Dodgers, Angels still fighting to stay in First Division

The Dodgers improved their status in the First Division during the weekend, but at the expense of the Angels. The Dodgers swept three games from the Orange County club, pushing themselves slightly out of the relegation zone while the Angels fell to last place in the top tier.

Don Mattingly continues to do a lot right managing the Dodgers, but his club's struggle against top clubs continues to be costly in the First Division, despite a three-game sweep of the Angels during the weekend (Cbl62/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The First Division came to August divided into two divisions, with half of the teams seriously in the fight to win the championship and the other half desperately fighting to stave off relegation to the Second Division for 2016.

The Angels and Dodgers both are in the wrong half of that mix, and that didn't change with the Dodgers sweeping the Angels in a three-game series during the weekend at Dodger Stadium. What did change is that the Dodgers no longer are the bottom team in the top tier. The Angels have taken their place.

The dramatic home run hitting of Andre Ethier lifted the Dodgers in a big way Sunday. His solo homer in the bottom of the eighth inning gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead. His two-run homer in the bottom of the tenth gave the Dodgers a 5-3 win to go with wins of 5-3 on Saturday and 3-1 Friday.

With those victories, the Dodgers improved to 13-18 in the First Division, barely out of the relegation zone. The Dodgers are one-half game ahead of the Atlanta Braves, who are 12-18. The only club beneath the Braves is the Angels, who are defending their First Division championship from 2014 with a 5-11 performance in 2015.

The bottom two teams in the First Division are relegated to the Second Division for 2016.

The Dodgers never trailed in either of the first two games, winning Friday night behind right-hander Zack Greinke and winning Saturday afternoon behind left-hander Clayton Kershaw. Newly acquired right-hander Mat Latos wasn't bad, either, giving up one run on four hits Sunday in his six-inning Dodger debut.

The Angels are attempting to defend their First Division title from 2014 with a light schedule, which can work, but, as this season has shown, might not. The Angels have only six games left this year in the First Division, all at home – three against the Toronto Blue Jays Aug. 21-23 and three with the Dodgers Sept. 7-9.

The Angels could escape relegation by winning a majority of those games, but that remains to be seen and it will have a lot to do with how the Dodgers, Braves and Toronto Blue Jays (10-13) play out the rest of the year. Even if the Angels win a substantial portion of those six games, four or five of them, it guarantees nothing.

The Angels have the unwelcome distinction of being the best club ever relegated from the First Division, finishing 16-18 (.474 winning percentage) in 2011 and still going down. The Minnesota Twins that year turned in the worst ever performance for a First Division club with an 11-26 record (.297).

That demotion began a free fall for the Twins, who then were demoted to the Third Division for 2013 and the Fourth Division in 2014 before rising back to the Third Division this season.

Now the Twins are making a strong bid for a promotion to the Second Division as they lead the Third Division at 15-9, one-half game in front of the Arizona Diamondbacks (13-8). The Philadelphia Phillies (9-7) and Boston Red Sox (11-9) are the top teams in pursuit of those top two slots for a 2016 promotion.

The Angels barely missed promotion back to the First Division with a strong Second Division showing in 2012, but they won the Second Division easily in 2013 and took the First Division championship last season. In 2014, the Angels became the second team in as many years, and the third in four years, to win the First Division fresh in from a promotion. Now, the Angels are in danger of repeating the performance of the Texas Rangers, who won it in 2013 right off of a promotion, then bottomed into relegation a year later.

For the Dodgers, it's a matter of being unable to hold up against the better clubs, which we have seen again and again this season. Last week, the Dodgers went to Atlanta for three games against the Braves, a First Division team which, by the lights of the Major League standings, probably are the worst club in the top tier this season. But the Braves beat the Dodgers twice.

The Dodgers don't have a lot of First Division games left, either. In addition to the three in Anaheim against the Angels, they will play three against the San Francisco Giants at home Aug. 31-Sept. 2 and four in San Francisco Sept. 28-Oct. 1.

Local deadline trades solid, not shiny

The Angels and Dodgers each made helpful moves going up to the July 31 trading deadline, though neither club made big headlines across the game. The Dodgers added depth to their pitching rotation, while the Angels added veteran outifielders who will give them flexibility.

If Mat Latos gets back to being what he used to be, then the Dodgers have added a solid No. 3 starting pitcher to their rotation (Arturo Parduvila III/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The two Los Angeles clubs went to the trading deadline with very different purposes. Neither club ended up making much of a splash, though it still could be that they did what they needed to do.

The Dodgers needed help in their starting rotation because Hyun-jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy both are down for the rest of the season. As it turned out, the price for a premium ace pitcher was too high, the Dodgers didn't want to meet it, and you really can't blame them.

The Angels just needed someone they could stick in an outfield corner without leaving a gaping hole in their batting order. A left-handed slugger like Jay Bruce from the Cincinnati Reds would have fit great, but the Angels still improved by adding a lot less and they didn't lose anything.

Neither club made big headlines. Neither club made big mistakes, either.

Probably more often than not, the team receiving prospects wins these deadline deals because the team trading for the big gun is willing to overpay for that shot at the gold, and that big gun ends up not being worth it if the gold does not arrive. Last summer, the Oakland Athletics and Detroit Tigers went all in for pitchers and neither ended up any better than the Dodgers, who wisely held on to outfielder Joc Pederson, shortstop Corey Seager and pitcher Julio Urias.

The newest update to the prospect ranking on MLB.com has Seager as the No. 2 prospect across the game and 18-year-old left-hander Urias as the No. 5 prospect. That's a strong hand for a contender in search of a pitching ace. It's also a strong hand to take into the future. We've now seen two Dodgers general managers, Ned Colletti last year and Farhan Zaidi this year, both hold their young cards.

The Dodgers ownership has said from the start that it wants to build a team from within and, for all the club's high-profile signings and acquisitions, it has held onto the young jewels. It's fun to get juiced up about the possibility of adding Cole Hamels or Johnny Cueto, but the Dodgers don't absolutely need a No. 1 or No. 2 starter and it would not repay them sufficiently to get one if it means off-loading serious prospect talent.

The Cincinnati Reds sent Cueto to the Kansas City Royals for three hard-throwing left-handers – Brandon Finnegan, John Lamb and Cody Reed – all of whom are advanced at least to Class AA and putting up good numbers this season. Later, the Philadelphia Phillies sent ace left-hander Hamels and reliever Jake Diekman to the Texas Rangers for a package of five prospects and veteran left-hander Matt Harrison. Three of the prospects – pitcher Jake Thompson, catcher Jorge Alfaro and outfielder Nick Williams – all are at least in the top 75 prospects on at least one of the major lists (Baseball America, MLB.com and BaseballProspectus.com). Later still, the Detroit Tigers moved ace lefty David Price to the Toronto Blue Jays for three pitching prospects, including Daniel Norris, who is a Top 20 prospect across the game.

It appears that nothing short of Seager and/or Urias was going to bring back one of those three ace pitchers to the Dodgers, who were unwilling to make that move. So, the Dodgers did what they could do with what they were willing to offer, and it wasn't bad. The big deal was the three-way trade with the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins that brought back veteran right-hander Mat Latos from Miami and left-hander Alex Wood from Atlanta.

Latos has battled injuries for the last couple of seasons, but he recently returned from the disabled list and gave up six earned runs in 26 innings over his last four starts (2.08 ERA), allowing 17 hits while striking out 23. Wood isn't the most stylish left-hander we'll ever see, but he's 24, he's cost controlled through 2019, he has a 3.10 career ERA in 369 innings and he threw two quality starts at the Dodgers this year (four earned runs, 13 2/3 innings, 2.63 ERA).

The Dodgers also brought back quite a lot else. From the Braves, they added Jim Johnson, the former Baltimore Orioles closer who bounced back from hard times with a 2.25 ERA for the Braves this season, as well as Luis Avilan, a solid left-handed reliever in his age 25 season.

In addition, they hauled in Jose Peraza, a 21-year-old shortstop counted as a Top 100 prospect preseason by all the major rankings. Peraza batted .294 in the International League this season. He hasn't walked much, but he also has been three to six years younger than the leagues the Braves have put him in for the last three years. In the very same trade, the Dodgers picked up veteran right-handed power hitter Michael Morse, who they flipped to the Pittsburgh Pirates for outfielder Jose Tabata. Once a big prospect for the Pirates, Tabata has never made it happen, but he's 26, so wait and see.

For all that, the Dodgers didn't give up anything they stand to miss. Left-handed reliever Paco Rodriguez hasn't been able to find his way onto the big league roster with any consistency. The Dodgers made big news by signing Cuban infielder Hector Olivera last winter, but he's 30 and hasn't been anywhere near making the big league club. Along with sending those two to the Braves, the Dodgers dealt three minor league pitchers of little distinction to Miami – Kevin Guzman, Jeff Brigham and Victor Araujo.

Really not bad, and maybe even pretty good. The Dodgers improved their starting rotation from both sides, they improved their bullpen from both sides, and they added a good shortstop prospect, plus Tabata. The only question is whether they will end up missing Rodriguez, Olivera or the three minor league pitchers. Might end up giving the Dodgers an "A" for that trade.

The Angels couldn't find a huge bat, but they brought in some veteran flexibility for their outfield and now it's a matter of how manager Mike Scioscia mixes and matches them. For 34-year-old Shane Victorino from the Boston Red Sox, the Angels paid infielder Josh Rutledge, who lost his spring bid for second base in Anaheim to Johnny Giavotella. For 35-year-old David DeJesus, a left-handed hitter from the Tampa Bay Rays, the Angels dealt right-handed pitcher Eduar Lopez, a 20-year-old in the Pioneer League. For 33-year-old outfielder David Murphy, another left-handed hitter, the Angels sent light-hitting Class AA shortstop Eric Stamets to the Cleveland Indians.

The best of the new outfielders right now is Murphy, a steady everyday player for the last eight years who works well as a six or seven hitter. Some years, he's a little more than average for a left fielder, and, some years, he's a little less. This year, Murphy ran an OPS-plus of 115 for the Indians, compared with an OPS-plus of 66 for Angels left fielders and a relative OPS-plus of 102 for left fielders across the Major Leagues. So Murphy stands to be an improvement.

None of these veteran outfielders will blow the lid off of Angel Stadium, but they can take turns and keep the line moving often enough to help the Angels score.

On the whole, the Angels and Dodgers made solid moves that improve their clubs immediately at little or no cost to their future prospects. That's about as much as you would reasonably hope to do at the trading deadline.

Harmon Killebrew Award: Jays to tackle Twins for trophy

Two teams with very different fortunes in the Harmon Killebrew Award will meet for the prize Sunday in Minneapolis, where the Minnesota Twins will meet the Toronto Blue Jays in the rubber game of their three-game series. The starting pitcher for each club has been through some strange times this year.

Drew Hutchison will try to pitch the Toronto Blue Jays to their first Harmon Killebrew Award in more than a year Sunday afternoon in Minnesota (Keith Allison [cropped]/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON

Big Leagues in Los Angeles

In addition to being named after the greatest player in their history, another prosperous relationship has cropped up between the Minnesota Twins and the Harmon Killebrew Award. 

The Twins are winning it. The Twins lead the American League this year with two Killebrew captures, a record of 13-7 in Killebrew games and 14 days with the prize in 2015. And they're going for their third consecutive title defense Sunday at Target Field, when they take on the Toronto Blue Jays in the rubber game of a three-game series. 

The Twins also won the Killebrew five times in 2014, more than any other club. In the three years that the Killebrew was observed before 2014, the Twins won it a total of three times.

By stark contrast, the Blue Jays haven't won the Killebrew since Sept. 1, 2013, when they completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals. The Jays made only one successful title defense, sweeping the Twins Sept. 6-8 at Target Field. Last season, the Jays played for the Killebrew only once, losing two of three last April 15-17 in Minneapolis as the Twins made their only successful defense of their first Killebrew in 2014. The Blue Jays, who are taking their first crack at the Killebrew in 2015, were the only American League club to not win the Killebrew in 2014.

Sunday's pitching match-up presents a rather odd mix of ill and good fortune. The starting pitchers, Ricky Nolasco for the Twins and Drew Hutchison for the Blue Jays, both are sitting on a 5.12 ERA this season (around 30 percent higher than the American League ERA of 3.92 entering Saturday's games) and, yet, they have a combined record of 9-2, with Nolasco at 5-1 and Hutchison at 4-1.

We might write off Nolasco's ERA as an artifact of his first start, a disastrous performance in which he allowed six earned runs in three innings of an 11-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers on April 8. Right after that, he went on the disabled list with inflammation in his right elbow. He has come back to go 5-0 this month, even though his ERA is of 3.77 in those games is more befitting a 3-2 pitcher. But the Twins have scored 32 runs in those five starts, averaging 6.4 runs of support per outing. That will make almost anybody 5-0.

Another oddity about Nolasco is the huge differential between his ERA and his Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) mark of 2.86. His ERA is a whopping 2.26 runs per nine innings higher. Nolasco has helped bring that about by allowing only one homer in his 31 2/3 innings this year, an average of 0.3 homers per nine innings. For his career, Nolasco allows 1.1 homers per nine innings, almost a full home run more.

According to Fangraphs.com, the 2.26 run differential between Nolasco's ERA and his FIP is the third-highest in the game among pitchers with at least 30 innings this year, behind the Miami Marlins' Mat Latos (2.66) and the Washington Nationals' Stephen Strasburg (2.58). Nolasco's Twins teammate, Trevor May, is fourth on the list at (1.96).

By the numbers, as one might expect from all that, the Twins aren't much of a defensive team. Entering Saturday's games, Baseball-reference.com put their defensive efficiency at .691, 11th in the AL and below the league average of .697. Baseball-reference also puts the Twins at minus-0.9 in defensive WAR and minus-11 in fielding zone runs above average. Not exactly according to form when we look at the better Twins teams General Manager Terry Ryan has put together through the years.

Hutchison also appears high on the Fangraphs list of ERA/FIP differential, 11th across the Major Leagues at 1.39. It's different with the Jays, though, as baseball-reference marks them up as a good defensive team – second in the AL at 25 zone runs above average (the Kansas City Royals lead with 26), tied for fifth at .705 defensive efficiency and 2.2 runs to the good in defensive WAR. 

Somehow, apparently, the Jays don't support Hutchison defensively they way they support their other pitchers. But they support Hutchison huge offensively. They have averaged 7.03 runs of offense in his 10 starts, and have scored fewer than six runs in his starts only twice.

In four different starts this year, Hutchison left the game in fewer than five innings, allowing four, six, six and seven earned runs in those starts. In every case, the Blue Jays scored enough to take him off the hook for the loss.

Hutchison was pretty good in his last start, though, tossing a complete game, four-hit shutout while striking out eight and walking no one for a 6-0 win against the Chicago White Sox on May 25.

If he shows up that way Sunday, the Jays are quite likely to win the Harmon Killebrew Award for the first time in more than a year, breaking the longest drought in the league.

2012 Center League standings and summary

A tight race in the Center League ended with the Detroit Tigers holding off the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds prevailed, though, in the South Division, though by a much smaller margin than they held over the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central.

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The Detroit Tigers held off a September rally from the Cincinnati Reds to capture the Central League title in 2012.

Entering the final month, it still was crowded near the top. The Tigers led the St. Louis Cardinals by two games, the Reds by 2 1/2, and the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago White Sox by 3 1/2 games each. But the Reds won six straight during the next street, while the other clubs tread water. When the Tigers lost both games of a double-header to the Minnesota Twins at home on September 23, the Reds pulled into a tie with 10 days left in the season.

At that point, the Reds had already clinched the National League Central, while the Tigers were in a tight battle with the Chicago White Sox in the American League Central, actually standing a game behind the Chicago White Sox.

The Tigers had another wind, though, and won six of their next seven to take a 1 1/2-game lead in the Central League entering the final series of the season for all teams. The suspense ran out quickly, as the Reds dropped a 4-2 decision at St. Louis and the Tigers took a 6-3 win at Kansas City on Oct. 1 for a 2 1/2-game lead with two games remaining. With that same victory, the Tigers also clinched the American League Central.

Reds fans subjected manager Dusty Baker to blistering criticism, alleging that he tanked the Central League race because he was too satisfied with already clinching the NL Central.

However, the Reds also were in a tight struggle with the Cardinals in the Central League South Division. Though the Cardinals trailed the Reds by 10 games and already were clinched out of the running in the NL Central through September 23, they were only 1 1/2 behind the Reds in the Central League South.

But while the Cardinals were idle in the Central League for the next week, the Reds won two of three each from the Milwaukee Brewers and the Pittsburgh Pirates, extending their lead in the South Division to 2 1/2 games entering the final series of the season, a three-gamer in St. Louis. With their Oct. 1 victory, the Cards pulled within 1 1/2 games with two remaining.

On Oct. 2, though, the Reds scored two in the sixth against St. Louis starter Chris Carpenter, thanks to RBI singles by Jay Bruce and Dioner Navarro, to take a 3-1 lead. Facing the Cardinals' three, four and five hitters in the bottom of the sixth, Baker controversially pulled right-hander Mat Latos to save him for the National League playoffs.

Reliever Sam LeCure picked his manager up by retiring the Cards in order in the sixth. However, the Cards put two on with one out against LeCure in the seventh. With the tying run on base, it appeared the Reds could be choking away the South Division. Then reliever Sean Marshall defused the situation by retiring the next two hitters. Marshall breezed through the eighth and Aroldis Chapman took down all three St. Louis hitters in the ninth, giving the Reds a 3-1 win to clinch the division.