First-Year Players – 2000 to 2010

                       2000 marked Davey Johnson’s second year as manager. In November, GM Malone shook up the roster by trading former ROY Raul Mondesi and Pedro Borbon to the Blue Jays for Jorge Nunez, and Shawn Green. In December, he sent Ismael Valdez and Eric Young to the Cubs for Terry Adams and 2 minor leaguers. He signed Mike Fetters and Adam Melhuse and Orel Hershiser as free agents in December. At the end of the month, he signed Jeff Branson. In Jan he signed free agents, Gregg Olson, F.P. Santangelo, Kevin Elster, Chad Kreuter, and Willy Aybar.

                    Just before spring training, he signed Geronimo Berroa and Chris Donnels. Then on the 1st of April, he sent Juan Castro to the Reds for a minor leaguer. They drafted Koyie Hill and Shane Nance in June. They traded Vizcaino to the Yankees in June for Jim Leyritz, and released Orel. In July, they traded Jamie Arnold and Jorge Piedra to the Cubs to get Ismael Valdez back. Then on deadline day they traded two minor leaguers and Todd Hollandsworth to the Rockies for Tom Goodwin and cash.

                 They started off 28-22 in April and May, went 13-15 in June, 29-27 in August and July, and finished with a 16-11 September. But they never really threatened the Giants who won the west by 11 games.

                Todd Hundley had a better season behind the plate hitting .284,24, 70. Karros was .250, 31, 106. Grudzielanek, .279, 7, 49. Rookie Alex Cora took over as the SS most of the time going .238, 4. 32. 21-year-old Adrian Beltre had a good .290, 20, 85 line. Sheffield, .325, 43, 109. Hollandsworth before the trade, .234, 8, 24. And Green in his first year in LA, .269,24,99. Kreuter hit .264 as the backup catcher with 6,28. Elster got into 80 games and although he only hit .227, he added 14 HR’s and 32 RBI’s, Goodwin got into 56 games, Santangelo, 81. Dave Hansen was in 102 games and hit .289 with 8 HR’s and 26 RBI’s mostly as a PH. Paul LoDuca got into 34 games. Most of the bench were 30 years or older. Hiram Bocachica got into 8 games and at 24, he was the youngest bench player.

      Brown was 13-6, Park, 18-10, Dreifort, 12-9, Perez, 5-8, and rookie Eric Gagne joined the rotation and went 4-6. Shaw saved 27, Herges, making his first extended MLB time, went 11-3 out of the pen. Adams was 6-9, Osuna, 3-6, and Fetters 6-2. Valdez lost his only 3 decisions, Hershiser went 1-5 before his release and rookie Luke Prokopec was 1-1.

     It was a tic better than 1999, but you could tell there would be some changes in 2001.

                                           2001

                Robert Daly had purchased a minority share of the Dodgers in 2000. He was basically running the team for Fox. Malone decided to can Johnson after 2 seasons, a 163-161 mark, and hired Jim Tracy to be the new manager.

             In December, he signed Andy Ashby, Phil Hiatt, Jim Morris, Matt Whisenant, Scott Service, Giovanni Cararra as free agents. He made no trades at the winter meetings. He signed Tim Bogar and brought back Ramon Martinez and Jesse Orosco as free agents. He then signed Jeff Reboulet. They traded Devon White to the Brewers for Marquis Grissom and Ruddy Lugo in February. Ramon Martinez was released at the end of spring training along with Santangelo, and Orosco.

                Then in early April in San Diego, Malone went after a fan who was verbally abusing Gary Sheffield. He resigned a few days later, and Dave Wallace, former pitching coach was named interim GM. They traded for outfielder McKay Christenson in July. In July they also traded for Mike Twombley, Terry Mullholland, and James Baldwin in separate deals Usually for minor leaguers.

            They went 30-23 in Apr and May. 31-23 in June and July, but they slumped to 21-28 in August and September before finishing 4-2 in October. They finished 86-76 in 3rd place, 6 games behind the Diamondbacks.

           The season finished late because of the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11th. Everyone was pretty shaken up about the whole thing. But instead of canceling the season, the government wanted baseball to go on as a form of healing.

          LoDuca took over as the #1 catcher and went .320,25, 90. Karros, now 33 had a down year, .235, 15, 63. Grudzy as he was known, .271, 13, 55. Cora, .217, 4, 29. Beltre, .265, 13, 60. Sheffield, .311, 36, 100. Grissom, .221, 21, 60. And Green, .297, 49, 125. He set the all-time Dodger HR mark. He also hit 4 in a game in Milwaukee. Cora was in there more for his defense.

           Goodwin was in 105 games, Reboulet, 94. Kreuter, still the backup, 73. Hansen was in 92, but his production dropped way off. Bocachica got into 75 games hitting .233. Christenson hit .327 in limited play. Bruce Aven and Bogar both hit .333 in limited action. Beltre was not a rookie, but at age 22 was the youngest starter.

        Park led the staff with 15 wins, Adams added 12, Gagne, 6, Prokopec, 8, Brown won 10, and Dreifort 4. Shaw was outstanding out of the pen saving 43. Herges went 9-8. Carrara won 6. Baldwin as a spot starter went 3-6. Ashby won his only 2 starts before being injured.

                                              2002

         Adams, Baldwin, Orosco, Park, and Shaw all became free agents. They traded for Omar Daal. They traded Prokopec and a minor leaguer to the Jays for Cesar Izturis and Paul Quantrill. In December they traded two minor leaguers to the Indians and got Dave Roberts. Then in January of 2002 came the big trade, Sheffield to the Braves for Brian Jordan, Odalis Perez, and a minor leaguer.

         They signed a bunch of free agents in February, most notably the Japanese import, Kazuhashi Ishii. They traded Nunez and Herges to the Expos in March for Guillermo Mota and Wilkin Ruan. Goodwin and Trombley were released before the season.

      In June, their draft picks included, James Loney, Jonathan Broxton, Delwyn Young, Eric Stults, and Russell Martin. They got Jolbert Cabrera in a trade with the Indians in July. They traded Bocachica to the Tigers and got Jason Frasor, and then sent Mulholland and 2 others to the Indians for Paul Shuey.

          Even though they won 6 more games going 92-70, they finished 3rd to the D-Backs and Giants. They started well at 31-23. Then had a great June going 19-8. They stayed in 1st place until the 16th of July and never threatened again.

          LoDuca’s stats dipped, .281, 10, 64. Karros rebounded in BA at .271, but his power was down 13, 73. Grudzy dipped to .271,9, 50 line. Izturis supplied superior defense, but not much else. Beltre dipped to .257,21, 75. Jordan was .285,18,80. Roberts, .277,3,34 with great outfield defense, and Green was .285, 42, 114.

           Grissom raised his avg to .277, 17, 60. Cora had his best year with the bat, .291, 5, 28. Hansen rebounded with a .292 mark, Kreuter .263. Mike Kinkade got into 35 games and hit .380. Cabrera .333. Rookie Joe Thurston got into 8 games and impressed with a .462 mark. Rookie C, David Ross saw action in 8 games.

          The Dodgers got 5 HR’s out of their pitching staff. Perez was 15-10, Nomo, 16-6 in his return, Ashby, 9-13, Daal, 11-9, Ishii, 14-10. Gagne was 4-1 out of the pen, but he saved a Dodger record 52 games. Carrara was 6-3, Quantrill, 5-4, Mota, 1-3, Orosco, 1-2. Brown was 3-4 in a year where he only pitched in 17 games. Shuey, 5-2.

                                              2003

            Evans took on double duty as the GM and president. In December he traded Grudzielanek and Karros to the Cubs for Chad Hermanson and Todd Hundley. He signed Larry Barnes, Rodney Myers, and Fred McGriff as free agents. He traded for Daryle Ward and Jason Romano in January. He signed Ron Coomer and Terry Shumpert as free agents and Wilson Alvarez. Shumpert and Carrara were released in March.

         The Padres returned rule 5 pick, Shane Voctorino in May. In June they drafted Chad Billingsly, Xavier Paul, Matt Kemp, Wesley Wright, Lucas May, and AJ Ellis. They also drafted Andy LaRoche and Mark Melancon, but Melancon did not sign. Ricky Henderson came aboard as a free agent in July. They traded Jose Diaz and Victor Diaz to the Mets for Jeromy Burnitz and cash. Bubba Crosby and Scott Proctor went to the Yankees at the deadline for Robin Ventura.

         The Giants were a force that year with Barry Bonds leading the charge, and LA never really had much of a shot finishing 15 1/2 games back. None of the regulars hit over .280. McGriff, Beltre, Burnitz, and Green were the only  regular players in double figures in HR’s, Beltre’s 23 leading the team and Green’s 85 ribbies were high. Ross had 10 dingers in a backup role. Jordan hit .299 in only 66 games. Ventura hit .220 in 49 games. Henderson a paltry .203. None of the younger players made much of an impact at all. Thurston in his second MLB action hit only .200.

       Nomo was 16-13, Brown rebounded at 14-9. Perez 12-12, Ishii, 9-7, Alvarez was 6-2 before he got hurt, and Ashby went 3-10.

      Gagne once again was brilliant out of the pen winning the Cy Young with 55 saves and a 2-3 mark. Mota was 6-3, Quantrill, 2-5, Shuey, 6-4, Dreifort, 4-4 in 10 spot starts. Edwin Jackson debuted and went 2-1.

                                       2004

         The winds of change blew again as Fox sold the team to Frank McCourt. He replaced Daly with Paul DePodesta as GM. DePodesta resigned Ventura. He traded Brown to the Yankees for Yhency Brazoban, Jeff Weaver, and cash. He traded a minor leaguer to the Marlins for Juan Encarnacion. He signed Jose Lima as a free agent. He purchased Jason Grabowski from the A’s and traded Frasor to the Jays for Jayson Werth. He traded Steve Colyer to the Tigers for Cody Ross. Then in April, he traded Franklin Gutierrez to the Indians for Milton Bradley.

     In June they drafted Scott Elbert, Blake DeWitt, Javy Guerra, David Price, who did not sign, and Justin Ruggiano. Logan White was running the scouting staff for LA. They traded for Steve Finley and Brent Mayne at the deadline. They also traded LoDuca, Encarnacion, and Mota to the Marlins for Hee Seop Choi, Bill Murphy, and Brad Penny. Penny would only pitch in 3 games. Choi played in 31 games and hit .161. And they traded Roberts to the Red Sox for a minor leaguer.

     That trade would pay huge dividends to Boston later. They got Elmer Dessens in August. They would go on to win the NL West with a 93-69 mark. They clinched the division on the 2nd of October when Finley hit a walk-off Grand Slam against the Giants.

     They would win only 1 of their playoff games against the Cardinals when Jose Lima, who’s personality had captivated Dodger fans and his cry of Lima Time, with a 4-0 masterpiece over the Cardinals in game 3. Shawn Green hit 3 HR’s in the series, but all of them were solo shots. Werth added two more.

    LoDuca hit .301 that year, 10,49. Green,.266, 28, 86, Cora, .264, 10, 47, Izturis, .288, 4, 62, Beltre, .334, 48, 121, Werth, .262, 16, 47, Bradley, .267, 19, 67, and Encarnacion, .235, 13, 43. Green spent most of the year as the 1st baseman.

     Finley and Jose Hernandez added 13 HR’s apiece off of the bench. Olmedo Saenz hit .279 and added 8 HR’s. No rookies made significant contributions to the offense.

      Weaver went 13-13, Perez was 7-6, Ishii, 13-8, Lima, 13-5, Nomo went 4-11. Gagne added 7 wins and 45 saves, Sanchez was 3-1, Mota, 8-4, Dreifort 1-4, Martin 0-1, Alvarez, 7-6, Brazoban, 6-2. Jackson went 2-1.

                                       2005

         DePodesta signed some minor free agents in December, Ricky Ledee and Elmer Dessens. They lost Victorino to the Phils in the Rule 5 draft. In December he signed Jeff Kent, Wilson Alvarez, Jose Valentine and J.D Drew as free agents.

          In January, Derek Lowe was signed. Shawn Green was sent to the D-Backs for 4 players, Dioner Navarro was the centerpiece of the players coming to LA. Catcher Paul Bako was signed in January as was Scott Erickson. Ishii was traded to the Yankees in March for Jason Phillips. Ross was sold to the Pirates. On the last day of March, they got Pat Mahomes from the Mets.

         In June for the second year in a row, they drafted Luke Hochevar, and for the second time, he did not sign. Ivan DeJesus Jr, Josh Bell, Trayvon Robinson, Scott Van Slyke were all drafted. They did not make any trades at the deadline, but they got Jose Cruz off waivers from the Red Sox.

          After a 15-8 April, they went 32-50 over the next 3 months. They were break-even in August and then were 9-18 in September. They finished 71-91 11 games behind the division-leading Giants in 4th place.

           Jason Phillips did most of the heavy lifting behind the plate, hitting .238, with 10, 55. Choi .253, 15, 42. Kent, .289, 29, 105, Izturis .257, 2, 31 Mike Edwards took over for most of the season at 3rd after Beltre left as a free agent, in 88 games he was .247,3, 15. Ledee got into 102 games with a .278, 7, 39 line, Bradley, .290, 13, 38. Drew came in at .286, 15, 36. Oscar Robles got into 110 games with a .272,5, 34 line. Werth was in 102, .234,7,43. Olmedo Saenz hit .263, with 15, 63.

        Rookie OF, Jason Repko was at .221, 8, 30 in 129 games. Navarro got into 50 games and hit .273. Cruz hit .301 in limited action.  Willy Aybar hit .326 in his debut.

        Weaver was 14-11, Lowe 12-15, Penny 7-9, Houlton 6-9, Perez went 7-8. Brazoban saved 21, Sanchez, 8. Carerra was 7-4. Rookie Hung Chi Kuo got into 9 games.

                                     2006

        DePodesta was fired in October and Ned Colletti hired in November as GM. Colletti’s first trade was Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez to the A’s for Andre Ethier. He also signed Sandy Alomar Jr. the same day.

      He signed Rafael Furcal, Nomar Garciaparra, Bill Mueller, and Kenny Lofton as free agents. In January he signed Bret Tomko, traded Sanchez and Schmoll to the Mets for Tim Hamulack and Jae Wong Seo.

    He signed Aaron Sele and traded Edwin Jackson and a minor leaguer to the Rays for Danys Baez and Lance Carter on the same day in Jan. He signed Takashi Saito in February as a free agent, Choi was taken on waivers by the Red Sox. They drafted 7 players in June, but only 2 signed, Bryan Morris and Clayton Kershaw. They drafted Goldschmidt, but he did not sign. In June they traded Navarro, Seo, and Ruggiano to the Rays for Toby Hall, and Mark Hendrickson.

     Just before the deadline, he picked up Wilson Betemit, Julio Lugo, and Greg Maddux in separate deals. Just before the Sept 1 deadline, he picked up Marlon Anderson from the Phils.

     Grady Little had taken over for Jim Tracy. They were 26-23 after April and May. In June and July, they went 20-32. They rebounded with a 38-19 line from August to the finish. They finished tied with the Padres but were the Wild Card team due to losing the season series to SD.

     Probably the most memorable game came on the 18th of September at Dodger Stadium. Down 4 runs they hit 4 consecutive HR’s to tie the game. Kent off of Adkins, Drew off Adkins, Hoffman relieved, Marin hit one off of him, and Anderson hit another tying the game.

    The Padres scored one to go up 10-9. Then with 1 runner on and no outs in the 10th , Garciaparra took Seanez deep for the 11-10 win. But they were swept by the Mets in the first round of the playoffs and suffered one of the most embarrassing moments in Dodger history when two runners were tagged out at home on the same play.

       Russell Martin took over behind the plate. 282, 10, 65. Garciaparra was the 1st baseman, .303,20, 93. Kent .292, 14, 68 Furcal, .300, 15, 63 Betemit, .241, 9, 24 Ethier hit .308, 11, 55 Lofton, .301, 3, 41 Drew, .283, 20, 100.

       Seanz hit .296 off of the bench with 11, 48. Rookie Matt Kemp was .253, 7, 23. James Loney hit .284 in 48 games. Mueller was injured and only got into 32 games. Alomar and Hall hit .323 and .368 respectively. Marlon Anderson was outstanding with a .375, 7, 15 line. Delwyn Young made his debut in September.

      Lowe was 16-8, Penny 16-9, Sele 8-6, Billingsly 6-4, Hendrickson 2-7, and Maddux was 6-4. Saito was 6-4 with 24 saves. Tomko won 8, Broxton 4 with 3 saves. Baez saved 9.

                                  2007

         Mueller retired due to injuries and went into the front office. Colletti started loading up with free agents, Garciaparra resigned, He signed Juan Pierre and Randy Wolf in November. Dec started with him signing Mike Lieberthal, Jason Schmidt, and Luis Gonzalez.

     Between the end of December and the first of March, he signed 18 players with MLB experience. He traded Elmer Dessens to Milwaukee in March for Dave Clark. They drafted 5 players in June but signed only 2. Chris Withrow would make it to the Dodgers a few years down the line.

     The only trade at the deadline was Betemit to the Yankees for Scott Proctor. But he made a flurry of deals in August, picking up Mark Sweeney, Shea Hillenbrand, Chad Moeller, David Wells, and Esteban Loaiza. None of them helped much as the team dropped to 4th place 8 games back of the D-Backs.

      Kent led the team with 20 HR’s. Loney took over at 1st and hit .331. Martin hit .293 with 19, 87. Neither Furcal nor Garciaparra were as good as they were in 06. Gonzalez hit .278, Pierre, .293, and Ethier in his second season .294,13, 84.

      Matt Kemp seeing his first extended action hit .342, 10, 42. Abreu, LaRoche, and Young saw their first real action, Young hit .382. Korean rookie Chin Lung Hu was in 12 games, and when he got on first for the first time, Charlie Steiner said, I have been waiting 40 years to say this, Hu’s on first!

       Penny 18, Lowe 12, Wolf, 9 Billingsly 12, carried the load. Expensive free agent Jason Schmidt pitched in 5 games before going down with an injury which would completely ruin his time as a Dodger. Saito saved 39 games, but other than that, most of the staff was ineffective most of the time.

                                  2008

           Another winter of change. Little was let go and they hired Joe Torre. In December, Colletti made what would be his second really bad free agent signing when he signed Andruw Jones. They signed Hiroki Kuroda in December, but they made no major trades.

         They signed a bunch of free agents, none of whom made an impact right up until the beginning of the season. In June they had a very active draft signing, Josh Lindblom, Dee Gordon, Nathan Eovaldi, Danny Coulombe, Jerry Sands, and Matt Magill.

        On July 26th, they traded Carlos Santana and Jon Meloan to the Indians for Casey Blake. At the deadline they were part of a 3 team blockbuster that sent LaRoche and Bryan Morris to the Pirates, the Red Sox sent Manny Ramirez to LA, they also sent Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss to the Pirates, and the Pirates sent Jason Bay to Boston.

       That trade changed the direction of the Dodgers and Manny Ramirez would have probably the best 2 months any Dodger player has ever had.

      In August they sent 2 players to the Padres for yep, Greg Maddux for his second stint in blue. They were pretty pedestrian until Manny arrived, then they went 30-24 to win the west.

     They beat the Cubs 3-0 in the division series but lost the NLCS to the Phillies. Their only win came in game 3.

       Ethier led the team with 20 HRs. Manny hit 17 in 53 games hitting a monster .393. Martin, Loney, Kemp, Kent, and Blake were all in double figures. Jones totally flamed out and was released, the team eating his huge contract. Furcal and Nomar battled injuries and were nowhere near the players they had been.

    Left-field became Mannywood and everyone was wearing dreadlocks. AJ Ellis saw his first action. The pitching was ok, Lowe, 14, and Billingsly were the only ones in double figures. Kuroda won 9 and Penny 6. A 20-year-old pitcher out of Texas made his debut and went 5-5… Clayton Kershaw.  Saito saved 18 and Broxton, 14. Maddux was not as good this time and went 2-4. Overall it was a good season. But they were looking to improve and get past the NLCS in 2009.

                                          2009

           16 players opted for free agency by the 12th of November including Penny, Furcal, and Kent. They re-signed Furcal and Blake, Jones was released in January. They signed Wolf, Weaver, Eric Milton, Tanyon Sturtze, Orlando Hudson, and Doug Mientkiewicz in February. Manny strung them along until March and was re-signed.

         They traded Josh Bell and Steve Johnson to the Orioles for George Sherill in July. They signed Vicente Padilla in August and traded Tony Abreu to the D-Backs for Jon Garland. They also traded a minor leaguer to the White Sox for Jim Thome.

        They went 95-67 to win the west by 3 over the Rockies. They went into 1st place on the 19th of April and stayed there the entire year. Ethier led the team in HR’s, 31 and RBI’s, 106. Kemp added 26, 101. Juan Pierre was the only player who appeared in more than 100 games to hit .300.

       Manny was in 104 games and hit .290 with 19 HRs. Xavier Paul made his debut in September getting into 11 games.

       Only Wolf and Billingsly were in double figures. Kershaw and Kuroda won 8. Broxton had 7 wins and 36 saves. Troncoso, 5,6. Sherill was outstanding in 30 games posting a minuscule 0.65 ERA.

        They played the Cardinals in the first round. They swept them with scores of 5-3, 3-2, and 3-1. Weaver, Sherill, and Padilla getting the wins. Andre Ethier was the hitting star with 2 HRs and a .500 avg for the series.

      Then they once again played the Phillies in the NLCS> And again the result was the same, a 4-1 series loss. They lost game one behind Kershaw, 8-5, then won game 2 with Kuo getting the win. Lee shut them out in game 3. Lidge beat Broxton, 5-4 in game 4. Padilla was on the losing end of a 10-4 drubbing in game 5, and they went home again.

                                    2010

          It was a special year for me since I decided to retire in November, but before that, the business of getting ready for the 2010 season was in full swing. Behind the scenes, there were rumblings that McCourt was in serious financial trouble and his marital troubles with his wife were not much help. But Colletti had a roster to build and he had to be creative doing it.

         Logan White returned as the director of scouting after a 3-year absence. 29 players filed for free agency in November. They traded Pierre to the White Sox for 2 pitchers, Jon Link and John Ely in December. Jamie Carroll signed as a free agent.

         In January they signed Jay Gibbons, JD Closser, Nick Green, Russ Ortiz, and Michael Restovich. towards the end of the month they added Ronnie Belliard and Brad Ausmus. Brian Giles was added in February and Garrett Anderson in March. Giles decided to retire at the end of March.

         In the June draft, they got Joc Pederson, Noel Cuevas, Scot Schebler and Shawn Tolleson. They traded 2 minor leaguers to the Royals in July for Scott Podsednik. Then they traded Andrew Lambo and James McDonald to the Pirates for Octavio Dotel and cash, and in a deadline, deal sent 2 minor leaguers and Blake DeWitt to the Cubs for Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot.

       Anderson and Belliard were released. Ramirez who had been suspended for using PEDs was waived and picked up by the White Sox. They paid cash for C Rod Barajas.

      Nothing helped, they slipped to 80-82 and finished 4th in the division. Kemp led the team in HR’s with 28 but hit only .249. Ramirez hit .311 in his 66 games. Ethier hit 23 with a .289 avg. Other than Jamie Carroll, no one was really very good off of the bench. AJ Ellis did get into 44 games.

        Kershaw, at 22 was the staff ace winning 13. Kuroda 11, and Billingsly, 12. Broxton saved 22 and Kuo 12. Lilly won 7 and Jeff Weaver 5 in their returns to the organization.

        What no one knew at the time was that there were some serious storm clouds gathering. Marital discord, financial instability, and a very mad and frustrated fan base were in for big changes over the next couple of years. Some bad, the rest, well just let me say, there was going to be a whole new philosophy of Dodger baseball.