True Blue LA podcast episode 2106: Guessing the Dodgers opening day roster

It’s an annual tradition, this week on the podcast we take a stab at guessing the Dodgers roster for opening day on April 1 in Colorado.

We came to an agreement on 20 locks, though perhaps that number should have been 22. We only disagreed on two spots — the final bench player, and a second left-handed reliever.

Also on this episode, we talk fondly of frozen foods of our youth. Enjoy.

Please send all of your questions to tblapodcast@gmail.com, or tweet us at @ericstephen or @jacobburch. Kudos once again for producer Brian Salvatore for pushing all the right buttons behind the scenes.

Dodgers rewind

We look back at Stan Williams, the former Dodgers pitcher who died on February 20 at age 84.

The right-hander broke (consecutive no-hitter thrower) Johnny Vander Meer’s Piedmont League record with 301 strikeouts in 1955 at the tender age of 18, and debuted in the majors after the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958.

Williams won 43 games in a three-year stretch for the Dodgers, was an All-Star in 1960, and in 1961 was the eighth pitcher in franchise history with a 200-strikeout season.

He got the win with three stellar extra innings of relief in the Dodgers’ pennant-clinching win over Milwaukee in 1959, but blew the save in the third game of a three-game National League playoff to San Francisco in 1962.

Williams had a 3.48 ERA and 108 ERA+ in 14 major league seasons with the Dodgers, Yankees, Indians, Twins, Cardinals, and Red Sox. He pitched 11 scoreless innings in the postseason, all in relief, including two scoreless frames for the Dodgers in the 1959 World Series.

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