Tim Belcher. Belcher has become the staff ace. Nearly 17 WAR over the last 3 seasons. He takes the ball every day and almost always gives us a lot of good innings. He has 2 years and a bit over $4 million left on his contract.
Orel Hershiser. The previous ace. Orel was on a Hall of Fame course before his 1990 injury. A decent half a season in 1991 (92 FIP- and 1.6 WAR in 92 innings) earned him a 2 year contract with a team option. He put up a solid 1992 (87 FIP-, 3.6 WAR, 181 innings). And we expect similar this year.
Mark Langston. Acquired this off-season from Boston. He had 2 excellent seasons with the Red Sox putting up 9.6 combined WAR in 513 innings. Looking forward to continued success from Langston.
Ramon Martinez. Looked like another ace in the making. 5.5 WAR in 1990 and 7.1 WAR and a Cy Young award in 1991. Then 2.4 WAR before succumbing to injury last season. We hope he'll return to his pre-injury form.
Nolan Ryan. The Express. The Hall of Famer. He looked like he was wearing down with just 7 games in 1989, 0 games in 1990 and 20 starts in 1991. But, his 1991 performance accounted for 3.2 WAR in 99 innings. Last season, with LA, he reached 200 innings, 200 strikeouts and 6.3 WAR. He also struck out his 5000th career hitter and got his 300th career win. Ryan was one of the bright spots in a down year for the Dodgers.
Pedro Astacio. The other Pedro we hope will have a big big league career. He's soft-spoken and goes about his business. Last year his business was 135 innings of 2 WAR ball for AAA Albuquerque then 28 innings with a 130 FIP-. He'll compete for the long reliever spot.
Pedro Martinez. Ramon's little brother (and Jesus' older brother). Pedro has some excellent minor league K rates (9.5 K/9 across 573 minor league innings). Those K's have helped him to a 87 minor league FIP-. He uses a devastating (7/8) circle change. Just 21 this season, we have to decide if we want him pitching out of LA's bullpen or Albuquerque's rotation.
David Nied. Nied was acquired last off-season (for IF Mike Sharperson) to give us major league ready minor league depth. He was a good acquisition. He ended up pitching 112 innings with the Dodgers filling in for Ryan and Martinez when they were injured. He ended up with 1.2 WAR but really faded down the stretch. He's a talented arm and probably the leader for the long reliever role.
Jim Neidlinger. Neidlinger was a savior in 1990. After Hershiser went down, Neidlinger did his best Hershiser impression giving us 18 starts (119 innings) of 129 ERA+ (112 FIP-) ball. He's struggled since then though (106 FIP- in AAA) and only pitched 45 major league innings.
John O'Donoghue. O'Donoghue was acquired this off-season to give us a left-handed option.
A's and Dodgers Make Minor Trade
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Oakland and Los Angeles completed a deal for two minor league players. Oakland sends left-handed pitcher John O'Donoghue to LA for OF Braulio Castillo. Donoghue did appear in the majors last season making 10 relief appearances and 7 starts with a 6.60 ERA and 5.87 FIP. Castillo managed a 98 wRC+ in 245 PA's with AAA Albuquerque.
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The rotation is pretty well set with Belcher, Ramon Martinez, Langston, Ryan and Hershiser. One of the other 5 starters will make the team as the long reliever and the others will wait their turns in AAA Albuquerque.