1987 Los Angeles Dodgers season explained

Los Angeles Dodgers
Season:	1987
League:	National League
Division:	West
Ballpark:	Dodger Stadium
City:	Los Angeles
Owners:	Peter O'Malley
General Managers:	Al Campanis, Fred Claire
Managers:	Tommy Lasorda
Television:	KTTV (11) Vin Scully, Jerry Doggett, Ross Porter Dodgervision Eddie Doucette, Al Downing, Rick Monday
Radio:	KABC Vin Scully, Jerry Doggett, Ross Porter KWKW Jaime Jarrín, René Cárdenas

The 1987 Los Angeles Dodgers season was the 98th of the franchise in Major League Baseball and their 30th season in Los Angeles, California. They finished in fourth place in the National League West, with an identical record to the previous season, 73–89.

Offseason

December 10, 1986: Acquired Matt Young from the Seattle Mariners for Dennis Powell and Mike Watters
December 10, 1986: Acquired Tim Leary and Tim Crews from the Milwaukee Brewers for Greg Brock
December 11, 1986: Acquired Alex Treviño from the San Francisco Giants for Candy Maldonado
December 11, 1986: Acquired Ed Vande Berg from the Seattle Mariners for Steve Yeager

Regular season

Opening Day starters

!Name !!Position
	Second baseman
	Shortstop
Bill Madlock	Third baseman
	Right fielder
	First baseman
	Left fielder
Mike Scioscia	Catcher
	Center fielder
	Starting pitcher

Notable transactions

May 6, 1987: Acquired Orlando Mercado from the Detroit Tigers for Balvino Gálvez
May 22, 1987: Acquired John Shelby^[1] and Brad Havens from the Baltimore Orioles for Tom Niedenfuer
May 29, 1987: Bill Madlock was released by the Los Angeles Dodgers.^[2]
June 19, 1987: Acquired Phil Garner from the Houston Astros for Jeff Edwards
June 23, 1987: Acquired Bill Krueger from the Oakland Athletics for Tim Meeks
August 17, 1987: Acquired Glenn Hoffman from the Boston Red Sox for Billy Bartels
August 29, 1987: Acquired Tim Belcher from the Oakland Athletics for Rick Honeycutt
September 21, 1987: Acquired Mike Sharperson from the Toronto Blue Jays for Juan Guzmán^[3]

Roster

1987 Los Angeles Dodgers
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		Outfielders		ManagerCoaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	142	461	122	.265	6	38
1B	129	386	90	.233	16	52
2B	157	610	171	.280	6	46
3B	101	287	81	.282	7	42
SS	76	261	56	.215	6	18
LF	152	545	184	.338	27	89
CF	120	476	132	.277	21	69
RF	104	402	118	.294	16	72

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
108	265	62	.234	1	13
115	182	37	.203	6	23
72	144	32	.222	3	16
53	136	31	.228	1	11
40	132	29	.220	0	10
70	126	24	.190	2	8
48	125	29	.232	0	12
60	98	16	.163	0	9
35	83	18	.217	0	1
46	69	17	.246	2	10
51	67	16	.239	1	4
21	61	11	.180	3	7
19	54	12	.222	0	4
39	36	4	.111	0	4
26	35	9	.257	0	2
10	33	9	.273	0	1
17	32	7	.219	0	2
19	16	3	.188	0	1
16	15	1	.067	0	0
7	5	3	.600	0	1
3	4	1	.250	0	1
1	0	0	----	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
37	264.2	16	16	3.06	190
35	251.2	15	9	3.22	196
34	251.0	14	14	3.98	190
12	58.0	4	3	3.57	51
6	34.0	4	2	2.38	23

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
27	115.2	2	12	4.59	92
39	107.2	3	11	4.76	61
37	87.1	2	7	3.50	76

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
47	5	8	11	4.47	42
53	3	2	2	3.89	58
40	3	4	1	4.91	60
31	0	0	1	4.33	23
20	1	1	3	2.48	20
15	1	0	1	2.76	10
4	0	0	0	6.75	1
3	0	0	0	2.70	0
2	0	0	0	0.00	2
1	0	0	0	4.50	2

1987 awards

1987 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
- Pedro Guerrero reserve
- Orel Hershiser reserve
Comeback Player of the Year Award
- Pedro Guerrero
NL Pitcher of the Month
- Orel Hershiser (June 1987)
NL Player of the Week
- Orel Hershiser (June 8–14)
- Alejandro Peña (Sep. 28-Oct.4)

Farm system

Teams in BOLD won League Championships

Major League Baseball Draft

See main article: 1987 Major League Baseball draft.

The draft was altered this year and the January drafts and the secondary phase of the June draft were eliminated, leaving just the one June draft, which was expanded to more rounds to allow the Junior College players to be included. The Dodgers drafted 51 players in this draft, the largest collection of players they had ever drafted in one draft. Of those, ten of them would eventually play Major League baseball.

The top pick in this years draft was right-handed pitcher Dan Opperman from Valley High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, Opperman injured his arm pitching in the state high school playoffs his Senior season and would not be able to pitch professionally until 1989.^[4] He would eventually play in parts of four seasons with the Dodgers farm teams in Vero Beach, San Antonio and the last two with the AAA Albuquerque Dukes. In 63 games (all but one as a starter) he had a record of 19-22 and an ERA of 3.95.

None of the players from this years draft would leave much of an impression on the Majors. Pitchers Dennis Springer and Mike James had the longest careers, but were just average players at best.

References

Web site: John Shelby Stats.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/m/madlobi01.shtml Bill Madlock Statistics
https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sharpmi01.shtml Mike Sharperson Statistics
Web site: Opperman regains his footing. Las Vegas Sun. Dean. Juipe. December 28, 1999. November 6, 2014.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?query_type=franch_year&team_ID=LAD&year_ID=1987&draft_type=junreg& 1987 Los Angeles Dodgers Picks in the MLB June Amateur Draft