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Top OPS+ LA Dodger Seasons

Playing with my new baseball reference login I may never get any work done.
Here are the top OPS+ Seasons since 1959 for the LA Dodgers with players who qualified for the batting title.

With OPS+ being defined by baseball reference.

Of the top 25 seasons, only Ron Cey sneaks in, right at 25 of the great infield of Garvey, Lopes, Russel, and Cey. Other players from the 1973-1981 ERA who do make the list:
Reggie Smith - 3 Times
Jimmy Wynn - 1 Time

Frank Howard and Tommie Davis are the only two Pre-1969 Dodgers to make the list and they are 22 & 21. Not many of us were around when the Dodgers traded Frank Howard, Ken McMullen, and Phil Ortega to the Senators for Claude Osteen. Osteen was a big part of the rotation from 1965 - 1973,  with his final contribution being the main guy that got us Jimmy Wynn for 1974. Howard  slumped in 1964  after his big 1963 season but went on to be one of the best power hitters in baseball during the late 60's. Here are his numbers after he left us.

Year/HR/OPS+/Rank
1965/21/137/16th
1966/18/127/25th
1967/36/153/12th
1968/44/170/3rd
1969/48/177/5th
1970/44/170/4th
1971/26/144/16th

If he had played for the Dodgers during those seasons he would have tied Mike Piazza and Pedro Guerrero with the most appearances in the top 25 OPS+ in Dodger history with 4. It would be 5 but he knocks his 1962 Dodger year out of the top 25. Of course his 1963 season for us was also pretty good with an OPS+ of 149 but he didn't have enough plate appearances(459) to qualify for the batting title which was my cutoff.

I was lucky enough to watch Hondo play in RFK during the 1968 season and man was he fun. Nothing describes sweating like a pig, like seeing Hondo kneeling in the on desk circle, in the DC humidity in August. Sweat just poured off of him. And man could he hit. Towering shot after shot. He was one of the biggest man to ever play the game successfully, and I count myself lucky that I saw him do it in his prime.

Sure would have been fun to see Hondo hitting those moon shots at Dodger Stadium in his prime instead of for the hapless Senators. I have no doubt that if he had stayed with the Dodgers he would have hit the 1st ball out of the stadium long before Willie Stargell did it.

By the way in doing this research, I'd forgotten how great a hitter Willie McCovey was. Shame to see him barely able to move these days.

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2012 Dodgers Payroll

Italics denote estimates
Pos No Player 2012 Salary
C 17 Ellis $500,000 team control
1B 7 Loney $6,375,000
2B 14 Ellis $2,500,000
3B 5 Uribe $8,000,000
SS 9 Gordon $485,000 team control
LF 21 Rivera $4,000,000
CF 27 Kemp $10,000,000
RF 16 Ethier $10,950,000

IF/OF 6 Hairston $2,250,000
OF 10 Gwynn $850,000
2B/3B 3 Kennedy $800,000
C 18 Treanor $850,000
IF 12 Sellers $485,000 team control

SP 22 Kershaw $6,000,000
SP 58 Billingsley $9,000,000
SP 29 Lilly $12,000,000
SP 35 Capuano $3,000,000
SP 44
Harang $3,000,000

CL 54 Guerra $485,000 team control
RHP 74
Jansen $500,000 team control
RHP 55 Guerrier $4,750,000
RHP 60 Coffey $1,000,000
RHP 66 MacDougal $650,000
LHP 57 Elbert $485,000 team control
RHP 36
Hawksworth $500,000 team control

TJ 41 De La Rosa $485,000 team control



Manny $8,087,432 deferred


Andruw $3,375,000 deferred


Pierre $3,050,000 deferred
Furcal $3,000,000 deferred
Kuroda $2,000,000 deferred
Garland $1,500,000 option buyout
Blake $1,250,000 option buyout

Totals
$112,162,432

For more detailed information, click here.

Players on 40-man roster used as roster
fillers until moves are made.

Current 40-man roster count: 40
(not including Belisario)

2012 Non-Roster Invitees

No Player Age*
63 Jose Ascanio rhp
27
61 Alberto Castillo lhp
36
56 Matt Chico lhp
29
33 John Grabow lhp
33
59 Angel Guzman rhp
30
47 Wil Ledezma lhp
31
72 Shane Lindsay rhp
27
62 Fernando Nieve rhp 29
73 Scott Rice lhp 30
70 Will Savage rhp
27
71 Ryan Tucker rhp
25
28 Jamey Wright rhp
37

30 Josh Bard c 34
82 Griff Erickson c 24
81 Matt Wallachc 26
67 Jeff Baisley 3b/1b 29
65 Luis Cruz ss/2b 28
37 Josh Fields 3b 29
64 Lance Zawadzki if 27
56 Cory Sullivan of 32

*Age on June 30, 2012

NRI count: 20

For more info, click here.


Manager

Eric___ned___reporters_2011_trade_deadline_small Eric Stephen

Editors

100_1427_small Phil Gurnee

Dgy_small David Young

Hanauma_bay_small Chad Moriyama

2501_small Michael White

Raptors_small Brandon Lennox