Blog Kiosk: 11/1/2014 - Dodger Links - Billingsley Bought Out, Jamie Romak and Gabe Kapler

In news that was entirely expected, the Dodgers announced that they would buyout the $14Mil contract of starting pitcher Chad Billingsley for the 2015 season at $3Mil.  Via Ken Gurnick at MLB.com, "Dodgers buy out Billingsley as righty hits free agency."

This doesn't mean he'll never wear Blue again, but it does mean that it's not assured.  Billingsley is just coming off Tommy John surgery and a second surgery during rehab to repair a partially torn flexor tendon, so I'd imagine the club will let him workout with them and maybe even extend a tryout.

Chad has been a Dodger throughout his professional career, and from what I understand he'd like to stay in the franchise.  He was our 1st round pick in 2003 and has been Blue ever since.  In eight Major League seasons in Los Angeles he has gone 81-61 with a 3.65 ERA.  The photo above of Chad is via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2010.

Below are some links to check out:

• Bill Chuck at the Daily Gammons shares, "Nine quotes to end a baseball season."  Below is my favorite one:

People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. ~Rogers Hornsby

• Via Cary Osborne at Dodger Insider, "Jamie Romak reflects on his friend Oscar Taveras."

“I’ve been with five different organizations now, and he was the best hitter I’ve ever seen,” Romak said. “He was capable of amazing things. He hit everything, every type of pitch and covered the whole plate. I admired his talent. I hit behind him in 2012, and I spent my time in the on-deck circle like a fan would in the stands. That’s the kind of talent he had.”

• Eric Stephen at True Blue LA tells us about the potential Dodger interest in adding Gabe Kapler to the Dodgers front office.  Via Mike Petriello at Dodgers Digest, "Is Gabe Kapler Coming To The Dodgers? (Yes, Please!)"

You better believe it. He’s the perfect guy to bridge old-school and new. I don’t know what capacity this might be in, if at all. I just know that I want it to happen. 

Since I don't know much about Kapler and what he might bring to the table, I don't have anything to say about this latest rumor.

• Via Harold Uhlman at Think Blue LA, "A look back at the 2014 Dominican Summer League Dodgers."

Having a winning record was no small feat as the Dodgers had a team batting average of .226 with only four hitters at or above .275. The success no doubt can be mainly attributed to the pitching staff which compiled an ERA of 2.97 ranking seventh in the league. Near the bottom of the league in strikeouts with 464 the staff was also near the top of the league in fewest hits allowed with 530 in 627 innings pitched.

• Congratulations to the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks for being the 2014 Japan Series champions, via Jason Coskrey at The Japan Times.
• GCRL shares even more Steve Garvey oddball cards.  Check them out here.
• Here's some Halloween banter from Dan Haren on twitter:

Haren Pitching at Coors Field #ScaryStoriesIn5Words
— dan haren (@ithrow88) October 31, 2014

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2014 Leaf Metal Draft Baseball - All the Dodger Cards

After going through the entire 2014 Baseball season Leaf finally puts out a set Dodger collectors would be interested in.  Earlier this month they released their 2014 Leaf Metal Draft Baseball set, and it includes a couple of the Dodgers brightest young prospects.  Go here to see an entire checklist.

From what I can tell, only two Dodgers made the cut for Leaf.  They are Darnell Sweeney and Grant Holmes.  As you may know, Sweeney was the Dodgers 13th round pick in 2012, and has been very impressive.  Right now the infielder is playing the AFL and is hitting the cover off the ball.  BTW, the Darnell Sweeney card is his very first to be found in packs of cards.  Grant Holmes was the Dodgers 1st round pick in 2014 and recently completed his first year of professional Baseball.  He appeared to struggle a bit when he advanced from the AZL Dodgers to the Ogden Raptors, but continued striking out batters at a healthy clip.  Overall, Holmes pitched 48.1 innings, struck out 58 batters and had a 1.076 WHIP. 

Check out their cards below. As always there are numerous parallel cards available.  Here is a listing: Silver Prismatic, Blue Prismatic #/50 or less, Purple Prismatic #/25 or less, Green Prismatic #/10 or less, Red Prismatic #/5 or less, Gold Prismatic 1/1.

Base Autograph Cards

BA-DS2 Darnell Sweeney                    BA-GH1 Grant Holmes

Also available in packs are Leaf are 'Buyback' cards featuring autographs of several former Dodgers.  Check them out below.  Unfortunately, a complete checklist of available 'Buybacks' has not yet been made available by Leaf, so the listing below may not be complete.  If you are aware of more please let me know.

Leaf Memories Buyback Autographs

 1991 Leaf - John Candelaria (#/45)               1992 Leaf - Roger McDowell (#/13)

BTW, I recently won a Holmes and Candelaria cards on eBay.  So, I'll be sharing those soon.  And I'm eager to add the McDowell since he'd be so fun to write about.  He might be the biggest goofball to ever put on a Dodger uniform.

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Blog Kiosk: 10/31/2014 - Dodger Links - Adrian Gonzalez is a Master with the Glove and Logan White Wanted the Challenge

I just can't stop laughing at this photo shared by @Dodger_History on twitter. Awesome!

Below are some links to check out:

• Adrian Gonzalez has been the named the 2014 Fielding Bible Gold Glove Award winner for 1st baseman in the Major Leagues.  Check out their website with the announcement here.  The Fielding Bible Award has nothing to do with religion.  Instead, it features 10 sabermetrically geared journalist and bloggers voting on the best defensive infielders in the game.  Here is what they said about Gonzalez:

“Adrian Gonzalez has been the best defensive first baseman in baseball over the last six seasons but somehow he has never won a Fielding Bible Award. Until now. Gonzalez wins his first Fielding Bible Award, leading all of baseball's first basemen by saving 11 runs defensively for the Dodgers in 2014. That brings his six-year total to 62 runs saved, 12 more than Albert Pujols’ second-place total of 50. Every aspect of Gonzalez's defensive game is superb. He fields his position well, does a great job with difficult throws, and handles bunts and double plays with the best of them. But he's not flashy. Just consistently excellent.”

• Via Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider, "Kershaw, Puig lead as Dodgers grab 15 GIBBY noms."
• Simply awesome!  Mark Langill at Dodger Insider writes, "Vintage Vin."  He shares a new memorabilia find from Gary Cypres' collection and it's a doozy.  Check it out.
• I don't know if this is something I want to know right now.  Via Eric Stephen at True Blue LA, "Dodgers co-favorites to win 2015 World Series." 
• Via TheThinGwynn at Gaslamp Ball, "Logan White says he would not have left Dodgers for any other job."

"I couldn't pass it up," White said on Wednesday. "Andrew was such a class act through all of this. As I told him, with the timing, in a different time and a different place, I think that we would have worked great together. And I have so much respect for [Dodgers president and CEO] Stan Kasten. I would not have left the Dodgers for any other job.

So in other words, it came down to Logan wanting to tackle a new challenge.

• Via Bill Plunkett at the OC Register, "Former Dodgers up for Hall of Fame review."  A special committee will look at the candidacy of Maury Wills and Gil Hodges.  Wills is being considered for the first time.  BTW, I almost feel like they should just stop doing this because seeing Hodges get slighted again is just torture.  The Baseball Hall of Fame has a story on this with biographical information on everybody that you can check out here.
• Via JP Hoornstra at Inside the Dodgers, "Hanley Ramirez headlines list of Dodgers’ free agents."
• Dodger Blues puts it all into perspective.  Doh!

That's 3 championships for the Giants in 5 years. Another way to say it: Nothing but success since Ned Colletti left their organization.
— Dodger Blues (@dodgerblues) October 30, 2014

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Dan Haren to Remain a Dodger - Will Exercise 2015 Option

At least the #4 man in the Dodgers 2015 rotation is figured out, for now.  Via a tweet from OC Register reporter Bill Plunkett, we find out that starting pitcher Dan Haren has already notified the team that he will be exercising the player option in his contract.

Dan Haren has informed #Dodgers he will exercise player option in his contract for 2015. Will be back at $10m salary. 13-11, 4.02 ERA in '14
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) October 30, 2014

Haren had recently underwent arthroscopic surgery on his non-pitching shoulder a couple of weeks ago, so this news is hardly surprising.  Even with the surgery taking place on his off-shoulder you would have to think he'd have a tough time equaling the $10Mil salary. 

Overall, Dan Haren had an average season filled with moments of brilliance.  He was an innings eater (pitching 186 innings) who continued to strike out opponents at ratio that was a little better than four to one.  Haren went 13-11 with a 4.02 ERA in 32 starts. 

In two games he gave up just one hit in seven innings.  In fifteen games he gave up two earned runs or less.  To start the 2014 season he went 5-1 in eight starts and had a 2.84 ERA.  Over his last ten starts of the season, he went 5-2 with a 2.43 ERA, and had only one really bad start during that period.  Over that stretch opposing batters hit just .191 against him.  So, he finished strong.

I can't be unhappy with this development.  Dan Haren provides some veteran leadership in a position that requires him to pitch a lot of innings and provide some decent starts.  By all accounts he does just that.

In commemoration of Haren's decision to stay Blue I made the above fantasy card for him.  I used a photograph taken by Dodger photographer Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2014 during Spring Training and used the 1971 Topps Baseball card design.

Below are his career statistics, via Baseball-Reference:

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Check Out Some Great AAGPBL Press Photos at Hake's

I love vintage press photos, and there's nothing better than oddball photos of the game you love.

Shown here are pics from a lot of eleven news service 'Spielmacher Photos' of the Grand Rapids Chicks of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League available for sale at Hake's Auctions.  On Tuesday I shared some pics of some Dodger memorabilia available at this auction.  Go here to check out that post. 

Made famous when the movie 'A League of Their Own' arrived in theaters in 1992, the AAGPBL offered women's professional Baseball from 1943 to 1954 throughout the mid-West.  Games featured the ladies playing hardball on the diamond, and they proved to many that they could play the game too... And played it well... Very well. 

As for memorabilia or relics from this league, well they are basically nonexistent.  You rarely come across game-used material, and forget about game day programs and knickknacks.  If anything like that appears on the market you should expect to pay more than you might expect.

So, seeing these items here is a huge pleasure. 

Per the auction description:

c. 1940s. Includes 16 A-AGPBL team members in uniforms posing for photo on steps, six members in uniform in dugout w/hands over heart during national anthem, Connie Wisniewski pitching, center fielder and side arm pitcher Pat Keagle in close-up poses and field action shots.

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Watch a Behind the Scenes Video of the SI Photo Shoot with Kershaw and Kopitar

As you'll recall, the western region October 2014 issue of Sports Illustrated featured LA's biggest stars in both Baseball and hockey - Clayton Kershaw and Anze Kopitar.  Check out the cover above.

Now you can watch a behind the scenes video of that photo shoot at Dodger Stadium, courtesy of KingsVision.  It's from the Kings perspective, so Clayton doesn't speak.  But we do learn something I didn't know previously about him.  Apparently, Kershaw played a little bit of hockey in high school.  Who'd a thunk it?

Video Link:

BTW, I might actually start believing in that SI curse.  Not only did Clayton Kershaw have a terrible Ooctober when this issue was released, but Anze Kopitar has had a bad start to the Kings season.  In the eight games he's played so far Kopi has only recorded three points.  Furthermore, he was injured in a game this past Sunday with an undisclosed upper-body injury.  He missed the following Tuesday's game in Philadelphia that resulted in the Kings having to play one man down the whole game (due to cap related issues).  It is currently unknown when he'll return to the ice.  Oy Vie!

Hat Tip: @LAKingsPR on twitter:

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