The last time out we perused players who between 1958 and 1970 who were first year players and had some or little impact on the season. The 1970’s was the dawn of a new era of Dodger baseball. Before they were over, Walter Alston would retire, and a ball of fire named Tommy Lasorda would inject a new philosophy into the managers chair. It would also usher in the longest running infield that would stay together for 8 seasons.
1971
The 71 season was another good season for the blue. They would finish 89-73, 1 game behind the hated Giants. They were 1 game out for the last 6 games of the season. The Giants matched them win for win. There had been some changes over the winter. Dick Allen and Duke Sims arrived in trades. Bill Buckner became the regular left fielder and had a decent season hitting .277. Bobby Valentine got into 101 games. 22 year old Steve Garvey was in 81, mostly at 3rd. But his days at that position were numbered. Ron Cey got a very small cup of coffee with only 2 at bats as did Tom Paciorek. On the pitching side, rookie Doyle Alexander was 6-6 as a starter. Bob O’Brien went 2-2. And Charlie Hough got into 4 games.
1972
They went 85-70 and finished 2nd again, this time to the Big Red Machine. More off season changes as Allen was sent to the White Sox for Tommy John, and 4 players went to the Orioles for Frank Robinson and Pete Richert. Alexander, O’Brien, Robles and Stillman. Lee Lacy saw extended time at 2nd. Valentine and Buckner got into over 100 games apiece off of the bench. Steve Yeager and Davey Lopes saw their first action. Lopes was 27 at the time. Pitcher Doug Rau made his debut and went 2-2. The winds of change were coming.
1973
The team gained 10 wins going 95-66, and still finished 2nd to the Reds. Ferguson took over as the starting catcher hitting .263 with 25 HR’s and 88 RBI’s. Leading the team in both categories. 3rd baseman Ron Cey, in his first full season added 15 and 80. Garvey saw his first action at 1st base and played in 114 games hitting .304 with 8 and 50. Robinson had been traded with Grabarkewitz, Strahler, Singer, Valentine for Ken McMullen and Andy Messersmith. Jerry Royster debuted. Doug Rau went 4-2 and Geoff Zahn and Eddie Solomon made their debuts.
1974
The improved by 7 wins and won the West. A trade over the winter had brought 32 year old Jimmy Wynn, the Toy Cannon over from the Astros. The cost was long-time Dodger, Claude Osteen and a prospect. Wynn became an immediate favorite. It was the first year of Garvey, Lopes, Russell, and Cey. Steve Yeager was the starting catcher with Joe Ferguson backing him up. Buckner took over in left. Garvey and Wynn drove in 111 and 108 runs respectively. Garvey and Buckner hit over .300. Garvey, Lopes, Cey, Yeager, Crawford and Ferguson all hit HR’s in double digits. Paciorek and Joshua were important pieces off of the bench. Rau joined the rotation and went 13-11. Mike Marshall, who had come over from the Expos for Willie Davis pitched in 106 games. Charlie Hough was 9-4 in his first extended action out of the pen. Rick Rhoden made his MLB debut. They beat the Pirates in the NLCS and lost to the A’s in 5 games. 1st heartbreak of the 70’s. Garvey won his only MVP award.
1975
They slipped back to 2nd place in 75. But no one was beating the Reds who finished 20 games in front of the Dodgers. The starting lineup stayed the same. Garvey hit .319 to lead the team, but Cey took the HR and RBI lead. Wynn regressed a lot. Overall the team’s entire offense took a step backwards. Henry Cruz, Ivan DeJesus, and John Hale saw extended playing time. But Lacy was the only bench player to get into more than 100 games. The pitching was solid but not spectacular. Messersmith went 19-14. Rau was 15-9 Sutton was 16-13, and new arrival Burt Hooton went 18-7 Messersmith had a very good 2.29 ERA. Marshall only appeared in 58 games due to an injury. Buckner also lost some time to an ankle injury. Rhoden got into 26 games, 11 as a starter. Stan Wall made his MLB debut.
1976
Another 2nd place finish. The last season of Walter Alston’s HOF career. He retired with 4 games left in the season, and Tommy Lasorda took over and went 2-2. Reggie Smith came over in a deadline deal for Joe Ferguson, so he became the RF. Dusty Baker came over in a trade with the Braves that sent Wynn, Royster, Paciroek, and Lacy to the Braves. Ed Goodson also came to the Dodgers as part of the deal. Baker had an abysmal first season in blue, hitting .242 with only 4 Hr’s. Garvey and Buckner hit .300 again. Sizemore, who had returned in a trade with the Cardinals in March for Willie Crawford got most of the playing time off of the bench. Kevin Pasley made his MLB debut getting into 23 games. Also debuting was outfielder Glenn Burke who was in 25 games. Rick Rhoden finally joined the regular rotation and went 12-3. Wall got into 31 games out of the pen. Rick Sutcliffe got into one game. Andy Messersmith was gone, having challenged the reserve clause and winning. He signed as a free agent with the Braves. Marshall was traded to the Braves at mid season for Lee Lacy and Elias Sosa.
1977
Some more changes over the winter. Buckner went to the Cubs for Rick Monday. Lasorda had the starting 8 running together in the outfield prior to games and he instilled a different attitude on the bench. His fiery personality often clashed with the umpires. It was a whole new ballgame in Dodgerland. 4 players hit 30 or more homers for the first time in MLB history, Garvey, Baker, Smith, and Cey. Monday, Lopes, and Yeager also hit in double figures. Smith hit .307, and Garvey and Cey had 115 and 110 RBI’s respectively. Baker hit his 30th on the last day of the season at Dodger Stadium off of James Rodney Richard. Two other Dodgers hit homers that day, the only ones they hit all year. Manny Mota and Glenn Burke. I know, I was there. Tommy John won 20, Sutton 14, Hooton 12, Rhoden 16 and Rau 14. Hough was in 70 games out of the pen and saved 22. Lance Rautzhan was 4-1 in his big league debut and Bobby Castillo got into 6 games going 1-0. They beat the Phils in the NLCS and dropped the series to Reggie Jackson’s Yanks, 4 games to 2.
1978
They won the west for the 2nd straight year. Going 95-67. Bill North and Rick Monday shared CF most of the time. The rest of the lineup stayed the same. Ferguson was back backing up Yeager. Lacy got into 103 games. Jerry Grote was also a backup catcher. 38 year old Vic Davalillo was the primary PH most of the time. He responded with a .312 average. Garvey hit .316 and led the team with 113 RBI’s. Smith led in HR’s with 29. Yeager had a miserable year hitting only .193. Monday hit 19 HR’s 4th behind Smith, Cey and Garvey. Rudy Law, and Pedro Guerrero made their debuts. Guerrero came over in a trade with the Indians. Bob Welch won 7 in his rookie year. Dave Stewart and Dennis Lewallyn also made debuts. The team was rocked by personal tragedy in October when long time player and coach Jim Gilliam passed away. They dedicated the series to him, but ended up losing to the Yankees again.
1979
They slipped under .500 to 79-83, and the Reds won the division again. They had 8 players hit in double figures in HRs including 3 who hit exactly 28 apiece. Lopes, Garvey, and Cey. Baker hit 23 and Ferguson hit 20 off of the bench. Garvey again was the only player over .300 at .315, and with 110 more RBI’s. Gary Thomasson who came from the Yankees in a trade for catcher Brad Gulden got most of the reps off of the bench. He added 14 HR’s to the total. Derrell Thomas became the full-time CF with Monday only playing in 12 games. Rick Sutcliffe joined the rotation and went 17-10 to earn the ROY honors. Ruess came over in a trade with the Pirates for Rhoden. Messersmith returned for a short stint also. Castillo was the closer going 2-0 with 7 saves. Joe Beckwith made his MLB debut and Welch was 5-6 out of the pen.
1980
The new decade saw a very tight NL West race with the Stros and the Dodgers tied at the end of 162 games. A 1 game playoff decided the race with the Astros beating LA to advance. Rudy Law took over as the starting CF, getting into 128 games, Derrell Thomas became the main utility player. Reggie Smith battled some injuries, but Dusty Baker had his best season so far in blue hitting .295 with 29 HR’s and 97 RBI’s. Garvey hit .304 with 26 and 106. Jay Johnstone got into 109 games. Guerrero got into 75 and hit .322. Mike Scioscia, Mickey Hatcher, and Jack Perconte made their debuts also. Free agent pickup Dave Goltz was a huge bust going 7-11. And he lost the playoff game to the Astro’s Don Stanhouse, another free agent also stunk up the joint. Steve Howe was the saves leader with 17 in his first full season. Sutcliffe was 3-9 mostly pitching out of the pen. In September, a 19 year old lefty from Mexico made his debut going 2-0 with a save in 10 appearances. No one knew it at the time, but in 81, he would have his own mania named after him. On the day they lost the playoff game to the Astro’s. I was in the hospital having surgery to help me lose weight. Not wanting to upset me when I woke up, they did not tell me about the loss until 10 o’clock that evening.
Well, that is the second installment. Howe won ROY honors in 80 with that performance. The second of what would be 4 ROY’s in a row.
Spring Training News by Mark Timmons
Jesse Sanchez wrote a piece on Dodgers.com about David rice’s outing yesterday. I’ll just show you what he wrote:
After the outing, Price said he was hoping his fastball would hit 92 mph. He touched 94 mph. He added that he feels like he can be effective with a fastball in the 91-93 mph range in 2021. The left-hander expects to be ready to start the regular season in the rotation with a pitch count in the 80-90 range, if that’s what the club needs from him.
“Right before we signed Trevor [Bauer], I reached out to [Dodgers president of baseball operations] Andrew [Friedman] and said, ‘If it happens, I’m willing to do whatever you guys need me to do. That’s not a problem for me,’” Price said. “’So, just keep me in the loop. And let me know and I’ll be ready for whatever.’”
It’s too early to tell if Price will pitch in the starting rotation or out of the bullpen. For now, the focus is on building up his pitch count. Price is attempting to join a loaded staff of starters that already features Bauer, Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Julio Urías.
“I can see him pitching in any role that we have for him and David, being the pro and the teammate that he is, also voiced that whatever role that we see is best for the Dodgers in 2021 is what he wants to do,” manager Dave Roberts said before Monday’s game. “So that’s just a credit to him, but our job still is to build him up for whatever potentially could happen and continue to give us some options.”
So, there you have it: David Price could pitch out of the bullpen in 2021, sort of like an Andrew Miller? Hummm… that could be interesting. Lots of options.
OTHER NEWS:
- Julio Urias went right after hitters at the start of yesterday’s game, inducing weak contact. He only struck out one, but he was very efficient. With his stuff, this should be the way he rolls.
- Right about now, DJ Peters seems too good to be true.
- I like Matt Beaty, but I cannot see him making the roster at the expense of Noisy. Sheldon is a skilled professional hitter and he is RH on a team that needs more RH hitters. I look for Matt to be traded. He could be a nice piece on many teams.
https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/video/sheldon-neuse-s-rbi-single
Discussion (44)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Price is being paid 16 million. He has a solid track record. Just because he sat out because of health concerns is not a reason to not slot him where his talent puts him. May and Gonsolin have 28 career starts combined with 11 wins and 8 losses total combined. For Price, that would be a half season. He is there because of respect for what he has done at the MLB level, plus the guy gives them 3 Cy Young winners in the rotation.
Nelson looking like he might have a spot.
To tell you the truth I had been wondering why Price was being given a starting spot ahead of the three kids. To me Price was battling May and Goose for the 5th spot and Urias should be a lock. I thought maybe Price could pitch out of the pen considering Gonzalez is the only lefty I trust.
Kersh, Buehler, May, Gonsolin and White. Bauer, Urias, Price, Nelson and Gray. Either staff would be better than a lot of mlb staffs. Certainly better than the Angels!
If he stays healthy how is Nelson not on the roster beginning this year. His stuff looks filthy. If White gets healthy we could run out 10 legit starting pitchers this year. Wow! The more I see of our staff there is just no room for Kelly.
My belief at this point is that they will go with 13 and 13. I think May is ticketed for AAA. Why? Simple, he is a starter. He is not going to crack the top 5 of this rotation, so he needs to be pitching in a regular rotation. As good as his stuff is, he has not shown at any point that he is a lock down reliever type. Gonsolin can play both roles, long man and short reliever. I think no matter what there will be 2 lefty’s in the pen and Price and Urias will not be those guys. My guess, at this point Vesia has looked a little better than Alexander. One of those two will be lefty # 2 behind Gonzalez. Kelly, Kahnle and Ferguson will be on the IL> Morrow will be at the alternate site until they think he is ready. He might have an opt out date in his contract like he did last time. Do not sleep on Nelson. He has nasty stuff and if he is healthy, he could crack into this pen. Graterol is being brought along slowly. Simply because of his youth and not much pitching experience. He is also working on another pitch. As for the position players, Beaty is hitting better than anyone on the team right now. Most hits, and is hitting ,500. His success as a PH since he has been with LA gives him a leg up on his competition. Right now none of the other lefty hitters are doing much. And although Neuse has had a decent spring with the bat, and can play numerous positions, I still think he is on the bubble and no lock to make the team. They have 20 more games to make their decisions. Over the last 10 games or so, the scrubs are not going to have as many opportunities as they have now. The need for pitchers during the first month is not as pressing as it will be later. They have 3 off days in the first month of the season. Their longest stretch of consecutive games does not begin until April 22nd when they start a 14 game stretch before an off day. 7 games at home and then 7 on the road before they get an off day after their series with the Cubs and just prior to playing the Angels in Anaheim. But then they get 3 days off between ending the Cubs series, and their second series of a 9 game home stand with the Mariners, Marlins, and D-Backs. Just my opinion of course.
I’d like to see the dodgers carry 14 position players and 12 pitchers.
Smith, Barnes, Muncy, Lux, Seager, Turner, Betts, Bellinger, Pollock, Taylor, Rios, Peters, McKinstry, Beaty.
Buehler, Kershaw, Bauer, Price, Urias, Gonsolin, May, Gonzalez, Graterol, Treinen, Jansen, Knebel.
I think with so many starting pitchers the Dodgers have that it will work, considering the starters who don’t end up in the starting rotation can go multiple innings.
I just think those 26 guys deserve to be on the team. I don’t know if it will happen, but I’d like to see it happen.
You younger fans should have been around to watch the team in the early to mid 50’s. Reese, Robinson, Snider, Hodges, Campanella, Gilliam, Furillo, etc. Ft. Worth had a great team in the Texas League in that era. Demeter and Gentile were being blocked by Snider & Hodges. Karl Spooner came up to the Dodgers in late 1954 and pitched two complete game shutouts, striking out 15 & 12 . Too bad he had arm trouble the next year. He could have been another Koufax!
I also remember that the catcher on that 1970 Spokane team was Steve Sogge, the former Trojan quarterback.
On a different subject, Les Miles ousted as coach of KU amid allegations of inappropriate behavior towards a woman while at LSU. Seems some people in positions of power just think they can do anything they like. Roberts comes out against racism against Asian’s. Some might forget he is part Japanese. And finally, the Cowboy’s gave Prescott a huge paycheck with a 66 million dollar signing bonus…..must be nice.
Bear, Oh what a delightful chronicle of the decade of the Dodger’s 70’s. So many good years, so many good players come to mind. Sandy Koufax will always be my favorite Dodger, but the 70’s were my favorite Dodger years with guys like Lasorda, Garvey, Cey, Lopes, Russell, Pedro, Monday, Rau, Welch and many many more. Gosh I could go on and on. Thank you, Bear. Very enjoyable.
I grew up a little later than most here, and my Dodger formative years were watching the teams of Sax, Fernando, Lasorda, Welch and Pedro Guerrero, who was my favorite player. I think Pedro is an underrated player. Had he played more games in 1985 I would’ve been the hands down MVP. I don’t know if folks really understand what a great offensive year he had. To hit for average with as much power has he had, but only strike out 11.7% of the time and walk 14% of the time is impressive.
Thanks again Bear for a trip down memory lane. Forgot just how frustrating the 70’s were going up against some great Reds and Yankee teams. I was in the left field bleachers when Fernando made his Dodger stadium debut! We have the starting depth and we want to limit innings this year especially with our young arms. So why not do split games with our young guys like Buehler, Urias and May going 5 innings and closing out the other four innings with Price, Gonsolin and Nelson. And close out Kersh and Bauer with the regular bullpen guys. Keep guys fresh for the playoffs!
It has been a small sampling, but I am very impressed with Noisy’s hitting.
Of course, this is impressive too:
Bench:
Barnes
Taylor
Rios
McKinstry
Beaty/Peters/Neuse/Davidson
Interesting thought about Price. I hadn’t considered him as a bullpen piece, but, if he can get his fastball up to 94-95 in short stints, then that would play up. I really liked Alex Wood out of the pen last year, and he had some big innings for the Dodgers in the playoffs, and I almost wished the Dodgers could have kept him on in that role. Price could wind up doing something similar come playoff time.
That’s the thing with this team. I don’t think there will always be set roles. Price could spend the regular season getting his endurance and arm strength up, and he might be asked to take on a different role in the playoffs.
At some point Price will be part of the leftie duo out of the pen.
Many people do not know (especially here in Mexico) that Fernando debuted in the 80, maybe because at that time there was no internet and the news did not fly as fast as today
I wonder what would have happened if Fernando had played at this time?
He wouldn’t have had that many complete games to begin with, and therefore very few shutouts, but he would have played many more years.
Maybe we owe it to Mike Brito that Fernandomania was born!