Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. We’ll recap trade deadline deals on Monday. In the meantime, a palate cleanser.
Top 10 second basemen
Here are my picks for the top 10 second basemen in Dodgers history, followed by how all of you voted. Numbers listed are with the Dodgers only. Click on the player’s name to be taken to the baseball-reference.com page with all their stats.
1. Jackie Robinson (1947-56, .311/.409/.474, 133 OPS+, 6-time All-Star, 1 NL MVP award, 1 ML Rookie of the Year award
I have written a lot about Robinson over the years, so I won’t repeat myself here. He was a great, great player.
2. Jim Gilliam (1953-66, .266/.360/.355. 93 OPS+, 2-time All-Star, 1 NL Rookie of the Year award)
It seemed that every season Jim Gilliam would be on the bench, squeezed out of the lineup by a hot rookie or flashy newcomer, then by the end of April, either the new player would be a bust or an injury would open a spot and Gilliam would end the season as the starting second baseman. Or starting third baseman. Or starting left fielder.
Let’s recount a story Vin Scully told me about Gilliam for my book: “I was introducing the team, and I would introduce, ‘So and so is the shortstop’ and so on, and I introduced Jim as ‘Jim Gilliam, baseball player.’ He was one of the smartest players. I remember Walter Alston saying that Jim never missed a sign. Never. Like anyone else, you are going to drop a ball, you are going to make an error, but Jim never made a mental mistake. And on the base paths, he’d go from first to third all the time. He always did the right thing. He was very quiet and not at all ‘on,’ but he was a consummate baseball player. He was married in St. Louis, and the team bus stopped at the reception while the photographer was taking pictures. Jim said to the photographer, ‘One more.’ The photographer took it and Jim got on the bus and we went to Busch Stadium.”
On Sept. 15, 1978, Gilliam suffered a cerebral hemorrhage at home and went into a coma. He died on Oct. 8, only 49 years old. He died the day after the Dodgers defeated the Philadelphia Phillies to win the NL pennant. His number, 19, was retired, and until the Dodgers finally retired Fernando Valenzuela’s number, he was the only Dodger not in the Hall of Fame to have his number retired.
3. Davey Lopes (1972-81, .262/.349/.388, 105 OPS+, 4-time All-Star, 1 Gold Glove)
Here’s what I best remember about Lopes. Not only was he a great base stealer, he was the best at the lost art of the leadoff man stalling after the pitcher makes an out, giving the pitcher more time to rest in the dugout.
It usually happened like this: Someone such as Don Sutton would hit a slow roller to second and would hustle up the line. The second baseman would throw him out, but Sutton would have used a lot of energy in the process.
Lopes was a magician at wasting time to give Sutton a chance to towel off and cool down a bit. Especially if there were two out. Lopes would spend a moment or two extra in the on-deck circle. Then he would have trouble getting the round weight off his bat. Then he would slowly walk to the batter’s box.
Once there, he would return to the on-deck circle to rub a little more pine tar on the handle. Then he would return to the batter’s box and take his time digging in. Then he would take a pitch or two.
Of course, this can’t happen anymore because pitchers don’t hit (except for Shohei Ohtani) and there’s a pitch clock. It was really fun to watch.
More than that though, Lopes was a key member of four Dodgers World Series team, in 1974, 1977, 1978 and 1981.
An argument can be made that Lopes is the best base stealer of all time. He finished his career with 557 steals, which is 26th all-time. Of the 36 players with at least 400 stolen bases and for whom we have caught stealing totals available, Lopes ranks third all-time in stolen-base percentage, at 83%, trailing Tim Raines (84.7%) and Willie Wilson (83.3%). In 1985, when Lopes was 40 years old and playing for the Chicago Cubs, he stole 47 bases and was caught only four times.
Lopes is second all-time in Dodgers history, with 418 steals, trailing only Maury Wills, who had 490.
4. Tom Daly (1890-1901, .294/.382/.412, 119 OPS+)
There isn’t a lot known about the personal life of Daly, and it’s hard to compare players who competed more than 120 years ago to players of today, but Daly had a good reputation. In 1890, “Sporting Life” magazine said, “During the fall of 1889 he entered into negotiations with the Brooklyn Club and finally signed with it at the largest salary, it is said, ever paid a catcher. He is a sure catch, wonderfully accurate thrower and a good batsman.”
Of course, Brooklyn moved him to second base, which is why he appears here.
According to SABR.org, Daly was involved in a number of bizarre incidents during his baseball career. During a baseball world tour of 1888, Daly was sharing a room with teammate Mark Baldwin when Baldwin blew out a gas lamp, causing both him and Daly to faint. In 1893, in between games of a doubleheader, Daly fell asleep in the outfield. Teammate Oyster Burns pulled out a small knife and poked Daly with it to wake him up, which resulted in a rather nasty injury, severing Daly’s tendon. In 1901, Daly encountered fellow major leaguer Ned Garvin at a saloon. The two men got into an argument which resulted in Garvin pushing Daly to the ground, putting a glass cup on his face and stomping on it.
Despite all that, Daly lived until 1938, when he died at the age of 72 in Brooklyn.
5. Eddie Stanky (1944-47, .263/.405/.336, 105 OPS+, 3-time All-Star)
The Dodgers acquired Stanky from the Cubs in 1944 because their regular second baseman, Billy Herman, was drafted by the Navy. Stanky didn’t have a lot of power, but he drew a lot of walks (his 148 walks in 1945 was an NL record at the time) and played a hard-nosed style that quickly endeared him to Brooklyn fans.
It has been written in a couple of books that Stanky was unhappy when Jackie Robinson joined the team and told him so, a belief that persists to this day. However, Jonathan Eig, in his book on Robinson, says that was wrong and Jackie and found accounts from 1947 where Robinson said Stanky was one of his earliest backers. And, as memorably recreated in the movie “42,” when Phillies manager Ben Chapman hurled racial slurs toward Robinson during a game, Stanky was the first to defend him.
Stanky’s son, Mike, talked to Eig about the relationship, saying “Dad talked about that first game and Jackie a lot. He was so impressed by Jackie’s raw ability and the way he dealt with everything he had to handle, that, despite what’s been written over the years, they became really close. I think they both discovered that, despite their obvious differences, they were alike, very much alike.”
6. Steve Sax (1981-88, .282/.339/.356, 97 OPS+, 3-time All-Star, NL Rookie of the Year)
Sax replaced Lopes as the starting second baseman and quickly became a fan favorite due to his constant hustle.
Sax usually hit for a decent average but didn’t draw that many walks, so he had relatively low on-base percentages for a leadoff hitter. So, he never scored 100 runs in a season and scored more than 90 runs just twice. He stole 56 bases in 1983 but was caught stealing 30 times. I’m being a little hard on him probably. He did hit .332 in 1986 and it is unfair that he is mostly remembered now for the case of the yips he developed for a while, unable to throw the ball to first base. He committed 30 errors in 1983, most of them throwing errors.
Here’s a well-known story: the Dodgers were trying to convert Pedro Guerrero to third base, and he just wasn’t getting the hang of it. He had all the physical tools, and the team was convinced the problem was mental. So Tommy Lasorda went for a walk with Guerrero before a game. “When I was playing,” Lasorda said, “I wanted every ball hit to me. That’s the mentality you need to have out there. Two outs, bases loaded, we’re leading by one, you’re playing third base. Pedro, what are you thinking.” Pedro answers “I’m thinking, ‘Please don’t hit the ball to me.’ ” An unhappy Lasorda begins to scold him “Is that all you are thinking out there?” Pedro answers “No, I’m also thinking, ‘Please don’t hit the ball to Sax.’ ”
7. Jim Lefebvre (1965-72, .251/.323/.378, 104 OPS+, 1-time All-Star, NL Rookie of the Year)
In 1965, Lefebvre joined with first baseman Wes Parker, shortstop Maury Wills and third baseman Jim Gilliam to form the first all switch-hitting infield in major league history. Lefebvre went four for 10 in the World Series, where the Dodgers defeated the Minnesota Twins, and was named NL Rookie of the Year after the season. How different was the game in the 1960s, when pitching dominated? Lefebvre and Lou Johnson led the Dodgers in homers in 1965, with 12 each. The Dodgers hit 78 as a team.
Lefebvre’s best season was 1966, when he hit 24 homers, the Dodger record for a second baseman until Lopes broke it in 1979 with 28. A series of injuries derailed his career after that, but Lefebvre was well-known enough to appear in several TV shows, including “Gilligan’s Island” and “Batman.” The Dodgers released him after the 1972 season and he spent four seasons as a player in Japan, before returning to become a longtime coach and manager in the majors and minors. He was a coach with the Dodgers until he got into a fistfight with Lasorda before the 1980 season, putting an end to his Dodger career. He last coached for the Padres in 2009, and retired after the Padres fired him.
8. Billy Herman (1941-43, 1946, .292/.367/.376, 112 OPS+, 2-time All-Star)
The Dodgers acquired Herman, who was considered the best second baseman in the league, from the Chicago Cubs, who thought they had someone better (and cheaper) in the minors by the name of Lou Stringer, who ended up not panning out (to be fair, three of his seasons were lost when he was drafted for World War II).
Herman provided immediate dividends, hitting .291 for Brooklyn and leading them to the World Series. He hit .256 in 1952, but rebounded to .330 in 1943, finishing fourth in MVP voting, before his career was interrupted by the war. He enlisted in the Navy.
He returned to the Dodgers in 1946, but was blocked by Stanky. The Dodgers traded him to the Boston Braves in June.
Herman later coached for the Angels, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1975. He died of cancer in 1992.
9. Jeff Kent (2005-08, .291/.367/.479, 119 OPS+, 1-time All-Star)
It’s a mystery why Kent has drawn such little support for the Hall of Fame. He compares favorably to other second basemen there. Perhaps it was because he had a reputation for being a bit prickly.
Kent spent the final four seasons of his career with the Dodgers, driving in 105 runs his first season with the team. He was solid offensively and defensively and was a clutch hitter.
After he retired, he began the Jeff Kent Women Driven Scholarship Endowment for the University of California, his alma mater. It has raised more than $600,000 for scholarships for female walk-on athletes at Cal. “Having the opportunity to get an education at Cal can make a profound difference in life. I know how much I benefited,” Kent said. “Everybody should have a shot, and this is my chance to ensure others have their shot.”
10. Lee Lacy (1972-78, .270/.324/.390, 101 OPS+)
When injuries depleted the Dodger infield during the 1972 season, the Dodgers bypassed Lopes in triple-A and brought Lacy up from double-A, where he was hitting .389. He hit .407 his first two weeks, was named NL player of the week, and became the starting second baseman. He cooled off considerably after that, hitting .259 for the season.
He lost the starting second baseman job to Lopes in 1973 after hitting only .226 with no power in 16 games. He became a super utility player after that, mostly spelling Lopes at second base. He played great defense everywhere and was a solid pinch-hitter. The Dodgers traded him before the 1976 season to Atlanta along with Jim Wynn, Tom Paciorek and Jerry Royster for Dusty Baker and Ed Goodson. The Dodgers missed Lacy’s versatility and bat and sent reliever Mike Marshall to Atlanta midway through the 1976 season to reacquire Lacy (along with reliever Elias Sosa).
Lacy is probably best remembered by Dodgers fans for hitting home runs in three consecutive pinch-hit at bats (May 2, 6 and 17) in 1978, setting a major-league record.
Wanting to play every day, Lacy left the Dodgers as a free agent, signing a six-year, $1.05-million deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates after the 1978 season.
The readers’ top 10
1,111 ballots were sent in. First place received 12 points, second place nine, all the way down to one point for 10th place. Here are your choices:
1. Jackie Robinson, 1,003 first-place votes, 12,988 points
2. Davey Lopes, 103 first-place votes, 9,637 points
3. Jim Gilliam, 2 first-place votes, 7,622 points
4. Steve Sax, 6,407 points
5. Jeff Kent, 1 first-place vote, 3,859 points
6. Jim Lefebvre, 1 first-place vote, 3,798 points
7. Billy Herman, 1 first-place vote, 2,613 points
8. Eddie Stanky, 2,319 points
9. Chase Utley, 2,090 points
10. Charlie Neal, 1,852 points
The next five: Ted Sizemore, Gavin Lux, Lee Lacy, Juan Samuel, Orlando Hudson.
Top 10 third basemen
Who are your top 10 Dodgers third basemen of all time (including Brooklyn)? Email your list to top10thirdbasemen@yahoo.com and let me know.
Many of you have asked for a list of players to consider for each position. Here are the strongest third baseman candidates, in alphabetical order.
Adrian Beltré, Casey Blake, James Casey, Ron Cey, Billy Cox, Blake DeWitt, Wally Gilbert, Billy Grabarkewitz, Pedro Guerrero, Dave Hansen, Lenny Harris, Mickey Hatcher, Don Hoak, Spider Jorgensen, Cookie Lavagetto, Bill Madlock, Ken McMullen, Bobby Morgan, Max Muncy, George Pinkney, Mike Sharperson, Billy Shindle, Red Smith, Joe Stripp, Bill Sudakis, Justin Turner, Juan Uribe, Arky Vaughan, Tim Wallach, Todd Zeile.
A reminder that players are listed at the position in which they played the most games for the Dodgers, which is why Pedro Guerrero and Mickey Hatcher, for example, are listed here and not at other positions they played.
Notes
The Dodgers seemed to avert disaster when Shohei Ohtani had to leave Wednesday’s start early. Leg cramps were the issue on a very humid evening in Cincinnati and he stayed in the game at DH. I probably would have just taken him out of the game entirely.
The Dodgers put Hyeseong Kim on the IL with an injured shoulder and brought infielder Alex Freeland up from triple-A. The injury probably explains why Kim was just five for his last 32 with no extra-base hits.
Freeland is the Dodgers’ No. 3 prospect and was hitting .253/.377/.421 at triple-A Oklahoma City. He was drafted out of Central Florida in the third round of the 2022 draft. Before the season began, Baseball America listed him as the 46th-ranked prospect in all of baseball. He has decent home run power, draws a lot of walks and is a stolen-base threat. He can play second, third and short.
Max Muncy began a rehab assignment on Tuesday, playing six innings for Oklahoma City. If all goes well, he could be back with the Dodgers next week, a remarkable recovery from his knee injury. Hopefully, he hasn’t lost his swing while he was hurt.
Blake Snell has made four starts in the minors, giving up two runs in 13.2 innings, and is on schedule to start for the Dodgers this weekend, probably Saturday.
Kiké Hernández is still sidelined with an elbow injury and isn’t doing any baseball activities, so his return is unknown.
Tony Gonsolin still hasn’t begun throwing, making his return this season more doubtful by the day.
Up next
Friday: Dodgers (*Clayton Kershaw, 4-2, 3.62 ERA) at Tampa Bay (Shane Baz, 8-7, 4.61 ERA), 4:35 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Saturday: Dodgers (*TBD) at Tampa Bay (Drew Rasmussen, 8-5, 2.96 ERA), 10:10 a.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Sunday: Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 9-7, 2.63 ERA) at Tampa Bay (TBD), 10:10 a.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
*-left-handed
In case you missed it
Dodgers begin deadline with minor trade, while still seeking upgrades in bullpen and outfield
With Dodgers battling more injuries, prospect Alex Freeland called up for MLB debut
As Dodgers look to upgrade outfield, Harrison Bader could be a trade deadline fit
Orel Hershiser puts a bounty on his Topps one-of-one signed chrome card
Shaikin: Home again? Why Kenley Jansen could be a good trade match for Dodgers
And finally
Davey Lopes appears on “The Baseball Bunch.” Watch and listen here.
Until next time…
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
