The Miracle Run of the 2018 Dodgers
Sept 28, 2015 9:21:23 GMT -5
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Post by Rooster Cogburn on Sept 28, 2015 9:21:23 GMT -5
18 SEASONS TO OVERNIGHT SUCCESS – THE MIRACLE RUN OF THE 2018 DODGERS
Rebuilding, according to some GMs, is easy. According to others it is painful and prolonged. Everyone generally agrees, however, that it is a GMs choice (usually) to trade vets for draft picks or prospects, stockpile the minors with young talent, TIA minor leaguers, trade some young talent for vets, sign a FA or two, and emerge from the ashes in approximately three years with a contending team. Occasionally a GM holds on to veteran talent too long and can’t come up with the ingredients in the formula above. Those rebuilds take much longer. Los Angeles was past the rebuilding stage when the current GM took over in 2001. It took 18 seasons to field a winning team. That’s not normal and that’s on the management, but that’s what it took in LA.
Here’s what the Dodger rotation looked like in 2001: Chan Ho Park, Ishmael Valdez, Seth Greisinger, Scott Elarton. The rotation was the definition of sad and unimpressive.
The core of the lineup was: Richie Sexson, Dean Palmer and Shawn Green. Others were bench warmers and role players.
Palmer (34 HR, 115 RBI, and .294 BA) and Green (25 HR, 101 RBI, .271 BA) put up good numbers in 2001, but Palmer was 32 years old and his season was a fluke, so only Green was a tradable commodity. LA’s minor league systems were sludge ponds. With nothing to work with, and not much knowledge on how to rebuild in BBSBL, LA traded Green to the New York Mets in exchange for Nate McLouth, Chris Sabo, Josh McKinley and Adam Wainwright. A nice deal to move LA forward, it seemed at the time.
McLouth soon went to the Braves in a package for SP Francisco Cordova and SP Jason Schmidt. Sabo played decently in LA before he was traded to Toronto late in his career, where he had his best season. McKinley got a SEI and the Dodger GM (me) failed to ask for a RNG (I didn’t know the rule – should have “read them, lived them”). McKinley was released by LA and picked up by Boston (I think) and went on to eventually have solid seasons in Cincinnati before retiring before the start of 2018. Wainwright mostly fizzled until the end of his career when his talents increased for a team other than LA. Some GM errors, like signing Carl Everett and then forgetting to protect him in an expansion draft (he got snatched, of course), held the Dodgers down.
That’s an example of 18 years of mediocre deals as they impacted the Dodgers. I’m not going to walk through 18 years of trades and how few, if any, made a difference to a weak and lackadaisical team. Few trades were of any importance or had any significant impact on the Dodgers during those years. What really kept the team in the shadows for all those seasons was that LA’s high draft picks regularly crashed and burned. The game hated LA. Adam Jones took awful PD hits before being traded to the Cubs. Since then his talents have rebounded. Other number 1 and 2 picks lost talent quicker than the Dodgers could afford to reverse it. CL Jokim Soria, SS David Blackburn (Remember him? Neither do I), SP Matt Garza, CF Aaron Hicks, Sp James Tallion, SP Kris Medlen. You may only recall a few of those players because for the most part their talents were nuked by the game and they drifted into minor league bomb shelters or fried in major league fallout. Another blow was losing the number one draft pick one season (SP Clayton Kershaw) to the Phillies because Philadelphia was getting a new general manager.
Only recently has the draft produced talent for Los Angeles, and that talent is now running the bases in Dodger Stadium. Catcher Hugh Dillinger (LA’s 2014 [HASH]1 pick) flirted with the batting title and the OBP league leadership all season. Closer Garrett Stone (LA’s 2017 [HASH]1 pick) saved 32 wins for the Dodgers. Ernie Backus (LA’s 2015 [HASH]1 pick) has developed into a legitimate star, crashing homeruns and knocking in runs unlike many second basemen can do. LA’s 2016 [HASH]1 draft pick and the game’s 2018 Rookie of the Year, shortstop Pete Anders has a league-class glove and can get on base. Infielder/outfielder Travis Demeritte (2013 [HASH]2 pick) and outfielder/DH Dante Bichette, Jr. (2011 [HASH]1 pick) have loads of raw talent that should make a splash in the next season or two. SP Amir Garrett could yet become a top of the rotation pitcher. In the minors, 2B Robert Vasello (LA’s [HASH]1 pick in 2018) is a great defender with a homerun bat. LA will have to find room for him in the next season or two. SP Hector Saldana (Dodgers 2017 [HASH]2 draft pick) is Brilliant in hits and is only 20 years old.
Helping to crystalize the 2018 Dodgers was FA signee Jonathan Papelbon, who was outstanding this season. LA couldn’t have accomplished its 2018 miracle run with that signing.
The trades that brought 3B Chris Taylor, 1B Mike Olt, CF James Gregory, RF Andrew Toles, SP Alex Torres and SP Kason Gabbard are the moves that brought LA out of the nether regions of the league. Five seasons ago LA made a much (and deservedly) criticized trade with Tampa Bay that sent star SS Alberto Morello and CL Rosenthal to the Rays in exchange for a bucket of minor leaguers and a young major league infielder with Brilliant hits. The move was made out of frustration. LA figured it could finish last with or without Morello and Rosey. In exchange came SP Amir Garrett, 3B Chris Taylor, RF Andrew Toles, and SP Chris Anderson. The first three are on the 2018 team, and Anderson was flipped as part of another helpful trade with Arizona.
Garrett developed into a 10 ERA pitcher who is yet to get a steady position in the rotation, but 2019 may be his year.
Toles got solid PD help and became a Brilliant hitter.
Taylor was a Brilliant hitter who has held down third base.
Anderson, along with solid 2B prospect Adam Neth (who recently got a PD with the Diamondbacks to take him to Brilliant hits), went to Arizona before the 2018 season in exchange for SP Alex Torres, who twirled six complete game shutouts for the Dodgers.
Another helpful move was the late season pickup from George and the Reds of CF James Gregory for prospect Matt Sorrels. Gregory fixed the top of the batting order as an established player who gets on base often and steal bases often, as well as plays a solid centerfield.
An earlier trade (2014) of 1B Freddie Freeman and 3B Logan Morrison to the New York Yankees for 1B Mike Olt, CF Marty Dupree and MR/SP Adam Conley has paid dividends. Freeman has had a nice career in the AL, leading the league in doubles this season, but for LA’s part, Olt has provided much needed homerun power and a dependable RBI presence. Conley was 2018’s solid set up reliever with an ERA in the low 2’s until LA gave him four starts late in the season, two of which were good performances but two of which were not, and those two bad outings spiked up his ERA. He’s back in the set-up role now. In mid-season, Dupree went to Boston for LF James Fuller who clobbers right handed pitching, plays great defense in LF and steals bases.
To make the end of a long story short, LA struggled for 18 years to reach .500 and never achieved the goal until this year. As is the structure of miracles, several things converged at the right time to make LA shine for a moment. Spencer’s decision to rebuild the always powerful Giants allowed the Dodgers’ 97 wins to take the division. If SF had contended, the Pacific Division may have had a different ending. Arizona, too, reversed course with the hiatus of Darell’s management, which resulted in Jeff initiating a rebuild of the Diamondbacks. Two steps back made it look like LA took two steps forward. To the Dodgers’ benefit were solid draft picks that didn’t dissolve but developed; trades that brought talent (thanks to the GMs who offered up some of the trades – I didn’t have the foresight to initiate them); a nice FA signing; and a truck load of lucky stars brought LA to its miracle season of 2018.
Defeating Broph’s amazing Oakland A’s, one of the mightiest teams ever assembled in BBSBL, was unimaginable. Beating Greeme’s great San Diego team was unforeseeable. Prevailing over Steve’s perennially powerful Pittsburg Pirates was unconceivable. Can the Dodgers keep it up for a few more seasons? Who knows? A bunch of body parts including old pitchers, young up and comers, and middle of the road relievers got stitched together to bring a new life to LA in 2018. Lightning seldom strikes the same place twice, but it only took one lightning strike to make long-suffering Dodgers fans shout, “It’s alive!”
