Tuesday, December 28, 2010

1983 Los Angeles Dodgers



Another solid Dodgers team that won the NL West division. In a rematch from both the 1977 and 1978 post seasons, the Phillies faced the Dodgers in the playoffs. Unfortunately for these Dodgers, unlike in '77 and '78, the Phillies won the NLCS. This was sort of a season in transition for the Dodgers as the long time infield of the '70s was gone, with the exception of Bill Russell at shortstop, as Steve Garvey left in '83 to go play for the Padres and Ron Cey left for the Cubs. A pitching staff was coming together that would lead them through the rest of the '80s.

Best player: Pedro Guerrero

Best pitcher: Bob Welch

All-Stars: Pedro Guerrero, Steve Sax, Fernando Valenzuela

Rookie Card of the Year: Candy Maldonado

Other rookie cards: Greg Brock, Alejandro Pena, Ricky Wright

First Dodger cards (other than rookies): Rafael Landestoy, Pat Zachry

Most interesting non-Topps card: Candy Maldonado
I also called this one the rookie card of the year for the Dodgers. It was either this card or Alejandro Pena's card in the Topps traded set. Both played until 1995 (Pena pitched in four games in 1996), neither one was ever an all-star, but both played very solid careers. Maldonado's rookie card was in both the regular Fleer and Donruss set for 1983. He would go on to play for the Giants, Indians, Blue Jays, Cubs, and Rangers before calling it a career, with his 1990 season with the Indians probably being his best season.

Other notes: Ron Roenicke was cut by the Dodgers in mid-July and was picked up by the Mariners after his release. He then finished out the season with the Mariners. He played in more games with the Dodgers, but had more plate appearances with the Mariners. Since I use plate appearances as the tie breaker in these cases, I will put Ron Roenicke's Topps card showing him as a Dodger in the Mariners checklist.

Starters
__ TO 555 C Steve Yeager LAD
__ TT 14 1B Greg Brock LAD
__ TO 245 2B Steve Sax LAD
__ TO 661 SS Bill Russell LAD
__ TO 425 3B Pedro Guerrero LAD
__ TO 220 LF Dusty Baker LAD
__ TO 376 CF Ken Landreaux LAD
__ TO 324 RF Mike Marshall LAD

Starting Pitchers
__ TO 40 SP Fernando Valenzuela LAD
__ TO 454 SP Bob Welch LAD
__ TO 90 SP Jerry Reuss LAD
__ TT 83 SP Alejandro Pena LAD
__ TO 775 SP Burt Hooton LAD

Relief Pitchers
__ TO 170 CL Steve Howe LAD
__ TO 477 RP Tom Niedenfuer LAD
__ TO 532 RP Dave Stewart LAD
__ TT 131 RP Pat Zachry LAD
__ FL 202 RP Joe Beckwith LAD

Other Players
__ TO 748 CF Derrel Thomas LAD
__ TO 63 RF Rick Monday LAD
__

C Jack Fimple
__

OF Ron Roenicke
__

SS Dave Anderson
__ FL 212 OF Candy Maldonado LAD
__ TT 59 UT Rafael Landestoy LAD
__

OF R.J. Reynolds
__ TT 75 1B Jose Morales LAD
__ TO 352 C Mike Scioscia LAD
__

C Gil Reyes
__

3B German Rivera
__

SP Sid Fernandez
__

1B Sid Bream
__

CF Cecil Espy
__

C Dave Sax
__

IF Alex Taveras
__

SP Rick Honeycutt
__

RP Orel Hershiser
__

RP Larry White
__ FL 226 RP Ricky Wright LAD
__

RP Rich Rodas

Manager
__ TO 306 MG Tom Lasorda LAD

2 comments:

  1. Always loved the Pedro Guerrero card. He was elite back then.

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  2. this team really tore me apart. no cey or garvey for the first time in my lifetime, yet they made the playoffs. i at least wanted the dodgers to miss those guys for a year or so.

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