Choked by the power of the reserve clause, he could only settle for a one-year deal worth $125,000but one year was all he had left to give. No Steve Garvey?! Highly competitive and often foul-tempered, Grimes was the most notorious and successful of the grandfathered spitballers, living off the wet pitch long enough that he became, in 1934, the last hurler to legally throw it. His 2.20 ERA led the National League in 1980, his final season in Los Angeles until a brief return eight years later prior to his retirement. If he is cleared, he is expected to return to the Phillies' lineup as the designated hitter Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium a mere 160 . That year he won 18 games for the Dodgers and struck out 269 batters, which at the time set the National League record. Not afraid to speak his mind, Sutton could be at times confrontational and engaged in his biggest controversy in a 1978 game at St. Louis when he was ejected by home plate umpire Doug Harvey for scuffing the baseball. 25 Best Hitters in Baseball (MLB) History - AthlonSports.com Snider finished his career with 407 home runs and a lifetime .295 batting average; he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980. To be eligible, position players needed 1,500 plate appearances and starting pitchers had to have started a minimum of 75 games for the franchise. He followed that up with 19-11 and 20-9 season, before missing two years because of military service during the Korean War. Koufaxs partner in pitching crime for the Dodgers was the anti-Sandy; Drysdale was more outward and comfortable in public, had a Californian look of glamour (he was born in Los Angeles) and developed a near-legendary reputation for brushing back and knocking down opponents, in stark contrast to Koufaxs deep reluctance to do the same. Nicknamed Old Stubblebeard, Grimes excelled at brushing back hitters and wasnt afraid to nail them; he saved his most savage pitches for hitting star Frankie Frisch, for whom he had a particular dislike after Frisch purposely rubbed him the wrong way during a game early in his career. . The left-handed slugger from Michigan only played four years with the Robins (as the Dodgers were called under the leadership of manager Wilbert Robinson), but he packed a heck of a wallophitting .337, knocking in over 100 runs three times and leading the NL with 27 home runs in 1924; in 1926, Fournier became the first player in franchise history to hit three homers in one game. It was his last major league hit. 35: Cody Bellinger (2017-present)It would take a Rookie of the Year and MVP to edge Bob Welch for this one. Well, with the voting currently going on for that, I thought it would be a lot of fun if I ranked the 100 greatest players in Dodgers history. (@sportingnews) July 30, 2017. Your email address will not be published. From the age of 15, Campanella logged a decade of experience in the Negro Leagues when he was brought into the Dodgers fold a year after Robinson signed on; he starred at Triple-A Montreal and St. Paul before being summoned to Brooklyn midway through the 1948 seasonand instantly showed his potential by going 9-for-15 with a double, triple and two home runs in his first four starts. Grimes came to Brooklyn in 1918 after two terrible years in Pittsburgh in which he had a combined 5-19 record (he lost 13 straight at one point in 1917). Clayton Kershaw adds to his Dodgers legend with another pitching gem, A full body orgasm at the L.A. Phil? I am going to take their WAR from Baseball Reference and FanGraphs, combine the two, and rank the players based on that average. Amiable yet never shy to promote himself, Garvey was not universally popularnot even within his own clubhouse, as best remembered when he engaged in a wrestling match with outspoken teammate Don Sutton over public remarks the star pitcher had made criticizing Garveys faade and Madison Avenue image. Having a wife (Cyndy Garvey) who seemed far more starved for stardom didnt help matters. Clayton Kershaw is the seventh-greatest Dodger of all time, according to Times readers. No. 28: Pedro Guerrero (1980-88)Preacher Roe, Wes Parker and Mike Marshall (the reliever) were stars, but even with all the drama he created, Guerrero was one of the best hitters of his generation. Vance, who paced the NL in ERA three times, ranks third in franchise history with 190 wins and fifth at 1,918 strikeouts. As I mentioned, these rankings will be entirely based off of WAR. The 20 Greatest Los Angeles Dodgers of All-Time. "Duke was a fine man, a terrific hitter and a great friend, even though he was a Dodger," Willie Mays said after Snider's death in 2011. Somewhat demoted to Koufaxs shadow, Drysdale continued to display effective workhorse ethic, surpassing 300 innings from 1962-65 while winning 85 games over that same period. The argument can be made for Turner to hold the top spot with what hes done in his 6 seasons with Los Angeles. The one mountain Kershaw struggled to climb was that of his postseason performances; through 2019, he had produced a 9-11 record and 4.43 ERA in October. Im surprised that many people still remember Ron Cey. No. Newcombes ERA never dipped below 3.00 in part because he played in an intimate, live ballpark (Ebbets Field), but those conditions also enhanced his reputation as one of the games best hitting pitchers; he had a lifetime .271 batting average and hit 15 home runs, seven alone in the Dodgers championship season of 1955 when he also sported an outstanding .359 batting average. The ideal entry-level account for individual users. Over the next few years, Camillis performance waned considerablyand as Jackie Robinson would do years later, he stepped away from the game in 1943 rather than accept a trade to the Giants. Durable for his time, Campanella possessed a cannon for a throwing arm and nailed nearly 60% of all attempted basestealers. List of the best Los Angeles Dodgers Right fielders of all time. Oofos has bolstered its ambassador roster with some Major League Baseball star power. We received an amazing 14,383 ballots. 99, Manny Ramirez. At times, he would be his own offense; in 1965, his .300 average was better than any Dodgers position player, and his seven home runs were just five shy of the team lead. 57: Steve Howe (1980-83, '85)As tragic a figure as any Dodger. No. No. The Philadelphia Phillies will take on the Los Angeles Dodgers on 5/2/23. Philadelphia is 15-13 overall and 7-9 in road games. Drysdale also led the National League in hit by pitches five times and ranks 19th in MLB history. No. But he would quickly come to miss the borough, statistically if not emotionally; the Dodgers move to his hometown of Los Angeles killed his power game as numerous deep flies that would have cleared the fence at Ebbets died in the outrageously cavernous right-field alley of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. While fan favorites like Trae Turner and Justin Turner may be gone, the Dodgers' 2023 MLB season is still ripe for success, as they still have some of the greatest players in all of baseball. No. A 22-year veteran who played for eight teams, Reuss arguably had his most successful tenure in Los Angeles, where he won 86 games and threw a no-hitter in 1980 at San Francisco; a first-inning error by Bill Russell accounted for the only opposing baserunner on the night. 25: Tommy John (1972-78)In addition to his namesake surgery, John made an impact with six double-digit win seasons in L.A. No. In 1963, he truly broke outproducing a 25-5 record, 1.88 ERA and a career-best 11 shutouts; the vaunted New York Yankees would find out about Koufax, up close and personal, in that years World Series when he struck out the first five batters he faced and 15 overall in Game One. After the 1956 season, Robinsongradually graying at age 37was traded to the New York Giants; rather than report to his archrivals, he retired. Business Solutions including all features. Since 2011, he's finished lower than third in Cy Young voting only onceand won the honor three times. boy that must have hurt ! October 26, 2022. But let's fact it, Rickey is on this list mainly for one reason: He was the man who decided it was time to break baseball's color barrier. Junior Gilliam was better than all of them put together. Syndergaard gets first win in 6-3 victory over the Cardinals, Dodgers get first three-game home sweep over Cardinals since 2019, Rojas activated off injured list, Wynns DFAd, The case for Kershaw to win NL pitcher of the month, Week 5: Stolen bases, catchers interference & a sweep, Clayton Kershaws April was one to remember. Realizing how potent he was with the bat, the Dodgers occasionally moved Drysdale out of the default ninth spot in the order and had him bat seventh. No. Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA (select parishes)/MA/MD/MI/NH/NJ/NY/OH/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Mickey Hatcher is runner-up for his 1988 October heroics. Required fields are marked *. Brooklyn Dodger catcher Roy Campanella holds his gear and his National League 1951 Most Valuable Player award. 29: Adrian Beltre (1998-2004)HOF-bound, but the Dodgers preferred J.D. Very few injuries. After the 1957 seasonwhich ended with the Dodgers announcing their move to Californiathe 35-year-old Campanella lost control of his car on an icy winter night on Long Island and crashed into a telephone pole; the accident permanently paralyzed him from the waist down. Damn right Mr. James, damn right. No. He had another fast start in 1985, not allowing an earned run through his first 41.1 innings of work; in 1990, he threw his only no-hitter, part of a major league first when he was one of one two pitchers to throw no-nos on the same day (Oaklands Dave Stewart threw the other). The Hall of Fame-bound southpaw has solidified himself as baseball's most dominant pitcher of the 2010s. RBI (1,271), and extra-base hits (814). 49: Tim Belcher (1987-91)He helped win a World Series to get the nod over reliever Tom Niedenfuer, whose six workhorse seasons are obscured by one bad postseason series. Injuries soon followed, and he never played a full season through his remaining years in baseball, which wrapped in 1964 after brief stints with the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants. 56: Hung-Chih Kuo (2005-11)Overcame injuries and the yips to be an All-Star. ??? 61: Chan Ho Park (1994-2001, '08)Opened the Major Leagues to Korean ballplayers. Los Angeles Dodgers - Baseball-Reference.com But the real Kershaw finally arrived in the expanded 2020 postseason, when he captured four of five decisions with a sharp 2.93 ERA, including two wins in the Dodgers first World Series triumph since 1988. No. With those factors in mind, here are my 25 best hitters of all time. In his groundbreaking rookie year, the 28-year-old Robinson hit .297, produced a 21-game hit streak, scored 125 runs and stole a league-leading 29 bases; he was named Rookie of the Year by both the Baseball Writers Association of America and The Sporting News, the conservative, go-to baseball weekly that had argued against Robinsons talent in what some perceived as a faade for a darker, racist-tinted argument against his being in the game, period. He left us way too soon. You can't do dignity to Jackie Robinson's status as a civil rights pioneer in a blog post, so I'm not even going to try, except to say that alone makes him worthy of being on this list. In the postseason to follow, Hershisers mortality returned but he was no less brilliant; in the NLCS against the New York Mets, he threw two quality starts without a decision, picked up a save in an emergency relief stint a day after his second startand afterward, on two days rest, threw a five-hit shutout in the decisive game to wrap up the NL pennant for the Dodgers. In, Baseball Reference. Where do you stand? Your email address will not be published. 4 (retired): Duke Snider (1947-62)A Hall of Famer who shares a song lyric with Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. 37: Ed Roebuck (1955-58, '60-63)Clem Labines setup man in Brooklyn won 10 games in relief in 1962. 81: Victor Gonzlez (2020-present)A big part of the 2020 World Series title run, he was hampered by injuries in 2021. The gradual warming to him by his team, and the widespread applause and acceptance given to him from around the country as he showed how better a place America could be because of baseball. No. The Dodgers have obviously had some great hitters since the team first began playing in Los Angeles in 1958. Eight times, he was selected to the All-Star Game roster. Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams are the only left-handed hitters to accumulate more bases on balls than Morgan (1,865). 66: Yasiel Puig (2013-18)Paul Konerko went on to a great career elsewhere. (Frank Robinson would get that call, over two years later.). No. Along with fellow Dodgers star pitcher Don Drysdale, Koufax held out before the 1966 season, angering management by bringing in an agent and demanding a guaranteed three-year contract totaling $500,000. The Los Angeles Dodgers' 10 Greatest Pitchers of All Time - This Great Game No. His career 2.37 ERA only trails closer Kenley Jansen, Zack Greinkewho played three years in LAand Jeff Pfeffer. at the time set the National League record. They have a rich history in their leadoff hitter and are led by one of the best managers ever. 19 (retired): Jim Gilliam (1953-78)The number was retired after his sudden death as a coach, but as a player he was the 1953 Rookie of the Year, a two-time All-Star and a versatile defender. Right fielder, Outfielder, Center fielder, The Best Dodgers Right Fielders of All Time. All along, Campanella didnt carry the cause of integration or civil rights on his sleeve as did Robinson; he simply wanted to play the game. Working from the bottom up, their top two pitchers are perhaps the best duo of lefties to ever pitch in the big leagues and equally dominant in their respective eras. 17: Carl Erskine (1948-49, '51-59)Whit Wyatt was a four-time All-Star during the war years, but Oisk pitched in five World Series. Cey: 24 HR, 92 RBI, 13.5 BB%, 13.1% SO. The 20 Greatest Los Angeles Dodgers of All-Time Free $60 Account Today's Best Bet Every player on this list has either hit over .330, has more than 3,000 hits, blasted more than 500 home runs, collected more . During a 16-year career with the organization, Duke Snider suited up for both the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. However, for an apples to apples comparison, below are their 162 game averages for the same time frames: Cey owns the better walk and strikeout rates on top of better counting stats. 70: Onan Masaoka (1999-2000)Originally from Hawaii, he pitched in 83 games for the Dodgers. The Best Players in Los Angeles Dodgers History - HowTheyPlay Before he spiraled, he was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1980, a World Series hero and an All-Star. For instance, who is the best Dodger third baseman of all-time? Whenever opponents reached base, they still had their work cut out for them; Drysdales pickoff move was one of the best in the gamea fact all the more impressive given that he was right-handed. Have a comment, question or request? Accessed May 01, 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/857347/all-time-los-angeles-dodgers-home-run-leaders/, Baseball Reference. 0: Al Oliver (1985)A seven-time All-Star, he couldnt play defense when he signed with the Dodgers at age 38. He developed a nasty curveball to complement his fastball, and began to throw pitches not to make hitters miss, but to try and make them hit it. Void in ONT. 7: Steve Yeager (1973-85) A catching maestro and clutch hitter, he played in the shadow of Johnny Bench. Remembered for his support of Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese was more than a kind friend and teammate to a legendary player. The joy of Camillis regular season performance was muted by his substandard World Series showing against the Yankees, nabbing just three hits in 18 at-bats with only one RBI. The top 25 left-handed hitters of all time | Yardbarker No. He recorded a lifetime .311 batting average, scored 100 runs six times and stole nearly 200 bases at a time when speed was an afterthought. Sutton won double-digit games every year from 1966 to 1980, recording an ERA below 3.00 seven times. Sandy Koufax is the greatest Dodgers player ever, according to Los Angeles Times readers. Cey was at bat and Vin Sculley said he bounced out to third and she remarked. More than 100 years ago, Dazzy Vance made his major league debut for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite his placid demeanor (he was never ejected from a game) and enormous popularity in Brooklyn, he was often despised by then-manager Wilbert Robinson, who was paranoid that Wheat might one day take his job. A three-time World Series champion over a 13-year Dodger career, Padres is perhaps best known for his performance in the '55. Nevertheless, this article presents the best Los Angeles Dodgers players of all-time. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. Pee Wee Reese. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. The seven-time All-Star swatted 389 homers, smacked 814 extra-base hits and drove in 1,271 runs, all of which remain franchise records. He also led the majors in on-base percentage (.440) in 1952 and twice stood atop the NL steals chart (1947, 1949). "Duke was a fine man, a terrific hitter and a great friend, even though he was a Dodger,", Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. That is undeniably true. It's been a while since the Dodgers have. No. The Dodgers 10 Greatest Hitters A list of the 10 greatest hitters based on their productivity and efficiency. (Some of those images are featured in our Ballparks section.). (She claimed she never lost. Fernando Valenzuela wasted little time endearing himself to Dodgers fans. Harper is set to return against a talented team in the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday . No. The godfather of sabermetrics Bill James did not fall victim to hyperbole when he declared that Guerrero was the best hitter God had made in a long time. Learn more about how Statista can support your business. Im going to start at 100, and work my way all the way down to one. Part of Vances success could be attributed to the long sleeve of his uniform that he intentionally left in tatters to distract opposing hitters; eventually, a rule would be written up disallowing such wear. But, the Penguin was the King!!! Outside of one anomalous year (in 1915, when he hit .258), Wheat was a constant .300 hitter and grabbed a batting title in 1918 when he hit .335. Robinson won Rookie of the Year honors in 1947, claimed the MVP in 1949 and made six consecutive All-Star teams from 1949 to 1954. An introverted individual, Koufax has respectfully retreated into a reclusive life, making rare public appearances at Dodger Stadium or at spring training camps to giveadvice to young pitchers. In 1962, Koufax won his first of five straight ERA titles and again struck out 18 in one game, but missed almost a third of the season due to injury.