The 90’s: Underachieving Decade

                    In 1988, the Dodgers surprised the baseball world and won the World Series. They did it with a banged-up team, and some scrubs in the starting lineup. Their heart and soul, Kirk Gibson, was injured in the NLCS against the Mets. They had defied the odds to win that series against a team who owned them in the regular season with a 10-1 record. Then they beat the A’s Bash Brothers team in a 5-game World Series behind the pitching of Orel Hershiser, and a dramatic walk-off homer by Gibson in game one. 

                      So, one would think the 89 team was set up for a repeat. It didn’t happen. The 89-team finished in 4th place, 14 games behind the Giants. One reason was that the core players on the team were all in their 30’s. Kirk Gibson was hurt most of the year and only played in 71 games. They brought in Eddie Murray to play first, and the future Hall of Famer had a mediocre year, hitting only .247, He did lead the team with 20 homers and 88 driven in. The pitching fell off of a cliff too. Hershiser, who won 23 games in 88, was only a .500 pitcher in 89 15-15. The starters only won 52 games. 

                         As they headed into the new decade, you could guess there would be some changes coming. In December, their first trade sent OF Mike Marshall and P Alejandro Pena to the Mets for Juan Samuel. They signed Mike Maddux and Hubie Brooks as free agents. In April, they traded Franklin Stubbs to the Astros for Terry Wells, and in May they sent Willie Randolph to the A’s for Stan Javier. 

                      1990:   The 1990 team improved to a 86-76 record and a 2nd place finish in the West. Eddie Murray had a bounce back season hitting .330 with 26 homers. Gibson was hurt again and played in 89 games. Kal Daniels led the team with 27 homers. He, Murray and Brooks, all drove in more than 90 runs. Lenny Harris and Javier both hit .304 in reserve roles. Hershiser was injured and missed the entire year. Ramon Martinez won 20 games. Mike Morgan came over in a trade and won 11. Valenzuela was the only other starter with more than 10 wins, he had 13. Howell had 16 saves. Dave Hansen in his debut played in a handful of games. 

                       1991:  In November of 1990, they signed Daryll Strawberry as a free agent. In December, they signed Kevin Gross. Brett Butler also signed in December. At the winter meetings, they traded Hubie Brooks to the Mets for Greg Hansell and Bobby Ojeda. They signed Gary Carter as a free agent in March. In June, Todd Hollandsworth was drafted. They went 93-69 to finish 2nd to the Braves, who were just beginning their run of division titles in the 90’s. They had a pretty strong lineup. Strawberry led the team with 28 homers. Amazingly, 10 of them came against Houston. Martinez led the team with 17 wins. Morgan had 14. Hershiser returned from injury and went 7-2. Eric Karros played in a handful of games. He would take over for Murray at first in 92.

Eric Karros # 23

                       1992: The 1992 Dodgers would post the worst record in LA Dodger history. The went 63-99. With the talent they had on the team, one would not expect that. But several things contributed to the massive fall-off from 1991. Daryll Strawberry only played in 43 games before he admitted he had a drug problem and went into re-hab. Eric Karros would win the ROY and lead the team in HRs and RBI’s. 35-year-old Brett Butler, hit .309. But other than that, there just was not much offensive firepower. Karros was the only player in double digits in homers. Hershiser and Candiotti were the only pitchers with double digit wins. All of the starters had losing records except Pedro Astacio who was 5-5 They batted .248 as a team, and only scored, 548 runs.                                                                                               Mike Piazza # 31

                           1993:  Some changes were due for 93. First, they traded for Jody Reed to be their full-time second baseman. They lost three players to the Rockies in the expansion draft. They signed, Cory Snyder, Eric Davis, Mitch Webster, and Roger McDowell as free agents. In late December they traded for Tim Wallach. The June draft would bring Darren Dreifort and Paul LoDuca. The team improved a little, getting to .500 and finishing 4th in the West. Mike Piazza cruised to the ROY with the best season by a rookie in Dodger history. He hit .318/35/112. He was a 7 WAR player. Karros hit 23 and drove in 88. The offense improved greatly hitting .261 and scoring 675 runs. Hershiser was 12-14, Candiotti, 8-10, Martinez,10-12, Gross, 13-13, and Astacio, 14-9. Jim Gott had 25 saves.

Raul Mondesi #43

                        1994: The season was shortened to 114 games as the players went on strike in August. No settlement could be reached, and the rest of the season was cancelled, including the playoffs. The Dodgers finished first in the NL West with a 58-56 record. They had made several moves over the winter of 93, including the now infamous trade of Pedro Martinez to the Expos for Delino DeShields. They also signed Chan Ho Park from Korea. In May, Darryl Strawberry, who was still having problems was released. The June draft netted one player of note, Paul Konerko. And in July they signed a young kid as a amateur free agent, Adrian Beltre. Piazza hit .319 and had 24 homers. Brett Butler, now 37 also had a very good year, .314. The surprise was the play of Raul Mondesi. The RF, who had a cannon for an arm, hit .306/16/56 to earn the ROY. Martinez was the only pitcher with double digit wins, 12, and Worrell, in his first season as the closer saved 11 games.

Hideo Nomo # 10

                      1995:    The Owners and players had been negotiating an end to the strike that shortened the 94 season, but no agreement had been reached. So, the owners began formulating a plan that would use replacement players. Once that was known, the players became more serious about the negotiations. The negotiations pushed the start of the season to late April, 18 games into the season. They would play a 144-game schedule. In 1995, the playoffs were expanded to include a division series. So now, to win the pennant, you had to win two series. The Dodgers big move in the winter had been to sign Japanese pitcher, Hideo Nomo to a contract. Then with the season about a month old, they traded Jeff Treadway and Henry Rodriguez to the Expos for Joey Eischen and Roberto Kelly. None of the June draftees who signed made the team. At the deadline they traded three players to the Twins for reliever Mark Guthrie and starter, Kevin Tapani. In August they traded two minor leaguers to the Mets for Brett Butler, who had left as a free agent. With Piazza leading the way, the team finished first in the West and went to the playoffs for the first time since 1988. Piazza, .346/32/93 and Karros .298/32/105, were the big guns. Mondesi contributed 26 homers and 88 runs driven in. Ramon Martinez won 17 to lead the team, Nomo went 13-6 with a 2.54 ERA and earned the ROY. Todd Worrell had 32 saves. The team was swept out of the playoffs by the Reds who had won the newly formed Central Division.

Todd Hollandsworth #28

                               1996:   A few players were free agents after the season and were no resigned. They did bring back Butler, and Candiotti. They signed SS, Greg Gagne as a free agent and traded for 3rd baseman, Mike Blowers. The June draft brought Alex Cora, Damien Rolls, Peter Bergeron and Ted Lilly to the system. They would eventually finish second to the Padres. 76 games into the season, Tommy Lasorda suffered a heart attack and was replaced by Bill Russell. The team went 49-37 under Bill. Piazza and Karros once again were the big guns with Piazza, .336/36/105 and Karros, .260/34/111 leading the way. Mondesi hit .297/24/88. Young outfielder Todd Hollandsworth became the starting left fielder and hit .291/12/59 and won the ROY. That gave the Dodgers five ROY’s in a row. Nomo, Ismael Valdez and Ramon Martinez paced the pitching staff. Todd Worrell saved 44 games. They did not fare any better in the NLDS losing to the Atlanta Braves, 3-0. 

                            1997: The team was hoping to improve its finish and win a playoff series. They brought back Brett Butler and signed 3B, Todd Zeile as a free agent. Lasorda had officially retired, and Bill Russell was the manager. Other than the two free agents, Fred Claire did not add much to the team. They drafted Chase Utley in June, but he did not sign. The team did not play well, and they were under .500 by the end of June. In July and August, they went 39-18 to get back into the race. Then a 10-14 September derailed them, and they finished 2 games back of the Giants. Piazza had a dream year, .362/40/124. He finished second in the MVP voting for the second year in a row. The Dodgers, for the second time in their history, had four players with 30 or more homers, Zeile, Piazza, Karros and Mondesi. The pitching was ok, but nothing special. Nomo and Park had 14 wins each, Worrell saved 35 games. The team did not know it, but a major change was coming in 1998. 

                              1998: In the winter, rumors began to circulate that Peter O’Malley was considering selling the Dodgers. I and many other fans were somewhat stunned by this. The Dodgers over the years had become a family of sorts and that was how they treated their players. There were subtle signs though. The Dodgers made no major moves during the winter other than allowing some free agents to leave. The Dodgers also were negotiating a new contract with Mike Piazza, who would be a free agent after the 98 season. But they were at an impasse. After a winter of wondering, on March 18th, 1998, the hammer fell. O’Malley sold the Dodgers to Ruppert Murdoch and his Fox Corporation for about 350 million, which was at the time, the largest price ever paid for a sports franchise. O’Malley would explain later that one of the contributing factors to the sale, was the lack of desire by his children to run the franchise. Another was the monster estate taxes they would have to pay in the state of California.

                           A little under 2 months later, with the season already underway, the Fox execs running the team, immediately alienated Dodger fans when they traded their best player, Mike Piazza, and Todd Zeile, to the Marlins for Gary Sheffield, Charles Johnson, Bobby Bonilla, Manuel Barrios and Jim Eisenreich. The fans were stunned. Fox explained that Piazza was being unreasonable in contract talks and wanted more than 100 million dollars. Mike disputed that later. But the one person who was really stunned was Fred Claire. He did not even know a thing about the trade until it had actually happened. Claire would leave the Dodgers in June and Lasorda would be named the interim GM. 

                        The team itself played uninspired baseball. Russell was fired after 74 games and third base coach, Glenn Hoffman took over. They played a little better under Hoffman, but still finished in 3rd place, 15 games back of the Padres. Piazza was traded again by the Marlins to the Mets about a week after they traded for him. They were breaking up their 97 Championship team. Probably because of finances. Lasorda’s only trade as GM would become infamous as he sent Paul Konerko to the Reds for closer, Jeff Shaw. They traded Nomo in June to the Mets with Brad Klontz for Gene McMichael and Dave Mlicki. 

                         Johnson, a good defensive catcher, but a so so hitter, hit .217. Mondesi led the team with 30 homers and Karros added 23. Sheffield hit .316 and had 16 homers in his 90 games with the team. Neither Eisenreich nor Bonilla played very well. Lasorda called up 19-year-old Adrian Beltre to take over at third base. Park led the staff with 15 wins, and Shaw had 25 saves. Konerko would eventually be traded by the Reds to the White Sox. He would be their starting first baseman for 16 years and he would slug 432 homers for the Sox. To date, no Dodger has had 400 homers while playing for the Dodgers Duke Snider’s, 389 is the closest any player has come. Hodges had 371. Karros leads all LA Dodgers with 270. 

                                    1999: Fox moved into their second year of ownership with a few changes in the front office and on the field. The new GM was Kevin Malone, the so called, new sheriff in town. He hired Davey Johnson to manage the team, and Ed Creech took over as the scouting director from Terry Reynolds. Devon White was signed as a free agent, and they unloaded Bonilla to the Mets. Ramon Martinez left as a free agent, and they decided one year of Charles Johnson was one too many and traded him to the Mets along with Roger Cedeno for Todd Hundley. Kevin Brown came aboard in December as a free agent with a long-term deal. They signed Mike Maddux in April for the bullpen. Jason Repko, Shane Victorino, Joe Thurston and Shane Vance were drafted in June. They traded for Craig Counsell in June. They made no more major trades. 

                                    They would finish 77-85 under Johnson. 23 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks. Kevin Brown went 18-9, Shaw would have 34 saves, but the rest of the staff was mediocre at best. The team was 7th in the league in ERA at 4.45. They hit .260 as a team and crushed 187 homers while scoring 793 runs. Hundley hit 24 homers, but only drove in 55 while hitting .207. Karros was their best hitter with one of his best seasons, .304/34/112. Sheffield went .301/34/101. Mark Grudzielanek hit .326 in his 123 games. Beltre started showing what he was capable of, with a .275 mark. Mondesi hit 33 homers, and drove in 99 runs, but he hit only .258 and struck out a lot. For whatever reason, they just never played as a team. 

                                                                                                    Overview

                                   The decade of the 90’s showed that even though you might have a ton of talent in your system, that does not mean you are going to be successful all the time. No other team has had as many Rookies of the Year as the Dodgers, who right now, have had 18. The had four in a row from 1979-82. Then five in a row, 92-96. The closest teams to them are the Yankees and Braves with 9. Why were they not more successful? Up until his heart attack, they had one of the better managers around in Tom Lasorda. They had a great owner, and a very good farm system. But I think there were some misjudgments by those in charge that allowed some really good players to leave the team. 

                               For whatever reason, and some say it is because Lasorda felt he was too small to be a starting pitcher in the majors, they traded Pedro Martinez, who as we all know went on to have a Hall of Fame career. He had one full season in LA and went 10-5, mostly out of the pen and had a 2.61 ERA. Because they felt the need for a second baseman after Jody Reed left via free agency, they traded him to the Expos for DeShields. Many now look on that deal as one of the worst in Dodger history. You also have to believe that Fox miscalculated just how much Mike Piazza meant to the fan base and the offense. Considering what he did with the Mets, they would have been better served to have paid him what he wanted. Corporate had no business making baseball decisions. They circumvented the GM and made the trade. Because of that, a very good baseball man left the team. Then Lasorda, who was never really GM material, made another trade of need sending a very talented, but untried player away. Konerko may have not had a Hall of Fame career like Piazza and Martinez, but he was an offensive force for most of his career and would have been a perfect replacement for Karros. 

                             I was driving long haul for much of the later part of the 90’s, so I missed going to Dodger Stadium a lot. But I had Sirrus radio in my truck and listened to every game. I dislike losing. And there were some years where I expected better, and it did not happen. 

                                                              Minor League Report

                                          OKC 10 Tacoma 1: After Tacoma scored 1 in the top of the first, OKC scored 3 in the bottom of the inning and never looked back. After Avans made an out, Outman singled. Lipcius flied out and then Ward hit his 18th double to score Outman. Sweeney singled to right scoring Ward. Hoese walked, then Feduccia gets aboard on a fielding error, and Sweeney scored. They scored 1 in the bottom of the second, 2 in the bottom of the 4th. In the bottom of the 6th, they would score 4. Hoese and Feduccia made outs. Trejo, Owings and Avans had consecutive singles, Trejo scoring on Avans single. Outman was safe on a fielding error and Owings scored. Lipcius walked and then Ward singled to drive in the final two runs. Outman was 2-3 and scored 4 runs. Ward was 3-5 with 4 RBIs. Choi went 5 innings for the win, and the bullpen pitched 4 scoreless innings. 

                                           Tulsa 4 Frisco 5: Tulsa fell behind 5-1 by the bottom of the 5th. They got 1 in the top of the 6th and 2 in the top of the 9th to make it tight. Rushing hit his 11th homer in the 4th inning. Davis and Lockwood-Powell were the only Drillers with more than one hit. Ortiz-Mayr went the first 5 innings and gave up all the runs. The bullpen threw three scoreless. 

                                            Great Lakes 5 Lake County 6: The Loons dropped a close decision to the division leading Captains. The Captains scored all 6 of their runs in the first four innings. Martin gave up two homers, one in the first and another in the 4 run second. The Loons got 4 back in the bottom of the fifth. Nevin walked and Gelof popped out. Mongelli singled and so did Quiroz driving in Nevin. Vogel struck out and the DePaula hit his second homer, a 3-run shot, to make it 6-4. In the eighth, Miller walked, Liranzo got aboard on a fielding error that allowed Miller to get to third. Nevin then singled driving in the 5th run. Martin went 4 innings and got the loss. The bullpen was nails shutting down the Captains over the last 5 innings. 

                                            Rancho 4 Inland Empire 3: Rancho fell behind 2-0, then rallied for 3 in the top of the fifth. Inland tied the score in the bottom of the sixth and then Rancho scored the game winner in the top of the eighth. McLain went 3-4 with a run scored. George had 2 hits, including a run scoring triple. The Quakes hit 3 triples, besides George, Diaz and McLain also tripled. Ruen would get the win, and Wallace the save. Munoz drove in the game winner with a sac-fly. George stole his 27th base.  His BA is up to .268.