In the winter of 1973, the Dodgers sent longtime center fielder Willie Davis to the Montreal Expos for Mike Marshall, the Expos’ closer who led the league with 31 saves. The Dodgers’ closer at the time was Jim Brewer, a 36-year-old left-hander who had joined the team in a trade with the Cubs in 1964. He had been their primary closer since 1968. Marshall was born in Adrian, Michigan, in…
Last week, I was contracted by a gentleman named Eric Vickrey, who describes himself as an Author and Baseball Historian. Well, I’ll just tell you what he said: “I’m Eric Vickrey, a Washington state-based author and baseball historian. My third book, Before They Wore Dodger Blue: Tommy Lasorda and the Greatest Draft Class in Baseball History, will be published by August Publications on December 7th. In 1968, just three years after MLB…
There is definitely a need for the Dodgers to add at least one very good back-end of the pen arm. Some have suggested that they sign former Padre, Robert Suarez. Suarez has been estimated to get a contract for 3/36 million dollars. The Dodgers could use him in tandem with Tanner Scott as a lefty-righty close combo. Of course, there will be a lot of competition for his services. Lately,…
I have never doubted that Kyle Tucker makes sense for the Dodgers. The only thing I have questioned is the price. I do not think that the Dodgers will be high bidders. Nor do I think they will sign him for more than 10 years. I believe that 10 Years/$360 Million is in their wheelhouse, but that could go up if he wants to defer some money. Mookie, Freddie, Shohei,…
I am extremely grateful that Mark has asked me back. I always enjoyed writing here. This has been a great season for Dodger fans although the last 2 games of the World Series had a few cardiac moments. In the end, it was one of those moments you will remember forever. I am old enough to have seen all of the Dodgers World Series wins. In 1955 I was a…
I just made that up. For the record, I have no clue if that is true or not… the part about weed! I don’t partake, though this damn hand-and-elbow surgery is making me re-evaluate my position. It is, however, true about relievers. The best ones are homegrown… and come next year, the Dodgers will have a semi-load! Let’s look at what we might expect. Left-Handed Relievers: Right-Handed Relievers: The Starting…
Dodger’s pitcher Alex Vesia revealed on social media that his infant daughter Sterling died in the final week of October. “Our little angel, we love you forever & you’re with us always. Our beautiful daughter went to heaven on Sunday, October 26th. There are no words to describe the pain we’re going through, but we hold her in our hearts and cherish every second we had with her,” Vesia wrote…
Jon Weisman started his blog www.DodgerThoughts.com on 02/09/2004, according to the Internet Police. I started www.LaDodgerTalk.com on 01/04/2006. I posted on Jon’s site for a while, but, as I had done with other companies I have worked for, I eventually had to start my own deal. I guess I don’t play well with others. To the best of my knowledge, Dodger Thoughts and LA Dodger Talk are the two oldest…
Sometime in 2010, I wrote a blog post about the Dodgers needing a President of Baseball Operations like Andrew Friedman of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I wrote this because the Devil Rays (now just the Rays) had one of the lowest payrolls in baseball and yet made the playoffs very frequently… even making it to the World Series once. I mentioned this in my interview with Andrew in April:…
… and they lived happily ever after! The End! There are a lot of improbable things that happened along the way that created this storybook ending, not the least of which was Dave Roberts taking out 5’9″ Tommy Edman and replacing him with 6’1″ Andy Pages. Kike could not catch that ball, and neither could Tommy Tanks have gotten to it. Somehow, Doc knew that Andy Pages was needed for…