Friday, June 23, 2006 |
Pickoff Moves
Today's Birthdays
Chris Beasley CAL b. 1962, played 1991
Dick Egan BRO b. 1884, played 1914-1915, d. 1947-07-07
Dave Goltz LAN,CAL b. 1949, played 1980-1983. He never had a losing season with the Twins, but he sure did have a bunch of ties; at the time he left Minnesota, he was their fourth-winningest pitcher, which maybe tells you something about the team at that time in its history. Signing a big-dollar, six-year contract with the Dodgers, he fell apart after early success. Released in 1982, the Angels picked him up and he helped them to their second division title, but he ended out of baseball the next year with a torn labrum.
Update: Good Christamighty, how could I forget this game, one of the lowlights of Tommy Lasorda's managerial career? With Fernando Valenzuela available and the Dodgers and Astros tied for the 1980 division lead, Lasorda started Goltz instead of Fernando. Goltz got clobbered, pitching only three innings. In 1981, Valenzuela would make the season opener as the least bad option in a very iffy rotation: Goltz started the year with a virus, Bob Welch had elbow trouble, Jerry Reuss strained his calf, and Burt Hooton had an ingrown toenail. He dominated the Astros, and thus was born Fernandomania.
Update 2, It's What You Know That Isn't So Dep't: Jon in the comments below neatly debunks that widely held but wrong belief; Fernando wouldn't have been available because he had pitched two innings of relief the day before.
Tom Haller LAN b. 1937, played 1968-1971, All-Star: 1966-1968, d. 2004-11-26. "And that's the Miller-Hiller-Haller hallelujah twist!" Funny, then, that Tom Haller ended up in a Dodger uniform, replacing the recently traded Johnny Roseboro.
Jerry Nops BRO b. 1875, played 1900, d. 1937-03-26
Karl Spooner BRO b. 1931, played 1954-1955, d. 1984-04-10. Born in the wrong era, he was. Gifted with a blazing fastball, he pitched consecutive shutouts of the Giants and Pirates, fanning 27 between the two efforts. He hurt his arm in spring training, pitched three innings in relief in Game 2 of the 1955 World Series, made a one out start in Game 6 — and was out of baseball, just like that.
Bruce Jenkins On The Dodgers' Youth Movement
San Francisco Chronicle blogger Bruce Jenkins, on the coming wave of young Dodger talent:If the Giants aren't careful, they're going to be crushed in the coming seasons by a Dodger youth movement orchestrated by one of Brian Sabean's best friends. Ned Colletti will tell you it's nothing personal; he's just enjoying the benefits of running a team that does not include Barry Bonds.The Dodger takeover is little more than theory right now, tempered by the state of their starting rotation (too flaky and eccentric to strike anyone as a postseason threat), the injury-prone nature of Jeff Kent, Nomar Garciaparra and J.D. Drew, and the possibility that it's all a mirage. It's one thing for young players to make an immediate impression, and quite another for them to persevere as enduring stars.
All of the signs, however, are in place. When Colletti replaced Paul De Podesta as the Dodgers general manager, few fans outside Los Angeles were aware of the team's revitalized farm system. Everybody got a good laugh out of manager Grady Little's down-home accent and his history in Boston (the infamous Pedro Martinez game), but Colletti's choice was all about Little's lengthy stint in the Atlanta organization, where he managed several future stars in the farm system.
Jay Jaffe In The Sun
Jay Jaffe's got another column up about the Dodgers in the New York Sun:The rookies are a big reason why the Dodgers are even contending in the NL West. Collectively, only the surging Marlins - amid a fire sale-induced youth movement that's seen as many as seven rookies playing at once - have gotten more production out of their freshman class. According to Baseball Prospectus's Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) metric - which measures a player's offensive or pitching contribution in runs relative to that of a freely available minor-leaguer or benchwarmer - Marlins rookies have accounted for a collective VORP of 106.4 runs, split about evenly between pitchers (57.3) and hitters (49.1). Dodger rookies have totaled 51.0 VORP (33.2 for hitters, 17.8 for pitchers), albeit in considerably fewer plate appearances and innings; only four other teams have topped 30.
Roster Notes
- Bill Mueller's knee injury may be career-threatening.
- Jason Repko could start a minor league rehab assignment July 1; Ricky Ledee might get one early next week.
- The reality for the "do something to fix this team NOW" crowd is that everybody wants Scot Shields. There, now, still so eager to "make a big trade"?
http://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/Kvalef0010011980.htm
Had Lasorda sent him out there to start, we might never have seen Fernandomania at all. Just an earlier arm injury.
Don Sutton, by the way, got the save the day before. Basically, the Dodgers were just out of pitchers.
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