Great Moments in dodger history Part 3: 2001-2013

After 2000, Malone was out as GM and Johnson was out as the manager. Former Dodger pitching coach, Dave Wallace was the interim GM and Jim Tracy was named manager. Paul LoDuca took over as the starting catcher, and veteran Marquis Grissom was the new CF.

2001: Shawn Green set a record for HRs in a season with 49. He hit .297 and drove in 125 runs. Sheffield hit .311/36/100. LoDuca hit .320/25/90. Grissom 21, Karros 15, Grudzelaek 13, all were in double figures. Park 15, Terry Adams 12, Brown 10, won in double figures. Park was the only starter with 30 or more starts. Gagne 24, Adams 22 and Prokopec 22, were the only ones over 20. Brown started just 19 games. Shaw saved 43 and led the team with 77 appearances. Herges won 9 out of the pen in 75 games saving 1. The team finished 3rd, 6 games behind the D-Backs who won the pennant and the World Series. Dan Evans took over as the GM. He hired Logan White as the Scouting director. His hiring would have a huge impact on future Dodger teams. His first draft class included James Loney, Broxton, Delwyn Young, Eric Stults and Russell Martin. in the 2002 draft.

2002: Shawn Green became the second Dodger ever, along with Gil Hodges, to have a 4-homer game. On May 23rd in Milwaukee, Green went 6-6 with 4 homers, a double and a single, setting a record with 19 total bases. He scored 6 runs and drove in 7 in a 16-3 Dodger win. LA won 82 games but finished 3rd behind the D-Backs and Giants. The Giants would win the pennant and lost to the Angels in their only World Series appearance with Barry Bonds on the team. Green hit 42 homers and drove in 114 runs. Nomo 16, Odalis Perez 15, Ishii 14 and Daal 11, Gagne recorded 52 saves.

2003: The 03 team won 85 games but finished a distant 2nd to the Giants 15.5 games back. The team hit just .243 and had 124 homers scoring 545 runs. Beltre was the only player to hit twenty homers, 23. Green coming off of two straight years of 40 plus, hit just 19. Nomo won 16, Brown 14 and Perez 12. Gagne led the league with 55 saves. Between August 26, 2002, and July 5th, 2004, Gagne would record 84 consecutive saves. The 03 draft class had Billingsley, Kemp, LaRoche, Xavier Paul, AJ Ellis, Lucas May, Wesley Wright, all of whom made it to the majors. They also drafted Mark Melancon, who did not sign but had a long MLB career.

2004: Fox News Corp sold the team to Frank McCourt for 430 million dollars. The loan was financed on debt. In order to pay that, McCourt would raise ticket and concession prices every year he owned the team. He fired GM Dan Evans and hired Paul DePodesta to replace him. They traded Kevin Brown to the Yankees for Yhency Brazoban, Jeff Weaver and cash at the winter meetings before McCourt took over. DE Podesta's first trade sent Franklin Guriterrez to the Indians for Milton Bradley. White's 04 draft class had Elbert, DeWitt, Javy Guerra, Cory Wade, and Ruggiano. All of them spent time in the majors. He also drafted LHSP David Price, but he did not sign. In July, DePodesta sent Juan Encarnacion, Paul LoDuca, and Guillermo Mota to the Marlins for He-Seop Choi, Bill Murphy and Brad Penny. The next day, he traded Dave Roberts to the Red Sox for a minor leaguer. That trade would have a huge impact on the Red Sox fortunes. He then traded Reggie Abercrombe, Bill Murphy and Koyie Hill to the D-Backs for Brent Mayne and Steve Finley. Finley would hit a walk-off grand slam against the Giants in game 161 that won the west for LA. Mayne shared the catching duties with David Ross. The teams star though was 25-year-old, Adrian Beltre, who was in his walk year. He had a career year, .334/48/121. He would sign with the Mariners that offseason. LA would lose in four games to the Cardinals in the LDS. Lima, Ishii, and Weaver all won 13 games. Gagne had 45 saves in his last good season as a closer.

2005: The Dodgers had made it to the postseason for the first time in 7 years in 04, so McCourt was expecting much of the same in 05. One of the smartest moves he had made was leaving Logan White in charge of scouting. The Dodgers farm system was loading up with MLB caliber players. White's 05 class was Ivan DeJesus, Josh Wall, Josh Bell, Jon Meloan, Brent Leach, Trayvon Robinson, Steven Johnson, and Scott Van Slyke. All of those players would make it to the majors. Only Van Slyke and DeJesus lasted more than just a short time. He also drafted Luke Hochevar, but he did not sign. Meanwhile, DePodesta made some off season moves. He signed J.D. Drew and Derek Lowe. In January he traded Green to Arizona for four players with the main piece being highly rated C, Dioner Navarro. In March he traded Ishii to the Mets for Jason Phillips. He made no moves at the deadline since the Dodgers were in 3rd place 4 games back. LA would finish with a losing record, 11 games back of the Podres. Jeff Kent was the top hitter; he slugged 29 homers and drove in 105 runs. No one else was even close. Olmedo Saenz, a reserve player, was second with 69. JD Drew appeared in just 72 games. Jeff Weaver at 14-11 was the only starting pitcher over .500. Brazoban had 21 saves. On October 29th, McCourt fired DePodesta and he was replaced by Ned Colletti in November.

2006: Colletti's first trade came on December 13th, and it would have a huge impact on future Dodger teams. Jim Tracy was let go as manager and Grady Little replaced him. He traded Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez to the A's for OF, Andre Ethier. He signed Rafael Furcal, Bill Mueller and Nomar Garciaparra as free agents. He then signed Kenny Lofton as a free agent. He sent Edwin Jackson and a minor leaguer to the Rays for Danys Baez and Lance Carter. In June, LA had a first-round pick, with it they selected Clayton Kershaw. They only signed two of their drafted players, Kershaw and Bryan Morris, the other five, including a kid named Goldschmidt, did not sign. Garciaparra, a SS by trade, was moved to 1st base, and would win Comeback Player of the Year. He hit .303/20/93. Furcal took over at SS and hit .300. Ethier got the starting job in left and hit .308/11/55 and finished 5th in the ROY vote. Drew hit 20 homers and drove in 100 to lead the team. Lofton hit .301. Lowe and Penny won 16 games each, the only starters with double digit wins. Saito, who had been signed out of Japan, recorded 24 saves. Colletti was very busy in the days leading up to the deadline, making five trades in late July. He also made a trade in June that sent Navarro, Seo, and Ruggiano to the Rays for Hendrickson and Toby Hall. His July trades sent Alomar to the White Sox for a minor leaguer, two minor leaguers and Odalis Perez to the Royals for Elmer Dessens, Danys Baez and Willy Aybar to the Braves for Wilson Betamit, Joel Guzman and a minor leaguer to the Rays for Julio Lugo, and Cesar Izturis to the Cubs for Greg Maddux. At the end of May, LA was 30-23. They then went 20-32 in June and July. They were in 5th place, 5 games back. After winning the last 3 games in July, they reeled off 8 more wins at the beginning of August before losing.

The 11-game streak had moved them into 2nd place, just .5 games back. They went 21-7 in August and finished the month in first, 3 games up. On September 18th, the Dodgers were playing the Padres at Dodger Stadium. Facing off were Brad Penny and Jake Peavy. It was game four of a wraparound series that went from Friday to Monday. LA won the first game and lost the next 2. SD scored 4 runs off of Penny in the first. LA countered with single runs in the first and second and a 2 spot in the 3rd. Marlon Anderson homered off of Peavy in the second. Both starters left by the 5th, Peavy also allowed a homer to Furcal in the 3rd. The game remained tied until the Padres scored 2 off of Broxton in the 8th. LA scored 1 in the 8th off of Linebrink. The Padres then scored 3 off of Saito in the top of the 9th, taking a 9-5 lead. Jon Adkins relieved for the Padres. Hent and Drew hit back-to-back homers off of Adkins. Padres closer, Trevor Hoffman came into the game. Russell Martin and Anderson then hit back-to-back homers to tie the game. Four in a row! After LA went down without any further scoring, Aaron Sele came in to pitch the 10th. He gave up 2 hits and 2 walks, and the Padres went ahead 10-9. The Padres brought in Rudy Saenez. He gave up a single to Lofton, and then Garciaparra hit a 2-run walk off homer to left. LAs 7th homer of the game. The Padres hit none. The Dodgers would finish 2nd in the West and face the Mets in the LDS. They lost it 3-0.

2007: Logan White left the organization, and the new director of scouting was Tim Hallgren. Bill Mueller, who had spent most of 06 on the IL retired and went to work in the front office. Colletti resigned Nomar and then signed Juan Pierre. He also signed Mike Liberthal, Randy Wolf, Luis Gonzalez and Jason Schmidt. In March, he traded Dessens to the Brewers for OF Brady Clark. In the June draft, the team once more only signed 2 of their draftees, Chris Withrow and Andrew Lambo. Lambro got a cup of coffee in the majors and Withrow pitched for 3 seasons, his record was 6-0. At the deadline, the team was 57-49, a game out of first. Ned traded Betemit to the Yankees for RHRP Scott Proctor, he then traded a player to be named later to the Giants for Mark Sweeney. But they went 37-44 over the last 3 months and finished 4th, 8 games back of the Padres and Rockies. Kent led the team with a .302 BA and also led with 20 homers. Martin hit 19 homers and led the team with 87 driven in. Penny was 16-4 and finished 3rd in the Cy Young vote. Schmidt in the first season of a 3-year deal pitched in just 6 games and was 1-4. Matt Kemp got into 98 games and hit .342.

2008: Little was bought out of his contract and replaced as manager by Joe Torre. Colletti had a busy off season. After hiring Torre, he signed free agent outfielder, Andruw Jones. He then signed Japanese star, Hiroki Kuroda. Hallgren's second draft in June was better than his first. They drafted Josh Lindblom and Dee Gordon. Then Nathan Eovaldi and Allen Webster, both of whom would later be included in trades. They also drafted Jerry Sands and Matt Magill. The day of the draft, the team was actually under .500 and 4 games out of first place. At the deadline, they were exactly at .500. Colletti got busy. On the 26th of July, he traded Jonathan Meloan and Carlos Santana to the Indians for 3B Casey Blake. Five days later, he pulled off a blockbuster. As part of a 3-team trade with the Pirates and Red Sox, LA sent Andy LaRooche and Bryan Morris to the Pirates. They received Manny Ramirez in return. The Pirates sent Jason Bay to the Sox. And the Sox sent Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss to Pittsburgh. On August 16th, Colletti made another trade, this time sending a minor leaguer to the Padres for Greg Maddux, acquiring him for the second time. In the month after the trade, the team went 13-16. But they took off in September winning 17 and losing 8. In his 53 games in LA, Manny slashed .396/17/53 with an OPS over 1.200. Left field became Mannywood. Dred locks were being sold and worn almost every night. The team won just 84 games but won the West by 2 games over Arizona. Ethier led the team with 20 homers and hit .302. James Loney drove in 90 runs to lead the team. Andruw Jones showed up overweight and out of shape, he played in just 75 games, he was released in January. Billingsley led the team with 16 wins, and Saito saved 18 games. Broxton saved 14. They beat the Cubs in the LDS 3-0. Ramirez hit .500 and slugged 2 homers. The won only 1 game in the LCS. Ramirez hit .553 with 2 more homers and he drove in 7. The season also saw the debut of Clayton Kershaw. Just 20 years old, he went 5-5 with a 4.26 ERA in 22 games.

2009: Behind the scenes, there was trouble brewing in McCourt's personal life. He was having marital issues with his wife that would end up with them separating in October. In the offseason, the big question was would the Dodgers resign Manny Ramirez. Most fans and even major league baseball did not know that McCourt had some serious financial issues that would come to a head very soon. Colletti had to be very creative in trades and signings. De Jon Watson took over as the scouting director. The winter meetings passed without any significant player signings. They released Andruw Jones in January, eating the last two years of his deal. In February, they signed Orlando Hudson to play second. Hudson would hit for the cycle on April 13th in the home opener against the Giants. He became only the second LA Dodger along with Wes Parker and the only Dodger to do it at Dodger Stadium. On March 4th, Manny resigned for 2 years and famously said " I'm back!" Colletti made four trades between July 30th and August 31st that brought four significant pieces to LA. First, he sent Josh Bell and Steve Johnson to Baltimore for LHRP, George Sherill. He then traded Justin Fuller to the White Sox for Jim Thome. Next, he sent Luis Garcia to the Nationals for Inf Ronnie Belliard and finally he sent Tony Abreu to the D-Backs for RHSP Jon Garland. In May, Manny Ramirez had received a 50-game suspension because of PED use. He would play in 104 games hitting .290/19/63. Ethier led the team with 31 homers and 106 RBIs. Kemp hit 26 homers and drove in 101. Kershaw joined the rotation and was 8-8 and paced the starters with a 2.79 ERA. Broxton had 36 saves and Billingsley had 12 wins and Wolf 11. They won the West by 3 games over SF. Then swept the Cardinals in the LDS. Ethier was the hitting star with a .500 avg, 2 homers and 3 RBIs. They would lose the LCS to the Phillies again in 5 games. Loney was the leading hitter with 2 homers and 3 driven in.

2010: With the McCourt's marital issues now public knowledge, word surfaced that California Attorney General, Jerry Brown, had opened an investigation into the Dodgers Dream Foundation. According to tax returns, the organizations chief executive, Howard Sunkin, earned a salary of nearly 400,000 per year, or about a quarter of the foundations entire budget. Sunkin was a close associate of McCourt's and worked with him during his divorce proceedings. The court eventually ordered the funds to be repaid, and McCourt personally repaid 100,000. The team fell to 4th place. Ramirez spent 3 different stints on the IL. He would hit .311 with 8 homers and 40 RBIs. After his 3rd stint, he had been replaced by Scott Posednik. His last appearance in a Dodger uniform came on August 29th when he appeared as a pinch hitter and was tossed from the game by the home plate umpire for arguing a strike call. He was placed on waivers on the 30th and claimed by the White Sox. Overall, Manny was .322/46/156 as a Dodger. His OPS was 1.012. Logan White returned to the team as Scouting director. He drafted Joc Pederson and Shawn Tolleson.

Kemp led the team with 28 homers and 89 RBIs but hit just .249. 22-year-old Kershaw established himself as the team's ace with a 13-10 2.91 mark. Billingsley won 12 and Kuroda 11. Broxton had 22 saves and Korean import, Hung-Chi Kuo 12. They finished at 80-82. In December, a judge proclaimed that McCourt's post-nuptial martial agreement was invalid, that kept McCourt from claiming he was sole owner of the team. Eventually, on October 17th, the McCourt's settled the divorce and Jamie received 130 million and relinquished any claim to team ownership. It is widely considered the costliest divorce settlement in California history.

2011: Torre retired, and Don Mattingly was named the new manager of the Dodgers. Colletti knew he did not have a lot of money to spend on free agents, at least the expensive ones, so most of his signings were fringe players. With Russell Martin departing via free agency, he signed Rod Barajas. The starting lineup was Barajas C, Loney 1B, Jamie Carroll 2B, Dee Gordon SS, Juan Uribe 3B, Tony Gwynn, the Padres legends son LF, Matt Kemp CF, and Ethier in right. Kemp hit .324/39/126, just missing the triple crown and then finished 2nd in the MVP race to Ryan Braun who was later proven to have used PEDs. He also just missed being a 40-40 player. No other Dodger had more than 16 homers. Kershaw matched Koufax's feat of winning a Cy Young and an MVP in the same season with a 21-5 record, 248 Ks to lead the league and a 2.28 ERA which also led the league. Despite all that, they finished 3rd, 11.5 games back of the D-Backs. Javy Guerra, one of Logan White's draftees, saved 21 games. In April, Bud Selig, the commissioner, announced that as part of the investigation into McCourt's stewardship of the Dodgers, he was appointing a representative to oversee day-to-day operations. In effect, MLB took over control of the team. He took the actions because of deep concerns over the finances and operations of the team. This came on the heels of a report in the LA Times that McCourt had secured a personal loan from Fox to cover payroll in April and May. McCourt vehemently denied the charges, but Selig appointed former Rangers exec Tom Schieffer to oversee LA's finances. On June 27th, LA filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

2012: After a lot of legal wrangling with MLB and the bankruptcy court, McCourt agreed to sell the team. On March 27th, an agreement was reached to sell the team to a group consisting of Magic Johnson, Stan Kasten and Guggenheim Partners for a record price of 2 billion dollars. He sold the land around the stadium for an additional 150 million. He would have no control over the land but stood to profit from any potential future development. New ownership also agreed to pay 14 million a year for rental of the parking lots from a company half-owned by McCourt. The sale closed on May 12th, ending McCourt's turbulent ownership of the team.

Meanwhile for Colletti, it was business as usual only now he had some fresh cash to work with. he signed Mark Ellis, Adam Kennedy, Chris Capuano, Jerry Hairston, Aaron Harang, John Grabow and Jamie Wright as free agents by spring training. Some of them got released. In May, he signed OF, Bobby Abreu. White's June draft included, Corey Seager, Ross Stripling, Darnell Sweeney, Jhral Cotton and Daniel Columbe. On June 12th, they signed an amateur free agent from Cuba, Yasiel Puig. On July 31st, the team was 1 game out of first. On the 25th of July, Colletti made his first major move. He traded Nathan Eovaldi and Scott McGough to the Marlins for Randy Choate and Hanley Ramirez. Five days later, he traded two minor leaguers to the Mariners for reliever Brandon League. On the 31st, he traded Josh Lindblom and Ethan Martin to the Phillies for Shaun Victorrino. On the 3rd of August, he acquired reliever Joe Blanton from the Phillies for another minor leaguer. On August 17th, they signed another amateur free agent, Julio Urias. Then on August 12th, he made "The Trade". LA sent Ivan DeJesus, James Loney, Allen Webster, Jerry Sands and Rubby De La Rosa to the Red Sox for Nick Punto, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez plus cash. The team would finish 2nd, 8 games back of the Giants, who would win their second World Series in 3 years. One of the reasons they faded was injuries to their best player at the time, Matt Kemp. Kemp was hitting .417 with 12 homers by the end of April. He tied Gary Sheffield's record of 10 homers in April on the 25th. He was player of the week twice and then was named player of the month for April. A hammy injury put him on the DL in May. 2 days after he came off of the DL, he injured the hammy again while running the bases. Despite missing almost 2 months, he was elected to the All-Star game but did not play. His injury woes continued when he crashed into a wall at Coors Field injuring his knee and shoulder. He continued to play, but his production dropped. He would undergo surgery on his shoulder for a torn labrum in the offseason. He hit .303/23/69. Kershaw was 14-9 and led the league with a 2.53 ERA. Kenley Jansen took over as the closer and saved 25 games.

2013: 2013 marked the beginning of an unprecedented run of success for the Dodger organization. Guggenheim was now in their first real offseason of putting their stamp on the franchise. All of the moves in the previous July, were simply a precursor for what would become the overhauling of the team. Colletti did not stand pat. He purchased the contract of Korean star, Hyun-Jin Ryu from Hanshin. One day later he signed free agent P, Zack Greinke to a 3-year deal. He then traded a minor leaguer to the Cardinals for Skip Schumaker. He added to the relief corps by signing JP Howell to a contract. At the beginning of the season, he traded Aaron Harang to the Rockies for C, Ramon Hernandez. White's June draft landed Brandon Dixon, Bellinger, Jacob Rhame, Kyle Farmer, and Jose DeLeon. He traded 3 players to the Marlins for Ricky Nolasco in July. In August he picked up infielder, Michael Young from the Rangers. Hanley Ramirez had broken his hand during the WBC and missed a chunk of the season until mid-June. He would hit .345/20/57 in 86 games. Matt Kemp played in just 73 games, still not fully healthy. Gonzalez led the team with a .293/22/100 line. Puig came up and earned the nickname "The Wild Horse from Vin Scully. He hit .391 in his first 38 games in the majors and finished the year at .319 with 19 homers. He finished 2nd in the ROY voting. Kershaw won his 2nd Cy Young and his 3rd ERA award. He and Beckett pitched no hitters. Beckett no-hit the Phillies and Kershaw no-hit the Rockies at Dodger Stadium, missing a perfect game on an error by Ramirez. Jansen saved 28 games. LA won the west by 11 games over the D-Backs. They beat the Braves 3-1 in the LDS. Juan Uribe's 2 run homer in the 8th inning of game 4 was the deciding blow. They would lose the LCS to the Cardinals in 6 games. Games 1 and 2 were decided by 1 run, they lost game 1, 3-2 in 13 innings. Kershaw lost a 1-0 heartbreaker in game 2. He allowed just 2 hits, and the winning run scored on a sac-fly by Jon Jay in the 4th. Michael Wacha and four relievers, including former Dodger Randy Choate, shut down LA on 5 hits and a walk.

Overview: Despite Fox's tenure not resulting in any playoff appearances, and McCourt's running the team into bankruptcy, fans still flocked to Dodger Stadium despite climbing prices. The last three years of Fox's ownership, the team drew over 3 million each year. The first four years of McCourt's tenure, they were first in the league in attendance. All over 3 million. In 2008, they finished 2nd in the league and drew 3,730,553. In 09 they were first again, 2nd in 10, and for the first time in many years, they were sixth in 11 and drew 2,935,139 missing the 3 million mark. They were back over 3 million in 2012 and finished 3rd. In 2013, the first full season of Guggenheim, they drew over .37 million and were first in the league again. Why did fans still come? Well for one thing, they have a very strong base of fans of all kinds. Having stars of all races helps immensely. Trading for Gonzalez was a brilliant move since LA had not had a Mexican superstar since Fernando. The Korean and Japanese communities came out to see stars from their respective countries. But from 2013 on, it was because ownership was committed to putting a championship team on the field. More changes would be coming after 2014 when the upper executive branch got a new leader with a clear vision of the team he felt would win multiple championships. Now they just had to do it.