Ted Lilly officially back in Dodger blue!
He has just signed a three-year deal to pitch in Los Angeles…here’s the release.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Public Relations
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
DODGERS SIGN TED LILLY
2010 trade acquisition and former Dodger farmhand returns to Los Angeles through 2013
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers announced today that they have signed left-handed pitcher Ted Lilly to a three-year contract. General Manager Ned Colletti made the announcement.
“Ted helped stabilize our rotation both in terms of his pitching ability and his leadership,” said Colletti. “He gave us everything we were looking for in a veteran pitcher down the stretch last season.”
Lilly, 34, went 7-4 with a 3.52 ERA in 12 starts for the Dodgers after being acquired from the Cubs with Ryan Theriot in exchange for Blake DeWitt, Kyle Smit and Bret Wallach hours before the trade deadline. The left-hander won his first five starts with Los Angeles from Aug. 3-24, becoming the first Dodger pitcher to do so since Kazuhisa Ishii won his first six starts with the team in 2002. Lilly received the lowest run support in the Major Leagues at just 2.88 runs per game and allowed three runs or less in 22 of his 30 outings.
Overall, the southpaw finished 10-12 with a 3.62 ERA in 30 combined starts with the Dodgers and Cubs.
The Torrance native has reached double figures in victories in each of the past eight seasons, including 12 or more wins in six of the last eight, since 2003. The only other pitchers in the Major Leagues to have double figures in victories over the last eight consecutive seasons are C.C. Sabathia (2001-10), Johan Santana (2003-10), Derek Lowe (2002-10), Mark Buehrle (2001-10), Jon Garland (2002-10), John Lackey (2003-10) and Javier Vazquez (2000-10). He owns a 113-96 career record and a 4.18 ERA in 12 seasons with the Expos, Yankees, A’s, Blue Jays, Cubs and Dodgers.
Lilly’s .587 winning percentage (54-38) since 2007 ranks eighth among all big league left-handers and his 103 victories since 2003 are tied for 12th among all active pitchers.
At Dodger Stadium, Lilly tossed a two-hit shutout on Aug. 19 and went 4-1 with a 2.09 ERA (10 ER/43.0 IP) in six starts. While in a Dodger uniform, the opposition hit just .163 against him at home.
This season, Lilly tossed at least 6.0 innings in 24 of his 30 starts and went at least 7.0 frames in 15 of the 30 outings. He walked just 44 batters in 193.2 innings for an average of 2.04 walks per nine innings, the second-lowest mark in the National League behind Roy Halladay (1.08).
Lilly joined the Dodgers on July 31, 2010, 12 years to the day that he was traded as a minor league farmhand. On July 31, 1998, Los Angeles acquired Mark Grudzielanek, Carlos Perez and Hiram Bocachica from the Montreal Expos in exchange for Lilly, Peter Bergeron and Jonathon Tucker.
While with the Cubs on June 14 of this season, Lilly took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before the White Sox’ Juan Pierre came off the bench to break up the bid. On May 10, 1997, Lilly threw a no-hitter against Lake Elsinore for Single-A San Bernardino in the Dodgers’ farm system.
Lilly lives in Oakhurst, CA with his wife Natasha and their seven-month-old son, Ted Lilly, IV.
Inside the Dodgers 
Ted Lilly had a 1.00 ERA on the second Tuesday of every third month of an odd year… jeez, cherry pick the stats why don’t they.
.
Still, I’d rather see Lilly than Ely or Haeger.
Hey, anyone hear of Yu Darvish? His numbers intrigue me and he’s only 24. Make it so Ned before you sign some other garbage.
The most important part is missing and it was a 3 yrs 33 millions contract.
Welcome back Ted! I’m kind of scared that he lives in Enchanted’s neck of the woods 🙂
Lilly is a good fit since he is used to not getting much run support.
Welcome back to LA Ted!!!!
Wow! Living in Oakhurst. That is not too far away from us, and like Tru said, right in Enchanted’s neck of the woods (literally).
Not too sure about the length of contract, but it’s a good move for the 2011 and the 2012 season. It also might be a very good thing for our young pitchers to have a good veteran presence around.
Kirk Gibson to auction off iconic HR bat
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/news/story?id=5704035
RIP Tom Bosley
Talk about pitching for contract…Cliff Lee has set himself up to make a zillion dollars. Does Frank have a zillion he’s not using?
Heard Mattingly on LA radio today and he made a lot of sense. On Kemp, he sees him as a #2, #5 or #6 hitter. Said pitchers still feel comfortable they’ll be able to get Kemp out in a big situation. Not so with Ethier…sees him as a hitter who can succeed against all kinds of pitching. His bottom line: Dodgers need thunder to combine with Ethier as a 1-2 punch (ala Manny of ancient history.)
I grew up watching Leave it to Beaver and Happy Days.
Can we have Kemp bat in front of Ethier?
I still want Kemp in that #3 spot like Crawford is doing for the Rays.
Hello ITD! Hope everyone is staying dry. I got drenched walking from work to the train station. I can’t believe how hard it rain in that short time.
.
LOL! Enchanted! You almost made me spill my water on the laptop.
.
Emma
http://crzblue.mlblogs.com
Regarding gnats/phils: I think Timmy the toker is taking the phillies starting line-up to haight ashbury sight seeing and imbibing on the bong. The phils wait, then swing at anything. Charlie keep your team in the batting cage before the game!
I know, a post late, but I’d like to share.
——————————————–
I remember October 15th, 1988.
——————————————–
I was 7 years old. A couple years removed from my dad saving me from becoming an Angels fan whose favorite player was Reggie Jackson. [Side note: My mom and dad took off for a Dodger game when I was 5. After dropping me off at my grandparents’ house, they asked me if I wanted anything from the game, and I said an Angels shirt. When they returned, they brought me a Dodger raglan-styled jersey shirt with blue 3/4 sleeves and the Dodgers logo with the red baseball going through it. I didn’t know who the Dodgers were before that, but blue was always my favorite color, so it was probably destined].
A couple years and a few trips to Dodger Stadium later (always Dodger Stadium and Disneyland, the two were once married in experience, and now married in cost-of-experience), we were in the middle of our family’s camping trip that always come on October weekends. Out in what is now known as the Mojave National Preserve, it was night, and I was sitting at the campfire, my dad, grandpa and uncles still on their way back from the hunt up in the mountains. There was no doubt, as a family of mostly Dodger fans, that they were listening to the same fuzzy, unsquelchable broadcast one would get from a night broadcast somewhere between 4,000 and 8,000 feet, about 4 hours from the action at Dodger Stadium.
Listening to the radio, I didn’t get the Vin Scully call anyone with a TV listened to. We had Jack Buck calling the game, and I remember asking what the score was, all that mattered at that young age to me was whether the Dodgers were winning or they were losing, and they were losing.
I didn’t grasp that the Dodgers were losing to the “best” ballclub in the league that year, with over 100 wins.
I didn’t grasp that on the mound was one of the most dominant closers in baseball history.
I didn’t grasp that our only hope was a hobbled warrior, armed only with tenacity, instinct, a scouting report, and little else.
And I didn’t grasp the historic ramifications of Jack Buck repeating “I don’t believe what I just saw” for what seemed like forever in my mind. When the hunters returned, everyone was happy, the Dodgers won, and to that 7 year old, that was all that mattered.
——————————————–
I remember October 15th, 2008.
——————————————–
Twenty years is a long time. In that time, I had always bled blue. Even as the “cool” kids with the bandwagon attitudes faded from A’s and 49ers to Braves and Cowboys, leading to Yankees and Broncos by the time I graduated, I took the lumps, holding on to hope that Piazza, Karros, Mondesi, Nomo and Hollandsworth would help lead the team towards another championship, only to be rewarded with getting swept out of two Octobers. It is easy to fall for the myth today that L.A. has been a Lakers town since Magic took the court, but in those Cedric Ceballos, Eddie Jones, Nick van Exel, Vlade Divac days, and with Frontiere and Davis flying the coop, the city’s sports mantle was pretty much up for grabs. Probably tough to remember now that those shiver-inducing Del Harris years are now bookended with the Phil Jackson-Kobe Bryant-(and once) Shaq era. And although oppurtunity knocked on the Dodgers’ door to take back the town, Mike Piazza’s twin 0-fers at the two Home Run Derbys he participated in were the ultimate metaphor for the national impact of the 90’s Dodgers.
Moving away from Southern California to Giants country in 2001, it had been a rough decade watching the Barry led Giants beating up the division. Finally, in 2004, we returned to October, but the Cards quashed hopes quickly, Jose Lima providing the only highlight of the previous 16 years.
In 2006, I remember leaving Chico State on the hourlong commute back home during Game 1 of the NLDS, scrambling to tune the radio to whatever station would carry the game, just in time to hear “And Kent rounds third on the way home… and he’s out! and… Drew rounding third? And he is out at the plate!” That one play had the same soul-sucking effect on us James Loney’s Game 1 Grand Slam would have on Wrigley Field two years later.
And how therapeutic that Loney slam was. After what was now 20 long years of practical irrelevance (as far as ESPN was concerned), it felt like I finally shook that stigma. The upper right corner of dodgerblues.com was going to have to find a new gimmick, because we were on a roll, and before we knew it, we had swept the best team in the league out of the playoffs. With Manny Ramirez and Joe Torre leading the headlines, Bristol frothed at the mouth for a Dodgers-Red Sox World Series, with not one ESPN pundit seeing any other scenario than the Dodgers winning the pennant. After all, they said, all that stood in the way was, :: scoff :: Philadelphia.
When October 15th came, what might’ve been a happier rememberance became a nightmare in reality. To this day, I wonder if Tommy can think of Matt Stairs in the same way he did when they won Gold together. On the brink of elimination (just like the Red Sox), we had to win. And what better night to come back from a 3-1 deficit than on the 20th Anniversary of Kirk Gibson’s Homer? Well, watching Nomar’s futile foul out over the NLCS logo on the third base side, all I saw when I looked at pictures of Gibson’s fist pump that night was a growing shadow.
It hurt even more in the coming days watching Boston battle back from 3-1 to take the series to Game 7, but there was small solace in watching them blow it too (take that, McCourts! No consolation prize for you).
——————————————–
I remember October 15th, 2009.
——————————————–
After an offseason of stewing, I feared the Dodgers might’ve missed their window of opportunity. Most of Dodger Nation feared the team would not bring back Manny Ramirez, miffed at Jamie McCourt’s assertion that charity playing fields mattered more than adding free agents, only to be trumped by Dennis Mannion a year later equating free agents to concession stands. But the Dodgers did bring him back, and the team got off strong. Unbelievably strong. Tearing it up with a 13-0 home streak to start the year.
Then the next day, I remember sitting in British Lit, figuring I’d check my phone a minute before class. After reading the Dodgers news, it felt like being kicked in the stomach, with the longest hour and fifteen minutes of my life having to pass before I could get to the car to hear the news on the radio to confirm it. Manny Ramirez, the catalyst, was suspended for PED use.
There goes our season, I thought. But I was wrong. The Dodgers went on to have the best record in baseball, with some of the best pitching in spite of the holes in the rotation that worried a fanbase weaned on Koufax and Drysdale. We found our way back to the Postseason, only to face… the St. Louis Cardinals.
There goes our postseason, I thought. But I was wrong. Somehow, someway, the Dodgers were able to… :: gasp :: beat St. Louis. Matt Holliday’s… umm… missed catch/nutcracker almost was as big a realization moment as Loney’s grand slam, and we got back to the NLCS, against Philadelphia.
Yes. Philadelphia.
It’s what the players wanted all season long.
It’s what the fans wanted all season long.
It’s what I wanted all season long.
It’s likely what you wanted all season long.
It’s sure as heck what the L.A. media wanted all along.
And up for grabs: Grand Prize: World Series against the New York Yankees!
Consolation Prize: a REAL Freeway Series against the Angels
Booby Prize: Getting sent back home by Philly. Heheheh. Yeah, right! Not again. Not now. Not with the whole of the Dodger loving world geared for revenge, from the fans to the players.
And Game 1 fell on…. October 15th!
What a perfect date for redemption! A date to show the Phillies we weren’t screwing around anymore. The Core has grown, the team is the best in the league, and now they will feel the full wrath of the Dodgers, surrounded by 56,000 screaming Dodgers fans, at Dodger Stadium on the anniversary of one of the greatest moments in Dodgers history. No one’s leaving early tonight.
Money was tight, but I was able to set a bit of scratch aside to head to the mall and buy a new Dodgers hat. The new polyester ones, that won’t shrink or stink like wool (though I miss the smell of wool hats, I admit). I could actually buy a hat that’s the size my head is, no longer having to remember how much bigger I had to buy it for what blend or any of that stuff. A new Dodger hat. Better then buying new shoes. A hat that will be remembered as the hat bought on the 21st anniversary of Kirk Gibson’s Homer, the day the Dodgers, at Dodger Stadium, took their legacy back! I shivered as I saw the $36 price, but a small price to pay. I headed back into the car and turned on the radio to hear what the sports talking heads thought of the playoffs.
“And we have this official announcement from the Los Angeles Dodgers:…”
An official announcement? I wonder what it is? It’s a playoff day, so must be something…
“Owners Frank and Jamie McCourt are seperating, headed for a divorce.”
…
…
…
…
WHAT?
WHAT THE (#(*#@(** ARE THEY THINKING?!!!
DON’T THEY KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS?!!!!
DON’T THEY KNOW IT’S THE @()#*@(_#_) PLAYOFFS?!!!!
*&)((#@$()*#@$)(*#@)($*#)($*) #)&$)* @(&# (*#%*(#@&$ &(*&)( #^!@$)#($# @@#(*$*#*$(*@#% #( @#($#($()*@($*@(*$#$**@&$*#$*@!&*$*#@*($*&@#*&$*#!@( !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5 games later, and, as Samuel Beckett wrote in “Waiting for Godot”, “There you are again. There we are again. There I am again.” Nothing to be done, for sure. When Dodger fans and players were 100% focused on the playoffs, they found their foe was not the Phillies, but the owners’ overinflated egos, “more Hollywood than Hollywood”.
————
Epilogue
————
There are no words for October 15th, 2010. Not after what those two have done to this team, this fanbase, and the reputation of one of the storied treasures of all sports.
There can be no forgiveness until there is humility.
Then, we will consider it.
Well… I might consider it, but I can only speak for myself.
All I can really say after that phenomenal post Northstateblues is “Wow!!!! Job well done!” Nothing like a fabulous history lesson (from your wonderful perspective) to end a great day. Thanks!!!
Wow it allowed you to type all of that but of course I know you copy and paste that.
Thanks Nelly. Took forever to type. And Shad, I did copy and paste from Notepad. I’ve lost too many posts to the glitches on this blog, heh.
I just type what I have to do and sometime I get scare of the submission error and just copy it before I hit the submit button now.