, Bonilla 3-4, Strawberry 2-4, Mitchell 2-4, 2HR and 6 RBI. Or you could simply say that Mitchell killed us. All would be fair. Tanana (13-4) left in the 5^th after the 2^nd 3-run shot from Mitchell. The best from LA was Dwayne Murphy going 2-2 with a walk. The LA mopup crew of Beattie and Howe kept the Mets scoreless. Beattie had 4 K's in 2.2 IP.

Finally have word on Lynn. Lasorda reported after the game that Lynn's injury isn't as serious as thought. He's got a cracked rib, and is on the DL, but he'll be back before the end of the season. Pete Incaviglia (.331/8/34 in Albuquerque) is called up to take his spot.

8/19 9-1 W over the Mets
Fair is fair. Rick Rhoden allowed 8 hits and walked 4 in 7.2 IP, but the key stat was only 1 run scored. His opposite, triple crown winning and leading, Doc Gooden didn't fare as good. He was chased after allowing 5 in 5.1 IP. It was immediately after Ray Knight got his 1000^th career hit, a 3-run HR to left. Sid Bream went 3-5 and both Stubbs and Sax had a couple of RBI's.

8/20 7-0 W over the Mets
Denny (10-7) goes 7 scoreless, but can't finish because he walked 6 and wore himself out. He bailed himself out of bad situations with doubleplays and K's. Everything went right. Mets catcher, Alan Ashby had a bad day, he had 2 throwing errors that lead to runs. Lasorda has moved quick on Incaviglia, starting him in left and moving Marshall to the bench, with Stubbs sliding into right. That can't make Marshall feel very good. Inky had a 2-run single early as part of a 3 run 3^rd. Dwayne Murphy his #4 in the 4^th, and DeCinces hit #24 in the 7^th. Both were solo homers. It was Sax and Bream at the top, both going 2-4 that provide the punch in the scoring.

8/22 6-1 L to the Expos
Hard to look at that score and know that Valenzuela (10-8) took a no-hitter into the 8^th. With 1 out, Dawson doubled off the wall to end it. Then with 2 out, they got 3 more to put 4 on the board. Franco served up a 2-run homer to Carter (14) in the 9^th and that functionally ended it. Our offense did nothing against Rick Reuschel (13-6). Wish that he'd pitched this well in a Dodger uni. At 37, he's having a resurgence. He's a win away from #200, and is coming off of back to back titles. One with the Jays when he won 19, and last year with the Expos when he won 21. He's already having a better year than either one of those.

A Paul Zuvella single in the 8^th was all that came between Mike Scott and an 11-K no hitter against the Braves.

Well, the Steve Rogers experiment has ended. He wouldn't be assigned to Albuquerque so after sitting in the pile for 10 days, and picking up a check, he's a free man. Between the Yankees and Dodgers, he's made over 800k, which is more than any year with the Expos.

8/23 10-5 L to the Expos
I feel like we just went 10 rounds with a heavyweight. We are beat up. Before we get to the game, I just want to say that we got to see Razor Shines start at catcher. He went 0-5 and still only has 1 career hit, the home run, in 17 at bats. Ok, that's done. Tanana (13-5) was obliterated. Eight runs, 5 earned, 2 HR's in 1.1 innings of work. This was never a close game. We committed 3 errors, Galarraga had 6 RBI's. It was a mess. Belive it or not, Jim Beattie did some nice work for us. He allowed 2 unearend runs, but otherwise, a nice 3.2 innings in relief. His ERA is down to 2.96 on the year. Now for the bad new. Like huh? Yeah, both Murphy and Incaviglia are out for a few days. Murphy strained something running and Inky was hit by a pitch. The next few games might be interesting.

The team is going to carry Murphy and his injury. Incaviglia is heading to the DL, and Tom Beyers (.361/12/81 in AAA) is coming back to the team.

8/24 9-3 W over the Expos
We salvage one!! Stubbs and Sax each had 3 hits. Sax had a 2-run triple and even Sciosica had 2 hits (creeping up to .212 now). No wait...even Rick Rhoden had 2 hits. Yeah, that's the kind of game we had. Nolan Ryan had a rough 8 run, 10 hit, 5 walk, 3.1 innings of work against us. That's a game score of 3. Rhoden improves to 17-5 and lowers his ERA to 2.36.

8/25 3-0 W over the Phillies
The pitching staff held the Phillies to only 2 hits, and 4 baserunners total. John Denny (11-7) got the start, but left in the 6^th with some sort of pitching discomfort. We've already breathed a sigh of relief, as we've been told it's not serious, so that's a dodged bullet. Pena and Franco pitch 4 innings of no-hit ball to close it out. Franco get's his 22^nd save. Now, for some reason Larry Parrish is starting in CF, not Stubbs, but whatever. Parrish got tossed in the 4^th inning on a called 3^rd strike, and Lasorda was down to his 4^th CF'er when Ron Kittle came in. That's not helpful. Mike Marshall made the most of his game time, blasting a 2-run shot (17) in the 4^th that got us on the board.

8/26 7-2 L to the Phillies
LA could only manage 2 hits in this one. One of them just happened to be a 2-run homer by Stubbs (25). Kelly Downs (7-5) took the loss, but he struck out 10 in 6.2 innings of work. He tired and was mismanaged, then Ken Howell came in and gave up 2 HR's and it was lost. Jim Beattie walked 4 in 1.2 IP, but didn't give up a run.

8/27 7-4 L to the Phillies
So, about that 4^th inning, when Valenzuela allowed 3 HR's....yeah, it wasn't good. His record goes to 10-9. He would strike out 7, but in the 7^th Guerrero, yeah, that one, would get his 2^nd of the game, 10^th on the year (he's been injured) and that would finally do in Fernando. Larry Parrish hit his 2^nd in the 2^nd. Missed opportunity here. Should have done better against Kevin Gross (8-15) who hit his own 2-run HR off of Valenzuela. Just not a pretty game for the southpaw.

It's not even September and both Frank Viola (20-4) and Mike Witt (20-5) have become 20 game winners on the same day.

8/29 9-4 W over the Mets
Rick Rhoden (18-5) went head to head with Doc again, and it's hard to believe that we made the reigning triple crown winner look that bad again. Rhoden allowed 10 base runners in 7 innings where he allowed 4 runs. He was pretty lucky, as we came to hit. Sax went 3-4. Bream went 2-5, and hit #16. DeCinces went 2-5 and hit #25, and Stubbs went 3-5 and hit #26. Even Rhoden narrowly missed his own HR and settled for a 2-run double. Rhoden walked 5 and struck out 0. He was lucky today. Lucky that he had that much support.

8/30 3-0 W over the Mets
Denny (12-7) is in the groove. He pitched 7 more shut out innings and hit an RBI double in the 3^rd. Sid Bream's incredible August continued. He went 3-4 and hit his 17^th HR of the year, a solo shot. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th for his 4^th save. LA left 13 on, while the Mets had 9 hits and still couldn't score.

8/31 Rain out, rescheduled

PilotMan · 07-22-2017, 11:37 PM

August Recap

Like the August run a couple of years ago, this one sets the team up for a strong shot at the playoffs. Our August was the best month that this team has had all year long. We started the month just a little back of the first place Reds, and we finish the month with a 5 game lead over the Padres. Our record of 19-8 has pushed us to 21 games over .500 and is the best month since 1984.

How was it that we made this push? Well, our hitting became better, and our pitching stayed strong. We saw starters go deep into games and we had a couple of players really, really step up play and lead the team. The team is still last in team average, but we've managed to crawl out of the cellar to 6^th and 7^th in SLG and OPS. With 136 HR's we are #2 in the league, even if our OBP flags at 10^th.

The pitching staff is strong. First in team ERA with a 3.04, and first in both starter and bullpen ERA. We're either 2^nd or 3^rd in every other pitching category except walks where we are 4^th. Defensive efficiency is 3^rd in the NL.

It's not hard to find the August pitcher of the month for the Dodgers, he won the NL pitcher of the month award. After one of the worst months for any pitcher, John Denny raised his game to dominate the league. His record of 6-0 and his ERA of 1.35 (but a high WHIP of 1.35) lead the way, and it didn't help that he got 5.67 RS/G for the month either. Rick Rhoden had another good month too, going 4-0 with a sub 2.50 ERA.

On the flip side though, was Frank Tanana. In a complete role reversal his starts were disastrous. He went 1-2 with a 7.27 ERA. He allowed 10 HR's in his 28.1 innings of work.

The top batter in August was Sid Bream. After most of the season questions dogged him and how long he would hold down first base. Ray Knight was getting more looks and it looked like he would get the chance. No chance now. Bream slaughtered pitchers in August. His slash line was .357/.418/.663. He hit a team leading 8 HR's and knocked in another team leading 25 runs. He's now got 18 on the year and batting .277. Along with his solid defensive play at first base he is a solid starter.

If we have to pick on someone we'll pick on Stubbs. While he has hit his fair share of dingers his wild inconsistency often leaves the team with big holes in productivity. His slash line for the month is .234/.284/.449, even though his 6 HR's and 20 RBI's were good enough for 2^nd best.

As we hit the end of August it's time to look at the races in MLB. I've already said that LA lies 5 games up on the Padres. The Reds fell all the way back from first to 6.5 games off the pace. The rest of the West is falling behind with neither the Astros, Giants or Braves likely to make any kind of challenge.

In the NL East, the Expos are back on top. They've put a little distance between themselves and the Mets, building a 4.5 game lead. Those 2 teams will fight until the finish. The Phillies lie in 3^rd, but a far 13 games off the pace. The Cubs are the worst team in the NL, 28 games back and 30 games under .500.

Over in the American League West, it's the California Angels on top of the division. It's still a dogfight of a division though as a number of teams can make the run, but will they? The Mariners are in 2^nd, 3 games back, and the Twins and Royals lie 6 and 7 back respectively. Even the White Sox are only 7.5 behind. It's not over for them, but the window is closing.

The AL East is starting to look like a runaway. It's by far the most separated division in baseball, and no surprise, it's the Blue Jays on top of the division. The Red Sox lie a distant 9.5 games back in 2^nd place. The sad Brewers, the worst team in baseball, are 41 games back and 50 games below .500. They, along with the Orioles have already been eliminated and are playing for nothing. The Brewers have one of the worst pitching staff's I've ever seen on a Major League team. The starters ERA is 5.79 and the ace (?) is waiver claimee, and one time, Pirates prospect, Mike Bielecki. If they have any bright spot it's the rise of young prospect, Rafael Palmeiro, and his play in left field.

LA needs to stay hot and put this season away. They'll get Lynn back healthy sometime around the middle of the month, and in the meantime will have rookie Pete Incaviglia coming back from the DL. If they keep pace, they'll easily put it away. Or we could collapse. Not sure that a .500 record will be good enough to keep the Reds or Padres at bay.

The end of August also means call ups and roster expansion. Here are the guys who are up and how they might fit in with the team:

IF Ty Dabney (.225/1/8 in AAA) - 5^th round pick in '84, he started the year in AA, but most recently rose to AAA. His numbers were better in AA, but it's not like he lit the world on fire.

IF Ross Jones (.269/4/53 in AAA) – Getting his second cup of coffee with the team. Jones is a capable defender, with some speed off the bench. He's been a farm hand for 6 years.

IF/C Jack Fimple (.285/2/25 in AAA) – Fimple has spent the last 4 years in Albuquerque and this is his first ML call up. He hit .332 last year for the team, but has dropped off some. Nearing 28, it's getting close to make or break time for him.

IF/OF/C Scotti Madison (.251/11/65 in AAA) – Madison has seen playing time each of the last 2 years and now this will burn his option for this year, meaning either he sticks or goes through waivers. He's the ultimate utility player, but doesn't stand out in any area.

OF Tony Brewer (.248/4/29 in AAA) – Perhaps missing his window, he's now nearly 29 and in the last option year. This is his last shot with the team in all likelihood. Brewer has average bat skills and average speed.

RP Charlie Kerfeld (2-4, 15S, 6.87 ERA in AAA) – One of the teams top pitching prospects probably isn't saying much. Kerfeld pitched 1 game for LA earlier in the season. This is his first option year.

PilotMan · 07-24-2017, 10:21 PM

9/1 7-5 W over the Expos
Valenzuela (11-9) got the win, but he was far from his best today. He was just lucky. LA got to Reuschel to the tune of 9 hits and 6 runs in 5 innings. LA got the rare Scioscia HR (5) in the 4^th and we had a 6-0 lead halfway home. The Expos got 3 back in the bottom of the 5^th. LA would tack on an extra run in the 8^th, and Franco came on to pitch the 9^th for his 23^rd save. Steve Sax left the game in the 2^nd while rounding the bases. Ty Dabney made his ML debut. He ended up 2-3 with an RBI. Stubbs went 3-4 on the day. In the game, Robin Yount got his 2000 career hit. The game was held up for the ceremony and both teams congratulated him.

Sax has a knee bruise and will miss a few days, but isn't heading to the DL.

9/2 2-0 L to the Expos
Bryn Smith (14-6) is well on his way to another 20 game season. He kept the bums quiet all game long. Scioscia had a couple of hits, and LA wasted a CG by Tanana. Tanana (13-6) allowed 5 hits, and it was Galarraga that knocked both runs in off of him. LA wasted 8 hits, and grounded into 3 double plays.

9/3 3-1 (11) W over the Expos
We even the season series with the tough road win in Montreal. Nolan Ryan started, didn't allow a hit until the 7^th inning, but Rick Rhoden was equal to the task. LA scored in the 7^th on a Rhoden Rbi single, but the Expos got it right back and that's how it stayed until extras. In the 11^th Ron Kittle and BJ Surhoff, both got RBI singles off of Jeff Reardon (2-9). Niedenfeur gets the win (4-8) and Franco pitched the 9^th for his 24^th save.

9/4 2-1 W over the Mets (makeup)
Denny (13-7) picked right up in September where he left of at in August. He pitched 8 strong allowing 1 run, and lowering his ERA to 3.08. Denny even got an RBI single to put LA on the board in the 7^th. Franco pitched the 9^th for his 25^th save.

9/5 1-0 W over the Phillies
Charles Hudson (12-9) and Kelly Downs (8-5) went toe to toe for the whole game. It was tied at 0 heading into the 9^th. Hudson had DeCinces on a 1-2 count when our third basemen hammered the ball 391ft to left-center (26) to put us up. Niedenfeur came on for the 9^th for his 4^th save of the year.

9/6 5-3 W over the Phillies
LA gets the 4^th win in a row with nary an extra base hit in the game. LA put a string of hits together off of Kevin Gross (8-16) and scored 3 in the first. With that Valenzuela (12-9) was able to cruise along. They added 2 more in the 6^th to pad the lead and that ended up being enough to hold on. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th for his 5^th save of the year. That's 3 different closers in 3 days. We saw former Dodger first round pick Kurt Stillwell playing for the Phillies. We also saw the the ML debut of Oswaldo Peraza who pitched a little over an inning, and got a hit in his first ML at bat.

Former Dodger pitcher Rick Reuschel got his 200^th career win.

9/7 5-4 L to the Phillies
Frank Tanana (13-7) and the case of the missing baseball. Missing because it's flying out of the ballpark. He only lasted 4 innings this outing, serving up 2 gopher balls to Steve Balboni (32). LA had a couple of homers of their own, with DeCinces getting us started in the first (27). LA fell behind 5-1 and nearly clawed it all back. Roy Smalley hit his 5^th in the 7^th. We nearly came back, but the Phillies pen shut us down.

There's a major award race going on in the NL, and it's for who will become the first player to reach the 40/40 club. It's seems a nearly foregone conclusion that both men will reach it, but who will get there first? Darryl Strawberry leads the NL with 35 HR's and 46 SB, while Eric Davis is 2^nd with 34 HR's and 49 SB. Strawberry is hitting .323, while Davis .333. Imagine if at some point these two titans were ever on the same team?! That team would be nearly unbeatable! (note: yes, this is a reference to Dodger fans.) One of them WILL win the MVP this year.

9/8 8-3 L to the Braves
So the worst team in the West, with a 7 game losing streak knocks us off again. Yippee. Rhoden (18-6) on the mound. Big Franklin Stubbs 2-run HR (27) in the first, and we should have rolled. Nope. Four errors, 2 wild pitches, contributed to an embarrassing loss at home. Stubbs did all the damage going 2-4. Rookie pitcher, Charlie Kerfeld saw his 2^nd pro game, going 2.1 scoreless and striking out 3.

LA committed to first base overnight by finalizing a 4-year contract extension for first basemen Sid Bream. Bream, 26, took over the starting job last year and has held it down all year long. He's coming off the best month of his career. His contract is valued at a very affordable 1.1M over 4 years. That's nearly reserve pay for a guy just coming into his prime. Good deal for the team.

9/9 3-2 (10) L to the Braves
All of LA's scoring was thanks to Dwayne Murphy hitting a 2-run homer (6) in the 5^th. That gave Denny the lead and it looked like it was going to hold. The Braves got one back in the 6^th when former Dodger Candy Maldonado hit his 16^th and then Brook Jacoby tied it in the 7^th. It came down to the bullpens and once again, John Franco (4-7) would be the one that let us down, but it was unearned, but it was his error. Double boo.

9/10 4-1 L to the Astros
LA drops it's 4^th straight. Kelly Downs (8-6) threw 7 innings, allowed 2 runs, but it wasn't good enough LA to overcome. They were helpless against McCaskill (9-15). Dwayne Murphy hit an RBI triple for our only run. Houston put up 2 more in the 9^th off of Pena to lock the game up.

9/11 2-0 L to the Astros
Uh Oh. This makes 5 straight losses and August is being undone. Our offense has disappeared and the standings are closing up fast. Valenzuela (12-10) pitched hard, struck out 8, 1 out shy of a complete game, and yet the bats were silent in his support. Tony Phillips lead off and he went 4-5. LA had 0 extra base hits, left 11 on and had 10 singles. It was a completely wasted effort.

9/12 5-4 (14) L to the Reds
LA had to rally for 3 in the bottom of the 9^th off of Dennis Lamp to send it to extras. In extras John Franco walked the bases loaded only to work his way out of it for no damage. No, the ruler of the day was Danny Tartabull. The Reds right fielder homered in the 1^st off of Tanana, then homered again in the 14^th off of Ken Howell, that gave the Reds the winning margin. Tanana allowed 10 hits and 2 more homers in the game. Tony Phillips again had the only offense for LA, as Phillips homered for his 8^th time during his 2 hit game.

While LA has lossed 6 in a row, the Padres have won 6 in a row. We are now .5 game behind them in the race for 2^nd.

9/13 4-3 W over the Reds
Larry Parrish and his 2-run HR (3) in the bottom of the 7^th broke a 2-2 tie. Rhoden won his 19^th game of the year and struck out 6. The Reds sent Vida Blue to the mound and he struck out 8 guys enroute to his loss. Jim Beattie pitched the 9^th as yet another different pitcher saved a game for us. His first of the year. Thank god we got a win, finally.

Tom “Terrific” Seaver won his 300^th game last night while pitching for the Blue Jays.

9/14 10-3 W over the Reds
10 runs, 15 hits. The 9 of those hits for extra bases. The Reds have great offense, but damn, their pitching gets ripped up by our hitters. Top hitter, was.....Mike Scioscia. No seriously, dude went 4-5, 5 RBI's and 3 doubles. Pete Incaviglia hit his 2^nd HR of the season. He also had 2 doubles. John Denny (14-7) went 8.

Fred Lynn and Steve Sax were both activated from the DL, and should be back in the lineup.

PilotMan · 07-26-2017, 10:31 PM

9/16 16-7 W over the Braves
16 hits, 7 walks, and 3 dingers. Valenzuela (13-10) threw 6 shutout innings, then lost all control. He set a LA Dodger record with 9 walks and the Braves put up 6 in the 7^th. No matter, we already had 14 runs across the plate by that time. Fred Lynn's return was a good one. He went 2-5, hit a big 3-run homer (18) and had 6 RBI's. Bream scored 4 runs and went 3-6. Bream hit number 18 and Stubbs hit number 28 in our offensive blood bath. The most interesting news in the game though was the ML debut of top Braves prospect, Randy Johnson. The former #1 Braves pick could only manage 2/3 of an inning before getting yanked. He walked 2 and allowed 2 hits, but was also hurt by 2 errors in his 27 pitches of work. LA still managed to leave 9 on base, so this could have been much worse.

9/17 12-11 W over the Braves
We sure are making them look good. LA had an 11-5 lead going into the 8^th. Then Jim Beattie got, shall we say, completely torched. Franco came on with 2 outs, and proceeded to allow all inherited runners, plus 2 of his own and blew yet another, incredible save as Atlanta put up 6 in the bottom of the inning. It took Sax hitting a single with 2 out in the 9^th to plate Fred Lynn who lead off with a single to give us the win. Frank Tanana started, could only manage 4 innings and 4 runs allowed. Franco (5-7) blows his 6^th save of the year. Steve Howe allowed his first run against since June. He raised his ERA to 1.20 even though he's only pitched 30 innings this year.

It's really a race in the West right now. We're back to our winning ways, but we're still a half game behind the Padres. How is that possible? Well the Padres went 18-11 in August, but in September? They are a ridiculous 14-1. They could be running away with this, that's insane. How can we keep up with that? We'll see them 4 games, starting next week for 2, 2 game series.

9/18 9-2 W over the Braves
Why haven't we been killing this team all year like this? 37 Runs scored in 3 games. Rick Rhoden became the first 20 game winner in the NL, pushing his record to 20-6. For the most part, he pitched well. Pitching into the 8^th, but walking 4 and allowing 5 hits. Today's game belonged to rookie power hitter Pete Incaviglia. Inky went 4-4 with 3 runs scored, a walk and his 4^th HR of the year. LA forced Bob Walk (7-13) from the game in the 3^rd after we'd piled on 8 runs and 12 hits. Doug DeCinces also went deep for his 28^th of the year. Mike Scioscia went 3-4, with 3 RBI's (avg up to .223) and Steve Sax went 3-5. Hard to believe, but Bream and Lynn went a combined 0-10 today.

9/19 4-3 L to the Reds
LA went up 2-0 early on, but John Denny (14-8) couldn't hold it and lost his first game since June. LA came back and tied it up on an Steve Sax, solo home run (4), but Denny gave it right back in the bottom of the inning. LA squandered more chances before it was over. Sax went 3-5, but also left 4 guys on base.

The Padres have now won 11 in a row.

9/20 16-1 W over the Reds
Wow, imagine if we could score like this every time? Kelly Downs (9-6) struck out 7 over 6.2 IP, but who cares? DeCinces went 3-4 with 7 RBI and his 29^th HR. Stubbs went 3-5 with 3 RBI and his 29^th HR. Bream went 4-6 with 5 runs scored and 2 doubles. Tony Phillips went 2-5 with 4 RBI's. LA piled on 8 runs in the 8^th and 9^th innings to make the game go from blow out to ludicrous mode.

The Astros blew the 9^th at home, came back, tied the game to send it to extras, blew the 10^th, then came back again to win over the Padres and hand them their 2^nd loss of the month.

9/21 10-6 W over the Reds
A walk, a single and a 3-run HR by Fred Lynn (19) opened the game for LA. However, Fernando (14-10) wasn't on his game today. The Reds came back and by the 4^th they had taken the lead. Valenzuela only pitched 5 innings, walked 5 and allowed 5 runs. Danny Tartabull hit 2 HR's off of him too (24,25). LA added 2 in the 5^th and another 4 in the 6^th. Sid Bream went 4-5 and scored 3 more times. This was not a good day for pitchers. The offense is really hitting on all cylinders right now. Wonder how long it'll last?

9/22 2-1 (11) L to the Astros
Not long. I must have jinxed em. LA scored right away in the first when Sax came home on a DeCinces double, and then nothing else would happen. Frank Tanana pitched 9 innings of 1 run ball, his best game in weeks and weeks. Niedenfeur (4-9) took the loss after a couple walks and a hit. Ken Howell ended up serving up the walk off hit to Dale Murphy with the bases loaded and 1 out. The Padres lost again so we keep pace.

9/23 9-6 W over the Astros
The Astros scored first, then LA poured on the next 8 runs. LA had a comfortable lead until the young rookie prospect Fred McGriff put a 3-run homer in the right field seats. In the 9^th Charlie Kerfeld ended up with the bases loaded and John Franco actually had to come in, in a save situation to quell the rally. He did that for save #26, and we held on. Rhoden allowed 10 hits in 7.2, and because of 9 runs of support, got his 21^st win of the year. Pete Incaviglia went 3-4 with 4 runs scored.

9/24 4-1 W over the Padres
We take the first of the 4 games we have with them this month. We have 2 guys who can take responsibility for this win. First off, John Denny. Denny (15-8) takes a shut out into the 9^th inning then gives up a homer to Kevin McReynolds (24) and that's that. In the meantime he allows 6 hits and strikes out 7. The next is Franklin Stubbs. Against lefties all year, Stubbs had 4 home runs. Facing Bob Ojeda (16-9) he hit a solo shot in the 2^nd (30) and in the 4^th with 2 on he hit another (31) to give us all the runs. He was 3-3 on the day.

The races are winding down. Except for ours. We've cracked open a tight 1 game lead on the Padres with that win. Our magic number is 10. The Reds have fallen very far away. They lie 9 back on the verge of mathematical elimination. In the East, it's the Expos, once again, with a magic number of 4 and a 7 game lead on the Mets.

Over in the AL, not much has changed. The Angels lead the West with the best record and a magic number of 7 over both the M's and Royals. In the East, it's still the Blue Jays holding onto a shrinking 7 game lead over the Yankees.

9/25 5-2 L to the Padres
That's one missed chance to break out of this race. LA had exactly 1 really shitty inning. That was the 4^th. Downs had not allowed a hit all game until then. Then he allowed 6 hits in a row. In.A.Row. The Padres put all the runs on the board and then did nothing else. In fact, Niedenfeur and Pena combined for 4 more no-hit innings and 8 K's the rest of the way. Incaviglia homerd for the 6^th time and lead the offense going 3-4.

9/26 11-1 W over the Giants
A 4-run 3^rd inning that featured Fred Lynn's 20^th HR of the year set the stage for the big blowout. LA had 14 hits. Of those, 4 were doubles, 2 were triples, and 2 were HR's. Stubbs hit #32 in the 5^th and we still left 8 guys on base. Fernando Valenzuela (15-10) went the distance for the win. The Padres lost to the Reds dropping the magic number to 8.

The Brewers and Orioles are in a fight for worst record. The Brewers lead with 106 losses and Baltimore is right behind with 104. There are 8 games to play.

Oh, remember that race between Strawberry and Davis? Yeah, Strawberry won. He's leading the NL with 43 HR's, while Davis is stuck at 35.

9/27 6-3 W over the Giants
Frank Tanana (14-7) was his usual gopher ball allowing self and/or early run allowing self, but the O bailed him out. The Giants scored in the first, but Pete Incaviglia answered with a mammoth HR in the 2^nd (7). That's 27 games, 106 AB and 7 HR. Stubbs, who leads the team is HR's is averaging one every 17.78 AB, while Inky is currently at 1 every 15.14 AB. Where has this guy been all year? Oh yeah, the minors behind Larry Parrish, Ron Kittle, Mike Marshall, and Dwayne Murphy. LA added 2 more in the 4^th on a Tony Phillips 2-run triple and we started walking away. Tanana surrendered his gopher ball to the Giants pitcher, Jeff Stember. It was his 1^st career HR. Gregg Jefferies homered in the 7^th, again off of Tanana. That's 34 HR's allowed for him this year. The Padres won, but the magic number shrinks to 7. Sax has a 15 game hitting streak.

Both the Blue Jays and Expos have clinched their respective divisions. So if we can hold on here these last 4 games it'll be another Expos series. The Angels still have the best record, but their only 2.5 ahead of the Royals and at 4.5 back the M's are almost out of it.

9/28 3-2 W over the Giants
Rick Rhoden (22-6) struck out 9 in 7.2 innings of work and Giants rookier starter Glenn Barling (1-10) didn't allow a hit until a 6^th inning blast from Incaviglia cleared the fence (8). Rhoden added an RBI double in the 7^th and that was the winning margin. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th for his 6^th save of the year. Old Man Doug DeCinces was the major casualty of the game. He pulled an abdominal muscle running the bases and scoring. He's out indefinitely. So the guy who is probably the most important piece of the puzzle for the team is out and done for the year (most likely). Boooooo. Hiiiiiissss. The good news is that the Padres lost again to the Reds. This drops the magic number to 5, with 6 games to play. Up next is the final 2 game series against the Padres. We just need to split the series, and not lose them both.

DeCinces is done. He's on the 60 day DL and Chuck Jackson was brought up from Albuquerque. Jackson is a middle infielder, corner outfielder. His slash line is .298/.390/.419 and he has 10 HR, 63 RBI's and 38 SB. He was the 43^rd overall pick in 1983. 33yr old Ray Knight, who played in 67 games but only had 112 AB's will take over the hot corner.

9/29 6-4 W over the Padres
This was a big, big, big win. If the not biggest this year so far. LA committed 4 errors, it was awful. The Padres and Dodgers traded runs and after the 4^th it was tied at 3. The Padres took the lead in the 5^th, and it wasn't until the 8^th when LA tied it up, and in the 9^th a 2-run single by Fred Lynn, off the bench gave us the win. Now, Ray Knight, played his ass off. He batted cleanup, went 3-4 and hit a HR (2) in his first at bat. Ron Kittle also homered (6) and went 2-4. John Denny (16-8) pitched 8 and John Franco got his 29^th save of the year. The magic number is down to 3 with 5 to play.

Twins reliever Goose Gossage got his 300^th career save. The Expos are burying the Mets. They've won 9 in a row and lead by 10.

9/30 3-2 W over the Padres
That might just do it! The team was held in check by Dennis Leonard for 7 innings. Kelly Downs had held the Padres to 2 runs, but we hadn't put any on the board. In the top of the 8^th, Mike Marshall smacked a line drive HR that put 1 back on the board for us. Then.....in the 9^th....it was Ray Knight. The hero. After a Kittle pinch hit single, Knight hit an opposite field HR (3), that gave us the 3-2 lead. John Franco pitched the 9^th for his 30^th save of the season.

The California Angels win their 99^th game of the year and seize the AL West crown. It's only us left. And we only need 1 win, or 1 San Diego loss.

PilotMan · 07-27-2017, 12:16 AM

September Recap

So September is for call ups. Boy did one man make a difference. The team just put the finishing touches on a 19-10 record. After that brutal start where they lost 6 games in a row, the team rebounded by losing only 3 after the 12^th. Those 3 losses by a total of 5 runs. The team was very, very good. For the season we are 94-64 and 4 full games up on the Padres with 4 games to play. The Padres, as I said earlier, the Padres started 14-1 and ended up 19-8. What are the chances that they would start the month 5 games back, play like that, and end up 4 games back.

The team is only 1 game away from the West title and another date with the Expos. With no Doug DeCinces.

September saw a big surge in offense and our team finally climbed out of the cellar, all the way to 11^th in team average. It's better than that. We're now 4^th in runs, 8^th in OBP, and 2^nd in HR's. We've hit 168 HR's this season. The pitching stayed near the top. Not the top, but near the top. 2^nd in runs against, ERA and defensive efficiency. The bullpen is the top in the NL. We're 1 game from the playoffs, and we're talented enough to make it further.

There were a few good performances in August, but there was 1 outstanding performance. Good enough that he won the NL Rookie of the Month. Pete Incaviglia nearly won a roster spot out of spring training, but he spent the year in AAA. Incaviglia's month was .326/.400/.652 and 7 HR's and 16 RBIs.
After lighting the world on fire in August, Sid Bream fell back to Earth in September. Bream only hit 2 HR's in the month and batted .224 with a .274 OBP , along with 22K's, way more than any other month.

The starters in all, did very well all month long, but the tops for the month was the return of the quality in the bullpen. Tops in the pen was Niedenfeur. He was straight dominant over 14 games, a 1.42 ERA, and a 0.63 WHIP. Eighteen K's in 12.1 IP. John Franco also found his way back to respectability with 8 saves and a 1.76 ERA in 13 games. Frank Tanana was again, the worst of the bunch, but he did get better. A 1-2 record with a 4.42 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP. We'll always have May.

The playoffs, except for the final dotted “i” in the contract, are set. More after the season finishes. We need to stay healthy. LA can't afford to lose anymore big names. DeCinces could be enough to hurt us, the answers will come in time. It would be our 4^th title in 5 years.

PilotMan · 07-28-2017, 12:02 AM

10/1 3-0 W over the Padres
The Dodgers win the west! The Dodgers win the west! The Dodgers win the west! Lasorda gave the ball to Valenzuela (16-10) and he delivered! He pitched 8.2 innings and was 1 out from the shutout. He struck out 6. LA pounded out 13 hits and left 15 runners on base. Should have won this one going away. Incaviglia went 3-5, Sax 2-3 and even Valenzuela went 2-5 with 2 RBI's. Ken Howell got the final out for his 7^th save on the year.

10/3 5-2 W over the Giants
Rick Rhoden (23-6) threw 7 shut out innings picked up his NL leading 23^rd win of the year. Franco pitched a scoreless 9^th for his 31^st save. LA opened up the scoring on a Sax, 2-run single in the 3^rd. Stubbs his career HR #101 (33) in the 4^th. Sax went 3-4, Tony Phillips went 3-3. We've won 7 in a row and 9 of our last 10. We are the hottest team in baseball.

Darryl Strawberry has put all doubters to rest this year on who is better, Eric Davis or him. Strawberry had 14 HR's in September and now has 48 on the year, to go with 49 steals. No player has ever been 40/40 until this year, and Strawberry has a legit chance at a mind crushing 50/50 season.

10/4 10-4 W over the Giants
Ray Knight went 2-4 with 5 RBI's and hit a 3-run HR (4). He's been quite the fill in for DeCinces since he's been starting. The Giants pitching walked LA 12 times in the game, but they were using a pile of rookie pitchers. John Denny went the distance to run his record to 17-8 for the year.

LA is only 1 game behind the Expos for homefield in the playoffs. Wow. Considering everything this season. Wow.

10/6 3-0 W over the Giants
Quite the finish to the regular season for LA. We end on a 9 game win streak. Today, Valenzuela (17-10) took a no-hitter into the 7^th inning and left after 8 innings of 1 hit ball. He struck out 11. John Franco pitched the 9^th for his 32^nd save. LA scored first on Ray Knight's 5^th HR of the year. In the 6^th it was a 2-run single by Incaviglia that completed the scoring. LA wins the final 9 games of the season and 18-3 over the final 21 games.

Oh, one last thing. Strawberry didn't steal a base during the last 2 weeks of the year, but he was caught. He hit 2 HR's in the season finale and ended with 50 HR's and 49 SB's. So close, but wow, what a season.

PilotMan · 07-30-2017, 09:03 AM

So I totally just realized that there are independent minor league teams and now I'm completely enthralled. It's like a fringe players wet dream. Guys who are too old or lack enough skill and are trying to stick around are playing on independent teams in A and rookie ball in the hopes of resurrecting their careers and putting up some amazing statistical seasons. These teams are winning and winning and winning and it's such an oddity.

Here's just one example. In the Carolina League, an A level division, exists a new independent team called the Kingston Eagles. The Eagles just finished their first season with a record of 111-29. They lead the league in runs scored 872 to the 2^nd place team's 771. Lead the league in runs allowed, 448 to the 2^nd place teams 635. Hit .284 as a team 19 points higher than the Durham Bulls and hit 144 HR's 18 more than 2^nd place and 54 more than 3^rd.

Leading the team with a 7.4 WAR and 276 TB's is young Scott Lusader. The team's CF, Lusader is only 22. He was drafted in 1984 by the Phillies in the 3^rd round, with the 89^th overall pick. He signed for 71K , then was released after training camp. He was picked up by another independent team, the Gastonia Jets where he lead the team to a title, won series MVP honors, and finished 2^nd for the league MVP. He signed for Kingston in the offseason. Once again, lead Kingston to a title, won a Gold Glove, and finished 2^nd in league MVP voting. His slash line this season was .327/.416/.498. He hit 14 HR's and had 85 RBI's. He stole 25 bases and scored 125 runs.

The muscle on the team was Paul Klimas. Klimas, 30, was a White Sox farmhand from 1976 when he was 20. He worked his way up the league and got a cup of coffee in '83 and '84. He batted .255 in 50 career plate appearances, with 1 career HR. He became a free agent and went to play for another top level independent, the San Jose Bees, before coming to Kingston. This season he batted .281/.388/.491, hit 25 HR's and had 103 RBI's. He was able to parlay that success back into a contract with the Oakland A's, who brought him up to the ML roster a couple weeks ago, but he hasn't gotten into a game yet.

The Kingston ace is 31yr old, long time Oakland A's starter, Matt Keough. Keough was last in the majors last season with the O's. His career record of 56-87 go with his 4.38 ERA. He put 4 straight negative WAR seasons together to see his exit from ML baseball. He signed on with Kingston in February last year and went on to win both the minor league Cy Young, and MVP. This season, in 29 starts, Keough went 21-1, with a 2.43 ERA. He struck out 202 guys in 233.2 innings pitched and posted a 5.7 WAR. So far no new team has come calling, so we may see him in Kingston for another season.

There are a few teams like these, the Bees are also very interesting. They have scored 1231 runs this year while allowing 616. How they lost 39 games (won 123) I have no idea. Here are some of the freaks from this season. Billy Sample hit .403. Bob Boone batted .390. Chris Welsh went 29-5, with a 2.62 ERA and threw 20 complete games! Ron Romanick went 28-2 with a 2.49 ERA, and 20 complete games! He was involved in a deal that sent Dave Stewart from the Mets to California. He was traded along with Rick Aguilera. Aguilera is in the majors and Romanick is toiling in the minors. Even former Dodger, Ray Burris is here, but he lead the team in losses going 12-8 with a 3.38 ERA. Other recognizable names on this team: Rodney Scott (former Expos IF), Dave Bergman, Kevin Elster, and Bobby Castillo.

Makes for some interesting side stories to the big names playing in the big parks at the very least.

05-05-2017, 11:51 AM	#52
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	1985 Opening Day Roster Starting Rotation L Fernando Valenzuela (20-10, 2.75) R Rick Rhoden (16-9, 2.99) L Frank Tanana (15-9, 3.07) R Dennis Eckersley (8-1, 3.00) L Jerry Reuss (0-2, 4.35) This team has a lot of options for starters. It's a little surprising to see that Reuss gets the nod over the rest of the guys in the bullpen, but pending his effectiveness at least there are other options. Valenzuela and Rhoden make a really good 1-2 combo. Tanana is a prototypical #3 starter and Eck is easily #3 caliber. Reuss is really nothing more than a 5 starter on this rotation. The big shocker is that 1984 MVP Alejandro Pena is nowhere to be found. Bullpen R Jim Beattie (19-4, 2.61) R Milt Wilcox (17-8, 2.55) R John Denny (1-0, 5.57) R Alejandro Pena (19-6, 2.01) L Steve Howe (1-3, 3.66) R Tom Niedenfeur (9-2, 33S, 1.19) No other team can match the number of wins from last year in their bullpen that we have. Too bad that doesn't count for anything at all. At 1Mil per year, John Denny continues to be the most expensive middle reliever in baseball. Pena and Howe will set up Niedenfuer this year. That could be a very good pairing. The addition of Jim Beattie seems to be a waste with him buried in the bullpen. Only 1 lefty in the bullpen, and you know John Franco is in AAA just waiting to make his mark on the team. Let's hope he doesn't get traded for another middle infielder. Catcher Mike Scioscia (.278/8/48) Buck Martinez (.208/2/23) Same guys as last year. Scioscia is an above average contact hitter who doesn't strike out much, and a good defender. Martinez is not an embarrassment, and is also a good defender. No competition here who the starter is when Scioscia got his big contract. First Base Sid Bream (.352/2/12) Andre Thornton (.305/1/10) Bream is first on the depth chart and had a very good year last year between AAA and the majors. He's a decent defender with above average skills. Thornton is a massive liability in the field and he's closing in on 36. He isn't even listed as the #2 first baseman. Not sure, other than a big bat off the bench, what he's doing with the team. Greg Brock was designated and placed on waivers. Stubbs will back up Bream for now. Second Base Willie Randolph (.335/6/46) Frank White (.256/7/34) Randolph was the most important piece of the offense last year with his ability to get on base. His defense was also stellar at second. He is in no danger of losing his job anytime soon. Frank White is coming off of an injury filled season. He is good in the field and is a good vet bat off the bench. Third Base Graig Nettles (.272/18/72) Toby Harrah (.194/1/3) This is the old guy position. Nettles is 40 and Harrah is 36. Lasorda is set to platoon them for now with Nettles sitting against lefties. Neither guy is going to hit for high average, and with Harrah we lose a lot of power when he's playing. Nettles is only averaging 15 homers per year for the last 3 years so you'd expect that to drop a litte for this year. I'm wondering if keeping Grich might have been the better option. Shortstop Roy Smalley (.226/11/63) The only shortstop on the roster, Smalley saw his productivity drop off significantly last season. He is a below average short stop in the field, but even with that, he's still dangerous with the bat. I'm hoping that last year was a bit of an aberration. Tony Phillips who was nearly useless last year was optioned to AAA to start the year. Left Field Mike Marshall (.275/18/55) Marshall has a lot of power, but will he stay healthy enough to play much? He also might split time with Ron Kittle, who was the AAA MVP last year (duh? That man was on fire!) Kittle is on the DL with tendinitis to start the year, but he should be called up when he's healthy. Both guys are similar and can hit the ball a mile, strike out a lot, struggle with injuries, and field questionably. Not having George Foster to suck up at bats should help both guys. Center Field Dwayne Murphy (.278/23/88) Franklin Stubbs (.274/12/34) Murphy didn't bring as much pop to the club as we had hoped. He didn't even get close to the 30 HR mark that was expected. His defense was outstanding however, and he easily holds down the starting spot this year. Stubbs is the primary backup at all 3 outfield positions as well as first base, so we can expect to see him playing quite a bit this year. Right Field Dwight Evans (.291/29/108) Tony Brewer (.333/0/1) Evans carried the team early last year, then just kind of disappeared. His power dropped off quite a bit playing in LA, which always seems to happen to sluggers who come here, but he hit for 20 points higher in average than the previous year. Brewer starts the year on the roster, but figures to go away in a couple weeks when Kittle comes back. Notable Absences Steve Sax. Guy hits .303 his rookie year and then .347 in AAA last year and he can't make the team? And they have so little faith that they go out and get Frank White? He's one of the best contact hitters on the team and he can't make the roster. Trade him for some value, or play him, please, before he can't throw to first any more. Tony Phillips. Not that shocking. I have a feeling that he'll show up on the roster simply because he can play short stop and the other infield positions. Not likely to make an impact either way after his tenure here last year. Scotti Madison. Once the top prospect for the team can't make the team as a catcher and they bring Buck Martinez back instead. That can't bode well for his future. Brian Holton. Tore his UCL last year so he only threw 10 innings at AA. Still one of the better arms in the bullpen once he gets healthy. He was lost in the Rule 5 draft to the Brewers but didn't make the team and came back. John Franco. Saw a little bit of playing time down the stretch and is now in his final option year. If the team needs another lefty in the bullpen he'll be the first to get the callup. Had 22 saves in AAA last year with a 0.90 ERA. He really needs to step it up this year because this team needs some young help. Could be playing if the team would unload some of it's starters and move them out of the pen. Kelly Downs. Won 16 games in AAA last year is still only 24. The problem is that there are so many, many arms ahead of him on the club it's going to be hard to get that spot without some big things happening. He still has 1 more option year so it's not as important as it is for Franco. Greg Brock, Jim Pankovits, UL Washington, Ricky Wright were all designated and placed on waivers. Brock is the only one of that group that's modestly surprising. He hit 3 homers in 17 at bats for us last year, but he hasn't really shined nor been the impact player that he needed to be to win the first base job. It's time now, FOR DODGERS BASEBALL! __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam Last edited by PilotMan : 05-05-2017 at 11:56 AM.

05-09-2017, 12:41 AM	#53
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	4/9 1-0 W over the Astros Opening day on the road in Houston. Valenzuela and Ryan go toe to toe and neither blinks. Valenzuela had to work a little harder, scattering 7 and walking 4, while Ryan struck out 9 with 1 walk. The bottom of the 9^th saw a young Barry Larking strike out in his Major League debut against Valenzuela. LA would get to the bullpen in the 10^th when they would load the bases for Scioscia who hit a short, difficult grounder to short and somehow legged out the single that allowed the run to score. Niedenfeuer (1-0) got the win, and Pena came on and retired the side in order for the save. Greg Brock was claimed off of waivers by the Indians. He's still waiting for his assignment. 4/10 9-1 L to the Astros Rhoden (0-1) pitched great until the Astros got to him in the 5^th, then they put up 7 and that started the run. Our only run came on a Randolph double, that followed a steal of third and a throwing error. Milt Wilcox struck out the side in the 8^th, and that was the best that we had going for us. Jim Beattie made his debut and gave up a homer to Bill Madlock on his third pitch in Dodger blue. Tony Bernazard is leading off and playing second for the Astros, and made us pay going 2-5, with a run and an RBI. 4/11 11-5 W over the Astros Another big hitting game for both teams. Tanana (1-0) was pitching great until Tony Bernazard made us pay again with a 3-run homer in the 7^th to cut the lead to 3. He ended up 3-5. The big story though was the hitting of Mike Scioscia and Sid Bream. These lefties combined for 7-9, 5 runs, 7 RBI, and a walk. Both men had a double and triple. A nice surprise for the faithful if they stay hot. 4/12 9-4 W over the Giants Eckersley (1-0) got his first start of the year and served up 5 straight hits and 4 runs in the first. LA answered against Bannister with 5 straight hits of their own and put up a 5 spot in the bottom of the first which changed the nature of the game. I don't even know where to start, everyone hit everything except Smalley and Eck. Dwight Evans and Mike Scioscia each hit their first home runs of the year. Eck struck out 7 in 7. 4/13 6-5 W over the Giants The starting pitching didn't have the greatest week, but Lasorda was sticking with his men. Even with all the bullpen help his starters are expected to work out of their own jams. LA trailed for the entire game until the bottom of the 7^th. Stubbs lead off the inning with a pinch hit homer to cut into it, and then soon we had a 4 run inning. Mike Marshall went 3-4 with 3 rbi's and his first homer to match Stubbs, who was pinch hitting. 4/14 6-0 W over the Giants Fernando was on fire. He took a no-hitter into the 8^th when a Julio Cruz single broke it up. Chili Davis would get the other hit, and Valenzuela (1-0) walked 3, but struck out 12. He also ran his scoreless inning streak to start the season to 17.1 innings. The game changed on the 4^th inning, when after two quick outs a pair of walks and a passed ball allowed Valenzuela to knock in 2 with a single. The inning would continue though and LA would load them up and Dwight Evans would clean them off, in his second homer of the year. LA's patient approach at the plate helped too, as they were able to draw 7 walks to go with 7 hits. Quietly, we've got a 4 game win streak. 4/15 2-1 W over the Astros A great pitchers dual between Rhoden (1-1) and Sutcliffe. Houston scored first on a passed ball in the 4^th, but Rhoden kept his cool and bore down. Bottom of the 8^th Dwayne Murphy, who is off to another slow start, kept us in the game with a solo homer (1) to tie it up. The game went to the 10^th and Rhoden stayed in, striking out 9 in the game. LA got a leadoff double from Andre Thrornton and got to third on a single by Murphy. After a Frank White strikout, Roy Smalley knocked a ball over the drawn in first basemen, Chris Smith, and Thornton came home. 4/16 3-2 L to the Astros Tanana had another rough first inning against the 'Stros allowing all 3 runs right out of the block. Doyle Alexander did a great job shutting us down except for Sid Bream. Bream tripled and scored to get us on the board in the 7^th, then in the bottom of the 9^th hit his first homer of the year to bring us within 1. We got the tying run on before Don Aase struck out the last 2 to end it. / 4/17 3-1 W over the Astros Eckersley (2-0) goes 8 allowing 3 hits and striking out 7 for the win. He was very strong throughout. But it was his bat that made the difference. After a Nettles homer (1) the Astros tied it in the top of the 7^th. Eckersley came to bat in the bottom of the inning and hit one over the right field fence to put LA up for good. Niedenfeur picked up his 2^nd save. 4/18 4-1 L to the Padres The rotation already has been shuffled. John Denny (0-1) got the start and Jerry Reuss was swapped to the pen. Not particularly surprising considering the lack of lefties and their roles in the last year. Denny got owned by Tony Gwynn to the tune of an RBI double and a two-run homer. Young Jimmy Key (2-0) got the better of us for most of the game. Our only run came on a Frank White pinch hit home run (1) late. LA did bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Andre Thornton, but he grounded out to third to end it. 4/19 5-0 W over the Padres Fernandomania is running wild over SoCal to start the year. He is straight dialed in. Valenzuela (2-0) goes the distance allowing 1 hit to former Dodger Bob Brenly in the second inning. He struck out 8 and his scoreless innings streak is up to 26.1 to start the year. LA got a lot of help on offense notably a Dwight Evans monster 455-ft homer (3) in the 6^th off of Ojeda. Scioscia, Bream, Evans and Murphy all had 2 hits. Dodger prospect Kelly Downs tore his rotator cuff and he's done for the year. Ron Kittle is back off the DL and as expected, Tony Brewer has been optioned to make room. UL Washington was also released and picked up by Toronto. 4/20 5-3 W over the Padres Rhoden (2-1) pitched into the 8^th, and pitched well in a solid start. LA overcame 4 errors today and it was the top of the lineup produced. Randolph went 3-5 and scored twice, and Scioscia went 2-4 with 2 RBI's. LA drew 5 walks against Dave Dravecky (1-1) who had only walked 3 all year coming in. Niedenfeur pitched the last 5 outs for his 3^rd save. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-09-2017, 09:49 PM	#54
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	4/21 10-5 L to the Padres Tanana got out of the first inning today, but he would lose everything in a big 7^th inning for the Padres that would see them score 7 times. Alejandro Pena (0-1) came on to try and lock it down, but he allowed 3 hits and a walk without getting an out before he was lifted. LA drew 9 walks off of Padres pitching today, but left 9 guys on base. It was an Ozzie Guillen triple that cleared the bases and opened the game up. Buck Martinez went 2-4 and hit his first home run of the year in the losing effort. 4/22 3-2 (10) L to the Giants Eckersley got the start and went 8.1, scattering 9 hits and allowing 1 run. He got into trouble in the 9^th with the winning run in scoring position and no outs. Steve Howe came in and worked us out of the jam and the game went to extras. LA got a leadoff double from Stubbs, who scored on a Randolph single. Niedenfuer (0-1) came on for the save and quickly got Damaso Garcia and Rob Deer out. He had a 1-2 count on Chili Davis before losing him to a walk Then on a 1-1 pitch, Jeffrey Leonard put the ball in the left field bleachers and we walk off, shocked. 4/23 3-1 W over the Giants John Denny (1-1) pitched a great game, and he needed to, because his defense didn't help much. The Dodgers commited 5, yes 5, errors. Every infielder and Stubbs in center committed errors. We were lucky. Sid Bream went 2-4 and knocked in 2 of the 3 runs. The first put us on the board when we hit a Floyd Bannister pitch over the right field fence for his 2^nd homer. Alejandro Pena pitched a perfect 9^th for his 2^nd save. 4/24 3-0 L to the Giants Valenzuela v. Hammaker III didn't go as I and II did. The Giants scored in the 2^nd and 3^rd to go up and Hammaker dominated the Dodgers over 8 innings. Valenzuela pitched 1 out shy of another complete game, before tiring and giving way to Steve Howe. LA only got hits from 4 players, and just couldn't get the offense going against the talented lefty. The Giants newly acquired closer Bob Stanley, who we've had some dubious success against, had no problem finishing us off. Stanley was acquired when the Expos placed him on waivers. Don't feel bad for the Expos, their bullpen features a double headed monster called Quisenberry/Reardon. 4/25 3-2 L to the Padres Another close loss. It's not been a good week. Rick Rhoden (2-2) started and pitched well enough except for the 6^th inning when the Padres took advantage of a Toby Harrah error. Luis Salazar (really? Again? What is it with this guy and us?) hit a 2-run shot that put the Padres up. Roy Smalley and Dwight Evans had a couple hits each, but all in all, this team is putting next to no offense up right now. 4/26 2-1 (14) L to the Padres Ouch, this one hurts. Frank Tanana pitched his best game of the year and left after 8 shutout innings. He gave way to Niedenfuer who gave up a double to Gwynn and eventually scored, sending it to extras. The Padres starter Tandy Charley pitched 10 full innings and we couldn't do anything. In extras, Alejandro Pena pitched 3 good innings and Steve Howe (0-1) came on, but it would be another error, this time by Andre Thornton at first that opened things up. Former Dodger farmhand, Larry Fobbs, knocked a single that scored Gwynn for the Padres in the 14^th. LA had no answer in the bottom. April can't end soon enough at this rate. 4/27 6-3 L to the Padres That's three in a row to the Padres, at home. Geez. Eckersley (2-1) got roughed up, allowing 10 hits in 6 innings of work. LA scored twice in the first but in the second it was none other than, yep, Luis Salazar again, who tied it up with his home run. SD took the lead for good in the 6^th inning when first basemen Pat Casey hit his first career home run. Pena got roughed up in relief, and we just couldn't keep up. SD had 15 hits in the game, and still left 11 guys on. This could have been much worse. 4/28 1-0 W over the Padres We salvage 1 game at least, but the offense is still lost. John Denny (2-1) was really on his game and pitched into the 9^th before being lifted for Niedenfeur. I'd have left him in to get the shutout, he wasn't in trouble and he had 9 K's in the game. Niedenfeur didn't blow this one. Our only run came when pinch hitting Thornton walked, followed by a Toby Harrah walk, and then Roy Smalley hit a single, for our 2^nd hit of the game. We'd only get 3. W is a W, but this is still bad. 4/30 5-1 W over the Cardinals Valenzuela (3-1) back on track. Eight innings, 8 strikeouts. Yet another game where we fail to hit a home run. A few hits here, a few hits there, and we scored where we could. Pitching set the stage again. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-09-2017, 09:49 PM	#55
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	April Recap LA went 12-9 in the month, good enough for second place in the West. The Padres, hold a tight 1 game lead on us. That series against us really put them up. It's early, but this team is struggling. Early on we were leading the NL in runs scored, but by the end of the month we are 10^th in average, 8^th in homers, and 7^th in OBP. That's some of the lowest numbers we've put up. The pitching staff is on track. Either first and second in all pitching categories and first in defense, despite a couple of horrendous defensive games. Our bombers aren't bombing. Dwight Evans leads the team with 3 homers. Sid Bream had a good April and it's good to see that he got the nod over Greg Brock. Graig Nettles is awful. He's hitting .100 in part time play with 1 home run. Roy Smalley not much better at .156. This team could be super explosive, but right now they aren't doing shit. If the pitching staff can hold it together we might be able to get back on track, but for now it's just not working. Best record in baseball? California Angels at 15-6. Not sure why, they are among the bottom of the league in offense, and pitching is holding them together. Former Dodgers getting playing time with the Angels are Steve Garvey, Ken Landreaux and Dave Stewart. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-20-2017, 09:53 PM	#56
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	5/1 8-3 W over the Cardinals Lots of hits for LA. Finally, maybe this means that we'll break out. Dwayne Murphy hit his 2^nd home run of the year and Dwight Evans went 4-5 with 2 RBI's. LA had 15 hits, and walked 6 times, at least we had baserunners. Rick Rhoden (3-2) pitched well enough, but wasn't commanding. 5/3 7-5 W over the Pirates Eckersley (3-1) started, but only managed 5 innings. He spotted the Pirates a 4-0 lead when Ron Cey hit a 3-run shot. His 7^th and 4 more than any Dodger, and left down 4-1. A big top of the 6^th for LA got them back in it as they put up 5 to grab the lead. Murphy hit his 3^rd in the 5^th and Mike Scioscia hit a solo shot that started all the scoring in the 6^th. Bream and Marshall in addition to Murphy and Scioscia had 2 hits each. Niedenfuer pitched the last 8 outs for his 5^th save. 5/4 5-4 W over the Pirates This game mirrored the last one. Tanana gave up a 3-run shot to Johnny Ray and another to Ron Cey. For the second game in a row the Pirates went deep back to back. So we were down 4-1 again. We answered with a couple in the 4^th but we were still down 1. It was all zeros until Andre Thornton came up as a pinch hitter then hit homered (1) off of Rod Scurry with Stubbs on base to give LA the lead. Niedenfuer, for the second game in a row, got the last 8 outs for his 6^th save. Young Roger Clemens, at 22, throws a no-hitter for the Indians against the Rangers. He struck out 7. It's the first No-No since Charlie Hough last June. 5/6 10-7 L to the Cubs Neither Valenzuela nor David Cone would make it to the 5^th inning. By then it was 7-5 LA, but Jim Beattie (0-1) came on and just gave the Cubs all the runs. LA still had the lead by the 6^th inning when Ryne Sandberg hit a 2-run triple to put the Cubs up. Mike Marshall went 3-5 with 2 RBI's to lead the Dodgers. 5/7 13-7 W over the Cubs Rick Rhoden could only make it 4.1 before he was lifted. At one point the Dodgers had a 10-1 lead and then Rhoden allowed 4 homers. LA had 22 hits, exactly 1 of them was for extra bases and that was a Dwayne Murphy solo shot (4). The Cubs Bert Johnson was making his ML debut and it's going to be one he will want to forget. Roy Smalley went 5-6 and scored 4 times, Murphy went 4-6. In fact, it was a big hit parade except for Mike Marshall, he went hitless, the only starter without a hit. Wilcox (1-0) got the win. 5/8 4-2 L to the Cardinals Twice LA had to answer the Cardinals and wasted a generally good outing from John Denny. Denny left the game tied at 2-2. In the 9^th Niedenfeur (1-2) came on, expecting that he'd shut them down, he proved me wrong. Curt Ford hit a pinch hit double and was knocked in by Tom Herr. Ricky Horton shut us down in the 9^th to hand us the loss. Niedenfeur has started rough, much worse than his last couple years. He's already blown 2 and taken 2 losses. The 2-time all star might not be one this season. 5/9 5-4 L to the Cardinals Frank Tanana had another rough first inning. He allowed 5 hits and 4 runs and LA was immediately down 4-0 and had a big hole to dig out of. Most of the digging was 1 person, Dwight Evans. LA only had 5 hits all game, 2 of them were home runs by Evans. The first was a 2-run homer that got us on the board. Mike Marshall finally hit his 2^nd homer to put us down 1, then in the next inning Evans homered again to tie it up. Tanana wouldn't allow another hit all game. He left in the 7^th, having struck out 7. Alejandro Pena came and in the 9^th it was Andy Van Slyke that got to him, hitting his 6^th home run of the year to give the Cards the lead and ultimately the win. 5/10 8-0 W over the Pirates Eckersley (4-1) pitched brilliantly, allowing 3 hits heading into the 9^th. However, after the second pitch of the 9^th he was pulled with some kind of injury so he couldn't get his shutout. LA battered the Pirates with 9 singles, and another where we had no extra base hits. We were also able to take advantage of 4 Pirate errors. Between Scioscia and Evans they had 5 ribbies and 4 of the hits. Toby Harrah was diagnosed with a strained hamstring. He's gone to the DL and Steve Sax is called up. 5/11 4-2 L to the Pirates Mike Scott (4-2) just crushed us today. He struck out 12 in 8 innings of work and his only mistake was a 2-run homer allowed to Graig Nettles. That was Nettles 2^nd of the year and gave us a temporary lead. Valenzuela (3-2) went 7 and allowed all 4, while sriking out 8. He was far from dominant though. Tom Henke came on in the 9^th and gave up a lead off single to Scioscia. He struck out Evans next and got Bream to fly out. Marshall got another single to put the tying run on base. Sax pinch hit, in his first apprearance of the year and grounded out weakly to second. 5/13 3-2 W over the Pirates LA put up 3 in the 2^nd inning. Mike Marshall got us on the board with his 3^rd HR. Rick Rhoden knocked a double, scoring Nettles who had walked, then Randolph singled him in. Rick Rhoden (4-2) went 8 innings and Niedenfeur pitched the 9^th for his 7^th save. LA hands Jose DeLeon his first loss of the year. Before the game the team got the bad news that Eckersley is going on the 60-day with a fairly serious shoulder injury. It's a partially torn labrum and he won't be back anytime soon. John Franco is taking his spot on the roster. He has option to stay with the team or become a free agent after the year. Jerry Reuss and not Pena, Beattie or Wilcox will take his place in the rotation. This is a blow. 5/14 4-2 W over the Cubs LA put up runs in the first and in the 2^nd it was Graig Nettles going deep for his 3^rd of the year. Mike Scioscia hit his 3^rd, a big solo shot in the 5^th to put us up 3-0. Shawon Dunston went deep off of Denny to cut the lead down to 3-2, but LA managed to hang on. Denny moves to 3-1 with 8 strong innings. Niedenfeur pitched the 9^th for his 8^th save. Funny aside – in the last week the Dodgers have signed Mark Fidrych who hasn't played in the majors since 1980, and Sparky Lyle, who is nearly 41 and last saw the majors back in '82 with the Phillies. The funny thing with Lyle is that wherever he was the last 2 seasons his minor league team won the title. 5/15 6-1 L to the Cubs The Cubs break their 5 game losing streak on us. They get a great performance from Mike Mason (3-4) and a leadoff home run from Leon Durham (7), a solo shot from Dunston (3) in the 8^th, and the big one, a grand slam from Jody Davis (6) that just broke the game open. Frank Tanana (1-2) takes the loss. He struck out 7, but only could go 5 innings. He still can't seem to find his rhythm this year. Both Dwayne Murphy and Graig Nettles left the game shaken up. No word yet on their condition. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-22-2017, 08:25 AM	#57
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	5/17 4-3 W over the Phillies Shane Rawley had LA in control all day. He left after 8 innings of work with a 3-1 lead. Dave Smith came on to pitch the 9^th. The Stubbs lead off and grounded out, Frank White struck out and just when it looked like it was over Roy Smalley and his buck something average and 0 dingers, hit a monster 440 ft shot to center. That brought us down 1. Sid Bream stepped in next and he pulled the ball into the right field seats to tie it up. LA wasn't done there, Steve Sax singled pinch hitting, stole second (man haven't seen that in a long time here). Randolph hit a single into right and Sax came home to put us up. Niedendfeur pitched a perfect 9^th for his 9^th save to preserve it. Nettles has a torn thumb ligament and he's on the DL. Frank White got the start at third in the last game and Tony Phillips was recalled to take his spot on the roster. Stubbs played for Murphy who is still out and no word on his timeline either. LA also signed Steve Howe to a 2-year extension, but the 2^nd year requires vesting. 5/18 4-1 W over the Phillies It was Rick Rhoden taking the ball for LA today and he didn't have his best stuff, but he got a lot of support. Rhoden walked 6 in 5 innings of work before being yanked after 106 pitches. LA got on the board first when Randolph scored on a Evans single. Sid Bream then doubled home 2 more. We picked up another on a Kittle sac fly. Jim Beattie finally pitched a couple good innings and Niedendfeur struck out 4 in the last 2 for his 10^th save. It's more bad news for the Dodgers. Murphy has a broken leg and it looks like it's worse than the 6 week kind. He's going to miss most of the season. We're going to have to get it done without one of our best players. Tony Brewer who had 3 at bats last year was called up to take his place on the roster. Stubbs is expected to take his place in center field. 5/19 5-2 L to the Phillies The Phillies got on the board in the first off of John Denny (3-2), but we answered with a couple in the 4^th to take the lead. A rain delay of nearly an hour didn't have an impact on either pitcher and Denny was rolling along easy. Bottom 6, Wayne Gross, who was 0 for life against Denny hit a 2 run homer for his first hit and put the Phils in the lead. Pedro Guerrero would add another for the Phillies. More concern for LA as Pena left in the 9^th after feeling discomfort. We couldn't take Dave Smith down this time as he shut the door on us in the 9^th. Harold Baines hit for the cycle against the Rangers. 5/20 7-3 W over the Expos Hey look another win against the team we can't beat in the playoffs! The Expos still have the best record in the NL. Frank Tanana (2-2) got the start today and got the help of a big 4-run first inning. Mike Scioscia doubled in Randolph to start the scoring, then later in the inning, it was Mike Marshall hitting a 3-run homer (4). We would tack on 3 more in the 4^th. Right now, including the pitcher, there are 4 starters with sub .200 averages starting and our leading home run hitter wouldn't even crack the top 3 on most teams. John Franco made his first appearance of the season, allowing 2 hits in a scoreless 9^th. 5/21 7-1 L to the Expos Rick Reuschel (5-2), an ex Dodger, put it to us again. We only managed 3 hits, and committed 3 errors that lead to Franco, who pitched the 9^th, to allow 4 unearned runs, on 4 hits. Jim Beattie pitched a couple scoreless innings and Jerry Reuss (1-1) was mildly effective over 5. Our only run came on a Franklin Stubbs HR, his 2^nd. The good news is that reigning MVP, Alejandro Pena is only going to miss 2 weeks with some shoulder tendinitis. Considering all the other injuries, this is good news. Young prospect, Ken Howell, is called up. Although, his 8.44 ERA in AAA is less than inspiring. 5/22 9-6 W over the Expos Valenzuela (5-2) got the win, but allowing 11 hits and 2 homers in 6 innings wasn't awesome. He's struggled quite a bit since his great first couple of games, but the offense got going and helped him out. Ever time LA opened the game up, Montreal closed it back up again. LA got a 2-run homer from Marshall in the 5^th (5) and a solo shot from Evans (6) in the 6^th. LA also drew 7 walks against David Palmer (1-3) who was pitched out in the 5^th. LA left 13 runners on, so it could have been a much bigger score and both teams combined for 5 errors. Both of LA's were by Frank White, who is NOT a natural third basemen. Ken Howell made his ML debut going 2 innings, allowing 1 hit and striking out 1. Niedenfeur pitched the 9^th for his 11 save. 5/23 8-3 W over the Mets Rick Rhoden (6-2) pitched another quality game today, but he didn't carry the team. Today, that was Mike Scioscia, the #2 hitter in the lineup. Scioscia went 3-4, with 3 runs and 3 RBI's. One of those hits was a solo shot in the 3^rd, his 4^th. Only holding a tight 1 run lead LA erupted for 4 in the 9^th. The big hit was Franklin Stubbs, 3-run home run. Roger McDowell threw 42 pitches and couldn't get out of the 9^th. Rookie, Rick Aguileria had to finish. 5/24 9-4 L to the Mets This Denny/Gooden matchup looked like it should have been a pitchers dual. Gooden leads the league in pretty much everything right now. Denny wouldn't hold up his end of the bargain as the Mets touched him for 6 runs in 4.2 innings. Sid Bream put us up in the 4^th with his 4^th, but the Mets answered with 2. Then in the 5^th Scioscia answered with his 5^th to cut the lead to 1, but the Mets again got another 2 to increase the lead for good. Tony Phillips got the rare start and went 2-4 for LA. 5/26 3-1 (11) L to the Mets A pitchers dual between Frank Tanana and Jay Tibbs. Tibbs shut the Dodgers out for 8 innings then gave way to Roger McDowell. Down 1-0 in the 9^th, with 2 out and runners at the corners, Frank White legged out an infield single that scored Franklin Stubbs to tie the game. John Franco pitched 2 scoreless, before Niedenefeur (1-3) served up a 2-run homer to Kevin Mitchell (9) that ended it. 5/27 5-2 W over the Mets At least we managed a split to the Mets. Fernando picked up his 6^th win, going 8 and striking out 6. The Mets scored in the first and the 1-0 lead held the day until the 6^th when Valenzuela, who had singled, scored on a Scioscia single. The Mets tied it up again, but LA scored in the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th. Mike Scioscia, who went 2-4, pulled up with an injury after a double. Buck Martinez filled in, and then hit a 2-run homer (2) in the 9^th to cushion the lead. Niedenfeur pitched the 9^th for his 12^th save. Good news on Scioscia. It's just some soreness in his groin, and the team expects that he can play through it for a couple of days. We really didn't need to lose his bat right now. 5/29 4-2 (13) L to the Phillies We used to win these kinds of games. The Phillies went up 2-0 early off of Rick Rhoden, but LA tied it up with runs in the 3^rd and 4^th and the now rare HR from Roy Smalley (2) in the 3^rd. . It stayed like that through 9 with Rhoden going all 9. After it was turned over to the bullpens LA couldn't get anything going. Ultimately, it was 2 unearned runs, thanks to a Ken Howell (0-1) error, that put the Phillies in front. Even with LA turning 4 DP's in the game, fielding cost the game. Former 6-time Gold Glove winning center fielder, Gary Maddox was claimed off of waivers from the Mariners. Tony Brewer was sent down to make room for him. It still looks like Stubbs will keep his job for now, but that .194 batting average might cost him. Maddox hasn't seen any real playing time since he started for the A's back in '83. 5/30 7-1 L to the Phillies It started off good for us. Willie Randolph lead off the bottom of the first with his first homerun of the year. The top of the second was horrid for John Denny (3-4) though. He would walk 4 runners, twice with the bases loaded and then allowed another on a wild pitch. He settle down until the 7^th when Keith Moreland touched him for a 3-run homer, his 5^th. Yet again, our offense is non-existent as Kevin Gross (3-7) shut us down. 5/31 9-3 W over the Expos Good news/bad news. Good news, the offense finally got something going, and against Reuschel no less. Plus, this was against the best team in the NL and a team that's had our number. Roy Smalley went 2-4, with 3 RBI's and he smashed 2 HR to give him 4 on the year. Sid Bream had a good game too. He was 3-4 with 2 RBI's and his 17^th double. Bad news. Tanana (3-2) pitched alright, but walked 6 in the win, and allowed 8 hits in 7 innings. Willie Randolph was hit by a pitch and had to leave the game. He's got a bruised elbow and will join everyone else on the DL. Utility player Ross Jones was called up to take his place. Sax will take over 2^nd while he's out. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam Last edited by PilotMan : 05-22-2017 at 09:46 AM.

05-22-2017, 09:49 AM	#58
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	May Recap LA went 14-10 in May, one of our worst months in a long while. Going 4 games above .500 isn't a failure though. It may be good enough to win the division right if we can keep that up. As it stands right now, after 2 months, LA is tied for first place with the Reds, with a 26-20 record. That's pretty far from where we were last year at this time. The Expos are riding high with the best record in the NL with a 31-16 record. The White Sox lead all of baseball with a 30-14 record. The World Champion Blue Jays are also in first in the East at 27-19. So we have some problems. Injuries are piling up and it's causing some problems. We've got depth, and that's helped. We've got depth in the rotation....but. We're used to leading the league in pitching. Thanks to the bullpen we're 3^rd. It's the starters, 6^th, that aren't performing up to par, and losing Eck for the season blows. LA is 3^rd in runs allowed and our defense is 4^th in the NL. Speaking of defense, having Frank White at third, and losing Dwayne Murphy in center is bringing us down. Mike Scioscia has become a wrecking ball behind the plate. He's cutting down 46.2% of base stealers. But let's get to the real issues with this team right now, and that's the offense. LA is 7^th in the NL in average. That's a far, far cry from being the #2 offensive team last year. Those rankings just roll right down, OBP, SLG, (both 6^th), runs scored (5^th), home runs (4^th). We are worst in the NL in steals, with 13 team steals. Sid Bream is leading the team in avg, batting .304, followed by Evans and Scioscia, .280 and .272 respectively. Evans' 6 home runs lead the team. As does his 32 RBI's. Here's the most depressing thing about our power numbers. If we look at the league leaders in homers, it's Bob Brenly (SD) AND Ron Cey (PIT) leading the league with 11. Over in the AL, Greg Brock (CLE) is 5^th with 10. Someone has to break out for us, or we're just going to waste away. Here's another thing to think about. Looking back on the Ron Kittle deal a couple years ago, that sent away Mariano Duncan and Ted Power? Well, Kittle has 336 AB and 19 HR while playing for LA, since 1983. Duncan has broken through to start at short for the White Sox, has 400 AB, and 5 HR, along with 39 SB's. Ted Power finished 3^rd for Reliver of the Year last year and is the closer for the Reds. He's 11-6 with 39 saves since the trade in 104 IP. I'm starting to think that maybe this trade won't go down as a good one, just judging from the lack of playing time for the slugger. None of that is going to put the ball in play. We have starters that just aren't pulling the load. Starting with Frank White. He's hitting .175 and the hot corner is more than he can handle. Next, Mike Marshall. His .652 OPS and 5 HR are projecting to an 18 HR season. His defense is ok, but not worth that. If Bream wasn't playing so well, you could make an argument to move him to first and start Kittle in left. Roy Smalley is hitting .199 with an OPS of .575. Only 3 more years of that mil+/year contract. Graig Nettles, who was supposed to bring his old self and power? Just looks old now. He's hurt, has 3 HR, a .192 avg and .596 OPS. It goes on and on down the list. Players who we need to make an impact and who are failing mightily. Our best players have been the standard, Scioscia (defensively he's a stud), Randolph (hurt now, but still drives the O), and Evans (playing ok, but we really need more from him like last year. A 9 HR drop in production won't get us to the promised land, nor will a team whose power hitter leads with 21 go far. No panicking yet. We're tied for first and that's with our best players playing somewhat poorly. June is going to see the return of a few players, if they can get healthy. We need to try and stay optimistic, but it's clear that this team isn't going to run away and hide like we did last year. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-24-2017, 11:56 AM	#59
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	6/1 3-2 W over the Expos Valenzuela (7-2) went 7.2 before giving way to Niedenfeur who pitched the last 4 outs for his 13^th save. Robin Yount lead off the game with his 2^nd homer of the year. LA was able to answer in the bottom of the 2^nd when Frank White knocked in 2 with a double. Both he and Bream were 2-4 in action. Young Expos prospect, Andres Galarraga hit his 2^nd career homer in the 8^th to cut the lead. 6/2 7-4 L to the Expos Jim Beattie (0-2) got his first start of the year and it did not go well. He was spotted 4 runs as LA opened up in the bottom of the first. Roy Smalley, who has been on a little hot streak, went 1-3 with 2 RBI's. It all went wrong in the 5^th with Dawson smacked a 3-run homer to tie the game, and then later in the inning young infield prospect Mike Greenwell hit his first career homer. This was another 3-run homer. That put the Expos up for good. All 7 runs were pinned on Beattie over 5 innings. 6/3 8-5 L to the Mets The Mets abused Rick Rhoden (6-3) to the tune of 16 baserunners over 5 innings. NY built up an 8-0 lead by the 6^th inning and we slowly whittled it down, all the way until we had the tying run at the plate in the 9^th inning. Frank White just couldn't get the hit we needed to stay in it. Steve Sax lead the offense going 3-5. 6/4 3-1 L to the Mets And the losing streak stretches to 3. June isn't starting off so hot right now. It was another Denny/Gooden matchup, and this time it was a dual. Denny won the K battle 9 to 7 in 2 less innings of work, and when you add in the 5 that John Franco got, we really did, but it didn't matter when we couldn't score off of Doc. Gooden moved to 9-2, Denny to 3-5. Steve Sax had the lone RBI and Mike Scioscia had 2 hits to pace LA. LA did get something going in the 9^th when Scioscia singled and Evans walked. That put the winning run at the plate in Stubbs, but he grounded out to end the rally. Alejandro Pena was activated off the DL and John Franco was sent back to AAA. Franco pitched in 6 games, 8 innings, and struck out 8. He'll fill the closer role in Albuquerque again. 6/5 7-0 L to the Mets Boooooooo. Jay Tibbs owned us again. He came within an out of a shutout, and pushed his record to 5-2. Frank Tanana (3-3), again, didn't pitch past the 5^th, allowing 6 runs. The only bright side was Pena, fresh off the DL, threw 3 shutout innings. We managed only 4 hits, 1 extra base hit, a double, from Stubbs. Not too often we hit a 4 in a row skid, but here it is. LA has dropped to third in the West, 2.5 games back. 6/7 9-6 W over the Braves The offense woke up today. LA opened up with 3 in the first and with Valenzuela on the mound we thought it was going to hold. However, in the 2^nd inning, Frank White made 3 throwing errors and 4 unearned runs crossed the plate. LA clawed back on a Roy Smalley HR in the 5^th, and in the 6^th Dwight Evans finally hit another, his 7^th. A three run shot that would be the winning margin. Valenzuela (8-2) only went 6, walked 5, but pitched well without White's help. Ken Howell pitched the final 2 for his first career save. 6/8 4-3 L to the Braves Tough loss. Rhoden (6-4) started against rookie Zane Smith (2-5). Smith went 8 and was large and in charge for most of the game. Atlanta peppered Dodger pitching for 9 hits. Down 4-1, LA got one back in the 8^th, and in the 9^th Frank White lead off with a solo homer (2) to cut the lead to 1. LA would get runners on first and second before Steve Sax flew out to center to end it. Adding insult to injury, Sid Fernandez threw a 1-hitter for Seattle, striking out 10. 6/9 6-1 W over the Braves It looked like another anemic offensive start to the game with Pascual Perez taking a no-hitter into the 5^th. But Sid Bream lead off that inning with a game tying shot to right. His 5^th. Look at this sequence for how Atlanta scored their first run. Brad Komminsk singled to lead off. He stole 2^nd, took third on a Mike Marshall error, then scored on a flyout. That's been our season in a nutshell. Stubbs added his 4^th of the year, a monster 444ft line drive to right, scoring 2, that put LA up. Meanwhile John Denny (4-5) was pitching well. He went 8 strong before leaving and Niedenfuer came in to make sure we'd take the W. Graig Nettles has returned from the DL and Ross Jones was optioned back to AAA. That should help defensively if nothing else. Neither he, nor Frank White, are lighting the world afire with the bat. 6/10 4-3 W over the Reds We get our first look at the best team in the West and get an opportunity to run them down. Jeff Russell kept us in check for most of the game. Tanana started, but was forced out in the 7^th after his 10^th hit allowed and having surrendered 3 runs. We had a big scare in the 4^th when Dwight Evans pulled up lame after a hit and had to leave the game. More on his condition later. Top 8, down 3-1 Andre Thornton, off the bench, hit his 2^nd homer of the year, to cut the lead. In the 9^th the Reds Keefe Cato (2-2) tried to lock it down, but he walked Stubbs to lead it off, and then Mike Marshall hit a 1-2 pitch into the left field bleachers (6) to put us up. Jerry Reuss (2-1) got the win. Niedenfeur got his 14^th save. Dwight Evans has a tight hamstring and he'll be out for about a week. He isn't on the DL right now. 6/11 6-4 L to the Reds Man, Jim Beattie (0-3) is really struggling. He struck out 7 in 5 hard innings of work, but he allowed 5 runs too. Eddie Milner and Danny Tartabull destroyed us. They went back to back, Milner's was an inside the park job and he scored 4 runs. A big 4^th against Jack Morris (5-4) brought us back. Sid Bream was 2-2 with 2 RBI's and we got back within 1 thanks to Stubbs solo shot (5^th) in the 6th. The Reds got an insurance run and put us away in the 8^th. 6/12 6-5 W over the Reds We take game 3 in come from behind fashion. Valenzuela struck out 9 over 7, but served up 2 homers, one to light hitting Len Matuszek and the other to youngster Kal Daniels. He left the game with it tied at 4. Despite LA's 13 hits, again, only 1 was for extra bases. In the top of the 9^th we faced off against Ted Power. Gary Maddox got a hit, Mike Marshall reached on a Nick Esasky error, to put the go ahead run on first. Smalley singled in Maddox and Mashall took third. Sid Bream then scored Marshall on a sac fly. Sid Bream and Roy Smalley both went 2-4 with 2 RBI's. Niedenfuer pitched a 1-2-3 9^th for his 15^th save. Steve Howe (1-1) got the win. 6/13 4-2 W over the Astros Rhoden (7-4) allowed 1 hit over 8, but got into a little trouble in the 9^th. Niedenfeur had to come on and close it out for his 16^th save. Stubbs hit a solo shot (6) in the 2^nd and Marshall hit a 2-run homer in the 6^th (7). Willie Randolph was activated off the DL. Tony Phillips was optioned to AAA to make room. Dwight Evans is expected to be in the lineup tomorrow, so the gangs getting back together again. 6/14 6-4 W over the Astros Big day for the offense. Randolph took his rightful place at the top of the order, and Mike Scioscia was 4-5 with 2 RBI's hitting behind him. Mike Marshall hit #8 and we made Nolan Ryan's (6-4) really hard. Tanana (4-3) went 7 and Niedenfuer got the last 8 outs for his 17^th save. Toby Harrah came off the DL and was sent to Albuquerque for rehab. 6/15 5-2 W over the Astros LA pulls off the sweep. John Denny (5-5) cruised through 8 innings and Ken Howell finished for his 2^nd save. The Dodgers went up in the first and never looked back. In the 5^th we saw back to back home runs from Willie Randolph (2) and Mike Scioscia (6). Randolph ended up 2-4 on the day with 2 runs scored. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-26-2017, 07:29 AM	#60
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	6/17 5-4 (11) W over the Padres The Padres are the new leaders in the West and this is where the new season begins. Jimmy Key and Fernando Valenzuela went pitch for pitch and the score was knotted at 3 going into the 8^th when the oddest thing happened. San Diego reliever Henry Warner, a rookie, had come and and was batting. He took the Valenzuela pitch and put it in the left field seats for his first career hit and home run. That gave the Padres the lead until the bottom of the 9^th when Mike Scioscia singled home Steve Sax who had pinch hit and singled, to tie it up. In the 11^th Stubbs walked, stole 2^nd, then was singled home on a Ron Kittle, walk-off, pinch hit to end it. 6/18 3-0 L to the Padres Jim Beattie (0-4) had his best start of the year, but it was Bob Ojeda that shut us down instead. Beattie went 8, struck out 4 and allowed the 3 runs. Stubbs had previously been 0-11 against Ojeda, went 2-3 for our only bright spot. This snaps our 5 game win streak. 6/19 11-2 W over the Padres Rick Rhoden (8-4) came within 1 out of a complete game, but he wasn't the highlight of the game. The offense jumped all over Tandy Charley (6-3). Sid Bream went 3-4. Both Franklin Stubbs and Roy Smalley hit their 7^th homers. We've cut the Padres lead to 1.5 games. 6/20 4-3 L to the Astros Stubbs (8) and Bream (6) hit solo homers, and LA had the tying run on third with 1 out in the 9^th. Don Aase struck out the side in the 9^th to shut down the rally. Stubbs was 2-3 in the game, raising his average to .252, from the Mendoza line where he had been residing. John Denny (5-6) took another hard loss, but even his 7 innings wasn't good enough for us. 6/22 10-7 W over the Astros This was a lost game. By all rights, this game was over. The score at the middle of the 5^th was 7-0, Houston. Valenzuela didn't even make it out of the 5^th. This team hasn't had an explosion like this all year long. Pena (2-2) and Niedenfeur (18^th S) pitched the last 5 scoreless while we scored 3 in the 5^th, 4 in the 6^th and another 3 in the 7^th. Dwight Evans hit number 8, Bream (7) and Nettles (4) went back to back in the 6^th. Evans had 4 RBI's. 6/23 5-3 L to the Astros Frank Tanana went 7, struck out 11, but suffered the gopher ball curse yet again. He left with the game tied, but it was Ken Howell (0-2), the rookie, who served up a 2-run homer to Dale Murphy that cost us the game. Dwight Evans hit his 9^th homer of the year. Mike Scioscia, who has had a great June, went 2-4 in the losing effort. Toby Harrah has finished his rehab stint. He batted .077 in 4 games. Sax, who batted .281 in 27 games was optioned back to AAA. 6/24 4-1 L to the Astos Rick Rhoden (8-5) allowed 11 hits in 7 innings, and Doyle Alexander (7-6) allowed 5. Mike Scioscia and Dwight Evans had 2 hits each, which means that the other 7 players combined for 2 hits. Soooo, not a whole lot of offense or even danger for Houston. Back to back losses again. 6/25 5-4 L to the Padres The first game against the first place Padres just kept our losing streak going. Jim Beattie pitched 6 innings and left losing. LA rallied to let him off the hook, but it was former Dodger Bob Brenly that hurt us today. Among the league leaders in homers, he hit his 17^th HR off of Steve Howe (2-2) to put the Padres up in the 8^th inning. We got a runner on second before Gary Lucas shut us down the rest of the way. 6/26 4-3 W over the Padres LA built up a 4-1 lead after 2 innings thanks in part to Stubbs and his 10^h homer of the year. He's our first to double digits, and he didn't start getting playing time until Murphy went down with the injury. Mike Marshall and Toby Harrah went 3-4 and Marshall had a couple RBI's. Denny (6-6) went 8 and Niedenfeur got in trouble in the 9^th, gave up a home run and had the tying run in scoring position, but hung on for his 19^th save. 6/27 3-2 L to the Padres We end up dropping a game in the series, which is bad news when we had dropped a couple before that already. Valenzuela (8-3) started, and went into the 8^th, but stayed in too long. Mike Scioscia had another couple hits, and has been the most dangerous hitter on the team for June. The Dodger killer, Luis Salazar is hitting .210 on the year, and has been quiet so far, but managed another home run, off of Valenzuela, that ended up tying the game at 2. 6/28 7-5 L to the Braves We've dropped 5 of our last 6 games now. At one point we were losing 7-0. To say we got close is good, but seriously, we didn't win, so who cares. Jose Rijo (2-7) pitched probably his best game of the year, keeping us off the board for 6 innings. Frank Tanana (4-4) got the start. When Jose Rijo, and his 1 career hit, hits a bases clearing triple in the 2^nd inning and Brad Komminsk, who is hitting .156 goes 3-5, with 3 RBI and a HR, and you commit 3 errors, you're not going to win. Such is the '85 Dodgers. 6/29 12-6 W over the Braves Man, the balls were flying out of Chavez Ravine tonight! LA scored in each of the first 6 innings to go up 12-3. Roy Smalley hit #8. Mike Marshall hit #9 and Dwight Evans had his first multi homer game of the year as he went deep with #10 and #11. Ex- Dodger Candy Maldonado also hit #7 of the year. Almost all of that offense came against Jim Deshaies in his second career start. Rhoden goes to 9-5. 6/30 6-5 W over the Braves Beattie pitched the best game of his season going 7 allowing 2 runs. In the 8^th Ken Howell served up a 3-run home run to Braves catcher Mike Bishop that put Atlanta up 5-2. Jim Acker came on to close things out. Leadoff triple from Toby Harrah, Smalley walked. Buck Martinez became out #1. Willie Randolph doubled home Harrah. Frank White became out #2, but Smalley scored to make it 5-4. Evans singled home Randolph to tie the game. A wild pitch moved over Evans. Acker was lifted for Brian Fisher who gave up the walk off single to Stubbs that scored Evans. Nice comeback. Niedenfeur gets the win to go to 2-3. Greg Nettles came out of the game after hitting a double. Word is that he's day to day with a groin strain. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam Last edited by PilotMan : 05-26-2017 at 07:53 AM.

05-26-2017, 08:11 AM	#61
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	June Recap We finished 1 game above .500 for June with a 14-13 record. Even worse than our May record. We did suffer some really big injuries that have big holes in the rotation and lineup (Beattie for Eck, and Stubbs for Murphy), so that's disappointing. As we head toward the All-Star Break and trade deadline you have to wonder if there might be a move here or there. I have some real concerns for this team long term. The farm system isn't very strong. Once you get past a couple of pitching prospects and Steve Sax, there's is nothing there. Our AAA team in Albuquerque is one of the worst. So the idea of trading away what we do have there for a run this year is either a last gasp or else we try with what we have to make the run. Eckersley and Murphy are both still good on the healing front. They might be back in September. I have to hope that we're still in the hunt. The good news right now, looking at the race is that we're in 3^rd, 2 games back of the Reds. Our division is the weakest of all 4, so with our 40-33 record, we are still in this thing. The Expos are 4.5 in front of the Pirates. The Blue Jays are 3 in front of the Yankees, and in the AL West, the Mariners (with young stud, Sid Fernandez) are out front by 3.5 on the Royals (with young stud Orel Hersheiser). Bitter much? Yep. Speaking of the All Star Game, we have 4 guys who are third in voting in their categories. Scioscia, Bream, Murphy and Randolph. Randolph had the lead, but he's dropped behind Sandberg and Whitaker now. Murphy is out, so he won't make it for sure. Good chance for Neidenfeur to go again, he's among the leaders for relievers. Our overall numbers show that we're good, but not great. 5^th in Runs, OBP, HR and Runs against. 6^th in average. Starters ERA is 7^th and our Bullpen is #1. Defense has seen a massive drop. We lead the league last year, now we're 9^th out of 12. How much of that is White at third for so long, and losing Murphy? Our best performers in June were Willie Randolph (.339/.414/.452) and Mike Scioscia (.341/.406/.443). Franklin Stubbs was the best power hitter (.277/.324/.505). Meanwhile, it was an awful month for Dewey (.226/.363/.452) and Marshall (.243/.282/.379). Sid Bream also fell back to earth from his big May (.240/.295/.375). John Denny was, without a doubt, the top starter for the month (3-2, 1.95 ERA, 1.05 WHIP). Everyone else was super average, except for Beattie. He was bad ( 0-3, 5.52 ERA, 1.65 WHIP). I have no idea why he's still in the rotation at this point, when we have Pena and Reuss or hell, even Milt Wilcox, any of them would be better options. I know he won 19 games last year with a 2.61 ERA, but it looks like we spent a shit load of money on a flash in the pan pitcher. We're never going to see that level of production from him. July might make or break us. The offense has to find a new gear, Lasorda needs to get more from his pitching staff, and the front office needs to decide what direction this team is going in as we head to the deadline. After 3 straight 100+ win seasons, we're in real danger of missing out this year. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-27-2017, 09:39 PM	#62
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	7/1 6-1 L to the Reds We drop game 1 against the West leader. Jack Morris (8-5) went the distance and would have had the shutout if not for Mike Marshall hitting his 10^th of the year. It was our only bright spot in an otherwise dim game. Denny (6-7) took the loss in his worst performance in a month. Pena did pitch 3 good innings in relief. Maybe there's hope he'll get to the rotation sooner than later. Randolph had 2 hits. 7/2 2-1 L to the Reds We came so very close, but we just couldn't get that single run. Charlie Liebrandt (6-2) outdualed Valenzuela (8-4). LA only had 3 hits, Toby Harrah had 2 of em. Ex Dodger, Dave Anderson, bagged a couple of hits to help make our day miserable. Ex Dodger, Ted Power, picked up his 18^th save. This is not how we wanted to start July. 7/3 9-4 W over the Cardinals Rick Rhoden (10-5) was on but his control wasn't. He walked 6 against 4 hits 1 out shy of a complete game. The offense showed up today though, drawing 6 walks of our own and getting a couple of big hits in the 2^nd, when Roy Smalley hit a solo shot (9) early on, and Mike Marshall getting a grand slam (11) later on. That blew the game open at that point. We had 5 unearned runs. Both Randolph and Scioscia got on base 4 times in 5 plate appearances. 7/5 4-1 L to the Cardinals If not for a Dwight Evans solo shot (12) in the first Dave LaPoint would have carried the shutout all the way. Our batters were off balance and wasted a really good outing by Frank Tanana, one of his best of the year. He gave way to Ken Howell (0-3), the rookie, and the Cards put some hits together and broke the tie. Evans went 2-4. 7/6 4-3 L to the Cardinals LA took a 3-1 lead in the 5^th and John Denny (6-8) had been pitching pretty good, but it all fell apart in the 6^th. Control became an issue and a Terry Pendleton (3) home run put the Cardinals in the lead. The Cards bullpen kept us in check in the last innings. Dwight Evans went 1-1 with 3 walks. 7/7 2-1 W over the Cardinals We had to count on Valenzuela (9-4) to play the stopper yet again. He went 8 and struck out 6. But once again run support was an issue. A solo home run from Nettles gives him 5 on the year, but we could barely get any more. Niededfeur pitched the 9^th for his 20^th save. Randolph, yet again, did his thing. 2-3, 2 walks and a run. Last year Fernando was getting 4.74 RS/gm, this year it's down to 3.67. 7/8 5-4 L to the Pirates Jim Beattie (0-5). Sid Bream hit a grand slam off of a left handed pitcher. He's been batting .236 against southpaws, and his homer gave us a 4-3 lead. Beattie probably should have been yanked then, just to keep him from blowing it, but he wasn't and he did. Beattie is not even getting 2.5 RS/G this year. Last year with the Yankees, when he won 19 games, he got over 5. That's not his fault, but perhaps it explains why he looks so bad. Mike Marshall went 3-4. Ironically, Frank White, came within 5 feet of tying the game up in the 9^th, but ended up on second. It was Willie Randolph, our most reliable weapon, who made the last out. 7/8 10-4 W over the Pirates We split the double header and this was over well before the end. Rick Rhoden (11-5), pitching on 3 days rest took a no-hitter to the 7^th. He was gassed when it ended, but it was Ron Cey with double, then thrown out going to third that broke it up. Milt Wilcox had some sketchy relief pitching, walking 4, and giving up 2 hits on 37 pitches in 1/3 of an inning. Roy Smalley hit his 10^th, a 2-run shot and Ron Kittle, getting a rare start went 2-4, and hit his first of the year. Randolph went 3-4 with 2 RBI's. 7/9 5-4 (10) W over the Pirates Weird game. Jose DeLeon gassed out early against our picky lineup and the Pirates ended up emptying their bullpen. Tanana had a great outing, but Niededfeur (3-3) blew it allowing a game tying homer to Dan Gladden (2). In extras the Pirates, instead of sending out a tired starter turned to veteran outfielder Ron LeFlore. He got in trouble right away loading the bases with nobody out. LA squeaked 1 run home before he struck out Randolph and forced a double play to get out pf the inning. Ken Howell pitched the 10^th for his 3^rd save. 7/10 3-0 L to the Pirates You'd think that going against a team whose bullpen is just exhausted, who starter is going on 3 days rest, even on the road, that we'd be able to score some runs! Mike Scott (11-5) allowed 2 hits over 7 innings and I thought that once we broke into the pen, we'd open up. Nope. Didn't happen. John Denny (6-9) served up 2 homers, and took the loss. Everyone sucks. 7/11 7-6 W over the Cubs Stubbs hit a late home run (11) in the 9^th that looked like it was just icing. Valenzuela (10-4) struck out 7, but control issues plagued him again, he did go 2-3 at the plate too. Nettles went yard for #6. Niedenfeur came on in the 9^th and struck out the first batter, but left immediately with some kind of injury. Oh boy. Ken Howell came on (4 S)and served up a gopher ball that cut the lead to 1, making Stubbs HR in the 9^th the difference. 7/12 3-0 W over the Cubs We need to play the Cubs more often. Rick Rhoden (12-5) pitched another great game, allowing 2 hits in 8 innings without walking anyone. The Cubs sent rookie David Cone (4-5) to the hill and he walked 8 in 5.1. 113 pitches. Gary Maddox got the start in RF and had a couple hits. Our only extra base hit was Scioscia. Rhoden had another bases loaded double. With no Niedenfeur, Lasorda turned to Howell again. He struck out 2 and picked up his 5^th save. Blue Jays pitcher Danny Darwin threw a no-hitter against the Angels. He walked 3, struck out 8. LA dropped a press release on Niedenfeur. He's got an elbow strain and is heading to the DL. He's going to be out until September at least. Damn. This is bad news. John Franco was recalled to take his place, and looks to be taking the closer role too. 7/13 13-9 W over the Cubs This is the biggest WTF game of the year so far. The starters were Jim Beattie and Cubs prospect Mark Vaji, who was getting his second career start. Both sucked, neither figured in the end. Beattie allowed 9 in 5.2, and Vaji 5 in 5. Dodgers walked a total of 10 times and Beattie had a game score of 10. Good grief. LA went up 2-0, Cubs get it back go up 3-2. LA goes up 5-3. Cubs answer with 6 to make it 9-5. LA goes and scored 8 unanswered the next 2 innings. Just WTF? No homers, everyone except Marshall and Beattie got a hit. Wow. 7/14 12-5 W over the Cubs Greg Nettles was the only starter to go hitless. Frank Tanana (5-4) finally got some run support, struck out 7, but wasn't exactly stellar. Mike Marshall and Sid Bream were the big boys in this one. They combined to go 5-10 with 2 HR and 8 RBI. That was Marshall's 12^th and Bream's 8^th. Even Tanana got into the act with a single and 2 RBI's. Mr Reliable went 3-5. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-27-2017, 10:43 PM	#63
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	The 1985 All Star Teams are finalized. Here are the current and former Dodgers represented: Sid Fernandez – SEA – 9-8, 2.75 ERA, 1 AS Bobby Grich – TOR - .256, 5 HR, 7 AS Fernando Valenzuela – LA – 10-4, 3.09 ERA, 5 AS Alejandro Pena – LA – 2-2, 2.14 ERA, 2 AS Tom Niedenfeur – LA - 3-3, 2.18 ERA, 20 S, 3AS Mike Scioscia – LA - .292, 6 HR, 1 AS The Dodgers aren't well represented. Well, they are, but not compared to the last couple years anyway. Niedenfeur is out, but the rest should get some time. The AL blows the doors off the NL 11-5. The AL has won the last 3 Series, and now they blow the NL out again in the AS game. Cal Ripken Jr. hit 2 HR's and took home the MVP. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-29-2017, 09:37 AM	#64
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	7/18 2-1 (15) L to the Cardinals Rick Rhoden lost a no hitter in the 9^th inning. Frank White had given LA a 1-0 lead with a pinch hit homer in the 8^th inning and Rhoden had his chance to get the no-no. Alas, it wasn't to be. The bullpen did great, but an Andre Thornton error in the 15^th set up the Cardinals winning run. 7/19 6-4 L to the Cardinals Tanana (5-5) and the gopher ball. He served up 2 more in his 4 innings of work, but he also allowed 12 baserunners on. Pena came on, pitched 4.2, allowed 1 hit and struck out 7. Stubbs hit his 12^th in the first inning and the top 4 in the order produced 8 of our 9 hits. It was crickets after that. 7/20 5-3 L to the Cardinals And as quickly as we rise, we fall. Three in a row by the Cards, at home, really crushes the momentum we were building. John Denny (6-10) didn't allow a hit until the 5^th inning, and had been staked to a 3-0 lead. The Cardinals beat you with speed and defense, most of the time. They took over in the 7^th, on a bad inning for Denny. Stubbs cracked another homer. This is his 13^th now, and along with Evans and Randolph went 2-4 in the game. 7/21 5-2 W over the Cardinals Valenzuela (11-4), our top dog, showing why he's the top dog. No hits through the first 4 innings. Struck out the first 4 batters he faced (his opponent, John Stuper walked the first 3 he faced), ended up with 10 K's in the game. LA got three long balls, first was a solo shot by Scioscia (7), later in the inning Mike Marshall hit #13, and later in the 7^th, when the Cards had crept up, it was Valenzuela himself with his first long ball of the year, second for his career. John Franco got the final 5 outs for his first career save. 7/22 5-3 W over the Pirates Jim Beattie with another start, and you know, aside from the 2-run homer he served up to Jim Dwyer in the first inning, this was one of his better starts. He struck out 6, but was still in trouble nearly every inning. He didn't get the win though, as we were down 3-1 when he left. In the 7^th Mike Scioscia tied the game with a 2-run double. Later on, after a slew of lefty/righty swaps by Lasorda, Andre Thornton hit a pinch hit, 2-run double that put us up for good. Reuss (4-2) got the win and Franco got the last 6 outs for his 2^nd save. 7/23 3-0 W over the Pirates We still aren't racking up the runs, but we didn't need to today. Rick Rhoden (13-5) was in charge and threw the first complete game shutout in a long, long time. He allowed 5 hits, struck out 6. LA drew 7 walks to go with their 5 hits. 7/24 9-7 W over the Pirates Ron Cey bashed 5 hits against Dodger pitching and Jose DeLeon was well on his way to his 14^th win in the 7^th inning. Mike Marshall his a completely useless solo shot (14) that looked pointless, because it made the score 7-3. Bottom of the 8^th though, things started to happen. Frank White reached on an error, followed by a Randolph single. Buck Martinez sac flied home White, for 1 out. Dwight Evans flew out for the second out. Stubbs hit a double to left-center that moved Randolph to third, and Mike Marshall smoked the ball to the left power alley for his 15^th and that tied it up. Guante came in to face Sid Bream, who singled. Then Graig Nettles pounded the first pitch into the right field corner for his second home run of the game (7,8) and that was the difference. Reuss (5-2) had come on in relief of Tanana got the win and Franco closed for his 3^rd save. If we could keep this up.... 7/25 5-2 W over the Cubs John Denny (7-10) went 8, striking out 8. He was helped along by Mike Marshall and the 3-run home run (16) off of David Cone (4-7) in the 3^rd inning. That was enough for us. Mike Scioscia went 3-4. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th for his 6^th save. The Cubs have dropped 12 straight. I'm sure they'll get one against us. 7/26 7-2 W over the Cubs Good outing from Valenzuela (12-4) as he pitches deep and allows our bull pen to get more rest. He struck out 8, while the bats beat up Kurt Kepshire (4-9). LA broke out 5 runs in the 3^rd inning, with the big hit belonging to Graig Nettles, who continues his July hot streak, with his 9^th home run. 7/27 4-3 L to the Cubs See?! This was a rematch of Jim Beattie and Mark Vaji (1-2). Vaji got his first career win, he pitched 8 good innings, and we should have been able to do better than that. Beattie, shockingly, shut out the Cubs through 5 innings, allowing only 2 hits. Then he left the game with discomfort. Jerry Reuss came on and gave up runs, John Franco (0-1) came in and he served up a home run to Tony Armas, who was pinch hitting, that put the Cubs up for good. Beattie just has some shoulder tenderness and he's only expected to miss 1 start. Not sure if this is a good thing or not. Huge blockbuster trade, but not for LA. The Yankees have sent pitchers Mario Soto and Mark Gardner to the Royals for the aging hot corner man, Mike Schmidt. I've mentioned before that the Yankees have pitching depth. This gives them another big bat in the middle of the lineup to go with Mattingly and Keith Hernandez. The Royals lose their DH and clean up hitter, but gain a big arm. They lost Bob Welch for the season earlier. Their problem is that they can't replace that power. Carney Lansford is expected to take over at DH. The Yankees are .5 game back, and the Royals are 2 back. This could work for both of them. Or just as easily, not. 7/28 13-6 L to the Cubs Thank god that crappy games only count as 1 loss, because this one should have counted for 3. Forget that Randolph went 2-3 or that Scioscia went 2-5 and hit a 3-run homer (8). The Dodgers committed 5 errors, Rick Rhoden (13-6) was awful, Ken Howell gave up 5 runs in relief. It was bad. Happy it's only worth 1 loss. 7/29 4-2 L to the Giants We have now dropped 3 straight to a couple of the worst teams in baseball. The season is slipping away. We were stopped today by our old friend Floyd Bannister (7-10). Tanana (5-6) gave up 3 in the first and we played behind from the start. Frank White just punished a ball to center for his 4^th HR of the year. Brought us to 1, but that's as close as we got. 7/30 7-6 L to the Giants John Denny (7-11) went 5, allowed 5, struck out 6. The Giants had a 5-1 lead by the time Denny was out of there. In the 7^th Sid Bream hit #10, and went 2-3 in the game, to make it 5-2. The Giants would add 2 more in the 9^th as a result of 3 errors in 1 inning. It didn't seem like much at the time, but when LA scored 3 times, on walks, 3 in a row, it got close. The tying run got on third, but they just couldn't get home. Those errors cost us. Now we've dropped 4 straight. 7/31 8-7 (13) W over the Giants LA tied the game in the bottom of the 9^th inning when Mike Marshall his a 2-1 pitch, with 2 outs, dep to left and out. It was his second home run of the game, and his 18^th of the year. Valenzuela had started, and struck out 8, but he didn't pitch great today. The Giants bullpen tired out as the innings wore on and it was Bob Stanley (0-6) who had to carry the load. He would end up walking Dwight Evans with the bases loaded to walk us off. Pena (3-2) pitched the last 2 for the win. Mike Marshall went 4-6, with 4 RBI's. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-29-2017, 09:38 AM	#65
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	July Recap We're seeing a running theme here so far. LA had a record of 15-13, 2 games above .500, and the best we've had this year is 3 above .500. This team just isn't good enough to be better than that. The good news is that we're only 4 games behind the Padres. The Reds and the Padres are going back in forth, and we just need a little run to close that gap. Our current record is 55-46. The front office didn't make any moves, one way, or the other to the team. So these are the guys that have to get us to the end. All three, Niedenfeur, Murphy and Eck are going to be back at roughly the same time, the middle of September, when we'll have 2 weeks left of the season. Now, it'll be too late if we aren't in it by then, which means that we have to do it without them. I'm much less worried about the bullpen than I am the rotation. Our starters have been really up and down all year long. We need some real consistency, and we need it now. Rick Rhoden was our pitcher of the Month for July. He had a 4-1 record with a 1.40 ERA. He allowed 24 hits in 45 innings and each month he's gotten better. Valenzuela is doing well too, but after than neither Denny, Tanana, nor Beattie is regularly good enough to help this team get where they need to go. I wish that Lasorda would move Pena or Reuss up. Both guys are doing really well this year and should have the chance over any of the others. Batter of the month for July was Nettles. Finally, he finally did something. Nettles' avg for July was .282 and he hit 5 HR's. Marshall found his power stroke and crushed 9 homers to take the team lead, but that .299 OBP isn't doing us any favors. Dwight Evans had the worst month of any for his time here. Evans batted .216 and only had 1 HR for the entire month. The team scored more runs in July and have moved up to 3^rd in runs scored, but they are still a lowly 7^th in average. 2^nd in OBP and 3^rd in HR's. The pitching has gone the other way. 6^th in runs against, and 7^th in starter ERA. The bullpen is strong at #2 and defensively, we're in 8^th. I thought that July might be the make or break month, but we're still hanging around. August is where it'll be. In the National League, no surprise that the Expos have the best record in baseball. They're still in a race for the division though, as the Cardinals are only 3 back, and the Mets are 5.5 back. In the AL the Yankees and world champion Blue Jays are tied for first and the Red Sox are 5 back, but it's really going to come down to the Yankees or Jays, just like last year. In the West things have gotten nuts. There are 4 teams, all of which have a better record than both the Yankees and Jays. All of which are over .600 winning percentage. Right now it's Seattle in front, with the White Sox and Royals a half game back, then the 2-time winners, the Twins 1.5 back. Even the Angels, winners of 6 in a row, are only 4.5 back. Every race is still for the taking. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-17-2017, 06:35 PM	#66
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	8/2 3-2 W over the Reds LA got 2 hits in the first, and one of them was Mike Marshall crushing another homer to left (19). His 3-run shot put us in front early. We'd only get 2 hits the rest of the game. Rick Rhoden (14-6) scattered 8 hits over 6 innings and the bullpen took care of the rest. Franco pitched the 9^th for his 4^th save. Dwight Evans was hurt on a defensive play in the 3^rd inning. Kittle came on to replace him. No word yet on the nature of it. 8/3 5-4 W over the Reds I find it amusing that the final out was John Franco striking out Dave Anderson to get his 5^th save of the year. As I'm sure you know, in real life, in 1985, they were on opposite teams in a similar situation at some point. Tanana gave up a run early again, so we were playing from a hole. Evans was out, with Kittle in right in his place. We got the lead in the 4^th on a Roy Smalley, 2-run HR. His 11^th. Then we tacked on 3 more in the 6^th when we hit a bases loaded double. Smalley finished 2-2 with 4 RBI's, a HR, and 2 walks. Tanana (6-6) spread 10 hits to get the win. Dwight Evans has a torn thumb ligament and he's on the DL. The timetable for his return is early September. Ugh. August is going to be a long month. Tony Brewer (.309/9/33, in Albuquerque) is called up to take his spot. Mike Marshall is going to slide over to right with Kittle taking over in left. The good news is that Kittle can still give us that power punch, but he can't get on base like Evans can, and we lose another big defensive weapon. Evans has a cannon. 8/4 3-2 (10) L to the Reds Danny Tartabull hit a walk off home run (15) off of Ken Howell (0-4) to end the game. I had a bad feeling when he stepped up too. The Reds had been close all game long, and their line up is dangerous throughout. Both John Denny and Tom Browning pitched well. Roy Smalley hit another homer, this was a solo home run (12) that put us in the lead for a very short while. He went 2-3 on the day. Gary Maddox had come on as a defensive substitute, and then had to leave after he got hurt making a catch. It didn't look too serious. 8/5 3-1 W over the Braves LA bashed out 12 hits off of Bob Walk (8-13) and Bob McClure. Four players had 2 hits in the game. Fernando Valenzuela (13-4) walked 6 in 7 innings of work. It was sloppy, but it got the job done. John Franco got the final 8 outs for his 6^th save of the year. 8/6 13-6 L to the Braves Jim Beattie (0-6) strikes again. Seven runs allowed in 3.2 innings of work. Jerry Reuss did some crappy relief work. Sid Bream went 2-3. Ex-Dodger Candy Maldonado hit his 12^th of the year, off of Beattie. The Braves 1-4 hitters went 11-18 with 8 runs scored, 5 SB's, 1HR and 10 RBI's. That is the fearsome lineup of Milt Thompson, Brad Komminsk, Brook Jacoby, and Candy Maldonado. Sad. 8/7 8-5 W over the Braves Neither Rhoden nor Rijo made it out of the 5^th inning. By the end of the 3^rd inning Rijo had thrown 109 pitches and had walked 10 batters. Yet LA only got 6 runs out of that. LA walked 13 times in the game. Mike Scioscia went 3-5. Both Randolph and Bream walked 3 times. Then there was Marshall, 0-6 with 4 K's. Roy Smalley tacked on another run in the 8^th when he hit his 13^th homer of the year. Alejandro Pena (4-2) got the win. Ken Howell got the last 8 outs for his 7^th save. 8/8 1-0 W over the Reds Frank Tanana (7-6) was amazing, unstoppable, dominant. He went 8 innings, allowed 2 hits, no walks, and struck out 8. LA only got 4 hits all game, 2 from Scioscia and 2 from Randolph. Stubbs had the only RBI. John Franco pitched the 9^th for his 7^th save. Roy Smalley was knocked out of the game in the 2^nd inning after a collision at 2^nd base. His condition is under review. 8/9 7-0 W over the Reds The Big Red Machine really is hitting this year, and we just shut them out over 18 innings. That's a very good sign. Even better it was with Tanana and Denny (8-11). Denny struck out 9 in 8.1 and Lasorda wouldn't let him finish even with the comfortable 7 run lead. LA also whacked 4 home runs that accounted for all the scoring. In first it was Randolph with his 3^rd. In the 2^nd it was Bream (11). In the 3^rd it was Marshall (20) and in the 6^th it was Buck Martinez (3). Both Randolph and Martinez went 3-4. We just got production from really unlikely places, but we'll take it! With that win LA has moved back into 2^nd place. We're 7-3 in our last 10, we've won 3 in a row, and we're only 1.5 games behind the Padres. Lets GO DODGERS! There's some bad news again though. Roy Smalley is done for the year. He ruptured a tendon in his finger in the collision and he's out at least 3 months. He hit .222 with 13 HR and 52 RBI's for us. His slash stats were .222/.310/.346. Not awesome. Tony Phillips (.296/.397/.468 in Albuquerque) was called up to replace him and should do a commendable job. Initially it looks like Lasorda plans to platoon Phillips against righties and White against lefties, even though Phillips is a switch hitter and White is god awful at short stop. 8/10 4-3 W over the Reds Woohoo! Valenzuela should have gotten the win. He went 7.2 innings and struck out 13, and walked only 1. He was in control to say the least and he left with a 2 run lead. John Franco (1-1) blew his 2^nd save, but in the 9^th it was the Reds Greg Harris that started by walking the bases loaded, then after a strikeout, gave up the game winning single to Mike Scioscia. Scioscia was 3-5, with 2 Rbi's. One more game to go for the sweep. 8/11 6-4 W over the Reds Jim Beattie is still winless. He had 2 bad innings where we fell behind, but otherwise was able to go 7. It was Frank White, only playing because Nettles had left with an injury earlier in the game after a collision with the 2^nd basemen trying to break up a double play, who popped a 3-run hr off of former Dodger pitcher Joe Beckwith, that gave us the lead. It was his 5^th. Scioscia had hit a 2-run HR earlier in the 8^th (9) to put us within striking distance. Ken Howell (1-4) got the win and Steve Howe got his first save of the year in the 9^th. 8/12 4-1 W over the Braves LA jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Stubbs (14) HR in the 4^th. Atlanta answered, but LA came right back. They got an insurance run in the 7^th. Rhoden went 8, and got the win to run his record to 15-6, while Franco pitched the 9^th for his 8^th save. Cincinnati shut out the Padres, and with LA on a 6 game win streak, we've move into a percentage point lead for first in the West!!!!! Fuck yeah! Get going guys! 8/13 6-3 L to the Braves There goes the win streak. Frank Tanana (7-7) takes the loss in an ugly game. LA committed 4 errors and their first hit was a Stubbs solo shot (15). Toby Harrah started at third as Nettles injury is still undetermined and looks worse every day. High spot was Reuss going 3 innings and striking out 4 in relief. 8/14 3-2 L to the Braves LA got no offense against Larry McWilliams (9-10). Denny (8-12) allowed 3 unearned runs thanks to his own error. LA got back into it with a 2-run homer from Sid Bream (12) with 2 out in the 9^th, but it was too little, too late. The word on Nettles is a broken thumb and he's out for 6 weeks. That puts us right at the end of the regular season for his availability. That's now 6 starters on the DL long term. Sax was recalled from AAA (.324/.383/.439) to take his roster spot. Toby Harrah is planning on taking the starting job at third. 8/15 6-3 W over the Braves Series split was the best we could hope for tonight. Valenzuela (14-4) got the W, but barely made it 6 innings before he gassed out. LA jumped all over Bob Walk (9-14) early and gave Fernando the support he needed. LA got a 3-4 show from Ron Kittle, and 2-3 from Stubbs with 2 doubles. Franco pitched a 1-2-3 9^th for his 9^th save. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-18-2017, 10:10 AM	#67
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	8/16 5-1 W over the Giants If you told me that the $5.5 million dollar man, Jim Beattie, would pitch until mid August before he finally got a win, I'd hang my head and cry. Well, this was it. He finally got that W to go to 1-6. He threw 7 innings of 4 hit ball and 0 runs allowed. Toby Harrah went 2-4 and hit his first HR of the year. Poor Jim Beattie, even with this Dodger team, he's only getting 2.92 runs of support per game (he got 5.16 in his 19 win season last year). But he's only thrown 4 quality starts in 12 chances, so that's not helping himself either. 8/17 7-2 W over the Giants Rhoden ran his record to 16-6 with 7.2 solid innings of work. Kittle grabbed a couple hits, but it was Rhoden and his 4 RBI's (2-run triple and 2 sac flies) that powered the team. LA beat up on Mark Dempsey who walked 8 in 4 innings and allowed 7 hits. 8/18 6-3 W over the Giants Tanana (8-7) had another rough first inning. He's been getting beat up early all season long. We fought back with 2 in the 5^th and in the 6^th Stubbs hit a grand slam (16) that put us up. Reuss and Franco each pitched 2 scoreless and Franco picked up his 10^th save. 8/19 11-7 (12) L to the Phillies LA handed the ball over to Franco with a 7-5 lead in the 8^th that got away from us. In the 12^th Alejandro Pena (4-3) served up a walk off grand slam to Dave Clark. Highlights for the Dodgers were Kittle going deep with 2 solo shots (3). He's done almost nothing up to this point of the year. He also pimped his avg to .274 with a 4-5 game. Valenzuela started and pitched like crap. 8/20 6-5 (10) L to the Phillies This fucking Phillies team is one of the worst in baseball and now they've taken 2 extra inning games from us. We came from down 5-1 in the 9^th to tie this only to see it lost in the 10^th. Ken Howell (1-5) took the loss. Willie Randolph knocked home the tying run in the 9^th with his 2^nd hit of the game. John Denny got the start today, and it should have been enough, but another couple errors lead to unearned runs and cost us. LA is still only a game behind the Padres at the moment. The Reds have fallen 4.5 back. In the NL East, the Expos are 6.5 up on the Cardinals. The AL has good races too. In the East, it's the Yankees 1.5 up on the Champion Blue Jays, and 3.5 up on the Red Sox. In the West, it's a tie between the Royals and Mariners, with both the White Sox and Angels 2.5 back, the Twins are 5 back. We'er hearing rumors that both Dwight Evans and Dennis Eckersley could be activated within a week. Niedenfeur and Dwayne Murphy might not be far behind, but don't count your chickens just yet. 8/21 3-2 L to the Phillies Ouch. Just ouch. Steve Balboni hit his 22^nd HR off of Rhoden (16-7) in the 3^rd and that gave the Phils a 3-0 lead. Stubbs hit #17 in the 4^th that brought us back within 1, but we never could put that last runner across the plate. Luckily, we're still only 1 game back of SD after dropping 3 in a row. 8/23 3-2 (12) W over the Expos Bob Knepper took a no-hitter into the 7^th inning only to have Randolph break it up, then later tie the game when he scored. LA went up in the 11 when Randolph drove in the go ahead run, but once again, Franco couldn't nail the game down and it kept going. In the 12^th, Mike Scioscia hit a go ahead, solo homer, his 10^th off of Jeff Reardon (5-2) to go on top again, and Franco closed out the 12^th for the win (2-1). 8/24 4-2 L to the Expos LA struck first on a Toby Harrah HR (2), but the Expos would have success against Jim Beattie early. A hour plus long rain delay cost both teams starters though, and LA tied the game back up in the 4^th. The Expos had more success against Jerry Reuss (5-3) picking up runs in the 7^th and 8^th. LA brought the tying run to the plate in the 9^th, but it was no good. 8/25 3-2 L to the Expos Coulda, shoulda, woulda. Valenzuela went 8 strong and had only allowed 2 hits, striking out 10, until Mike Greenwell tied the game with a 2-run homer in the 8^th. Then came the 9^th. After we failed to score it was on Ken Howell (1-6). He gave up a leadoff hit, then Raines stole 2^nd, so he walked the next one. Raines stole third, so Howell walked the next one to load the bases, then he walked in Raines. Not the most glorious ending to a game. 8/26 3-0 L to the Mets Good pitchers dual between John Denny (8-13) and Ron Darling. Both pitchers went 0's until the 8^th inning. Darling got pulled and Lasorda left Denny out there to allow back to back, 2-out singles, then a 3-run bomb to Strawberry (32) and that was that. Offensive highlight of the day? Sid Bream walked 4 times. That's it. John Denny is getting 2.46 RS/G this season. That's even worse than Beattie. 8/27 1-0 L to the Mets The Mets are winners of 8 in a row right now, and are trying to climb back into the race in the East. We've dropped 4 straight, and haven't scored a run in over 20 innings and over 8 hours. Rick Rhoden (16-8) and Walt Terrell (12-12) went 0's again for 7 full innings. In the 8^th Dykstra lead off with a single, stole second and scored on a single by Bobby Bonilla. Dodgers offensive highlight? Ron Kittle had 2 singles. Wooowooo. The first bit of good news is trickling out of Dodgertown. Eckersley, after some enough successful side throwing sessions was activated and sent to Albuquerque for rehab. We need him back ASAP. Evans and Neidenfeur are both expected back very soon. 8/29 5-1 W over the Phillies Both teams come in with 4 game losing streaks. LA is back home again after a rough finish to the road trip. LA breaks the scoring drought in the first inning when Stubbs drills a 2-run homer into the right field seats (18). The rest of the scoring came on a Toby Harrah 3-run home run to left-center (3). Frank Tanana (9-7) went 8 and didn't allow that killer first inning run either. 8/30 5-1 W over the Phillies Fernando (15-4) has the best game of the year. He goes the distance, allows 3 hits, 1 walk, and strikes out 15. We didn't need much offense but we did get another big fly from Toby Harrah (4). This one a 2-run shot in the 7^th off of Ken Dixon (8-13). Valenzuela struck out the side in the 3^rd, 6^th and 7^th innings. Had a streak of 7 in a row at one point and struck out the last 2 guys to end the game. Straight dominance. His performance overshadowed another sick show from Gooden who threw another 4-hit shutout (6 on the year) and got 14 K's. It goes down as the #2 overall pitching performance of 1985 behind a Bret Saberhagen 1-hitter, but ahead of the Danny Darwin no-hitter. Between Gooden and Valenzuela they have 7 of the top 12 in all of baseball. Wow! Eckersley went 8 innings for the win in his rehab start, striking out 7. Dwight Evans was activated and Tony Brewer was optioned to make room. Evans' return pushes Marshall to left and Kittle out of a starting job. 8/31 6-1 W over the Phillies Always love to beat up on a struggling team. John Denny (9-13) went 6.2 innings of shut out ball before giving way, and Dwight Evans made his return known. His first at bat he tripled then scored on a Mike Marshall 2-run homer (21). Later he doubled. Frank White added 3 more with his 6^th in the 5^th. We get 1 more game against the Phills, go sweep! __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-19-2017, 10:07 AM	#69
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	9/1 5-0 W over the Phillies We sweep and outscore the Phillies 21-3 in the 4 games. Rick Rhoden (17-8) throws 8 scoreless and Ken Howell finished. The big swing was Franklin Stubbs 19^th HR of the year. This was a 3-run shot in the 5^th off of Charles Hudson (0-4). That gave us the breathing room we needed to get the W. Scioscia, Randolph and Bream all added 2 hits, and Kittle had a pinch hit, 2-rbi single. Niedenfeur was activated and sent to Albuquerque for rehab. 9/2 3-1 L to the Expos Jim Beattie (1-7) went 8 and pitched well except for the 1 bad inning. Sid Bream hit a solo shot, #13, for our only run. 9/3 4-3 (10) W over the Expos Willie Randolph went 3-3, scored 3 times, walked twice. He also scored the winning run when he tried to steal third, then went home on a throwing error. Dwight Evans hit his first dinger since his return. That was his 13^th on the year. Tanana pitched great, but John Franco blew his 5^th save when the Expos tied it up in the 8^th. Ken Howell (2-6) got the win instead. It doesn't look like LA is going to call up Sparky Lyle. At 41, he's been playing in Albuquerque this year. In 17 games, he's thrown just under 30 innings of work, and has a 2.43 ERA. 9/4 4-3 (12) L to the Expos Tight series, but another loss. Ugh. Wasted good start by Fernando. Tony Phillips hit his first HR of the year in the 8^th to tie the game, then Dewey threw a runner out at home to end the 9^th. Stubbs hit his 20^th HR of the year earlier. Only the 2^nd Dodger player with 20 HR's. Still, Ken Howell (2-7) couldn't keep the Expos from taking the lead. The Candyman shut us down in the bottom half easily for his 3^rd save of the year. 9/5 2-1 W over the Mets Rhoden (18-8) and Darling (12-10) in another pitchers dual. Dewey got us on the board in the first with a solo shot, his 14^th. LA put another up in the 2^nd, then Rhoden took care of the rest. Scioscia went 2-2 and Steve Howe pitched the 9^th for his 2^nd save. 9/6 4-1 W over the Mets Time to cool off these Mets. Mike Scioscia tied the game in the 5^th with a solo-homer, and even John Denny got in the action with an RBI single later on. Denny (10-13) kept his August run going going 7.2 allowing 1 run. John Franco got the last 4 outs for his 11^th save. Niedenfeur got 1.1 innings and a save in a night of work in Albuquerque. After the game, and the good result he was called up to the main roster. is expected to take over the closer role from Franco, with Franco moving to the set up role. Eckersley went another 7.2 innings the night before, to less success than he had previously, but he still picked up the win. He remains in Albuquerque. 9/7 10-0 L to the Mets Jay Tibbs (13-8) pitched a complete game, 2-hit, shut out. The Mets scored in each of the first 5 innings. Strawberry hit 2 home runs. Mitchell added another. The Mets had 7 extra base hits in total. Kelly Downs saw his first game action of the year. It didn't go well for him. Alejandro Pena struck out 5 in 2.2 innings of work. Dave Dravecky pitched the game of the day. He threw 8 innings of no-hit ball, but allowed an unearned run in the 3^rd. The Padres couldn't get a run and he was pinch hit for in the 9^th. The Padres went on to lose 2-0 on 1 hit, a Pedro Guerrero home run (13) in the 9^th. Eckersely was called up to the main club last night. Right now, he's slotted in as the #5 with Jim Beattie heading to the bull pen. Dwayne Murphy also was activated from the DL and sent to Albuquerque for rehab. The Yankees have opened up a 3.5 game lead on the Blue Jays. The Royals are 2.5 up on the M's and 4.5 on the White Sox. The Twins and Angels are nearly out of it. The Expos are red hot, and have a 9 game lead on the Mets and 9.5 on the Cardinals. They are a 99% probability to clinch the East. LA is riding in first a scant 1.5 game lead on the Padres and 4 up on the Reds. First is first though. 9/10 5-3 W over the Braves Fernando Valenzuela (16-4) struck out 10 in 8 shut out innings. Tom Niedenfeur made his first appearance since his injury and allowed 3 hits, a walk and 3 unearned runs, courtesy of a Tony Phillips error. LA got a 2-4 game from Mike Marshall and drew 5 walks on starter Jose Rijo (4-16). 9/11 5-2 L to the Braves Rick Rhoden (18-9) was alright, but not good enough. Larry McWilliams (10-14) was in charge of the game with his only real mistake being a pitch to Mike Marshall that he took out of the park for his 22^nd home run of the year. Dwight Evans left the game early in the 8^th. No work on why he was removed. Freaking Dwight Evans strained an oblique on a defensive play. He's back on the DL. Fuck. 9/12 6-5 L to the Braves Losing to a bad team isn't going to get this done. John Denny (10-14) pitched like shit, although he did strike out 6 in 5.2 innings. Frank White hit his 7^th homer of the season in the losing effort. LA brought the tying run all the way to 2^nd base before the final out was made. Keeping an eye on Dwayne Murphy in AAA. He's 1-15 in his first 4 games in rehab. 9/13 13-7 W over the Braves Frank Tanana (10-8) missed the extra point, allowed 6 in 5 innings, and still got the win. LA hammered 16 hits and 5 home runs. Tony Phillips started the game off with his 2^nd home run of the year. Both Mike Scioscia and Franklin Stubbs cracked 2, count 'em 2 homers each. That's 13 for our catcher and 22 for our center fielder. Bream, Randolph and Stubbs had 3 hits each. Stubbs knocked in 6. I wish we could have banked some of this offense for when we needed it. 9/14 8-7 (11) L to the Reds This game was back and forth all throughout, but lets skip to the bottom of the 8^th when a bad performance from Niedenfeur blew his first save since coming back. Jose Canseco plopped a 2-run shot to put the Reds in front. Frank White tied it back up in the 9^th with his 8^th. He was 4-5 in the best game of his year so far. LA scored again in the 10^th, but Ken Howell (2-8) blew a save when Dave Kingman hit a pinch hit homer to tie it again. The Reds took it home in the 11^th thanks to a single by former Dodger prospect Dave Anderson. Ron Kittle hit his 4^th earlier, then he left with an injury later. WTF? Brewer finished the game in left. Now we need Murphy back. 9/15 7-4 (10) W over the Reds John Franco (3-1) blew his 6^th save of the year, but came back after Stubbs hit his 2^nd home run of the game and 24^th of the year. This was a 3-run shot that gave us the win. Franco came back and struck out the side in the 10^th. Both Valenzuela and Jack Morris went deep, but neither factored in the final decision. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-19-2017, 10:05 PM	#70
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	9/16 2-1 L to the Padres We needed to win so this is a tough loss. It tightens up the division. They've had our number all year long. Rick Rhoden (18-10) went 7 strong, but he was bested by Bob Ojeda (13-11) who went 1 better. Mike Marshall homered in the 7^th to tie the game up, his 23^rd of the year. He also had 2 of the team's 5 hits. We're a game up on the Padres right now. Bad news Dodger fans. Slugger Ron Kittle is down with a shoulder injury. He's most likely done for the year. He finishes with 4 HR and a slash line of .257/.324/.375 in 152 AB. Not really what we were hoping for in the production department. But losing him takes away that depth that we had been resting on. Prospect Ralph Bryant was called up to take his place on the roster. Bryant has steadily moved up the system and has hit 24 HR in '82 in Class A ball and 26 in '83 in AA. But since then has only hit 29 between AA and AAA the last 2 years. He played sparingly this year in only 39 games, where he batted .408, hit 8 HR and 24 RBI in 98 AB. He can play all three outfield positions, but his star as a high prospect has faded considerably. Meanwhile we wait for Dwayne Murphy who is hitting .143 in Albuquerque, but does have 3 HR in 8 games. 9/17 4-2 W over the Padres John Denny (11-14) was on form and got player of the game with 7.1 innings of work, but 11 baserunners allowed though. Niedenfuer was on form as well, getting 5 outs, 2 K's and his 21^st save. Marshall got a couple RBI's as the Dodgers took 6 free passes on Padre pitching. Now the bad news. Willie Randolph, the guy who has carried our team was hit by a pitch in the 8^th inning and had to leave the game. Good news on Randolph. He's got a bruised knee, and is listed as day to day for a couple. I'm sure that Sax can fill in, but I've grown rather fond of both his fielding and his ability to get on base. Besides, Lasorda has been batting him 3^rd lately and I think that's been helpful to our overall run production. Odd random note: Mark “The Bird” Fidrych was signed by LA in May, is only 31, and has been toiling in A ball Bakersfield all year, and has been just plain awful this year. He hasn't pitched in the Majors since 1980 with the Tigers. On the year he is 3-9, in 17 games, with a 9.08 ERA, a 2.29 WHIP and a 20.8 BR/9 ratio. Woof. The Yankees dropped 3 in a row to the Blue Jays and now only lead by .5. It's nearly a coin flip, but the Yankees are still slightly favored. The team moved IF/C Scotti Madision (.259/.332/.406 in AAA) to the main roster. 9/18 9-2 L to the Astros Dodger pitching served up 17 hits, and 6 walks. Tanana (10-9) gave up runs in each of the first 4 innings before he was lifted. Randolph had a 2 hit day and Kelly Downs threw 3 scoreless innings in relief. You couldn't say that about the appearance Jim Beattie made. He allowed 8 baserunners and 3 runs in 2 innings of mop up. Dwayne Murphy has been called back from his rehab. He batted .143 in 10 games with 3 HR. He will start in CF with Stubbs moving over to left. Good to have him back. Let's hope he finds his bat again. 9/19 8-0 W over the Astros Eck (5-1) was in fine form tonight! 7 2/3 innings and 3 hits allowed, no runs. LA also welcomed back Dwayne Murphy who made his presence known in the 4^th when he broke the game open with a little grand slam. It was his 5^th. Mike Scioscia follwed with his 14^th and later Mike Marshall added number 24. It was close to the perfect game for Dodger fans. The Expos magic number is down to 8 and every other race is separated by 1 game. There are 16 games to play. Graig Nettles is scheduled to be back before we're all said and done. 9/20 5-3 W over the Giants Valenzuela gets his 17^th win of the year in another 10 strike out effort. He did serve up a big 3-run homer to Chili Davis (2), but other that that he was solid. Niedenfeur got the final 4 outs for his 22^nd save. LA got the lead early on a 3-run home run from Stubbs (26). Randolph added another with his 5^th in the 6^th. 9/21 3-2 L to the Giants LA couldn't get anything done against the Giants starter Jeff Stember, whose numbers on the year improved to 7-18 with a 5.54 ERA. Rhoden (18-11) went the distance and struck out 8 enroute to his loss. LA brought the tying run all the way to 2^nd after Stubbs doubled in 2, but Marshall struck out to end the rally. The Padres fell at home to the Braves so we stay 2 up with a magic number of 13. 9/22 4-3 W over the Giants These wins over a 100+ loss team aren't very convincing. Mike Marshall was 1-2 with a couple RBI's and the team drew 7 walks off of Giant starter Craig Swan (1-16). John Denny went 8 innings and got the win to move to 12-14. Niedenfeur pitched another shakey 9^th. He allowed 3 hits and error by Ralph Bryant, who had come on as a defensive sub, helped the Giants pull within 1 and put the tying run in scoring position. SS Randy Kutcher knocked a single to left, and pinch runner Ivan DeJesus tried to score the tying run, but a great throw by Stubbs caught him at the plate to end it. Both the Padres and Reds won to keep pace. Magic number drops to 12. The Blue Jays have pushed past the slumping Yankees and now lead the AL East by 2 games. Royals and M's both still just a game apart. Expos magic number down to 6. 9/23 6-4 L to the Astros Frank Tanana (10-10) allowed 3 gopher balls, lost the lead or tie 3 times, and just generally was unreliable. Tony Brewer got the start in left and went 2-3 in addition to hitting his first career home run. The ball was traded for an autographed Valenzuela ball, but at least he got it back. Barry Larkin single handedly killed us. The rookie hit a triple in the first, then a homer (10) in the third, he doubled in the 5^th, and when he came up in the 7^th needing a single for the cycle, he hit another triple. He had 12 total bases. The Padres pick up the win and move to within a game. 9/24 5-2 L to the Astros Eckersley drops to 5-2 surrendering 8 hits in 6.2 innings of work . A big homerun by Larry Parrish in the 7^th broke the game open and put us on the back foot. Ken Howell had another poor game in relief. Mike Scioscia went 3-3 in the losing effort. The Padres win again to pull into a tie for first. Nettles was activated and sent on a rehab assignment. 9/25 5-2 L to the Astros Damn. Three in a row to the lowly Astros. Tough start to the end of the season. Valenzuela (17-5) was not on his game today. The Astros beat him up for 9 hits in 6 innings. Sid Bream was the man of the match for the Dodgers. He smacked 2 solo homers to bring his total to 15 on the year. He added a single and 2 walks. Too bad we couldn't build on that. Padres lose too, but the Reds win to climb to .5 game back. Magic number is at 11. We have 10 games left, all at home. The percentages still favor us, but they favor the Reds over the Padres. We play 2 against the Padres and 3 against the Reds. The rest are against the Braves and Giants. Gotta win those matchups, or we're done for. Reds win on an off day and now it's a 3-way tie in the West. Ten to play, it's down to all or nothing. 9/27 10-5 W over the Giants Had to get back to our winning ways by beating on the lowly Giants. We had 10-2 lead at one point and John Franco served up 2 homers that cut the lead down. Niedenfuer came on to finish, but he wasn't perfect either, but at least he got it done. Rhoden wins his 19^th, while Jeff Stember loses his 19^th. Rhoden went 2-3 with 3 RBI's, one a bases clearing double. He had 2 doubles in the game. Marshall, Stubbs and Bream all had 2 hits. The Padres lose in the bottom of the 9^th to the Braves and the Reds win in extras over the Astros. Magic number is 10. 9/28 7-2 W over the Giants LA went deep 4 times with Marshall starting us off in the 4^th with a 2-run (25). Stubbs followed in the 5^th with a 2-run (27). Scioscia hit number 15 right after to go back to back. And in the 6^th it was Bream with number 16. Denny (13-14) walked 6 in 6 innings and got lucky a fair number of times. Like in the first when back to back errors by Frank White put guys on 2^nd and 3^rd with no out, and we got out of it for free. Marshall went 3-4 with 3 RBI's. Both the Reds and Padres won to keep pace. Magic number falls to 9. 9/29 3-1 L to the Giants Eck got little help today. We met our old friend Floyd Bannister, on the verge of losing 20 games, and he held us to 1 hit through 7. He allowed 2 through 8. Bob Stanley came on and Dwayne Murphy took him deep (6). Too bad we didn't have a couple on for it. Both the Reds and Padres won. That puts us down a game to the Reds. Magic number falls to 7. 9/30 11-5 W over the Padres The offense lit up today, just when we needed it. LA hit 2 home runs, both coming off the bat of Mike Marshall. Marshall finished 4-5, homers 26 and 27, and 6 RBI's. Dwayne Murphy went 3-5 with 3 RBI of his own. Valenzuela (18-5) was the beneficiary of the offense and he didn't have his best game, allowing 5 runs in 7 innings. Niedenfeur got the last 8 outs for his 24^th save. Toby Harrah left the game after a collision at third. Ross Jones took his place. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-20-2017, 10:07 AM	#71
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	September Recap This month was a hard one. We stayed in the hunt, but we didn't separate ourselves and time is running out. The team was only 14-13, bringing our record to 86-70. We are 1 game behind the Reds, and 1 game ahead of the Padres. Losing Dwight Evans, just when every one was starting to come together didn't help us and the pitching came back to earth too. Our offense is sad. Team batting average is now 10^th in the NL at .246 and hits are there too. We are 2^nd in the NL in homers though, with 158. Even OBP dropped to 6^th. So while our pitching dropped off, our hitting did too. The team ERA is still 2^nd in the NL, and starters are 3^rd, we're 4^th in runs allowed, if we can't get the runs in we're doomed. The pitcher of the month for September was Rick Rhoden. Rhoden was only 3-3, but his 2.45 ERA was the best among all the starters. Tanana, as if it's no surprise, was no question, the worst. His month was so bad, that people were pining for the days of Jim Beattie starts. Tanana went 1-3 with a 9.12 ERA in 25.2 innings of work over 5 starts. His 15.8 BR/9 was also worst. The top hitter for the month was Franklin Stubbs. Stubbs rebounded from a poor August to hit .298/.405/.670. He pounded 9 HR's, his best month of the year. Mike Marshall also came around batting .303/.305/.545 and he hit 6 of his own. Dwayne Murphy came back and hit 5 HR's too, but his .197 AVG didn't produce like we would have hoped. Randolph had a solid month too, but he lacks the power to be a real game changer like either Stubbs or Marshall. Dwight Evans should be back within a week, pending any sort of rehab assignment. However, we are still down a game. There are 3 games before the Reds series, but we can't count out the Padres either. If we drop 2 against the Reds it's going to be over. The Reds have won 7 straight and 9 of the their last 10. We have to keep pace. Toby Harrah has a severe sprained ankle. He's done for the year. Graig Nettles was immediately recalled and will start at 3^rd. The Expos was won the East. They will eclipse the 100 win plateau for yet another year. The Mets are in 2^nd and the Cards in third. In the AL East, the Blue Jays, who at one time looked to be on the way out, and unable to defend are down to a number of 4. Winners of 9/10 they are 3 games ahead of the Yankees. It's not over yet, but the Jays will clinch 9/10 times. The West is nearly settled now too. It's the Royals that have separated from the pack. Even though the M's are 2 back, the Royals have all 6 of the remaining games at home, while the M's are on the road. The Angels have 90 wins, 4 more than us, and they are not even going to sniff the post-season. So who is the worst? It's the Giants. Losers of 107 games they are 38 games behind the Reds. The Indians, Brewers, A's and Rangers are all going to hit the 100 loss mark this year too. That's some bad baseball. Even if we make the playoffs we stand next to no chance to do anything this year. Hopes are very low, and that's IF we win the division. Six games remain. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam Last edited by PilotMan : 06-20-2017 at 10:09 AM.

06-22-2017, 02:39 PM	#72
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	10/1 2-1 (10) W over the Padres LA lined up 6 lefties against southpaw Bob Ojeda. Mike Scioscia hit a triple in the first came home to take the lead early. Frank Tanana, coming off of the worst month of his career pulled it together and dominated to allow 2 hits over 8 innings, while striking out 5. The Padres did tie the game in the 4^th, and in the 9^th, Niedenfeur came on but got into trouble right away. With 1 out Gwynn singled, stole 2^nd and took 3^rd on a Scioscia throwing error. He got Bob Brenly to ground out weakly back to the pitcher. He walked Kruk, then struck our former Dodger prospect RJ Reynolds to keep the game tied. Bottom of the 10^th Stubbs took us home with a 407ft shot over the center field fence (28). The Reds destroyed the Giants 14-1 to win their 8^th straight. The Giants shortstop Dave Concepcion got his 2000^th hit in the game. The magic number is down to 5. The Padres are nearly eliminated from the race. 10/2 6-1 L to the Braves Another lefty Zane Smith (8-15) handled us with ease. Smith went 7 and was always in command. He lowered his ERA to 5.46. Damn. I mean, it's not like we shouldn't have beat him up. LA just doesn't have a good lineup against lefties at all. Graig Nettles. Fuck this guy. I hope he never plays here again. He committed 4 errors in the game today that lead to 4 unearned runs. Unreal. Rhoden (19-12) walked 5 to help his cause. Sid Bream hit an RBI triple. Wooowooo. Tandy Charley (12-12) shut out the Reds to break their win streak. Magic number is 4. Reds up 1 on us, 2 on the Padres. 10/3 1-0 L to the Braves John Denny (13-15) pitched a great game. He went 8 innings, allowed only 3 hits, and struck out 7. He had no backup. Thanks to another lefty. Jim Deshaies (7-6) allowed only 1 hit over 8 innings. In fact, only 1 hit the whole game. We'd have been no hit if not for the big bat of John Denny. That's right, a double from our pitcher was the only offense that we could muster. We were that close to getting no-hit in the middle of a pennant race. A Gerald Perry solo shot (15) was the only offense for either team. The Padres won again over the Reds 6-1. So now we get to play the Reds, who have a 1 game lead on us and the Padres. The magic number is down to 3. The final 3 games are at home against the Reds. We need to win them. Sparky Lyle finished his career in the Dodger minor league system. He announced his retirement at the age of 41. Dwight Evans was activated off the DL and will take his rightful place in right field. So that means that there's no place for our leading home run hitter, Franklin Stubbs. His 28 HR's will be coming off the bench. I kind of wish that Lasorda would consider starting him at first in lieu of Bream, who's production has fallen off. 10/4 4-3 W over the Reds Money baby. That's 1. The Reds got on the board, but we tied it in the first. Eckersley and Jeff Russell pitched well, but Tony Phillips was our savior today. Not only did he get a 2 run single in the 7^th, that we thought would be enough, he cracked a lead off triple in the 9^th and scored the winning run. He was 3-5 overall. Niedenfeur served up a 2-run homer to Dave Parker in the 8^th for his 5^th blown save on the year. He did strike out 4 in his 2 innings of work, and improved his record to 4-3. The Padres won again. Jimmy Key got his 20^th win on the season. Now it's a complete, 3 way tie for the division. Magic number stays at 3 with the tie. 2 games to play. The Blue Jays have clinched the AL East. 10/5 3-2 L to the Reds Uh oh, we're on the brink. Guess what? Another lefty. Charlie Liebrandt (11-9) held us down, and Ted Power finished us off. Frank White committed his 28^th error of the year and that lead to an unearned run that might have been the won that cost us the game. Valenzuela (18-6) takes the loss and we waste an otherwise solid effort. Our sole run came from Frank White's 9^th homer of the season and Dwight Evans went 3-4 in the losing effort. The Padres fell to the Astros 2-1. They need an LA win and a win themselves to stay in the hunt. The Royals have clinched the AL West on the second to last day of the season. They will play the Blue Jays in the ALCS. Someone will still have to play the Expos. Our must win game will be with Frank Tanana on the hill. He'll face off against Jack Morris. 10/6 3-2 W over the Reds We live to fight another day. Frank Tanana did his thing. He didn't allow a run in the first, he pitched into the 9^th inning and made 1 really, big mistake. Top 6 Eric Davis mashed a ball 450ft (15) nearly out of the bullpen in left. Mike Marshall didn't even move when he hit it, it went so far. There was much cursing. Jack Morris kept us silent through 7 innings before turning it over to the pen. Bottom of the 8^th Willie Randolph got a single, followed by a Bream walk. Dwight Evans then put a ball into the power gap for a double that plated both guys. That saved us temporarily, but Niedenfeur (5-3) was on to pitch in the 9^th. He walked Eric Davis, who then stole 2^nd. He got Kal Daniels to ground out, but Davis went to 3^rd. Dangerous Danny Tartabull hit a ball to the warning track, but it stayed in the yard. In the bottom of the 9^th Graig Nettles sent us home with his 10^th home run of the year. The Padres won too. They won 6-5 (11). So now we fly to Cincinnati for a playoff game. The season is over. There's a 3 way tie for West. There's no game for the Padres, but they aren't officially eliminated either, so I'm not sure what's happening next. 10/7 5-0 L to the Reds Another lefty. Tom Browning, but it wasn't only him. A 77 min rain delay knocked out both starters, but even after, we didn't do much. Although, we had the chances. LA left 12 runners on base, without getting anything out of it. Rick Rhoden (19-13) was the victim of another Frank White error in the 2^nd inning. That lead to an Eddie Milner 3-run homerun (13). Later Danny Tartabull would add extra runs with his 23^rd. We lost Frank White in the 4^th when he was hurt while running the bases. The Reds then traveled to San Diego for a game against the Padres. They pulled that won out too with a 5-4 win on the road. Long season, no playoffs for LA this year. The first miss since 1980. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam Last edited by PilotMan : 06-22-2017 at 02:52 PM.

06-22-2017, 09:33 PM	#73
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	1985 Playoff Preview AL Blue Jays v. Royals The Jays are the defending champs but they aren't the favorites to take the title. Having finished the most recent power poll at #4 they are the third best team in the playoffs. That doesn't mean they are a bad team though. The Jays finished with a 97-65 record, 4 games in front of the Yankees. They are the best hitting team in the AL, and the best in runs scored. Not only are they 2^nd in home runs, they also are 2^nd in stolen bases. The pitching staff is 5^th in the AL in ERA, but they have the best bullpen. They are also 2^nd in team defense. The offense was powered by OF George Bell (.317/.370/.580 and 39 HR) and Jessie Barfield (.302/.389/.571 and 25 HR in 103 G). Lloyd Moseby hits leadoff, played every game, and he hit 29 HR and stole 33 bases. Every player in this lineup is dangerous from those above to Ricky Henderson (.279/.388/.457 and 48SB), Tony Fernandez (.336/.386/.446), former Dodger Bobby Grich (.281/.393/.437) and Ernie Whitt (.280/.346/.458). The pitching staff was lead by Danny Darwin (19-4, 3.07) who threw the only no-no all year. The rest of the guys aren't so special. Jim Clancy (16-11, 3.23) and Mark Thurmond (17-9, 3.69). Gene Garber with 33 saves and a 2.12 ERA anchors the bullpen. They also have old guy 42-yr old Ron Reed, who was the closer last year, in the pen. The Royals took longer to clinch, but they are #2 in the MLB power rankings. They won 100 games against 62 losses and had to deal with the losses of ace Bob Welch (6-6 3.76) and closer Lee Smith (31S, 3.05 ERA). Neither will be back this year. The Royals are 4^th in runs scored and 5^th in team avg and HR's. So they're not as potent as the Blue Jays. The pitching staff is 4^th in team ERA, 7^th in OBA, and the defense is 11^th in the AL. On paper the Jays look stronger all around. The Royals made 1 big move at the trade deadline and it might have been crazy at the time, but it did address the loss of Welch. The Royals had signed Mike Schmidt in the offseason and he was playing DH while George Brett played 3^rd. Schmidt was sent to NY for SP Mario Soto and a prospect. Soto had been 11-7 with a 3.31 ERA in NY, but when he came to KC he didn't fare as well. He still went 5-5, but with an ERA of 5.25. Meanwhile, Schmidt only had 12 HR and a .241 avg for the Royals, he went on to hit 19 HR with a .247 average for the Yankees. So it was a gamble. The Royals used Rod Carew to take over at DH for Schmidt. The Royals offense is powered by George Brett (.337/.415/.567 and 27 HR), Fred Lynn (.314/.412/.533 and 26 HR's) and Carney Lansford (.290/.342/.443 and 15 HR's). But they've got power throughout too. They aquired Terry Pendleton from the Cards at the deadline, and that helped make that move to get rid of Schmidt. The pitching staff is lead by ace Bud Black (21-10, 2.80 ERA), but also by former Dodger top prospect Orel Hersheiser (19-6, 3.18 ERA) and Mario Soto (16-12, 3.96 ERA). They're plenty deep to hang with the Jays there. The loss of Lee Smith hurt, but the team went to Vern Ruhle and he got 14 saves. For the post-season though, the team is planning on using starter Mark Gubicza (15-12, 3.70 ERA) as the closer. The rest of the pen is a bunch of unfamiliar names like Nate Snell, Bobby Castillo and Ed Olwine. NL Expos v. Reds The Expos are the top ranked team in the MLB power rankings. The #1 team. No question. This team is talented, like they have been the last few years. Even though they only won 103 games, the worst for them in a while. They should be considered the favorites. They were #2 in team batting and #1 in on base percentage. The offense was lead by MVP candidate Tim Raines. Raines lead the NL in batting with a .376, a .479 OBP. He didn't lead the NL in steals though, he was #2 with 63 steals. He is super dangerous. Of course, they also have Gary Carter (.282/.343/.485 in 106 G), Andre Dawson (.286/.332/.454) and Lou Whitaker (.279/.353/.412). The pitching staff is 3^rd in the NL and anchored by 2 twenty-one game winners in Bryn Smith (21-7, 3.48) and Rick Reuschel (21-8, 3.35). They also have last year's 20 game winner in Bob Knepper (18-8, 3.04). The bullpen is nuts. They've not only got last year's Cy Young winner, John Candelaria (4-6, 3.24), Jeff Reardon (3.42) and Dan Quisenberry (40S, 1.67 ERA). This team should be heading to the Series. The Reds finished at #13 in the NL power rankings, behind both the Dodgers and Padres. You know they've got an insane offense with some big power hitters. The Reds are 3^rd in team batting and offense. Second in HR and OBP. With that offense, they've also got good pitching. They are 5^th in the NL in pitching, and 5^th in team defense. Even with a record of 91-73, they've got a good team. Wish is was LA, but this was the better team. The Reds offense is powered by Dave Parker (.286/.340/.469 and 29 HR's), Eric Davis (.254/.360/.469 and 15 HR and 39 SB in 89 games) and Danny Tartabull (.292/.358/.513 and 24 HR's). The Reds are without however, Nick Esasky, the power hitting first baseman (.246/.331/.466 and 24 HR's) He is done with a bad ankle sprain. On the bench though is Jose Canseco (.274/.367/.491 and 22 HR). The team just can't figure out a way to get all those bats in the line up together. The Reds pitchers are ace Jack Morris (15-10 2.65 ERA), Charlie Liebrandt (11-9 3.64) and Tom Browning (15-13 4.21 ERA). The bullpen closer is former Dodger Ted Power (35S, 3.56). All in all you have to look at these teams and wonder if the AL again, will simply overpower and blow out the NL. The AL has won the last 3 series. If the Expos take out the Reds, it'll be just the Dodgers and Expos for the NL for the last 5 years. Can the Blue Jays take out the Royals and go on to defend their title? We're about to find out. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-22-2017, 09:57 PM	#74
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	ALCS Royals over the Blue Jays 4-0 The Royals sweep and dominate the Jays. Fred Lynn is the ALCS MVP with 3 HR and a .412 batting average. Each and every game was close, 3-2, 5-3, 7-2, and 4-3. The Royals pitching just owned the Blue Jays. The Jays pitching couldn't handle the Royals hitters. Mark Gubicza picked up 2 saves and a win in his 3 appearances. NLCS Expos over the Reds 4-3 It was close right to the end. The Reds took a 3-2 series lead back to Montreal and couldn't get that last win. Tim Raines was the NLCS MVP. He batted .333 and had a .464 OBP. The Reds out homered the Expos 7-2. The key game was in game 6. The Reds went to the bottom of the 9^th ahead 4-3 with Ted Power on the mound. Vance Law lead off with a double, then he got Gary Pettis out on strikes and Tim Wallach to pop out to 2^nd base. Tim Raines walked and Mike Greenwell took the first pitch he saw and pulled it into the left field seats for a walk off 3-run HR to win it for the Expos and save them from defeat. Reds fans were crushed, and the Expos would take game 7, 6-2 behind another Greenwell HR and the pitching of LaMarr Hoyt. It's the Royals versus the Expos in the 1985 World Series. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-23-2017, 08:36 PM	#75
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Game 1 Expos crush the Royals 8-1. Bob Knepper goes the distance. Game 2 Expos walk off 1-0. Pitching dual between Bryn Smith and Orel Hersheiser. Game 3 Expos drown the Royals 5-0. Reuschel allows 3 hits over 8.1. The Expos have allowed 1 run, unearned the entire series so far. Game 4 Royals survive with a 3-2. Rod Carew hits a walk off HR to save the season. His first HR in over a year. Game 5 Expos win the series in KC 3-2. Knepper goes another 8 innings and goes home with the Series MVP. He went 2-0 in 17 innings with a 1.06 ERA. Everyone celebrates 1985 in Montreal, a year after the Blue Jays brought home the first title to Canada, the trophy stays there and the Expos follow with their first franchise World Series Championship. That's it for this year. Awards are next. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-24-2017, 01:26 PM	#76
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	1985 Post-season and Awards The Dodgers pitching coach Jordan Aviles has retired along with CF Gary Maddox. The team bought out the contract and declined the option on Frank White. Dennis Eckersley declined his option year. LA makes the first big move in the offseason and I hate it. As if they had any talent in the minors left, now that's completely gone. LA shipped away P Ramon Martinez, OF Jose Gonzalez, IF Cecil Espy, OF Ralph Bryant and OF Todd Brown. They're all heading to Houston for 3B Larry Parrish. That's a mighty steep price to pay for a 31-yr old, questionable fielding guy with 1 year left on his contract. Parrish was acquired by the Astros, from the Angels for Tony Bernazard. That's it. All that, for Tony Bernazard. Parrish is a 2-time all star who hit 24 HR. Is RIGHT handed, and has 193 career homers. LA didn't have a HR problem last year. Martinez and Espy were two of the top prospects in LA. The team is clearly signaling the desire to put it together next year. AL Gold Glove Winners P Dave Stieb – MIN C Jim Sundberg – TEX 1B Pete O'Brien – TEX 2B Glenn Hubbard – NYY 3B Tom Brookens – TOR SS Cal Ripken Jr – BAL LF George Wright – TEX CF Ricky Henderson – TOR RF Jesse Barfield – TOR NL Gold Glove Winners P Bob Ojeda – SD C Mike Bishop – ATL 1B Steve Balboni – PHI 2B Wally Backman – NYM 3B Tim Wallach – MON SS Ozzie Smith – STL LF Marvell Wynn – NYM CF Eddie Milner – CIN RF Tony Gwynn – SD Guess who the newest Expos pitcher is? Nolan Ryan. How??? Basically for Jeff Sellers and John Dopson. AL Rolaids Reliever of the Year Bill Campbell – BOS (4-2, 7S, 1.51 ERA) NL Rolaids Reliver of the Year Dan Quisenberry – MON (5-2, 40S, 1.67 ERA) AL Silver Slugger Awards C Rich Gedman – BOS 1B Greg Walker – CHI 2B Bobby Grich – TOR 3B George Brett – KC SS Cal Ripken Jr – BAL LF George Bell – TOR CF Barry Bonds – CHI RF Jessie Barfield – TOR DH Alvin Davis – SEA NL Silver Slugger Awards P Jeff Russell – CIN C Bob Brenley – SD 1B Leon Durham – CHI 2B Ryne Sandberg – CHI 3B Kevin Mitchell – NY SS Danny Tartabull – CIN LF Tim Raines – MON CF Lenny Dykstra – NYM RF Darryl Strawberry – NYM AL Rookie of the Year Barry Bonds – CHI (.265/37/103 and 41 SB) One helluva rookie season. NL Rookie of the Year Barry Larkin – HOU (.282/13/63 and 22 SB) AL Manager of the Year Dick Howser (RIP) – KC NL Manager of the Year Jim Fanning – MON AL Cy Young Award Winner Sid Fernandez – SEA (21-11, 2.65 ERA, 254 K's) The price we paid for Willie Randolph. Granted, he's had moments where he's carried the team, and has batted at or near .300 while being #1 or #2 in the league in OBP, but it was still a steep price. NL Cy Young Award Winner Doc Gooden – NYM (25-6, 1.86 ERA, 296 K's) AL MVP Winner George Brett – KC (.337/27/96) NL MVP Winner Doc Gooden – NYM Now the real drama begins. Where will our team go this offseason? We already know the youth movement isn't underway. It's all about finding that right combination. We have a lot of free agents to deal with. Who will or won't be back. There's also some really bad contracts in LA. That's going to hurt us too, but being in a big market will always help that out some. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-26-2017, 12:37 AM	#77
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	1985 Hot Stove Notes and Updates It's not a great start to the year. The Dodgers have brought on a total unknown pitching coach by the name of Jim Gulley. He does a better job with groundball pitchers, but overall is a total unknown. LA has resigned a few players to 1-year deals - Stubbs, Sax, Pena, Niedenfuer, Marshall, Kittle, and Tony Phillips are all coming back on affordable deals. They also resigned Nettles to a cheap deal. At the age of 41, you can't expect much from that deal though. Free Agency is ugly for LA. It's a complete turnover. The team didn't extend a lot of the guys. Here's a list of the current Dodgers, who have just filed for free agency: 1B Andre Thornton, IF Toby Harrah, C Buck Martinez, P Dennis Eckersley, P Jerry Reuss, IF Frank White, P Milt Wilcox, OF Dwight Evans, 2B Willie Randolph. That's 9 guys from the 24-man roster. Maybe someone will be back, but not before they go out into the world. Meanwhile, we have plenty of room for new blood. I expect a busy off season, except that the budget might be constrained. LA locked up a key starting pitcher by getting Rhoden, who was going to be a free agent after this, extended for 3 more years. Rhoden has been 35-22 for LA and been the #2 guy in the rotation. Same pay as Jim Beattie, better return. We lose Willie Randolph to the Mariners. He gets a 6-yr deal worth over a mil per. LA's first off season signing is inning eater Allen Ripley. Ripley went 12-14 for the Tigers last year, and boasts a 58-84 career record with a 4.32 ERA. He lead the NL in losses in 1984, losing 18 for the Cubs. He did win a Gold Glove in 1983. He gets a 1 year deal. LA's outfield situation appeared to be settled with a mix of Stubbs, Marshall, Kittle, and Murphy. However, the team wasn't satisfied with that set up. With Evans still out there the team has gone and spend 2.56M over the next 2 years for Fred Lynn. Lynn, a center fielder makes Murphy's spot on the roster questionable. Murphy has 4 years left on his contract at 1.2M per. Meaning that the team is currently spending about 2.5 M on 1 position. That's a little disheartening. Murphy didn't have a very good year last year, hitting .260 with 6 HR over 49 games. Lynn will be 34 when the season starts, but his resume is much deeper. He's a career .296 hitter with 211 HR's. He hit 26 last year while batting over .300. He's a ROY, MVP, 4-time Gold Glove, and 9-time All-Star, most recently last year. 1985 First Year Player Draft LA picks #25 out of 27 in the first round. Bernie Williams is the #1 overall pick, but the Giants. First 5 rounds for LA OF Paul Sorrento (1^st) OF Pete Incaviglia (Sup 1^st) OF Jerome Walton (2^nd) OF Billy Beane (3^rd) P Ricky Bones (4^th) IF Hensley Meulens (5^th) It looks like outfield was important for the team with 4 picked with the first 4 picks. There aren't any huge names in there, but there's a couple of guys who had nice careers. Not terrible, but nothing to get too excited about. There might be some trade fodder in there too as LA is known to use. The Blue Jays made a steal of a trade with Baltimore. The Jays didn't pursue Willie Upshaw in free agency and instead sent prospects Mike Macfarlane, Willie Fraser, Chris Johnston and Alexis Marte to the Orioles for 29-year old 5-time All-Star, 2-time Silver Slugger Eddie Murray. Eight days later they sign a contract extension for 6 years with a team option to 7. Wow. The Expos are going to repeat as champions. You'll see why later. Dwight Evans has signed a 2 year deal with the Mariners for 1.17M per year. Reuniting with Randolph. LA has signed 2B/3B Jim Morrison for a cheap 142k for 1 year. Morrison is a pretty good fielder and a .257 career hitter with 95 career HR's. He played 72 games for the Royals last year and batted .210. Joe Torre becomes the only HOF inductee this year with 78.6% of the vote. Milt Wilcox has signed a 1 year deal with the Cardinals. Failure. Of LA's draft picks in the first 5 rounds, only Sorrento and Incaviglia sign. Another 1 year deal for the Dodgers. This time it's 33yr old, corner infielder, Ray Knight, he will earn 304k for the year. Knight is a 1-time selection to the All Star game and Gold Glove winner. Knight is a career .281 hitter with 50 HR's. He's got limited range, but decent skills in the field. He played for Houston and Milwaukee last year and played in 107 games, batting .311. Guess third is a sticking point for LA. They've signed another old guy. This time it's 35 yr old Doug DeCinces. DeCinces spent the last 2 years in Detroit where he hit 38 HR's. His only award was a Silver Slugger back in '82 with the Angels. He's been a regular starter, but hasn't played more than 108 games in a season the last 2 years because of injuries. He's better defensively at third than any of our other options like Knight, Smalley, Morrison or Phillips. His deal is for 3 years/2.66 M with the third year a vesting requirement based on plate appearances. LA is going to need a nursing home for all these old guys. The newest face in LA is a 6-time All Star and for MVP and Cy Young winner, but all that was a long time ago. 36-year old Vida Blue is going to be in Dodger Blue. Seems like a perfect pairing. He gets a very affordable 1 year, 270k deal. He spent the last 2 years with his former club the A's where we went 23-20 and averaged 34 starts. He's got 223 career victories and 2312 K's in his career. Jerry Reuss heads to Detroit for a year. Buck Martinez and Steve Garvey end up in SoCal with the Angels for a year each. Frank White lands a 1 year deal with the Red Sox. LA sustains a couple significant injuries that will impact the year. The biggest is to Allen Ripley. Ripley was projected as the #5 starter initially has blown out his elbow and he is done. His contract will expire before he ever gets to the field in Dodger blue. Next, Vida Blue, who might have been in line to take his place has a strained shoulder is is going to miss all of April at least. Last, is to Tony Phillips. Phillips was looking to have short locked up, but he's sprained his thumb and is projected to be back by mid May. That's it for this offseason. LA added some players, but I'm feeling pessimistic about the value of the guys that were brought in. The bullpen looks amazing, and the rotation looks about average. The starting lineup looks to have talent, but with these old guys, you really don't know what kind of performance you're going to get from them. The preseason prognosticators have us predicted to win the West, but it'll be close with the Padres right on our heels. The Reds are down in 4^th. The Expos are predicted to have the best record in baseball with at least 104 wins. The big surprise though is that the Mets are also expected to have 104 wins, so that might make for a good season. So the Expos. They're going to repeat. Their starting lineup is bonkers and the rotation isn't quite on that level the bullpen is. The lineup has 23 All Star appearances, 6 Gold Gloves, 14 Silver Sluggers, 1 MVP and 2 ROY's. The pitching staff has 20 All Star appearances, 1 Cy Young, and 2 Reliever of the Years. What does that line up look like? Well... Young prospect Andres Gallaraga takes over at first. Second is Lou Whitaker. Third is Paul Molitor. Short is Vance Law. Left is Tim Raines. Center is Robin Yount and right is Andre Dawson. The Expos still have Reardon and Quiz in the pen with the Candy Man. The rotation added the Ryan Express. As a Dodger fan, it's a bunch of bullshit. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-26-2017, 10:32 PM	#78
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	1986 Opening Day Roster Starting Rotation L Fernando Valenzuela (18-6, 3.01) R Rick Rhoden (19-13, 2.82) R John Denny (13-15, 3.16) L Frank Tanana (10-10, 4.32) R Kelly Downs (0-0, 3.68) The top 4 are exactly the same as last year and I think that it'll be good enough provided the offense can get going. Downs would be in the pen or the minors, if we hadn't lost Ripley. Blue might get the 5 spot when he comes back in a month. Have to say it's nice not seeing Jim Beattie in there. Bullpen R Jim Beattie (1-7, 5.38) L Steve Howe (2-2, 1.78) R Alejandro Pena (4-3, 1.45) R Ken Howell (3-8, 4.14) R Tom Niedenfeur (5-3, 2.28, 24S) L John Franco (3-1, 1.89, 11S) So the pen is pretty stacked right now. No new faces. John Franco gets the closer role, while there are other 4 guys, except Beattie, who can close too. The lack of another southpaw might cause an issue down the road. Catcher Mike Scioscia (.295/15/60) BJ Surhoff (.339/2/32 in rookie, A and AA last year) Scioscia is the no question starter and former first pick Surhoff makes the big jump up from AA, but actually he was in A ball most of last year. Scioscia is still a very good defensive asset, who is a decent contact hitter. Have to think that his power output was a bit of an anomaly last year, but his average was great. Surhoff has a great guy to learn behind. First Base Sid Bream (.259/16/63) Ray Knight (.311/5/33) Bream is just about as average a player as you'll ever find. He's solid, but unspectacular everywhere. So he isn't going to jack 30 homers, or 100 RBI's, but he steady defense and good all around skills are still an asset. Knight gives us a right handed option, that is solid on defense at first, and a below average hitter. Second Base Jim Morrison (.210/8/31) Where the fuck is Sax? Oh yeah, the team optioned him back to Albuquerque to start the year. Seems like he must have pissed off someone to not get on the roster. Tony Phillips is hurt, and he can play 2^nd and pretty well too. How are we going to survive with Morrison as the mainstay at second? It's a poor option. Can't believe that Sax isn't here right now. This is a major downgrade from Randolph. Third Base Doug DeCinces (.251/21/68) Graig Nettles (.229/10/26) Larry Parrish (.240/24/67) For some reason Parrish is stuck in the same place that Thornton was in. As in, he's got no place to play and he's treated like he's not even going to play. Larry Parrish, at 32, is the young guy. Seems like this isn't that big of an upgrade either. Parrish was traded for a couple of high draft picks and now he's on the outside looking in. It's not a good look. Shortstop Roy Smalley (.222/13/52) Average defender, not getting any younger. Offense has dropped each of the last 2 years. Not sure if Phillips is going to displace him or Morrison when he comes back. The team is drastically overpaying for him and his contract is for another 2 years. Left Field Franklin Stubbs (.246/28/84) Ron Kittle (.257/4/14) Similar look to last year for left. Lots of power, but not much else in the way of regular hitting. Neither guy is very good in the field, but at least we can hide them in left. Kittle just isn't going to be the regular guy for us, so it's going to be up to Stubbs to stay hot. Center Field Fred Lynn (.314/26/80) Dwayne Murphy (.260/6/20) Lynn is a new face this year. He's over 34 now, but he can still hit. He's a bit of a weak spot defensively as he just can't cover the ground in center like he should. Murphy is a defensive wiz, but his swing doesn't look like it used to. He was limited to 49 games last year, and lost his job to Lynn in the offseason. He can't play any other positions. Right Field Mike Marshall (.240/27/104) Marshall was the definition of our team last year. Good power, but really struggled to get on base regularly. His OBP was under .300, despite his power. He's a good defender with a strong arm and he's got a big bat. We'll need him hitting well in the cleanup spot this year if we're going to the playoffs. That's our roster for the start of this year. Lots upon lots of questions. Good hitting, great bullpen, so-so rotation. The expectation of the playoffs. Let's see how it goes! It's time for Dodgers baseball! 1986! __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-27-2017, 10:12 AM	#79
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	4/7 2-0 W over the Padres LA wins on opening day! Valenzuela (1-0) was 1 out from the shut out before being lifted for Franco who got the save. Mike Marshall was 2-4 and hit the first home run of the year. A 456-foot bomb, that had the left fielder stuck in his shoes just watching it go. 4/8 15-4 W over the Padres The bad news is that Niedenfeur gave up 2 runs on a Rick Dempsey HR (1). But that was the bad news. LA hit 4 HR's. Two each for DeCinces (2) and Stubbs (2). They had 10 RBI's together. DeCinces had 4 hits. It was a bash fest. Jimmy Key had a game score of 3. Rhoden (1-0) went 8 for the W. 4/9 2-1 W over the Padres LA got 8 innings from John Denny (1-0) and a great game overall to take the Dodgers home for the win. DeCinces hit his 3^rd of the year in the 6^th to break the tie, after Scioscia had gotten the team off to the start with his first homer in the 6^th. John Franco struck out the side in the 9^th to get his 3^rd save . 4/10 4-3 W over the Padres It looked like Tanana (1-0) was going to get shelled. He struggled with control and had a high pitch count by the 5^th inning. It wasn't until LA rallied behind a Jim Morrison 3-run shot (1), that put LA in front, did he settle down. It was his 150^th career win. John Franco pitched 2 innings for his 3^rd save. A sweep to start the year. 4/11 4-3 W over the Giants Kelly Downs spread 10 hits out over 7 innings and getting some defensive help when Lynn cut down a runner at the plate in the first. But his first win eluded him once again as he left with the score tied. In the 9^th Parrish lead off with a double, then took third on a Scioscia single. Ray Knight hit a single over the 2^nd basemen to plate Parrish. Niedenfeur (1-0) pitched 2 innings and Stubbs hit his 3^rd HR of the year to tie the game in the 5th. 4/12 4-3 W over the Giants Doug DeCinces is on freaking fire. He goes 3-4 with 2 HR's (5) and 3 RBI's, including the go ahead HR. Valenzuela (2-0) went 8 innings and allowed 3 unearned runs, thanks to 2 Morrison errors. LA has won their first 6 to start the year. While DeCinces has 5 HR's, Fred Lynn has started the year with 1 hit so far. Just 1. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th for his first save of the year. 4/13 2-0 W over the Giants Rick Rhoden (2-0) survived a dual with Atlee Hammaker (0-2). Rhoden allowed only 2 hits on his way to the complete game shutout. He was in command needing only 99 pitches to finish, and it's the 3^rd best pitching performance of the young season. A Fred Lynn RBI single was the difference. Rhoden went 1-3 with a run with the bat. LA sweeps the Giants to end the homestand. They head to San Diego for the next series. 4/14 6-1 L to the Padres The run comes to an end on a day when John Denny (1-1) served up 14 hits and LA lost the mojo against lefty Dave Dravecky (1-0). LA got a couple of hits from Sid Bream, but the most exciting thing was the major league debut of top LA prospect BJ Surhoff. Surhoff started at catcher and got his first major league hit, a triple, high off the wall in right. He was score LA's only run. 4/15 4-3 (10) L to the Padres Neither Tanana nor Dennis Leonard figured in the final, but both pitched well enough. LA played catch up all game long after a Gwynn 2-run homer in the first. Leonard kept LA off the bases until a Morrison single was followed by a Stubbs home run. His 4^th. Mike Scioscia tied the game in the 8^th. Ken Howell (0-1) served up a Kevin McReynolds, walk off, home run in the 10^th to end it. The wheels are now falling off the season. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-28-2017, 08:42 PM	#80
Balldog Pro Rookie Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Macomb, MI	heck of a start to the season!

06-28-2017, 10:40 PM	#81
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	4/16 4-2 L to the Padres One good sweep deserves another as we get taken to loser town again. Kelly Downs (0-1) goes 6 solid, which is all we expect from our #5 guy, and the offense takes a dive against young lefty, Greg Mathews (1-1) who gets his first career win. Roy Smalley and Mike Scioscia each had 2 hits, and Doug DeCinces stayed hot hitting #6 for the month of April. Ozzie Guillen torched us for 4 hits and 7 total bases. 4/17 12-1 L to the Braves Zane Smith (2-0) had to feel pretty good staked to a 12-0 lead after 3 innings, but after that LA outscored the Braves 1-0. So there's that. Valenzuela (2-1) was pummeled and Jim Beattie who came on fared even worse. Fred Lynn had 2 hits to bring his season total to 4, and Doug DeCinces nearly matched his season total with 3 hits of his own. 4/18 7-6 (11) L to the Braves Alright, this shit is getting ridiculous. LA got back to back blasts from Bream (1) and DeCinces (7) to take a lead. The Braves came back on Rhoden, but LA answered with 4 in the 7^th, helped by Marshall's 2^nd home run. The pen couldn't hold the lead though, and Atlanta stole it back in the 8^th, then won it off of Niedenfeur (1-1) in the 11^th. Sid Bream went 3-5. 4/19 11-6 W over the Braves Hey! We are going to win again! I don't think we'd had a 5 game losing streak in any of the other playoff years so that doesn't bode well. John Denny wasn't good, and after his 6 innings, and the tired bullpen we were down 5-1 and it looked like another sweep was upon us. Enter Doug DeCinces. Top 7 he hits a grand slam (8) and we are tied. Just like that. Top of the 8^th Franklin Stubbs hits a 3-run shot (5) and then Mike Marshall added a 2-run shot (3) and then we were up. Steve Howe (1-0) got the win, and Jim Beattie pitched a scoreless 9^th to lower his ERA to 27.00. Oh, and Fred Lynn, who had 2 whole hits in the game left with an injury after a defensive play. Jim Morrison was placed on waivers and designated for assignment. Steve Sax was called up to take his roster spot. 4/20 7-4 L to the Giants I'm seeing a new trend. Starting pitching unable to keep the other team down. After a great start, our pitching has just given up. We've given up 4 or more runs 6 games in a row now. Tanana (1-1) takes the loss, raising his ERA to 4.50. Stubbs went 2-4 in the losing effort. Fred Lynn has gone to the DL with shoulder tendinitis. He's expected to be out until mid May. 28-yr old Dodger minor league vet, Tom Beyers, has been called up for his first major league action. Beyers batted .284 with 9 HR and 91 RBI in Albuquerque last year. Dwayne Murphy is expected back in center with Lynn out. 4/21 2-0 L to the Giants Kelly Downs (0-2) struck out 7, but his first career win eluded him. It was a Chili Davis double that put 2 on and no outs. Both would score. LA could only manage 4 hits off of Giant pitching and Jeff Stember (1-0) went 8 and only allowed 3. 4/22 2-1 L to the Giants Atlee Hammaker (2-2) took a no-hitter into the 9^th inning. Ray Knight pinch hit for Fernando Valenzuela (2-2) and hit a triple over the right fielders head. That was that. He'd score on a wild pitch, but that was all we'd get. One hit. Valenzuela went the distance in the loss. What an end to a disastrous road trip. We got 1 win. Just 1. 4/23 6-0 W over the Braves Home is a wonderful place. Rhoden (3-0) gives us just what we need. A complete game shut out. Helped along by a Stubbs 2-run homer (6), LA finally got a solid output of offense. Ok, so as crazy bad as we've been, we're tied for first with a 9-8 record. 4/24 5-2 L to the Braves John Denny (1-2) got beat up good again. He allowed 10 hits and 5 runs in 5 innings of work. Steve Sax missed a bunt attempt then belted a lead off home run. His first and first hit of the year. Doug DeCinces added number 9 in the 4^th to keep it close, but it really wasn't. 4/25 6-0 W over the Braves Frank Tanana (2-1) just pitched the best game of his career. At home against the Braves he surrendered a lead off double to Milt Thompson and then wouldn't allow another hit the entire game. He walked only 1. Both Dwayne Murphy and Steve Sax went 3-4, and Sax added 3 RBI's. His game is the top pitching performance in MLB to date this year. 4/26 8-3 W over the Braves Well Kelly Downs finally has his first career win in 3 years of professional baseball. Almost 120 innings pitched in that time. Steve Sax scored a couple runs and got on base 3 out of 4 plate appearances and stole the teams league worst 3^rd base of the year. Doug DeCinces became the first player to 10 home runs, and the month isn't over yet. We're still in a tie for first, which sounds crazy, because it doesn't feel like it. 4/27 1-0 (15) L to the Pirates What a fucked up game. The Pirates started Gene Garber, who being a reliever, you'd think wouldn't fare all that well. Except, LA was swinging at everything. Garber threw 72 pitched in 7.2 innings of work and allowed 9 hits. Valenzuela threw 9 shutout innings. Twice LA had the bases loaded in extra innings with 1 out and failed to score. LA left 14 runners on the Pirates 13. Niedefeur (1-2) took the loss although he pitched well. Dwayne Murphy popped 3 hits. Suckage. Jim Morrison was claimed off of waivers by the Padres. LA claimed OF Mike Fuentes off of waivers from the Giants and optioned Beyers and his Major League Dream back to AAA. Fuentes has played for the Expos and Giants. He's a 27 yr old, right handed bat with a career .229 avg and 29 career HR's. He plays all the outfield positions, but none of them very well and his best attribute is that you could say he's patient at the plate. 4/28 6-1 W over the Pirates Rick Rhoden (4-0) stays perfect and lowers his ERA to 1.54, going the distance tonight. LA was powered, once again, by the longball. Tonight it was Roy Smalley hitting his first of the year, and Franklin Stubbs providing the cushion with his 8^th. LA is one of the worst hitting teams in the NL, yet they lead the league in homers. 4/29 2-0 W over the Cubs John Denny (2-2) throws 8 innings of 1 hit ball tonight and looks like he was back in his old form after a few horrendous starts. John Franco pitched the 9^th for his 4^th save. LA lost Steve Sax after he appeared to hurt himself after he threw the ball. He complained of tightness in his back. He might be rested until it heals, as he is day to day. 4/30 1-0 W over the Cubs Frank Tanana (3-1) has just done that only a very small handfull of pitchers have every done. That is, throw back-to-back 1 hitters. Tonight, he once again, had his stuff working. He struck out 9 and again, the only hit he allowed was in the first. This time to the 2^nd batter, Ryne Sandberg. His game score was even better than his last one, giving him now, both the top 2 pitching performances of 1986. Doug DeCinces got the RBI when he knocked in Sax. Great way to finish the month. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

06-30-2017, 09:11 PM	#82
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	5/2 10-1 W over the Cardinals Hey! Kelly Downs (2-2) wins again! He did have a little bit of help though. No need to do all the heavy lifting. LA crushed 4 more home runs. DeCinces picked right up with a 3-run homer in the first to get us going (11). Roy Smalley got #2 in the 3^rd. Then Stubbs (8) and Marshall (3) went back to back in the 5^th. Floyd Bannister (2-2) never knew what hit him. Well, that's not totally fair. Bannister gave up the first 2, and Ex-Dodger, Milt Wilcox gave up the back to back shots. Both Marshall and DeCinces went 3-5. Vida Blue was activated and sent to Albuquerque for rehab. 5/3 3-2 W over the Cardinals Two out in the 9^th, down by 1, LA got 4 singles and a hit batsman and won the game. Both Ron Kittle and Larry Parrish had pinch hit singles to put LA over the top. Valenzuela struck out 10 in 8 innings, and John Franco (1-0) picked up the win. LA had 0 extra base hits. 5/4 4-2 W over the Cardinals Graig Nettles, playing 2^nd base, goes 4-5 in an odd role leading off. It worked out. Roy Smalley cleared the bases with a double in the 7^th inning. The Cards Mike Smithson pitched the best game of his life. For his career he averages about 5 K's per 9 innings. He struck out 10 in 6.2 innings today. Rhoden (5-0) lowered his ERA to 1.47 as he got his 5^th win. Franco served up a dinger, but got his 5^th save. 5/6 9-3 (8) W over the Cubs A rain shortened win for LA tonight. Both Mike Marshall and Doug DeCinces had 3 hits . Marshall hit his 5^th homer, and Dwayne Murphy hit his first of the year. John Denny (3-2) went 7 and allowed 3 in a qualtiy start. 5/7 7-1 W over the Cubs Frank Tanana (4-1) pitched his 3^rd straight complete game, and came thiiiiiis close to extending his scoreless inning streak to 27 innings. As it was, it ended at 24. Mike Scioscia hit a bases loaded double to clear the bases and break the game open. Steve Sax got on base 4 times in 5 plate apprearances. LA has won 8 straight games. 5/8 4-3 W over the Cubs That's 9 in a row now. This is a fun run. Valenzuela (3-2) worked an efficient 8 innings of work, but wasn't overpowering. We were down 3-1 going into the 8^th when Roy Smalley blased a 2-run shot (3) to tied the game, and in the 9^th it was another blast by Sid Bream (2) that gave us the winning run. John Franco pitched another great 9^th for his 6^th save. Vida Blue has been called back from his rehab assignment. He had 1 start where he went 7.1 for the win. He struck out 8 and walked 7. Kelly Downs was optioned back to Albuquerque. 5/9 3-1 L to the Expos Of course, it's a road game against the Expos that cools us off. Rick Reuschel (3-2) handles us with ease. Rick Rhoden (5-1) takes his first loss, but had to spread out 10 hits just to keep it close. Sax went 2-4. Fred Lynn was activated from the DL. He was placed on the main roster. To make room, Mike Fuentes was placed on waivers and designated. (1-5, 3G). 5/10 4-3 (14) W over the Expos Two out in the 9^th and Dwayne Murphy put a ball into the center field seats (2) off of Jeff Reardon. It was Reardon's first blown save in 11 chances this year. Vida Blue and Nolan Ryan started and combined for 16 K's over 13.2 innings. After that it was a battle of the bullpens. BJ Surhoff singled, took 2^nd on a Sax sac bunt, then scored on a Fred Lynn single through the middle to give us the go ahead run. Lynn was 2-6 with an RBI. Ken Howell (1-1) got the win. 5/11 10-1 L to the Expos This game was over in the first inning. LA got the bases loaded with no outs and David Palmer got out of it with 2 strikeouts and a groundout. John Denny (3-3) got in the same position and ended up giving up 8 runs, including a grand slam to Paul Molitor. Could have called the game right there. Steve Sax went 4-4. Tony Phillips was activated off the DL and sent to Albuquerque for rehab. 5/13 4-3 L to the Cardinals LA got Fernando (3-3) a 3-1 lead and he couldn't hold it. Doug DeCinces has been just as cold as he was hot, but he cracked his league leading 12^th HR. Roy Smalley hit number 4. Otherwise, that's all the O that we could manage. 5/14 6-2 W over the Cardinals Steve Sax is hot. He went 3-5 and knocked in 2 in the win. Stubbs went 3-4 and hit number 9, a solo shot, in the 8^th to pile on. Rhoden (6-1) worked hard through 6 and the Howell and Franco kept the Cards from making a comeback. Mike Fuentes was claimed by the A's. His 3^rd team this year. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

07-02-2017, 07:26 AM	#83
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	/16 2-1 W over the Mets Not really sure where Tanana has found his good stuff, but he's got it right now. Tanana (5-1) goes 7.1, and Franco came on in a high leverage situation to get out of trouble. LA didn't get a hit until the 6^th inning. In the 7^th, down 1-0, Stubbs hit a 2-run homer (10) to give us the winning margin. Franco got his 7^th save. Tony Phillips was recalled from his rehab stint. To make room, Graig Nettles was placed on waivers and designated for assignment. 5/17 9-8 W over the Mets LA lead 6-0 after 2 innings. Fred Lynn finally hit his first HR of the year. It's about goddamn time. Mike Marshall hit a grand slam in the 2^nd inning. That was his 6^th. So it was blown open, however...John Denny was pitching. He got hurt in the 5^th and was taken out. Jim Beattie lraised his ERA to 11.57 by allowing 3 in 2 innings. The Mets came back with 3 in the 7^th, another 2 in the 8^th and another in the 9^th as the bullpen just sucked. In the bottom of the 9^th the Mets brought on Roger McDowell. He's been perfect all year long, until now. He allowed 3 hits and 3 walks in an incredible show of offense by LA on the ropes. We had to score 3 to win, and the win came on a bases loaded walk. Tony Phillips' first game back he went 3-4. Denny will be alright. It's a slight abdominal strain and he isn't expected to miss any time. 5/18 7-3 W over the Mets Fred Lynn is starting to wake up. He went 2-3 with a 3-run homer (2) and 4 RBI's today. Stubbs added #11 an inning later. Valenzuela (4-3) went 8.1, striking out 8 and walking 5. He was doing better until he served up a Kevin Mitchell 2-run shot (12) in the 8^th inning. The Dodgers drew 5 walks off of Walt Terrell (2-4) including 3 in the first to load the bases. 5/20 5-0 W over the Expos Well pitched game from Rhoden as he wins his league leading 7^th game to go to 7-1. He walked none, gave up 8 hits and struck out 8. LA was able to do all the damage on Rick Reuschel (3-3) in the first 4 innings. Mike Marshall earned player of the game, going 3-4 with his 7^th HR of the game. Tony Phillips hit a 2-run shot, that was his first of the year. Rhoden lowered his ERA to 1.68 and Franco pitched a scoreless 9^th to lower his to 0.47. Graig Nettles was claimed by the Reds. So he is gone. He went 4-8 this year coming off the bench for us. 5/21 3-2 W over the Expos Just like last time, Ryan Express (3-3) and Frank Tanana (6-1) went toe to toe. Both pitchers went 8 innings and combined for 14 strikeouts this time. Tanana got the better end of the day however. LA only managed 6 baserunners the entire game, but made the most of what they did have. Doug DeCinces hit his 13^th, a solo shot in the 3^rd. Franco pitched the 9^th for his 8^th save. Jim Morrison has been on fire for the Padres. Since he was let go on waivers he is batting .355 in 23 games, with 4 HR's, a .380 OPB, and .527 SLG. He's starting at third for the Padres. 5/22 2-0 L to the Expos Charlie Liebrandt (3-1) shuts us down again. This offseason we just didn't overcome that weakness to lefties. Even so-so lefties. Liebrandt is better than so-so, but he looks way better when he's playing against us. LA left 8 guys on base tonight, and only Tony Phillips got more than 1 hit. It was a good start for John Denny (3-4), but with no offense how are we supposed to win? 5/23 10-3 L to the Phillies Philly put up 8 runs on Valenzuela (4-4) in the 6^th inning and the game was over. He just couldn't get out of the inning as the hits and walks just kept coming. All in all Fernando allowed 11 hits and 3 walks in 5.1 innings of work. One of his shortest outings of the year. Mike Marshall hit a solo-homer (8) in the 4^th to top a 2-3 day. 5/24 4-1 L to the Phillies One thing should be said. The Phillies are the worst team in the NL East. Having said that, how can we play like this against a team like that? The Phillies sent Rodger Cole (1-0) to the mound today. He was making his major league debut, and boy did he have a good day. He only needed to go 5.1 before he was lifted, but he struck out Sax to start the game. Then he not only got a hit in his first career at bat, he got another in his second. He also got his first career RBI. What could we hope to do against a guy with a 30-34 record and a 5.95 ERA in AAA? Vida Blue (0-1) took the loss and looked every bit a 5 starter. Mike Marshall went 3-4 to power our non-existent offense. 5/25 5-1 W over the Phillies Rhoden (8-1) had 9 strikeouts in 7.1 innings of work and kept his ERA below 2. Doug DeCinces went 2-3 and Franklin Stubbs hit a massive 3-run homer that put LA up in the first inning. It was Stubbs 12^th home run of the year. 5/27 4-1 W over the Mets No idea what's gotten into Frank Tanana but I like it. Tanana had another shot at a shutout, but it got away in the 9^th. He gets the win and runs his record to 7-1 on the year and his ERA to 1.91. Steve Sax went 4-5 and DeCinces hit his 14^th HR, another solo homer, in the 4^th. Franco came on to lock the game down for his 9^th save on the year. 5/28 3-1 (11) W over the Mets Ron Darling owned LA today, striking out 8 in 8 innings of work. Valenzuela nearly matched him pitch for pitch except for 7 walked, including walking in the go ahead run. The Mets turned it over to Roger McDowell and we got to him right away. Back to back doubles by Smalley and Bream tied it up. In the 11^th Steve Sax had a 2-out single off of Orosco (0-3) to plate 2 and then John Franco came in again and locked it down for the 10^th time. 5/29 14-5 L to the Mets The Mets are the most explosive team in baseball, and if they can find some pitching could really challenge the Expos and I'm not saying that lightly. Strawberry smacked 2 HR's for his league leading 16^th homer. They've got a very talented and very young team. Marshall and Sax went 2-5 each, and John Denny (3-5) did his best Jim Beattie impression allowing 7 in 3 innings of work. John Denny said after the game, “Blame it on the rain, that was fallin', fallin'.” 5/30 6-5 L to the Pirates What a wacky game. Rick Rhoden took a no-hitter into the 6^th. Rhoden was clinging to a 1-0 lead in the 8^th when the Pirates erupted for 4 runs to take the lead. Tom Henke came on and with 2 outs, LA put together 4 straight hits, that ended with a Dwayne Murphy 3-run HR to give us the lead again, 5-4. Franco (1-1) came on in the 9^th and gave up a couple hits and a walk. The Pirates tied the game then loaded the bases, Franco then struck out 2, and with 2 out, he walked in the winning run. 5/31 4-2 L to the Pirates Vida Blue (0-2) pitched better than his last time out, going 7 innings, but he got bit by the gopher ball, first to Dave Hengel, who's first career hit, happened to be that dinger, and then by Johnny Grub, a 3-run shot that gave the Pirates the winning margin. LA threatened in the 9^th, but couldn't break through on Gene Garber. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

07-02-2017, 07:24 PM	#84
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	May Recap This was a great month. The best month that we've had in a long time. The team turned in a 17-9 record , pushing us to 30-19 on the year. That's good enough for first place by 1.5 over the Astros, for now. It could've been even better if we hadn't dropped our last 3 games. This team has been a strange one. Our record at home is 22-5, while our road record is 8-14. We're pretty much as good against lefties as righties. I'm not really sure how our season is turning out right now, but I have a theory. Every team in the NL West is .500 or better. The last place Braves are only 5.5 games behind us, so a bad run and we could be looking up very, very far. I think we did well this month because we played a lot of teams from the weaker East. We beat up on them, and we took a break on the West teams. We might not be as good as we thought we were. The strength of this team right now is on the mound. Up until the last couple days, we were first in every single pitching metric in the NL. The only one's that we are in 2^nd in right now are starters ERA, and hits allowed. Oh, and we're 3^rd in K's. Everything else is tits. Then there's the field. Goodness. This is a power team. All power, all homeruns, all the time, and we play in a pitchers park. LA is 2^nd in the NL for HR's powered by DeCinces and Stubbs. We got guys back who had been hurt and I think that helped too. The glaring shortcoming though is that this team is the worst team in avg, and we're 11^th in nearly every other hitting stat. It's really incredible that we are even having any success at all. Thank god for pitchers. If they stop performing we're going to really be screwed. We're still the best defensive team in the NL. May was the month for both Steve Sax and Mike Marshall. These guys were the best players. Sax roared up from the minors to hit .330/.405/.379. He added 14 stolen bases and is the only real speed threat on the team. He is really helping us to forget Randolph. If he can keep this kind of performance. If Sax set the table, Marshall did the heavy lifting. For May, Marshall was .352/.379/.565 with 5 HR's and 18 RBI's. It's a nice rebound from his crappy April. On the downside, we've got a ton of guys who are really not pulling any weight at all. From Scioscia (.155/.268/.226), to Bream (.167/.237/.226), to Fred Lynn (.246/.324/.361). Even Doug DeCinces crashed out in May (.240/.307/.375 and 4 HR's). You know the pitching staff had a good month. None better than Tanana. Tanana won the NL Pitcher of the Month. He was 5-0 with an ERA of 1.08 in his 5 starts. The best month of his career. I hope he never slows down. John Denny might have had the worst. Denny went 1-3 with an 8.25 ERA in 5 starts. In the pen it was Alejandro Pena who wasn't doing so well. In 5 games, he allowed 3 HR's, the same number of strikeouts, and posted a 7.27 ERA. As we turn toward June, the team has to decide if the starters that aren't performing are worth keeping on, or if it's time to move on. Scioscia's only saving grace is his arm. He was great last year, and he's terrible with the bat this year. BJ Surhoff is getting regular playing time, but it's clear that pitchers like Scioscia better. There's really nobody in the minors who might be getting called up, based on performance. There's not a lot of high level talent down there and the talent that is there is in the outfield, which as we can see, isn't short of talent. So that means that maybe there's some trades on the horizon. LA has the 3^rd highest payroll and a few million to spare even now. There's room for more, at the moment. I'm sure the GM is just itching to move the rest of those 2 star prospects. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

07-02-2017, 08:13 PM	#85
BYU 14 Coordinator Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: The scorched Desert	Tanana has had a real rebirth this season and just crazy you technically have three closers in the bullpen, you should never give up a lead after 7.

07-06-2017, 09:16 PM	#87
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	6/1 7-6 (10) L to the Pirates LA and Tanana wasted a 6-1 lead. Lasorda left Tanana in too long, when he should have gone to his big bullpen and it cost us the game. Niedenfeur (2-3) was victimized by a Tony Phillips error in the 10^th that gave the Pirates the life they needed. DeCinces hit number 15. Tough to get swept on the road by the worst team in the NL East. 6/2 6-5 L to the Phillies Another disheartening loss. Valenzuela was rolling and we were on our way. Fred Lynn and DeCinces went back to back with solo home runs, #3 and #16 respectively. The Phills grabbed one back in the 7^th and came on in the 8^th. Ken Howell was brought in and gave up runs that put the Phillies ahead. LA tied it up in the 9^th, but it was the bat of Rudy Law, in the bottom of the 9^th. Yes, Rudy Law, 12 career HR's, who put it over the left field fence to walk off for the Phillies. Unreal. 6/3 5-3 W over the Phillies I'm glad we didn't drop a 6^th straight to a lowly team. John Denny (4-5) went 7 to get the win. Franco pitched the last 2 innings for his 11^th save. LA got a good game from Marshall, who was 3-4 and Phillips who was 2-4. 6/4 10-2 W over the Phillies We bashed out 18 hits against Phillies pitching. Think about this, our 3-4 hitters combined for 2-10. Everyone else got in the game. Sax had 4, Phillips and Scioscia had 3 each. Bream scored 3 times. Scioscia had 3 RBI's. Tony Phillips hit his 2^nd HR of the year, in the 4^th inning. Rhoden goes 7.2 and gets his 9^th win (9-1). 6/5 9-6 L to the Astros Houston pounded out 21 hits and the 2 teams combined for 33 hits in the game. No way this game took under 3 hours, it felt like 4.5. Vida Blue (0-3) takes the loss and allowed 13 hits and 7 runs in 4 innings of work. Jim Beattie came in and kept that run going, allowing another 5 in 2.2. LA went yard back to back again. This time it was a Stubbs 2-run homer (13) followed by a Bream (3) solo shot. Vida Blue's game score was 7. 6/6 7-5 W over the Astros Tanana went 8, but revisited his old issue, gopher balls in the first. Benito Santiago touched him for 3, and we were behind all day. It wasn't until the bottom of the 6^th that we pulled back in front. Sid Bream hit a triple to tie it. Later it was BJ Surhoff with a 2-run single. He was 3-4 for the day. Tanana goes to 8-1, and Franco gets his 12^th save. Vida Blue was put on waivers and designated for assignment. Kelly Downs was recalled to take his place. That didn't take long. 6/7 3-2 W over the Astros Valenzuela (5-4) struck out 8 in 7 innings, but had to scatter 9 hits. LA fell behind 2-0 early on, but a Lynn HR (4) and a Bream 2-run shot (4) gave us all the runs we needed. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th for his 2^nd save. 6/8 3-0 (13) L to the Astros John Denny and Jeff Sellers threw over 18 innings of shut out ball. LA only had 6 hits the entire game and Mike Marshall had 2 of them. One of his hits was the only extra base hit for LA too. LA turned 4 double plays, 2 of them with a runner on third to get out of an inning. It was lucky that we held on that long. Niedenfeur (2-4) took the loss when the Astros got to him. 23yr old, Ex-Dodgers prospect, Sid Fernandez threw a no-hitter against the Rangers. He's 8-2, with a 2.36 ERA this year. So Cy Young, no now hitter for Fernandez. Former Dodgers, Bobby Grich and Tony Bernazard are 1-2 for 2^nd base AL All Star voting. Also, both Sid Fernandez and Orel Hersheiser are among top vote getters. 6/9 7-5 L to the Reds Fred Lynn hit 2 HR's, one outside the park and one inside the park. Let me say, it was impressive for a 34 yr old outfielder. Rick Rhoden (9-2) took the loss and served up 3 HR's in his 5 innings of work, 2 to Eric Davis (15) and one to former Dodger Dave Anderson (3). Steve Sax also went deep for LA (2). By the end of the third, LA had come back from being down 5-1 to tie the game, but the Reds would score in the 5^th (Davis HR) and Beattie gave up another in the 8^th to secure it for Cincinnati. Vida Blue didn't have to travel far. He was claimed by the Reds off of waivers. 6/10 4-2 L to the Reds Fred Lynn went 3-4 with another HR, his 7^th of the year. The rest of the team only had 3 hits all together. Kelly Downs took the loss (2-3), but he didn't pitch poorly. The offense just didn't pick him up. 6/11 10-4 W over the Reds It didn't take long to see Vida Blue in a new uni. He pitched today, and was really good, for 5 innings. In the 6^th, down 2-1, the Dodgers put on a hit parade and posted 6 runs to take the lead. Tanana (9-1) once again, would get good run support, even if he didn't dominate. He struck out 8 in 7.1, but allowed another 3 HR's. Sid Bream had LA's only homer, his 5^th in the 2^nd inning off of Blue. Both Bream and Dwayne Murphy went 2-4 with 2 runs and 2 RBI's. It would have been really, really embarrassing if Blue would have beaten us today. 6/13 5-4 L to the Padres LA, behind Valenzuela had a 4-2 lead, but Lasorda stuck with his ace a little too long and it cost him. The Padres tied the game up in the 7^th and the Dodger bullpen, as good as they are, couldn't hold it. Ken Howell pitched the 9^th and needed a cannon from Mike Marshall in right to nail Ozzie Guillen at third. With a runner on first, and 2 out, Tony Gwynn hit one to the gap, that rolled to the wall and scored the winning run. Booo. Howell, falls to 1-3. 6/14 5-3 W over the Padres The top of the order went 7-15, we pounded out 11 hits off of Jimmy Key. Meanwhile, Rick Rhoden went 7 strong to get his 10^th win of the year. Ron Kittle finally hit his first homer of the year. It was only his 3^rd hit, and it was his first pinch hit. John Franco pitched the final 2 for his 13^th save. 6/15 3-2 (11) L to the Padres I'm starting to think that when Ken Howell (1-4) comes in to pitch that we will lose. John Denny with another not so shitty start. LA needed HR's by Fred Lynn (8) and Tony Phillips (4) to tie the game. Howell gave up the walk off single to Tony Gwynn. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

07-08-2017, 04:34 PM	#88
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Fred Lynn picked up the player of the week award in the NL with 4 HR's in a week and a .526 avg. 6/17 5-4 L to the Braves Man, these one run losses are really piling up. This is the 3^rd in 4 games. The last few years these have been our wins. It also looks like my theory on this team is starting to hold true. The NL West is stronger, and we do well beating up on the East teams, but back in the 'hood, we struggle. Old friend, Candy Maldonado hit an 8^th inning HR off of Frank Tanana (9-2) that put the Braves up for good. It had looked like LA was going to win on the backs of a Mike Marshall 2-run HR (9) and another Tony Phillips solo homer (5). Tanana gave up 3 more HR's. That's 15 on the year, in just over 100 innings of work. Braves rookie thirdbasemen, Criag Worthington got his first career HR today. It raised his season avg to .087. 6/18 4-0 W over the Braves Valenzuela (6-4) went 8.2 and was yanked an out prior to his shutout. Valenzuela got some good defensive support, including a big throw from Marshall to the plate. Fred Lynn knocked his 9^th HR of the year, a 3-run blast that opened the game up. Sid Bream went 2-4. 6/19 4-2 W over the Braves Stubbs smashed a 400+ft, 2-run HR in the 6^th inning that gave the Dodgers the lead, and Mike Marshall went 2-4 in the winning effort. Rick Rhoden pitched 7 and moved his record to 11-2, while John Franco pitched the final 2 innings again for his 14^th save of the year. The Braves Jim Deshaies left the game in the 2^nd inning with an injury and the Braves had to rely on 5 guys from the pen to keep it close. Bit of a surprise move in LA. Sid Bream is optioned to Albuquerque, and getting the call up is last years #2 pick (first round sup), Pete Incaviglia. Incaviglia started the year in AA, San Antonia, and has only played 16 games in AAA. Combined, he's hitting .314/.410/.545. He's hit 9 HR's, but only 1 in AAA. We'll see if that translates to the majors, if he gets any playing time. He doesn't play first base, so this is a bit of a strange move, but both Stubbs and Marshall can pick up time there. 6/20 3-2 (10) L to the Padres Wasted a great game by Denny. He went 8, and struck out 6, only allowing 1 run. In the 9^th Lasorda went to Ken Howell. Howell walked RJ Reynolds (this whole Padres team is Ex Dodgers), Bob Brenly (see?) bunted him over, Jim Morrison (yep!) struck out, then Lance Johnson singled Reynolds home to blow the save. Howell would face 1 batter in the 10^th, getting Wiggins to fly out, then left the game with some kind of injury. I honestly breathed a sigh of relief when Neidenfeur came in. Next batter, first pitch, Cecil Cooper drove the ball into the right field pavilion. This game also saw the Major League debut of Pete Incaviglia. He singled in his first at bat, doubled in his second and got his first RBI. He started in left, with Stubbs shifted around to right. Marshall sat. Lasorda started Roy Smalley at first tonight. Doug DeCinces smacked #18 in the first. I thought it was going to be a good night, but our top rated bullpen failed. 6/21 4-1 W over the Padres Kelly Downs (3-3) took all the pressure off the pen by throwing all 9 innings for his first complete game. Mike Scioscia, who has been completely absent this year, found something and went 3-4, with a double. Our AAA franchise, Albuquerque is so bad, that our team ERA leader, Michael Cunningham has a 6.61 ERA. He's tied with the team lead in wins, with 3. His record is 3-9. The team is 16 games under .500, and 20.5 back. This does not look good for our future. 6/22 5-2 W over the Padres Starting pitching FTW! Frank Tanana (10-2) goes the distance and only allowed 1 gopher ball. Ex Dodger Bob Brenly went deep on him in the 2^nd. LA brought it's own power though as Pete Incaviglia hit his first career dinger, a 345-ft shot to left field that plated 2. Doug DeCinces also got in on the act with his own in the 3^rd (19). Ray Knight has taken the starting job at first and went 2-4 batting in the 2 hole. Brewers centerfielder, Mickey Brantley in an 11-5 loss to the Tigers. He hit his HR in the 9^th inning off of Doug Bair. Brantley is a .249 hitter this year with 9 HR's. Incaviglia was optioned back to Albuquerque and Bream was recalled. Bummer. Looked like that was a positive move to be made. Bream hasn't done shit this year. 6/23 5-2 L to the Braves What a waste!!!! Valenzuela pitched the game of the year and we lose?!?!?! Fernando pitched 8 and struck out 15 Braves batters. He left with the game tied at 2. John Franco (1-2) came on in relief. The leadoff hitter reached on a Tony Phillips error, then he walked the next batter. The third batter, Dave Meijer smacked the ball into the right field pavilion (3) to give the Braves the lead for good. So sad. Valenzuela had struck out 10 through 5. He was really something today. 6/24 3-1 W over the Braves Steve Sax went 3-4 with 2 RBI's, his 3^rd HR and 22^nd stolen base. He supports Rick Rhoden who pitched 6.2 and struck out 7 while allowing 9 hits. Rhoden raises his record to 12-2 and lowers his ERA to 2.21. Both Ken Howell and Tom Niedenfeur pitched and we didn't lose! Alejandro Pena pitched the 9^th for his first save of the year. 6/25 1-0 L to the Braves John Denny and Braves rookie John Mitchell (2-5) went toe to toe in this dual. Denny was pulled after 7 shutout innings and Mitchell pitched 8. LA could only muster 2 hits all game. Atlanta scored in the top of the 9^th inning off of Tom Niedenfeur (2-6). With 2 outs, Milt Thompson beat out a ground ball and got on first. Then Gerald Perry took a ball deep to the fence and the speedy Thompson scored. Another 1 run loss on the bullpen. Woof. 6/27 4-1 W over the Astros Frank Tanana's All-Star season continues as he goes 8 and allows only 4 hits. Of course, 1 of those was a Bill Madlock HR (4), but he did lower his ERA to 2.73. LA had 2 of their own, of course, because we can't score any other way. This a Mike Scioscia 3-run homer (3) in the 2^nd and Sid Bream solo shot (6) in the 6^th. 6/28 8-5 L to the Astros Fernando (6-5) got rocked early and took an early shower during the 5^th. He allowed 11 hits, and was on the hook for 7 of the runs. We hit Tom Candiotti (9-6), sort of. I mean, he threw a few wild pitches and we scored 4 on 3 hits. Steve Sax and Doug DeCinces both went 2-4 and DeCinces hit #20, a solo shot, because of course it was. 6/29 10-3 L to the Astros Rick Rhoden (12-3) was off his game. He was touched for 10 hits in 4 innings and we had to experience Jim Beattie and and Alejandro Pena. Dale Murphy went deep twice (12,13) and Rick Sutcliffe (3-7) allowed 11 baserunners, but we just couldn't get anything in. Stubbs went deep in the 4^th for number 15, another solo shot. 6/30 7-3 W over the Reds John Denny (5-5) went the distance with 7 strikeouts. We went against Vida Blue (1-5) again and again we got the better of him. Both Stubbs (16) and Marshall (10) hit solo home runs (dang this is a real problem). They also carried the team going 6-9 with 4 runs and 4 RBI's. The Reds have hit 20 more HR's than we have and have scored over 400 to our 300 runs this year. Their offense is just head and shoulders over ours. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam