When the Dodgers moved west, they were a mixture of the old and the new. Some of the stars from Brooklyn remained. Some had retired or in Campy’s case, been injured. Jackie Robinson refused the trade to the Giants and retired after the 1956 season. Campy was injured in a car wreck in his hometown.
Pee Wee, Duke, Gil Hodges were all still there. As baseball dawned in Los Angeles, some new names were added to the mix. Until Ron Cey took over the job in 1973, only two players played more than 100 games at 3rd base for the Dodgers in all those years. Jr. Gilliam and Bill Sudakis. Gilliam did it twice, and Sudakis once. Gilliam’s 131 was the most until Cey appeared in 147 in 73.
The Dodgers opening day 3rd baseman in 1958 was Dick Gray. Gray played in a total of 55 games at the position. Six other players appeared there that season. Gilliam, Hodges, Randy Jackson, Reese, Zimmer, and Earl Robinson. None playing more than Gray’s 55 games.
In 1959 and 1960 the duty usually fell to Gilliam who played more than 100 games there both seasons. Hodges, Gray, and Zim saw duty there in 59. In 60, it was Hodges, Bob Lillis, Charley Smith and for one game, Johnny Roseboro.
Over the next 8 years, no one played more than 100 games there until Sudakis in Sudakis in 1969. There were a few times they traded for players who you would think that might be the regular 3rd baseman. Nope. Here is a list of players who played 3rd over those 8 seasons.
Aspromonte, Tommy Davis, Gilliam, Lillis, Darryl Spencer, Andy Carey, Lee Walls, Marv Breeding, McMullen, Bill Skowron, Wills, Derrell Griffith, Bart Shirley, Dick Tracewski, John Werhas, John Kennedy, Lefebvre, Nate Oliver, Dick Schofield, Bob Bailey, Jim Hickman, Ron Hunt, Luis Alcaraz, Ken Boyer, Paul Popovich, Sudakis. That was a lot of turnover.
The year Sudakis played 121 games, Grabarkewitz, Lefebvre, and John Miller also saw time at 3rd. In 1970, the primary 3rd baseman was Grabarkewitz. He played 97 games there. Mota, who played one game there, Wills, Sudakis, Lefebvre, and the rookie, Steve Garvey also got some time.
In the winter of 1970, they made a trade with the Phillies and brought in Richie Allen. Allen was ticketed to be the man at 3rd. Well, that plan did not work. He played 67 games there. He also saw time at 1st base and left field. When he was not there, Garvey, Grabarkewitz, and Wills saw some time, and late in the year, prize rookie, Bobby Valentine.
Allen was gone after one season, he and Alston did not exactly hit it off. So Garvey became the prime 3rd baseman and had a lot of trouble with his throws. Valentine, Wills, Lefebvre and Grabarkewitz backed him up. Then another rookie made his debut at 3rd, Ron Cey.
In 1973 the Penguin took over at 3rd. In June, the infield of Garvey, Lopes, Russell, and Cey made its debut. For the next 8 seasons, they would be together. There would be some substitutes now and then. Usually by a utility infielder.
From 1974 these guys subbed for Cey when he could not go, Royster, Auerbach, Lacy, McMullen, DeJesus, Goodson, Sizemore, Reggie Smith, Grote, Teddy Martinez, Guerrero, Hatcher, Thomas, and Taveras. 1982 was Cey’s last full season as a Dodger. Cey and Garvey would be elsewhere in 1983. Lopes had already left after the 1981 season in a trade.
So in 1983, the position went to Pedro Guererro. I am not sure Pedro was all that comfortable playing 3rd. He once was asked about the position and he said he always prayed that the ball would not be hit to him, and then he prayed it would not be hit to Steve Sax at second, who at the time had a serious case of the yips.
Mostly utility guys backed up Pedro, Thomas, Landestoy, and the occasional rookie trying to make his way to the roster. Pedro again had the position in 84, but they had brought in Bob Bailor in a trade. Dave Anderson saw time there too and took over as the primary in 85. But they also brought in a couple of veterans, Enos Cabell and Bill Madlock.
The rotating door there continued. Madlock, Hamilton, Cabell, and Anderson getting the bulk of the time, and rookie SS Craig Shipley got into one game there. Over the next couple of years, no one really grabbed the job. Mickey Hatcher, Phil Garner, Woodson, Sax, Sharperson all saw time there.
In 1991, Sharperson took over as the main man. For whatever reason, they felt that Jeff Hamilton at age 26 was not the solution there long term. Lenny Harris, who had come over from the Reds saw significant time at 3rd also. Dave Hansen also made his first appearances there.
In 1992, Hansen took over, but that was a temporary fix because that winter they traded for Tim Wallach. He would be there for 3 years. Backed up by Hansen, Harris, Cory Snyder, Mike Busch, Jeff Treadway.
Change came again as in 1996 they traded for another veteran 3rd baseman in Mike Blowers. He lasted a year, and they went out and got Todd Zeile, who played 160 games there in 1997.
The position would get some stability in 98 when they traded Zeile and Piazza, and installed rookie, Adrian Beltre at 3rd. Beltre would stay there through the 2004 season after which he departed in free agency. They brought in numerous veterans to back him up over the years. Chris Donnells, Ron Coomer, Robin Ventura, and Jose Vizcaino also played there.
With Beltre gone in 2005, the search was on again. Mike Edwards played there the most with guys like Saenz, Valentin, Robles, Perez, and remember this guy, Nakamura? And Willie Aybar. More of the same in 06 when Betemit, Aybar, Izturis, Lugo, and Ramon Martinez, the infielder not the pitcher, all got reps there.
The thing was: there was no real hot shot prospect in the minors at the position. Nomar came in to play 3rd a while in 2007, LaRoche made his first appearances, they traded for Hillenbrand, It seemed like they just could not find anyone fit to play there more than 50 games or so.
Blake DeWitt came in and did a decent job for a while in 2008, but then they made another trade and brought in Casey Blake from the Indians. Blake put up a 4.6 WAR in 09. He had some backups, Mark Loretta and Juan Castro. And he kept the job in 2010. Backed up by Jamey Carroll and Ron Belliard.
Blake had injury issues in 2011, so they brought in Aaron Miles and Juan Uribe. Miles played the most games there, but Uribe got the bulk of the starts. Uribe had issues of his own and shared the job in 12 with Punto, Kennedy, Hairston, Luis Cruz, and Hanley Ramirez played a handful of games there.
The same guys backed Juan up in 2013. But 2014 would bring into the Dodger fold a player who in a year’s time would become the regular 3rd baseman for the next several years. Justin Turner was signed after being waived by the Mets. He played some 3rd in 2014 but he was mostly a utility player along the lines of Chris Taylor.
In 2015, he got his big chance, and he grabbed it by the throat and did not let go. His first year as the starter, he hit .294 with 16 HRs and 60 ribbies. He did not look back. Since then he has played there a large majority of the time except for his few trips to the IL.
And… as goes Turner, so go the Dodgers. He has been one of the more consistent hitters on the team if not in all of baseball. Power came as he aged and he has had over 20 four times and is within striking distance of his career-high 27 with 25 so far this year.
The Dodgers now value versatility as much as anything else, and there have been several players getting time at the hot corner, Taylor, Muncy, McKinstry, Neuse, Beaty, Rios, and Will Smith this season alone.
Kike, Russell Martin, David Freese, Gyorko, Farmer, Forsythe, Negron, Culberson, Segedin, Kendrick, Utley, Seager, yeah, Corey played 6 games there in 15, Torreyes, Callaspo, and even Austin Barnes for a couple of games, have all played there.
Next season, if the DH is brought back, we will probably see a little less of JT over there. No one is exactly sure how it will all play out. But hopefully, some young man in the Dodger system is going to stand up and be the man, and we all hope he can do as good of a job as the man playing there now.
Discussion (26)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Yankees lose, the Yankees lose! Ok with me. Just want the Dodgers to perform the same type of home field magic the Sox did. And they were missing their big bopper just like we are. I expect Scherzer to be in one of his moods……
Duggy drives in two more in the eighth
The Yankee wankers are pretty much done
Kike has an assist in saving a run
Duggy drives in a run. Sox up 4-1 Bottom of the sixth
One out Duggy on second
We have to sign Cole! We have to sign Cole! Well I was wrong. Again!
My first post in 2 years. Sorry, it’s not a very good one. A bit shocking I guess. Maybe not. Trevor Bauer livestreaming on YouTube watching the Red Sox vs. Yankees…
https://youtu.be/0faPKBbFEJk
It is interesting that the BoSox sat their regular catcher tonight (think Will Smith) in favor of Austin Barnes.
Joe West ranked 96th out of 99 umps behind the plate this year with an accuracy rating of 91.1. He also had the most missed calls. So if there is say about 350 pitches tomorrow MLB is good with him missing around 30 pitches. Should be an advertisement for automated K zone. Idiotic. Joe’s best game of the year was 96%. Lance Barkdale had a game with 99.6% accuracy this year but he’s not behind the plate is what is the equivalent of a game 7.
No UCL tear for Muncy. Roberts calls it a “best case scenario,” which, in Robertspeak, means he’ll never regain use of his arm and his career is over. Still, the official report that there is no ligament damage is good news. It’s a possibility we will see him play sometime this playoff season.
Some thoughts:
Skimming the comments I see a lot of chatter about Manfred having it out for the Dodgers and some behind-the-scenes soap opera drama in operation – Dodger ownership blowing past the CBT threshold to give a finger to Manfred, Manfred sticking the Dodgers with Angel and Cowboy Joe, Manfred prolonging the administrative leave status for Bauer in near perpetuity to stick the Dodgers with his bill.
Seems a little fantastical to me, and I doubt these are true – although it is fun to speculate. I have a different take on the Bauer situation. I think, actually, that the Dodgers and Manfred are on the same page with Bauer. Neither of them want a sordid Bauer legal controversy to take up any oxygen. If you notice, we’re not really talking about Bauer. Media outlets aren’t talking about his case. Molly Knight isn’t doing her performative outrage histrionics. Fangraphs isn’t suggesting the Dodgers move on from AF. We aren’t arguing whether him punching a woman in the vagina while she’s unconscious fits the strict legal standards of sexual assault if she only consented to choking.
We’re talking about baseball, and everybody wants that.
I think the Dodgers are perfectly happy to eat his salary through this year to make him go away so they can focus on the playoffs, and Manfred is perfectly happy to have any PR nightmare go away. So the Dodgers aren’t complaining because he’s successfully disappeared, Bauer can’t say anything because his case his pending and he’s getting his money anyway … and Manfred is happy because he’s an image manager. As outrageous as we think his handling of the Trashtros incident was, his primary interest was to minimize the PR fallout – to make it go away as quickly and painlessly as possible with the least amount of damage to all parties.
My opinion on the Bauer thing has a evolved some since the story broke. I initially wanted to get more info before I formed an opinion. Now that I have I’m perfectly OK with never seeing him in a Dodger uni again. Whether he’s actually charged doesn’t matter to me. Whether some damaged AA Padres groupie conspired with Tatis to get in his head … or if she’s a honeypot trying to fleece him of $$$ is irrelevant, and unlikely. Any man who gets pleasure from punching a woman in the face (or vagina) is just a creep. I think it’s a near 100% certainty that the Dodgers probably are thinking something similar.
MLB changes:
1. Yes to electronic strike zone.
2. Yes to universal DH.
3. Yes to less time between innings.
4. Yes to 154 game regular season.
5. Yes to expanding number of playoff games and eliminating single game elimination.
6. Yes to having a white line 115 feet from home plate running from foul line to foul line that infielders must be inside before ball is hit.
7. Yes to having 2 infielders on each side of a line drawn from home plate through second base when pitch is made.
8. Yes to maximizing contracts to 5 years.
9. Yes to starting free agency the year after a player turns 26.
10. Yes to a draft similar to the lottery system used in the NBA but include a provision that a team that gets one of the top 3 picks can’t get a top 3 pick the following year.
I have always been curious if Puig could have played third base.
I also wonder if the best infield defense going forward might have Lux at short, Seager at third, and Trea Turner at second. I find that thought amusing given all the conjecture that Seager or Turner couldn’t be happy not playing shortstop only to have neither one doing so.
Come on Bear, no mention of the great German Rivera as one our our million 3b???
Lots of movement expected after the series if not before with managers and coaches on the hot seat. Andrew Heaney DFA’d by the Yankees and Cubs are firing their hitting coach, Anthony Iapoce. DJ Martinez not on the roster for tonights Yanks-Sox game.
That comprehensive write-up includes a lot of third basemen that I don’t remember. But I DO remember Germán Rivera.
One game playoffs might be really exciting, but not exactly fair. To either team. Should be a best of 3 at least. Better yet, go to the NBA type seating and have 1-8, 2-7, 3-6 and 4-5. Much fairer and a lot of drama if the 1 is knocked off by the 8 and so forth. It is the fairest way to do it and it awards the second seed with a series instead of a do or die game.
Give the Yordan Alvarez trade time….
Keep getting flashes of Goldy rounding the bases.
Can’t help myself but feeling decidedly uneasy about tomorrow night.
The three worst moves all time in Dodger history are trading Mike Piazza, letting Beltre walk, and no, not the Pedro Martinez trade to the Expos, but trying to hide Roberto Clemente at AAA for a season. Looking back, that was really stupid. How many remember Dan Evans??? Evans once ran the White Sox and was responsible for the pilfering of Paul Konerko. Dan also was the head man with the Dodgers for a while, 2001-04. He is now the COO for Frank Thomas’s Field of Dreams group. Note about Clemente. Just think how good his numbers would have been playing at Ebbets Field instead of the mausoleum that was Forbes Field and then 3 Rivers in Pittsburgh vs Dodger Stadium in LA. A couple of moves in the west, Rockies extended Senzatela for 5 years, and have picked up Cron for one more season.
How does AJ Preller still have a job?
Hey, I’m glad he is with SD. But, if they want to win, they should fire Preller and Jace and hire Bobby Evans and Bruce Bochy. They are familiar with each other. That would be bad for the Dodgers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/sports/baseball/albert-pujols-dodgers.html
Great article about Albert Pujols in the NY Times today. We knew it already, but he is a class act.
Not only do the Dodgers get Cowboy Joe West behind the plate in the Wild Card, we have now been advised that Angel Hernandez will be the crew chief in the NLDS. MLB really does not like LAD.
I followed Adrian Beltre from the time he was first in the Dodger system in 1996, through Savannah, Vero Beach, and San Antonio. BEFORE he was a major leaguer, I predicted he would be a Hall-of-Famer and I took a lot of flack on the old boards back then at the beginnings of message boards on the internet. People called me crazy and I called them crazy back and THEN when DEPO let him go, I tried to institute a full investigation and I banned DEPO from ever being a baseball GM again. I loved Adrian Beltre and if he had stayed a Dodger his HOF numbers would have been even better.
Damn you DEPO!
Notice: Of course, I did not ban him, but I would have if I could.
Great work Bear… I look at the article and Roy Campanella jumps out at me.. Being a young catcher at the time I really looked forward to seeing my idol… Tragic accident took that away from me… My Dad took me to the Coliseum for the Campanella tribute… Dad let me use his zippo lighter when they shut the lights out… What an experience…
P.S. Really, really liked Jimbo Gilliam…
Great write up Bear. As you stated, 3B always seemed to be an issue for the Dodgers over the years with Cey and Beltre being the exceptions. It’s like their current concern with finding someone to fill the 2B position. I hated that they didn’t resign Beltre after his monster season in 2004. He had five OK seasons in Seattle and then continued his HOF career for another nine seasons. He was only 25 when he hit free agency. Unfortunately, it was the offseason when the McCourts were buying the Dodgers from News Corp (Fox). I’m sure Beltre’s resigning was not even on the radar at that time. Horrible timing. The Dodgers went from one awful owner to an owner who became an unmitigated disaster. I guess when you buy a baseball team for $300M+ with no money down and a parking lot for collateral there isn’t a chance in hell to resign someone like Beltre. After losing Piazza during the Fox ownership this was a failure by the new ownership. Power was almost nonexistent during the 90’s and early 2000’s for the Dodgers so it was painful to lose two of the best power hitters of their time. With Beltre it wasn’t just his hitting. He was an outstanding fielder as well. Not resigning Beltre upset me more than the loss of any other Dodger. He had it all…Young, great all around hitter and fielder, and a terrific teammate. We were left with the McCourts.
Badger, I agree with your assessment with Wainwright getting, not only Bellinger, but the whole team to chase his curveball. It’s his best pitch and he uses it to get ahead in the count and to finish off hitters. With Bellinger it’s down and in. All day, everyday. One doesn’t need a heat map to come up with that conclusion. It does confirm what your eyes are telling you. Curveballs and sinkers are over 60% of his pitches. As per Dodger mantra don’t chase out of zone. Let’s hope Wainwright’s control is not the best.
I was reading yesterday’s epic conversation between BandP and Jeff on who should catch Scherzer on Wed. I have to say Penguin that you can be exhausting sometimes. I mean who immediately replies to their own comment? How you can spend so much time and energy on a mundane and opinion laced subject is amazing to me. You have gone back to your old ways of plummeting others with your “fact based opinions” with no facts that really justify your position. I mean it’s a discussion of who is gong to catch a baseball game. The FO and Roberts will probably ask Scherzer who he would like to have catch him. With Smith being in a bad slump his usual hitting advantage is not a consideration. Barnes, take away his poor throwing on steals, is a good catcher. The staff likes to pitch to him. He occasionally gets a big hit and has done so recently. So, I think it might be Scherzer’s call and all the stats go out the window.
BandP, you write some very good observations and opinions most of the time. I admire the time and effort you dedicate to LADT. Why you feel the need to win every issue and attack those who engage you with your “facts” is hard to understand. Most of us here don’t know squat about what goes on behind the scenes. But, we have our “opinions” and that’s it. That’s all it is. Stats can be twisted into any point of view. I kept reading you tirade with Jeff yesterday. Why? I don’t know. Maybe, it’s like watching an auto race and waiting for a big pileup. You’ve got a lot of good stuff to offer. Try not to be so defensive when someone disagrees with you. We’re talking about baseball here. And not to get too personal but I hope you were taking your daughter to have someone else teach her to drive. I can’t image the stress level in that car if you were the one doing the teaching. LOL.
Carry on.
Letting Beltre get away was galactically stupid.
What a great list. Thanks for all the research Bear.
Interesting comments by Scott Boras about Corey Seager’s pending free agency in this morning’s LA Times, noting that Seager could eventually slide to third or first in the future, but for now he’s the top shortstop among the free agents. Andrew Friedman noted that when Seager is right he is as lethal as any bat in baseball.
Will the Dodgers re-sign Seager? I hope so. The main competition for Seager’s services may come from the New York Yankees, who may be looking for a shortstop and a left handed bat would play well at Yankee Stadium.
But the article, written by Bill Shakin, notes that Seager has never played on a team that hasn’t made the playoffs, no way around the math according to his brother Kyle who hasn’t never been to the playoffs. The history of the Dodgers is something Corey cherishes being a part of, according to the story.
If the Dodgers get lucky or play exceptionally well they will advance to the series with the Giants. I think the Dodgers can get to Adam Wainwright. But the loss of Max Muncy will weigh heavy on the line-up unless someone steps up, Cody Bellinger, maybe.
Good write-up today. Who will step up at third after Justin Turner?
I often wonder what Betre’s career would have looked like if he had taken the Dodgers offer. Seattle was the wrong place for him.
It was said yesterday that Wainwright doesn’t have high heat. That got me thinking. It may be true, but what is also true is he doesn’t necessarily need it.
Take a close look at these numbers and the heat maps and tell me what you think. After studying it I know what think. I think he’s going to get Bellinger to chase.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/adam-wainwright-425794?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb