Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.Yes, the Dodgers' solar system revolves around Manny Ramirez. He's their star on the field and their main attraction.
But they wouldn't have Ramirez, nor many of the players who carried the team in his absence, were it not for a farm system that has been remarkably productive.
"It's nice that management kept us all here," ace Chad Billingsley told FanHouse. "There's some teams that maybe just start trading guys away. And believing in us, that's a huge thing."
In the 2002-03 drafts, Los Angeles took Russell Martin, James Loney, Jonathan Broxton, Matt Kemp and Billingsley. Those five players made their big league debuts within an 11-month span, from July 2005 to June 2006.
And they aren't the only homegrown products on the roster. Clayton Kershaw came in the 2006 draft, James McDonald was part of that '02 draft crop and Ramon Troncoso was an international free agent.
"We've been fortunate to have great scouts," Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said. "We have Logan White as scouting director and great scouts with him. They have an eye for talent and pick the right players. And player development people have taken it from there."
It's not just the guys in L.A. who have had an impact.
Catcher Carlos Santana, signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2004, and Jonathan Meloan (2005 draft) were traded to the Indians for Casey Blake. And third baseman Andy LaRoche (2003 draft) and Bryan Morris (2006 first-rounder) went to the Pirates in the three-way deal that brought Ramirez to what is now Mannywood.
Still, the Dodgers kept together a pretty good group. Martin, Loney and Kemp account for 31 percent of the team's RBI. Kershaw and Billingsley have 18 of the team's 61 wins, and Broxton has 23 of the 29 saves.
"It shows a lot about the front office and the scouting," Kemp said, "how good they are and basically just having the faith in us and letting us come up here and show our abilities."
White shared credit with his scouts and the player-development people, but he has certainly had an impact since coming from the Orioles, where he had been the west-coast scouting supervisor.
"When we completed that (2002) draft," he said, "we had a feeling we had something special. Maybe because it was my first. We were surprised at the depth and players we were able to get."
The players say their path to the majors, and their adjustment to the big leagues, was made easier because they did it pretty much as a group.
Billingsley and Martin met a their first day together on a rookie-ball team in Ogden, Utah -- not long after Billingsley was drafted in 2003.
"We all kind of broke in at the same time," Billingsley said. "It's pretty much like a brother relationship. Being in minor-league ball, you get to know each other with 10-hour-plus bus trips, the hotel rooms, not a whole lot to do in some of the cities."
White said Kemp and Loney pushed and fed off each other on the way up in a friendly competition, as did Billingsley and Broxton, who began as a starter.
Then they arrived in the majors virtually together.
"I think usually when a rookie comes up," Kemp said, "he's the only rookie and you've got all the older guys picking on him. When I came up there I think there were eight rookies, and we all knew each other. So it kind of made it more comfortable in the transition."
Every team knows the value of young players, whose salary can be controlled for three years and can't be free agents for three more. The money saved there can be spent on free agents or players with big contracts, such as Ramirez.
"I think we've been patient, as patient as we can be," Colletti said. At times we've probably fast-tracked a few of them and went through some growing pains because of it. But here, 3-4 years later, they've been in the postseason two out of three years, most of them."
A productive farm system had been the staple of the Dodgers franchise going back to Brooklyn, and it seems to be back that way.
White said he had almost the same feeling about his 2008 draft as that '02 crop, with right-handers Ethan Martin, Josh Lindblom, Jon Michael Redding and Nate Eovaldi, power-hitting outfielder Kyle Russell and speedy shortstop Dee Gordon (son of Tom Gordon).
"We have some pretty good players in the system still," White said. "That's the thing I'm happy about."
Overheard and Understood
| Chart of the Week | ||
|---|---|---|
| Just because the Rays were the victim of a perfect game Thursday doesn't mean they can't make the postseason. Two teams on the wrong end of perfect games -- both by lefties, as happened to Tampa Bay -- reached the playoffs. Here's how teams that were victims of a perfect game in the past 50 years ended up: | ||
| Team | Perfect Pitcher | Finish |
| '04 Braves |
Randy Johnson |
96-66, 1st |
| '99 Expos |
David Cone |
68-94, 5th |
| '98 Twins |
David Wells |
70-92, 4th |
| '94 Angels |
Kenny Rogers |
47-68, 4th |
| '91 Dodgers |
Dennis Martinez |
93-69, 2nd |
| '88 Dodgers |
Tom Browning |
94-67, 1st |
| '84 Rangers |
Mike Witt |
69-92, 7th |
| '81 Jays |
Len Barker |
37-69, 7th |
| '68 Twins |
Catfish Hunter |
79-83, 7th |
| '65 Cubs |
Sandy Koufax |
72-90, 8th |
| '64 Mets |
Jim Bunning |
53-109, 10th |
• Milwaukee believed as of late last week it was a player in the Roy Halladay drama. "Toronto likes our players," one Brewers person said. "It's just a matter of can we make it work. I don't think money's a problem. We don't have young pitching, that's the problem. I think we'll be in the mix." Milwaukee also has its "toes in the water" on Cliff Lee.
• The Red Sox weren't looking into Halladay just to block the Yankees. In fact, the Sox felt they won a battle in the never-ending war over the winter when the Yanks doled out three free-agent contracts of five-plus years worth a combined $423.5 million. The Yankees aren't interested in giving up what the Jays want for Halladay, nor do they want to add to their luxury tax.
• Scouts say Seattle lefty Jarrod Washburn (recently scouting by Philadelphia) is a different pitcher this year. He has added a sinker and split-finger pitch to his repertoire. Before, he had trouble going anywhere but inside on right-handed hitters with his below-average fastball. Now he can work them away and work down. As a result, a career-low 5 percent of his fly balls are going for homers, his strikeout-to-walk ratio is a career-best 2.6 and he has a 2.71 ERA.
• If Tampa Bay is to make a charge in the AL East, it will have to earn it. The Rays have 63 games left, with 10 against the Yankees, eight against the Red Sox, and six each against the Rangers and Tigers.
• Mark Buehrle's perfect game was his first, of course, but it was the third time in his career he pitched nine innings and faced the minimum 27 batters (a no-hitter with a walk and a pickoff and a two-hitter with two double plays). No other pitcher in the past 55 years has done that three times, according to baseball-reference.com, and the only pitcher with two such games in Sandy Koufax. The White Sox said the quick-working Buehrle spent just 32 minutes on the mound in his perfect game.
• The Indians have averaged 3.5 runs a game when Lee starts and 5.5 runs per game for all their other starters.
• Last week's series between the Mets and Nationals was the first in the majors since July 2004 in which all three games lasted 2 hours, 20 minutes or less (2:16, 2:09, 2:20).
• Despite playing in Petco Park, the Padres have gone 531 games without a complete-game shutout (the last was by Chan Ho Park on June 2, 2006). That's the second-longest streak ever, behind the 2001-05 Rockies, 645.
• The Athletics call the first three pitches of a plate appearance "conversion pitches" and consider them crucial for pitchers. That's because batters have a .832 OPS after getting ahead 2-1 but a .520 OPS after falling behind 1-2. So, according to Oakland manager Bob Geren, the goal is two-thirds strikes on those first three pitches. "We stress it here," he said, "from the minor leagues all the way up. We track it and we teach off of it."
• No Brewer has ever had 100 walks in a season, but Prince Fielder has a shot, with 72 so far.
• Eric Hinske joined Dave Kingman as the second player to hit four homers in his first five games as a Yankee. Kingman's streak started Sept. 17, 1977 -- 43 days after Hinske was born.
• Where did the Braves spend the All-Star break? Atlanta hit 68 homers in 88 games before the break and have 15 in 10 games since (four by Yunel Escobar and three by Chipper Jones).
• Dan Rohn of the Giants' Triple-A Fresno (Calif.) team earned his 1,000th win as a minor-league manager last week.
