does raul mondesi regret his tattoo, and other random musings

while it is true that raul mondesi had a cannon for an arm, i wonder if the cannon tattoo visible on his 1998 upper deck card

was fully thought out.  from one angle it looks like a cannon, although the fuse is still lit even though the cannon has discharged, and from another angle one might mistake it for some sort of rocket. or something else, i suppose.

the back of that card is pretty interesting, too, as we have pylons and a car in the background.

i'm also curious about mondesi's 1996 fleer emotion xl card, although it's no fault of his that the emotion fleer slapped on there is 'pounding'

i don't feel pounding.  or tardy, for that matter.  what was fleer thinking?

along the same lines of lack of thought, here are a few other cards that i've scanned without a real purpose. although i suppose you could say that i scanned them for inclusion in a random cards from my scanned folder post, so there was a purpose. whatever.

1987 topps orel hershiser

1990 donruss mickey hatcher

1992 score rookie and traded carlos hernandez

1997 topps stadium club pedro astacio

2007 topps heritage derek lowe

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee scott elbert black parallel

and 2012 bowman chrome prospects jt wise

as in wise enough to not consider 'pounding' to be an emotion?

the evolution of the ace, part 3

here's the third installment in the evolution of the dodgers' ace.  that's ace as defined by me.

orel hershiser (1985, 1987-1989)

bulldog burst on the scene with a 19-3 record in 1985.  he finished 3rd in the cy young voting that year, and followed it up with a couple of .500 campaigns.  in 1987, however, his 16-16 record also came with a  3.06 era and a league leading 264.2 innings pitched.  it also netted him a fourth place showing in the cy young vote.  then, in 1988, the stars aligned and hershiser won 23 games, broke don drysdale's scoreless innings streak, led the league in wins (tied with danny jackson), innings pitched, complete games and shutouts, and won the cy young and the nlcs and world series mvp awards.  not bad.  in 1989, hershiser fell back to .500 with a 15-15 record, but had a tidy 2.31 era and led the league in innings pitched for the third straight year.  he also finished fourth in the cy young vote.  of course, all that work caught up to him, and he missed most of the following season due to injury.

ramon martinez (1990-1991, 1994)

mike morgan, bob ojeda and tim belcher had better eras in 1991, as did hershiser and gross in 1994, but i give the nod to martinez in those years.  1990 was a no-brainer, though, as ramon won 20 games for the only time in his career, going 20-6 with a 2.92 era and 12 complete games.  he also had 3 shutouts that year, including one against the braves in which he struck out 18 batters.  he won 17 games in 1991, and then posted 12 victories in 1994, leading the staff both times.  what made him the ace in those years, in my mind anyway, was that he led the team in starts, and shutouts, and nearly led in complete games and innings pitched.

tom candiotti (1992-1993)

in between the martinez years, there was tom candiotti.  and some bad dodger teams.  the 1992 team is the worst in la dodger history, winning just 63 games.  candiotti was credited with 11 of them, more than anyone else on the staff.  he also led all starters (who made more than 11 starts) in era with a nice 3.00 mark.  1993 was a bit trickier.  the dodgers improved their record to an even .500, but candiotti was still on the wrong side of breaking even.  he was 8-10 despite a staff leading 3.12 era.  it's because of the era, and the fact that he led the staff in strikeouts that i let him retain his ace status.  i came very near to listing pedro martinez as the ace of the staff, but he made just 2 starts that season and i couldn't bring myself to do it.

hideo nomo (1995-1996)

there was no doubt about who the ace of the staff was in 1995, though.  isn't that a great card, by the way.  nice 2006 upper deck collector's choice featuring a 3-exposure, horizontal, dodger stadium shot.  me likey very much.  nomo was just 13-6 in 28 starts (ramon martinez won 17 games and pitched a no-hitter), but his era was 2.54 and he had a league leading 3 shutouts and 236 strikeouts.  he struck out 234 batters in 1996, and had a record of 16-11 although his era climbed to 3.19.  he also threw the first of two career no-hitters that year, and confused the heck out of bob dole.  it's worth noting as well that nomo finished 4th in the cy young voting each of those two years, which also marked the return of the dodgers to the postseason.

chan ho park (1997-1998, 2001)

nomo's era continued to climb, and so i picked chan ho park as the ace of the team in '97.  it could have just as easily been ismael valdes, but them's the breaks.  park was 14-8 with a 3.38 era and 166 strikeouts.  he also had 2 complete games (both wins) and a much better whip than nomo.  in 1998, park was filthy.  he led the staff in wins (15), innings pitched (220.1) and strikeouts (191).  after a down year in 1999 (era wise), park bounced back to win 18 games in 2000.  however, that team also had kevin brown who was simply a better pitcher than park, despite their records.  park did reclaim the ace title in 2001, however, when brown was injured and park again led the staff in wins (15), innings pitched (234) and strikeouts (218).

kevin brown (1999-2000, 2003)

brown joined the dodgers to be the ace, period.  he should have been the ace for several years given what the team was paying him (just a year after refusing to pay that much for piazza), but that didn't happen.  he did have a very good 1999 season, going 18-9 with a 3.00 era, 1.07 whip, 5 complete games and 221 strikeouts.  in 2000, he led the league with a 2.58 era and 0.99 whip.  his record was only 13-6, but that was more a function of the dodgers than brown.  as mentioned earlier, had brown stayed healthy, he may have held the title in 2001 and 2002, but he did not.  he did return to full strength in 2003 and was 14-9 with a 2.39 era in 32 starts.  he also had 185 k's and a whip of 1.14, numbers which must have made the yankees comfortable enough to trade for him after the season.  bwah-ha-ha!

odalis perez (2002)

despite the triumphant return of hideo nomo, it was odalis perez who earned the title of ace based on his 2002 performance.  odalis was acquired in the 'let's get rid of gary sheffield' trade with the braves, and promptly helped dodger fans forget that sheff was one of the greatest offensive players the team had ever seen.  perez was 15-10 in 2002, with a 3.00 era, a 0.99 whip and a staff-leading 222.1 innings pitched.  he also had the only complete games and shutouts on the staff with 4 and 2, respectively.

i'll finish up the evolution tomorrow.

the evolution of the left fielder, part 2

here's part 1 if you missed it.  and, as promised, here are bill buckner's wooly eyebrows.

bill buckner (1974-1976)

billy buck was a part of the dodgers' historical 1968 draft, and he worked his way into the starting lineup as a left fielder after spending most of his time in la playing right field and first base.  as the dodgers' every day left fielder in 1974, buckner hit .314 and was the guy who climbed the left field fence at fulton county stadium when hank aaron hit number 715.  he finished 25th in the league mvp voting and hit a home run in the dodgers' world series loss against the a's.  in 1975, buckner was limited to 72 games in left and the dodgers used 10 other players in left during his absences.  buckner came back in 1976 to play in 154 games and hit over .300 in what would be his dodger swan song.  he was dealt to the cubs after the season with ivan dejesus for rick monday and mike garman.

dusty baker (1977-1983)
dusty baker had been acquired in a trade after the 1975 season, and spent the 1976 season playing center and right field for the dodgers.  after they acquired monday in the buckner trade, baker was shifted to left and stayed there for 7 seasons and all of my youthful years of fandom.  during those 7 campaigns, baker hit .285 with 140 home runs (30 in 1977), two top-ten mvp finishes, four monster nlcs performances, three world series appearances, a world championship, and a gold glove in 1981 for his play in left.  it was a sad day when he became a free agent and an even sadder one when he signed with the giants.

mike marshall (1984)

baker's departure opened up a spot in the lineup for candy maldonado, and mike marshall moved from right field to left field to accommodate candido.  in left for the dodgers in 1984, marshall played in 116 games and was named to the all-star team although he didn't appear in the midsummer classic.  in 1985, marshall moved back to right field, as the dodgers moved pedro guerrero out of the infield.

pedro guerrero (1985, 1987)

guerrero had a monster year in 1985.  he finished third in the league in the mvp voting (his third top-4 finish in 4 years) while leading the league with a .422 obp and .577 slugging percentage.  he was named to the all-star team for the third time (he did not appear in the game) and went 33/87/.320 while splitting time between third base and left field, along with a few stops in center, right and at first base.  still, his 70 starts in left were tops on the club in 1985.  after losing to the cardinals in the nlcs, all eyes were on guerrero heading into 1986.  unfortunately, guerrero forgot how to slide and tore up his knee in a spring training game.  he missed all but 31 games that year, but bounced back in 1987 to reclaim left field from franklin stubbs.  he started 108 games in left in 1987, and hit .338 with a .955 ops that year. named to the all-star team, guerrero lined out in his only at bat.

franklin stubbs (1986)

stubbs became the dodgers' primary left fielder in 1986 by way of guerrero's knee injury, and cesar cedeno's ineffectiveness.  he had played in only 10 games in 1985, but took to a bigger role fairly well.  he established a career high of 23 home runs (15 of which came with the bases empty), although he drove in just 58 and hit only .226 on the season.  some of the other players the dodgers trotted out to left in 1986 included enos cabell, ken landreaux, mike marshall, len matuszek, reggie williams, terry whitfield, and bill russell!

kirk gibson (1988-1989)

kirk gibson came to the dodgers as a free agent and immediately made his presence known in left field.  that's because he left the field of a spring training game after jesse orosco put eye black inside his hat.  gibby served notice that such nonsense was a unwanted distraction and the rest is history.  he may have had a statistically weak mvp season (25/76/.290) but there is no doubt that without him, the dodgers would have not achieved what they did in 1988.  gibson still played more games in left than any other dodger in 1989, but injuries limited him to just 62 games (51 starts) there.  10 other dodgers spent time in left that year, primarily mickey hatcher, who just might have been the mvp of the 1988 world series if not for the bulldog.

kal daniels (1990-1991)

gibson spent most of his playing time in 1990 in center field, while newcomer kal daniels took over in left. he had actually been acquired from the reds in july of 1989, but injuries limited him to just 11 games as a dodger.  in those games, however, he hit .342 and expectations ran high in 1990.  daniels didn't disappoint, hitting 27/94/.296 in 130 games.  in 1991, he played in 137 games, but hit just 17/73/.249 as his balky knees were getting the best of him.  he was eventually dealt to the cubs during the 1992 season, which turned out to be his last in the big leagues. 

eric davis (1992-1993)

davis was acquired by the dodgers in a trade after the 1991 season, and replaced another former red in daniels as the dodgers' everyday left fielder.  the plan to reunite him with friend and fellow hometown product darryl strawberry may have looked good on paper, but it didn't turn out so well in reality.  davis hit just .228 with 5 home runs in 76 games.  he did have 19 stolen bases in 20 attempts, but that was really the only bright spot to his season.  in 1993, he upped his stolen base total to 33 while raising his average a few points and hitting 14 home runs in his 108 games as a dodger.  still disappointed, the dodgers sent davis to the tigers at the end of august.  davis would eventually get healthy and return to his former self with the reds and orioles in the late 1990's.

henry rodriguez (1994)

with davis gone, henry rodriguez took over in left field for the rest of the 1993 season.  he returned in 1994, and played in 104 of the dodgers' 114 games during the strike-shortened season.  he hit 8 home runs, but didn't really show the power he would later provide for the expos. 

in the 11 seasons since dusty baker roamed left, the dodgers had 7 different 'primary' left fielders.  sadly, stability was nowhere in sight after rodriguez was traded early in the 1995 season, as we will see next time.

dave anderson, double dipper

[this is the seventh installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, and mickey hatcher.]

dave anderson made his big league debut in 1983 for the dodgers, at a time when the long running infield had largely been replaced.  as a shortstop, he was the first apparant successor to bill russell to emerge from the farm system. here's anderson's 1986 topps card.

in 1984, anderson did, in fact, become the dodgers' primary shortstop.  he played in a career high 121 games, and set personal bests pretty much across the board.  the following year, anderson was part of a 'third base by committee' platoon while mariano duncan took over primary shortstop duties.  in all, anderson spent the first 7 seasons of his career with the dodgers, hitting .232 over 662 games.  he may be best remembered for being the on deck decoy for kirk gibson in game 1 of the 1988 world series.

anderson became a free agent after the 1989 season, and he wound up signing with the giants.  he played in san francisco for two seasons, primarily as a super utility guy as he spent time at each infield position.  here's his 1991 leaf studio card

anderson hit .350 in 1990 with an ops of .819 in the 60 games he appeared.  as a result, he was used more often in 1991, but his average slipped to .248 over 100 games.  in total, anderson hit .279 as a giant.  he became a free agent once again after the 1991 season, and decided to return to los angeles.

here he is on one of his last cards, his 1992 score rookies and traded card:

1992 was anderson's final year in the majors, and he spent it making spot starts and late inning substitutions at short and third for the dodgers, along with occasional pinch running or hitting duties.  on the season, he hit .286 in 51 games, and managed to hit 3 home runs, all of which came in a one week stretch on the road.

here's to you dave anderson, double dipper!