Dodgers coaching staff tranquillity: Whole group returns for 2012

Ah, harmony, ain’t it grand? Not a frequent visitor to the Dodgers the last two seasons, but they have found a comfortable accord in one area.

The Dodgers announced Friday that their entire coaching staff would return next season, which, though expected, is still noteworthy for the speed in which it was accomplished.

Of course, the staff could still change if one of the coaches –- Tim Wallach? –- gets an offer to manage over the winter, but for now at least one significant area is all settled. And think how happy agent Dave Stewart must be.

It was Stewart who complained about the way the coaches Larry Bowa and Bob Schaefer were handling his numero uno client, Matt Kemp, last season. Guess which two coaches didn’t return in 2011?

Kemp, of course, found his groove this year with a breakout season, so why would there be any rocking of the boat now? Plus, they all seem to work well together with Manager Don Mattingly and are liked and respected by the players. Win-win.

So the seven solid coaches the Dodgers ended the season with are now all scheduled to return, though that technically still leaves them down one spot from the last few years. After hitting coach Jeff Pentland was fired in July, another coach was never added.

The seven samurai are:

Dave Hansen, originally hired as a hitting instructor to assist Pentland, was promoted to hitting coach on July 20, the team hitting .261 the rest of the way; Trey Hillman is back for his second year as bench coach; Rick Honeycutt is back for a seventh season as pitching coach after the staff composed a 3.54 ERA; Ken Howell returns for his fifth year as the bullpen coach; Davey Lopes, credited for igniting the team’s running attack, returns for his second year as first base coach; Wallach is back for a second stint as the third base coach; and Manny Mota a record 33rd year as a coach.

MORE:

Strong finish sparks hope for Dodgers in 2012

Dodgers' Matt Kemp has one final blast in 7-5 victory

T.J. Simers: Don Mattingly hopes he's earned his stripes as a manager

-- Steve Dilbeck

Photo: Don Mattingly. Credit: Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press.

Dodgers Web musings: OK, so not everyone wants to buy the Dodgers

At least a couple of guys with deep pockets -- one with the deepest -- apparently will pass on purchasing the Dodgers should/when they come up for sale.

Mexico’s Carlos Slim, according to Forbes, is the richest man in the world. It has him pegged at being worth over $74 billion, Monday’s stock plunge notwithstanding.

And Slim has a historian’s knowledge of America’s pastime, something he shared with Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy Sunday at the Red Sox-Yankees game.

So naturally Shaughnessy got to wondering if Slim would be interested in owning a major-league team, particularly the Dodgers.

"No," said the billionaire. “I just want to buy tickets to games."

It's been 19 years since Dodgers were so bad they became sellers

They were a bad team. A very bad team. Historically bad.

The 1992 Dodgers were so bad that by the July 31 nonwaiver trading deadline, they were 43-60 and 17 games out of first.

So they did what no Dodgers team has done since -- became sellers at the trading deadline.

No Dodgers team, that is, until now.

These current Dodgers are also a bad team (43-56, 13½ games out), and expected to do their best to become sellers prior to next week’s trading deadline.

Still, this current Dodgers team will have a ways to go to plummet all the way to the depths of that 1992 team. That team finished 63-99 and 35 games out. It was the worst Dodgers season in 83 years.

"It was a difficult year," said Fred Claire, then the general manager. "In ’91 it came down to the end. I think we were in first place for a while and won 93 games.

"Then 1992 was just a year where nothing went right for us."

Dodgers fire hitting coach Jeff Pentland; offensive woes cured!

Right, that was the problem. The hitting coach. No possibility it was just lousy players.

No matter. In an oddly timed move, the Dodgers fired hitting coach Jeff Pentland on Wednesday morning, just a couple hours before their afternoon game in San Francisco.

They named Dave Hansen as interim hitting coach. Previously Hansen served as Pentland’s assistant, with the title of hitting instructor. Which was the same title Pentland had the previous three seasons, serving as Don Mattingly’s aide.

Now there’s little doubt the Dodgers are a miserable hitting team. In Major League Baseball they rank 27th in runs, 26th in slugging percentage (.361), 22nd in home runs and 17th in batting average (.250).

Davey Lopes leaves Dodgers following death in his family

The teacher will have to watch his students from afar Saturday, if with a heavy heart.

The Dodgers said Davey Lopes, given much of the credit for the way the team aggressively ran the bases in their first two games, will not be with the club this afternoon because of a death in his family.

Dave Hansen will coach first base while Lopes is out.

The Dodgers won their first two games of the season against the Giants, largely because of a more aggressive approach on the bases. Lopes is also their base running coach.

The Dodgers are at home Sunday against the Giants, but are off Monday. They have games Tuesday and Wednesday in Colorado, with another day off Thursday. They then play three games at San Diego, where Lopes lives.

-- Steve Dilbeck

Photo: Davey Lopes at a spring training workout. Credit: Kirby Lee / US Presswire

Davey Lopes, Tim Wallach and Trey Hillman officially named to Dodgers' coaching staff [Updated]

The Dodgers officially announced their 2011 coaching staff Monday, the news value of which had long ago dissipated as it was leaked out in pieces for weeks.

Manager Don Mattingly’s first coaching staff will look largely familiar, with even the new faces being old friends.

Officially out: bench coach Bob Schaefer, third base coach Larry Bowa, first base coach Mariano Duncan and, of course, hitting coach Mattingly.

The replacements: bench coach Trey Hillman, third base coach Tim Wallach, first base coach Davey Lopes and hitting instructor Dave Hansen.

Pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, hitting coach Jeff Pentland (up from instructor), bullpen coach Ken Howell and coach Manny Mota all return.

Schaefer decided it was time he moved on, but Bowa and Duncan wanted to return. I’d have liked to have seen the no-nonsense Bowa back, never feeling that leading a popularity contest in the clubhouse among coaches was a requirement.

Mattingly, too, wanted Bowa, but General Manager Ned Colletti said the coaching staff would be a mutual decision between him and Mattingly, so you can see how that went down.

"We’re really happy to have this group here," Colletti said. "In my tenure here, this has a chance to be the strongest group we’ve had."

Though I don’t have any personal insight about the American League’s Hillman, Mattingly and Colletti deserve some props for putting together a strong staff. And one largely with Dodgers roots.

Mattingly gets credit for not being threatened by Wallach, the former Dodger who had managed the last two seasons at triple-A Albuquerque and was favored by many to succeed Joe Torre.