On this date Aug 27th, 1955 Sandy Koufax throws a two hitter in his 2nd ever major league start
Sandy Koufax is known mostly for what he accomplished from 1961 – 1966 as a Los Angeles Dodger. Every Dodger fan knows that he was a late bloomer, but I’m not sure how many know that before he blossomed as a Los Angeles Dodger he had one incredible game for the Brooklyn Dodgers as a 19-year old. On August 27th, in just his second ever start Sandy whitewashed the mighty Redlegs. At only 19-years-old Sandy struck out fourteen Redlegs for one of the most dominant performances of 1955. To put this game into perspective, it was the only time all year in the National League that a pitcher struck out over twelve batters. It was also one of the most dominant performances of any NL 19-year-old ever. To further put this game into perspective, it was the only time since 1915 that a 19-year-old struck out more than 13 batters in a game in the National League. Bob Feller did it four times in the American League.
Player Age Date IP H ER BB SO Bob Feller 19.333 1938-10-02(1) 9.0 7 4 7 18 Bob Feller 17.315 1936-09-13(1) 9.0 2 2 9 17 Bob Feller 18.295 1937-08-25(1) 9.0 4 0 4 16 Bob Feller 17.294 1936-08-23 9.0 6 1 4 15 Sandy Koufax 19.240 1955-08-27 9.0 2 0 5 14
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Generated 8/27/2014.
Sandy would follow that game up with another shutout on Sept 3rd against the Pirates. Sandy would not throw another shutout until age 23 in 1959 by which time he was a Los Angeles Dodger. We all know what happened after that.
This game by the way featured five future HOF Dodgers.
Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and Sandy Koufax
You would think you could say that about any game from 1955, but you couldn’t because Sandy only started five games that year.
Wilie Crawford last of the bonus babies
Willie was only 57 years old when he died on this day (Aug 27th) in 2004, that baseball card image on this page has always been one of my favorite baseball cards. Some players just look like stars. Willie had it all, perfect baseball build, power, speed, athleticism, but for whatever reason he didn’t become that star, but he certainly owns his own page of Los Angeles Dodger history. After all how many African American 18-year-old’s have ever gotten a hit in a World Series? Only one. Willie Crawford.
Willie Crawford much like his predecessor Willie Davis was Los Angeles through and through. Signed by Tommy Lasorda out of Fremont High School in Los Angeles, Crawford was the last of the Dodger baby bonus signers as the MLB draft went into effect in 1965. Tommy Lasorda remembered Willie as one of the greatest athletes he ever saw.
Lasorda signed Crawford two days after his graduation from Fremont High, where Crawford was a standout in baseball, football and track. Crawford won All-City honors in baseball and football and ran the 100-yard dash in 9.7 seconds. He also competed in the long jump.
Willie got a World Series ring at the age of 18 in 1965 because of the bonus baby rules in effect back then. Much like Sandy Koufax in 1955, Willie did not deserve to be on the team but had to be on the team because of the rules.
The Bonus Rule was a rule instituted by Major League Baseball in 1947 that prevented teams from assigning certain players to farm clubs.[1] The rule stipulated that when a Major league team signed a player to a contract in excess of $4,000 ($42,200 today), the Major League team was required to keep that player on the 25-man roster for two full-seasons.
Playing for the Dodgers in the late 1960’s Willie was part of the crew known as the mod squad. This article depicts the Mod Squad as Bill Sudakis, Ted Sizemore, Billy Grabarkewitz, and Bill Russell, but I remember Willie as also being part of this group even if I can’t find the photo to prove it.
The interesting part about Willie Crawford that for all his talent, (think Darryl Strawberry) he never seemed to reach the heights expected by Dodger fans. He was a favorite of mine growing up, but I’d be the first to admit he never seemed very good. Even if Willie never became a star he was a fixture on the late 1960 early 1970 Dodger teams who once in a while would show glimpses of what Tommy Lasorda saw in him.
It wasn’t until I started reading Bill James Abstracts that I realized that Willie was actually better than I or other fans had thought. Using Baseball Reference OPS+ which normalizes OPS we can see that while Willie was not a star he was an above average outfielder.
Player OPS+ G From To Age PA HR BA OBP SLG OPS Hank Aaron 162 957 1968 1974 34-40 3878 252 .294 .383 .571 .955 Roberto Clemente 153 612 1968 1972 33-37 2548 74 .328 .380 .513 .893 Rusty Staub 135 1165 1968 1975 24-31 5007 146 .286 .380 .452 .832 Bobby Bonds 131 1014 1968 1974 22-28 4610 186 .273 .356 .478 .834 Ken Singleton 123 636 1970 1974 23-27 2487 64 .277 .387 .415 .802 Willie Crawford 119 917 1968 1975 21-28 3148 74 .269 .352 .416 .768 Jose Cardenal 115 822 1970 1975 26-31 3394 67 .294 .361 .431 .792 Ollie Brown 108 652 1968 1975 24-31 2255 65 .269 .323 .414 .737 Johnny Callison 105 505 1968 1971 29-32 1876 57 .250 .328 .417 .744
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Generated 8/27/2014.
Series Preview – new look Diamondbacks, all rookie outfield come to town
When the Dodgers and Arizona faced off at the beginning of the year down under, it was expected that Arizona would be some competition for the Dodgers for 1st place instead of battling with everyone for last place. Nothing has gone right for the Diamondbacks since the trip to down under, and the team that will take the place Tuesday night is nothing like the team that opened the year with such high hopes.
The GM is outta here, he should have packed his bags with Marty Prado. Gibby is on thin ice. Their golden 1st baseman is out for the year. Their golden arm prospect missed parts of the year, and has yet to impress when he has toed the mound. The team is a mess, and unlike the Padres the changes this summer have not helped the team. In August the team ranks 29th out of 30 teams in wRC+. The ability to score runs. If you want to go old school their BA is .226 which also ranks 29th out of 30 teams in August.
Who are these guys?
1st Base – Goldy be gone for the year. At least the Diamondbacks know they have one of the great weapons in baseball when he’s healthy. With Goldy gone Mark Trumbo gets to play 1st base and try to provide some power. The Trumbo / Skaggs deal hasn’t yielded much for either team in 2014. Skaggs is out for the year and possibly next year. Trumbo missed most of this summer. On April 6th, after nine games, Trumbo had an OPS of 1.140 with a league leading five home runs. Since that point Mr. Trumbo has a TSL of .218 / .284 / .318 with three home runs in 201 plate appearances. Trumbo has started to hit in August with a .807 OPS so far. Hard to imagine a slugger like Trumbo going 200 odd plate appearances with a slug% of just .318 but he did.
2nd base – Aaron Hill had been one of the more underrated offensive second baseman in baseball ranking near the top of most offensive categories for NL second baseman since showing up from Toronto.
Player OPS+ G From To PA BA OBP SLG OPS Matt Carpenter 136 271 2012 2013 1057 .310 .383 .475 .858 Aaron Hill 130 243 2012 2013 1030 .298 .359 .501 .860 Chase Utley 121 214 2012 2013 893 .273 .355 .457 .812 Neil Walker 113 262 2012 2013 1081 .265 .340 .422 .763 Daniel Murphy 105 317 2012 2013 1309 .288 .325 .409 .734 Marco Scutaro 104 283 2012 2013 1230 .302 .352 .389 .741
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Generated 8/26/2014
However 2014 has been a complete disaster for Hill, who only boasts a .651 OPS and has now lost time to one Cliff Pennington. Pennington is actually hitting with a robust .904 OPS so far in August. Given Cliff’s history, this might be the best offensive month of his career.
SS – When one talks about trade disasters and Arizona most of the focus has been on the explicable trade of Justin Upton. Yet Arizona can possibly boast of yet another disaster of a deal. They moved highly touted pitching prospect Trevor Bauer for good fielding no hit Gigi Gregorius . Gigi was the starting SS for all of 2013 and for a rookie acquitted himself well. Yet, Arizona wanted more offense and went with rookie Chris Owings for 2014. Owing did exactly what they wanted, giving them some offense at SS. Chris is now hurt so Gigi is back at SS and so far in August has an OPS of .464. Not a misprint. Bauer meanwhile has finally broken into the Indian rotation and while he’s not setting the world on fire, he’s not Trevor Cahill. Which begs the question, if you have Chris Owing in you minor league system, why trade a top pitching prospect for a player who is already redundant?
3rd Base – Last man standing. Prado is gone. Chavez is gone. Matt Davidson is gone. Andy Marte was Andy Marte. Which left AA prospect Jacob Lamb standing. Lamb has struggled so far but it was asking a lot for a AA prospect to step into the starting job at 3rd base. I’m not sure if Lamb is a legitimate prospect but if he does pan out, Dodgers fans might start expecting more of Scott Schebler than they have been led to believe he has to offer.
C – Miguel Montero – a nice bounce back year for Montero who had been a consistent offensive force until last year. He had a horrible July but seems to have found his stroke once again in August with an .878 OPS so far which is his best month of 2014.
The normal outfield configuration these days appears to be David Peralta / Ender Inciarte / Alfredo Marte. Not exactly the outfield configuration that Arizona expected to hit 2014 with. The opening day outfield was Parra / Pollock / Trumbo.
Parra be gone. Pollock be hurt. Trumbo be at 1st base. Cody Ross would have been next in line but he’s also hurt. Peralta is already 26 and this is his first taste of the major leagues. He’s doing very well for a 26-year-old rookie, putting up a solid 114 OPS+. Eleven walks in 281 plate appearances does not bode well for his future. Can’t imagine Peralta will be more than a utility outfielder as Arizona revamp’s the team for 2015. Ender is another rookie but he’s only 23. At this point he has little patience and little power. He must be a beast in CF. Based on his minor league numbers, I’m also having a hard time picturing this rookie as anything more than a utility outfielder going forward. Which leaves us with the 25-year-old rookie Alfredo Marte who also can’t hit. At all. Not yet anyway, he has had some minor league success in AA and AAA.
I don’t want to be snobbish but when you are playing an all rookie outfield it would be fun if one of them was a Joc Pederson type instead of a bunch of Trayvon Robinsons with a Scott Schebler thrown in.
Dodger Briefs Aug 25th, 2014 – Turner time
- Dodgers took two out of three from the Mets, picking up one full game on the Giants who lost two of three against the Nationals. The Dodger lead now sits at 4.5 games.
- Dodger record in August is 12 – 11 but they thanks to the Met drubbing last night, they have only scored 85 runs to 96 runs allowed
- Andre Ethier showed up this weekend getting back to back starts for the time in over a month. Andre went three for eight with no runs scored, and no runs driven in. In August Andre has just three extra base hits in thirty-eight plate appearances.
- Justin Chigbogu set a Ogden franchise record with his nineteenth home run. Congratulations to Chigbogu but why did he get to spend so much time in a rookie league? It would have been nice to see what he could do as a Loon in late summer after failing there miserably in early spring.
- Scott Schebler continues to lead the Southern League in triples and home runs. I don’t think that has been done before. I also think Schebler might have the Chattanooga franchise record for home runs as a Dodger affiliate but I have to investigate that.
- In their last three starts the discount duo have gone thirteen innings while allowing fifteen runs scored. Roberto Hernandez will try to change that trend on Tuesday. Correria has his usual trend going 6 – 5 – 3 innings while allowing 1 – 4 -7 in his three Dodger starts. Bullpen for you.
- Justin Turner continues his shocking offensive season hitting .412 for the week and now posting an amazing league leading OPS+ of 134 for 3rd baseman with at least 250 PA.
Player OPS+ PA Lg AB BA OBP SLG OPS Justin Turner 134 257 NL 227 .313 .385 .441 .826 Nolan Arenado 129 392 NL 360 .308 .350 .522 .873 Todd Frazier 125 540 NL 487 .279 .343 .460 .803 Aramis Ramirez 122 410 NL 379 .303 .349 .456 .805 Anthony Rendon 118 559 NL 506 .277 .337 .457 .793 Pablo Sandoval 118 512 NL 473 .288 .330 .436 .766 Matt Carpenter 116 576 NL 490 .284 .376 .398 .774 Juan Uribe 106 319 NL 304 .293 .320 .411 .731 Casey McGehee 104 554 NL 495 .295 .361 .372 .733 Luis Valbuena 103 421 NL 374 .241 .321 .422 .744 Pedro Alvarez 100 437 NL 390 .231 .314 .400 .714 David Wright 98 537 NL 489 .266 .324 .368 .692 Martin Prado 90 436 NL 403 .270 .317 .370 .686 Cody Asche 89 355 NL 325 .246 .303 .375 .679 Chase Headley 88 307 NL 279 .229 .296 .355 .651 Chris Johnson 87 518 NL 496 .272 .297 .377 .674 Mike Olt 55 212 NL 187 .139 .222 .353 .575
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Generated 8/25/2014.
NFBC Update – Coors helps but only one step up this weekend
Even with just about everything going right, the moustacheball team was only able to move up one spot. At this point all the teams are loaded, so getting into the top ten is not going to be an easy task. I increased 40 points over the weekend, and for the first time I’m over 3300 points. If I ever make 3400 points I know I’ll be sitting pretty but time is running out.
As I noted in my last post I was excited about the Marlin outfield hitting Coors this weekend, and they did well putting up a combined 11 runs scored, 12 runs batted in, 1 home run. Almost all of that damage came on Friday night, but they eased off the pedal on Saturday and Sunday.
My biggest worry was the performance of my FAAB acquisitions Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazer but they also delivered with a combined 12 IP, 2 runs, 15 punch-outs. Can they do it again?
Moustacheball NFBC Update – 13th place, moving on up
On August 4th I made my first NFBC update and noted I was in 1st place in my league and 18th place overall. Over the last 18 days I’ve managed to get as close as 9th in the overall, but currently sit at 13th place after Kershaw’s masterpiece last night. Matt Kemp is no longer pulling his weight but Clayton sure is.
I wanted to make this post because I have a huge weekend coming up. The Marlins are headed to Colorado and I’m able to start an all Marlin outfield this weekend with Stanton / Ozuna / Yelich. While I expect them to do some serious work against the Rockie rotation I’m very nervous about some big gambles I’m taking in the pitching department.
Over the last two weeks I’ve acquired Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar with via FAAB and I’m starting both of them this weekend against the Astros. I doubt any of the teams in front of me are doing the same thing so I may be sinking or swimming with these picks.
I still have plenty of run left in WHIP /ERA / SB / Runs while I’m near the top in HR / RBI so I’ve sat Matt Kemp this weekend as his August has been very ordinary and I can’t have ordinary right now.
Here’s to hoping it looks better come Monday
Snapshot of the League: $6200 Prize
| Rank | Team | Batting Pts | Pitching Pts | Overall Pts | Change |
| 1 | MoustacheBall | 61.0 | 56.0 | 117.0 | -1.0 |
| 2 | The Governor | 55.5 | 52.5 | 108.0 | -0.5 |
| 3 | Zefurs || LV2 | 53.0 | 49.5 | 102.5 | -1.5 |
| 4 | Seeing Doubles | 46.0 | 54.0 | 100.0 | +3.5 |
| 5 | CC’s Desperados | 54.0 | 43.5 | 97.5 | -0.5 |
| 6 | Four Headed Monster | 58.5 | 26.0 | 84.5 | -0.5 |
| 7 | DonnieBaseball ME | 36.0 | 46.0 | 82.0 | -3.0 |
| 8 | Tiger Slappy | 47.0 | 33.5 | 80.5 | -1.5 |
| 9 | Ozville Flying Monkeys | 31.0 | 48.0 | 79.0 | +1.0 |
| 10 | Welcome to Stevieland | 41.5 | 37.0 | 78.5 | +1.5 |
| 11 | Team Izenstark | 32.0 | 35.0 | 67.0 | +4.5 |
| 12 | Team Cohan | 27.0 | 38.0 | 65.0 | -1.5 |
| 13 | Bama & Madcow | 27.5 | 34.0 | 61.5 | -2.0 |
| 14 | Mudhens | 20.0 | 36.0 | 56.0 | +0.5 |
| 15 | Miami Mac | 10.0 | 11.0 | 21.0 | +1.0 |
Snapshot of the Overall (420 teams) – $125,000 Prize
Series preview – Mets come to town
The Mets have not had a winning season since 2008, but this could be the last year you can say that. They have several pitching prospects bubbling in AAA, and the major league team is stocked as well with youth and experience. When you look at who will be in the 2015 rotation you have all these pitchers to choose from: (ages are for 2015)
- 42-year-old Bartolo Colon – probably gets moved this winter, shocking he has not been moved this summer. Bartolo even at his advanced age simply gets the job done. As a fifth starter he is more than serviceable.
- 29-year-old Dillon Gee – another decent back-end rotation piece.
- 28-year-old Jonathan Niese – a tad above the average crowd, Niese would fit right in at back-end of rotation
- 27-year-old Jacob deGrom – I have no idea what to make of deGrom. Pitching as a 26 year old rookie he has simply been excellent in sixteen starts and neither do Met fans
- 25-year-old 2013 phenom Matt Harvey might be ready to give Jose Fernandez a run for best young right-handed pitcher in the game. Certainly the potential to be the Met ace
- 25-year-old Zack Wheeler – 2.12 in his last 10 starts, with OPS against of only .641. 2015 is when the Giants really feel the sting of trading Zack for Beltran. Wheeler has the stuff to be the Matt Cain to Matt Harvey.
- 24-year-old Rafael Montero – dabbled briefly so far in the bigs with mixed results. Is expected to be an option for the rotation in 2015. Montero is ranked as the 79th best prospect.
- 22-year-old Noah Syndergaard – considered the cream of the Met crop, he has struggled in 2014 with injuries and inconsistency. Probably not ready for prime time but when he is, he does have the stuff be a front of the line pitcher. Currently rotowire has him ranked as the 12th best prospect.
Finally 25-year-old Jennry Mejia who is currently serving as the Met closer. Parnell will be back next year, and maybe Mejia will head back into the rotation. He has been fighting a hernia this summer so the smaller load of working as a closer has allowed him to continue pitching. He has the repertoire of a starter, so I would not be shocked if he finds himself back into someone’s rotation.
It will be interesting a year from now to see how the Met rotation has shaken out.
Lets take a look at the rest of the team.
1st base – Lucas Duda was finally given the job full-time when the Mets pulled the plug on the Ike Davis era. Duda has rewarded the Mets with an outstanding season by simply doing what he does. Provide power and patience. Duda now has 23 dingers along with 54 walks.
2nd base – Daniel Murphy has had an above average season at 2nd base with a 119 OPS+, and currently leads the NL in hits with 154, but hey he’s no Justin Turner:)
SS – Mets are going with 22-year-old Wilmer Flores to see what he’s got. So far Wilmer is not showing much but I think with more playing time the hits will start to come. The real question for Wilmer is can he play SS? I don’t think the question is can he hit enough to play SS but maybe that is a valid question.
3rd – David Wright is still the man but now he’s the old man. The 31-year-old Wright has seen his power go off a Votto cliff this year with only eight boom booms so far. To compete in 2015, David Wright will need to make a big comeback from his current depths.
C – Travis d’Arnaud – was the part of the prize in the RA Dickey deal. On May 13th his .588 OPS was sent back to AAA. Within weeks he got his swing straightened out and has put up a .732 OPS since returning. In today’s offensive nadir, that will play just nicely.
RF – Curtis Granderson has been terrible, and that terrible turns to horrible when talking about August. How about an August OPS of .432. That is right, .432.
CF – Four different Mets have played CF in August but luckily for defensive fans, Lagares gets the most burn. None of them can hit, so might as well go with the guy who can pick it.
LF – Yuck and his cronies play here.
OK
after doing the review the Mets needs some serious OF redo if they expect to compete next year. Serious redo.
Fluke this – Turner turning point
Eric Stephen can some times be annoyingly johnny on the spot, as he proved once again yesterday. Once again Eric showed the knack of writing the right post at the right time. Yesterday Eric wrote a lengthy piece on the perceived Dodgers trouble to win games they are trailing in. To be exact, before last night they were 0 – 46 trailing in the 7th. Eric detailed all this exhaustively, and came to the following conclusion:
For the most part, trailing after seven innings is a terrible situation anyway. NL teams are 71-764 in those situations, an .085 winning percentage. That the Dodgers haven’t yet won a single game in that situation seems more a fluke than some sort of character flaw.
If you were at the game it was easy to expect a 1 – 0 loss once the Padres put the one on the board. The scoreboard all ready had two 1 – 0 losses up on the board as offense for all of MLB was missing on this Thursday. The Dodger offense showed little signs of being able to even get on base much less score a measly run. As I watched the game I mentioned the fact they were 0 – 46 to my wife and the cast around us. I also said not to worry that the author of the study had concluded it was just a “fluke”. A few batters later Justin Turner went Boom Boom, and one fan among us turned to me and as we high-fived exclaimed
“Fluke This”
Hell yeah, what a game.
My last three games in those seats:
- Juan Uribe home run to send the Braves home in the 2013 postseason
- Matt Kemp going yard twice several weeks ago against the same Braves
- Justin Turner doing his magic last night
I guess I should go more often
How about that Pedro Baez?
Since being recalled on Aug 7th, Pedro Baez the failed 3rd base prospect turned relief pitcher has appeared in five games without allowing an earned run. That run includes eight scoreless innings, twice going two innings. Those scoreless innings looks sweet but strangely enough the fireballing Baez has only struck out four batters in those eight innings. According to fangraphs, Baez features a fast ball at 96, a slider around 87, and a 88 MPH change up. So far this mix of stuff is doing sweet work for the Dodgers. With the Dodger rotation not going beyond six innings other than Clayton, the ability to pitch mulitple shutdown innings has been a huge boost to the Dodger bullpen.
I’ve been writing about Pedro Baez since 2008 in truebluela prospect reports, but it was not until January 11th, 2011 at a Dodger prospect workout that I saw him for the first time. At the time Baez was still a 3rd baseman, and he stood out above the other prospects with his athletic build. Even then the talk was about his arm but it took a few more years before the Dodgers moved him off of 3rd base to the mound. He was not the immediate success that Kenley Jansen was but so far in August, 2014 he is exactly what the doctor ordered.
MLB standings snapshot – Aug 21, 2014
MLB Standing snapshot via Baseball Ref on Aug 21st, 2014
- Orioles are not only in first place they are in first place by nine games. Surprisingly the Orioles had a ten game lead as recently as July 12th, 2012. I thought I was going to have to go back 20 years to find the last time they had at least a nine game lead. (Sept 6th, 1997 to be exact)
- AL East at the beginning of the year looked like a division that could have five teams with winning records. With the way the Yankees are trending, they may only have two, and not the two anyone would have bet on, Baltimore and Toronto.
- KC leading the AL Central on August 20th? When was the last time the fine folk from KC could make that claim? Looks like Aug 19th, 2003, they lost on the 20th, and never led again.
- Angels have blown by the A’s by virtue of their 8 – 2 run, in conjunction with the A’s going 2 – 8. I guess Lester and Smargy weren’t the right answer to the question. Losing Richards however should change the equation over the next six weeks since the Angels had already lost Skaggs, and don’t seem to have an answer for losing their ace.
- Best team in the NL have won nine in a row and taken a commanding seven game lead over the Braves. They get to beat up on the Giants this weekend at home, but then start a nine game road trip that ends at the Ravine for what should be a precursor to who will represent the NL in the World Series.
- Marlins keep hanging around the wild card, and how much fun will this weekend by when Stanton/Yelich/Ozuna and company invade Colorado with that rotation in shambles.
- Brewers don’t get to play the Dodgers anymore so they have come back to earth, but still have a 1.5 game lead on the Cardinals. Pirates lost seven in a row without their MVP but he’s back, Cole is back and they snapped the snide at seven with a lucky win over the Braves when the Upton brothers could not communicate on a gapper. Once again the Wild Card is going to be crazy time.
- The Padres have taken control of 3rd place with a seven game lead on the Diamondbacks. The Dodgers have seen their lead drop to three games but not because the Giants are winning. With the Giants going to Washington, expect the Giant losing ways to continue. Dodgers get the Mets. The lead should grow.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 