Relay Team Helped Dodgers Make Up Stagger

Speed kills? On the highway, maybe, but it has brought new life to the Dodgers.

“They’re playing with an energy now that I haven’t seen before,” an American League advance scout said at Dodger Stadium. “They know they have the tools now to put teams away.”

He referred to the addition of Eric Young, Otis Nixon and Darren Lewis, a relay team within a team.

Seldom has a team changed lineup chemistry faster than the Dodgers have with Fred Claire’s August acquisitions of those three burners at second base, center field and left field, respectively.

“This is the most competitive team we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Eric Karros, who made his full-time debut in 1992. “You can’t say enough about the job Fred Claire has done. I mean, Eric Young alone fills several needs.”

Young is a reliable leadoff man who brings speed and spark to the top of the lineup. He is an adequate enough defensive second baseman who can turn the double play, something the Dodgers were missing.

The Dodgers are 11-2 since acquiring Young and 14-4 since getting Nixon, who hits behind Young.

Next weekend, the Dodgers begin a telling test of nine consecutive games against potential playoff rivals--Florida, Atlanta and Houston--but this is a team that literally has new legs.

Maybe Jeff Kent, the San Francisco Giant second baseman, is correct when he tells Bay Area reporters, “We still think we have a better team than the Dodgers,” but maybe he’s also trying to convince himself.

“At this point,” Karros said, “we don’t really have a weakness.

“You can bring up the cliche thing about not having a left-handed power hitter, but check the stats and you’ll find that we’re just as effective [against right-handed starting pitchers as left-handers].

“The thing that really separates this team from any other is our middle relief pitching. There’s not a team in baseball that compares.”

What the speed has done at the top of the lineup--”It’s electric, it’s big,” said Mike Piazza--is force pitching and defensive errors, provide early leads for the vaunted rotation and create more run-producing opportunities for Piazza, Karros and Raul Mondesi, who see significantly more fastballs from pitchers trying to stop Young and Nixon from stealing and are forced to work from a stretch more often.

“It’s amazing, like night and day,” said Piazza, referring to the Dodger lineup before and after Young and Nixon’s arrival. “I mean, it’s no knock at Brett [Butler]. He still does a lot of things to help us, but he’s in the twilight of his career and would admit that his performance is up and down.

“There were so many times in the first half I’d come up with two out and nobody on base. No excuse, you have to make the best of the situation, but it’s difficult when you can only knock yourself in. Now, there’s so many more opportunities, and the pitcher has to come to you.”

At crunch time, Piazza has delivered. Jeff Bagwell and Larry Walker can make a case, but Piazza is establishing some impressive MVP credentials.

Give Young an assist.

“The Dodgers gave me the opportunity to get to the major leagues initially, and I want to pay them back for that,” said Young, who was not protected in the 1993 expansion draft and was selected by the Colorado Rockies.

“I was disappointed when I left because I was looking forward to a long career with the Dodgers, but the way I look at it, they gave me time to get some seasoning, to get better, and now I’ve come back to help take them to the next level.”

In other words, he wants to make a statement, Young said.

Maybe to the Rockies.

“I guess what I did there wasn’t enough for them,” he said.

The Dodgers will have to decide if they are going to expose Young to the November expansion draft or re-sign him in the $5-million-a-year neighborhood, which would keep Wilton Guerrero and Adam Riggs on hold.

“Hopefully, I can do enough this time that they’ll want to keep me around, but right now I’m only thinking about getting to the playoffs,” Young said.

The Dodgers acquired Young for Pedro Astacio, who wasn’t going to be among the 15 players they will protect in the expansion draft. Claire has remade the Dodgers cheaply in terms of finances and personnel.

“This is baseball in the ‘90s,” he said. “Between Eric Young, Otis Nixon, Darren Lewis and Eddie Murray, I expect our total cost is about $700,000. If we had acquired those players at the start of the season, you’re probably looking at $7 million.

“In a [budgeted] structure, you have to make your bullets count. We haven’t traded away a lot of talent and we haven’t blocked the future of our young players.

“We’re still committed to building from within. We’re still giving Wilton Guerrero, Todd Hollandsworth, Roger Cedeno and Karim Garcia a chance to develop.”

Aside from Mondesi, it’s difficult to predict what the Dodger outfield will look like next year. In the meantime, Mondesi, Nixon and Lewis are akin to three center fielders capable of catching potential extra-base hits in the gaps.

The Dodgers have the fifth-best winning percentage in the majors since 1994 while maintaining a payroll in the $40-million range. The four teams with better percentages-- Atlanta, Cleveland, the New York Yankees and Baltimore--are each $50 million-plus.

Claire has made his bullets count.

In the cases of Young, Nixon and Lewis, they may even be faster than speeding bullets.