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MLB has a great new video search tool and given the current state of things, I thought I would go back and pull up random videos and talk about the players in them.
So I also did a Play-Index search on Baseball-Reference.com — note that through April 30, the great Play-Index tool is free to use — and pulled a list of any Los Angeles Dodger with a bWAR of 0.6 or higher for their time as a Dodger. Most of them are written about but some have not been for a while so those are the ones I will be focused on.
Today’s story is about Wilson Betemit and his video will not be a surprise to anyone.
On June 12, 2007, the Dodgers hosted the New York Mets and Hong-Chi Kuo was making his third start of the season.
Down 1-0, Russell Martin grounded out to start the bottom of the second inning. Wilson Betemit followed and began this memorable sequence.
Betemit, Matt Kemp and Kuo would hit back-to-back-to-back home runs to put the Dodgers in front. Kuo also had one of the best bat flips in history of the Dodgers.
The Dodgers won the game 4-1, Kuo collected his first win of the season and Takashi Saito recorded his 18th save.
The switch-hitting Wilson Betemit was acquired by the Dodgers on July 28, 2006 from the Atlanta Braves. The Braves received right-handed pitcher Danys Baez, infielder Willy Aybar and cash.
Betemit played 139 games for the Dodgers and produced 0.6 bWAR for his efforts with Los Angeles. In 385 plate appearances, Betemit hit .236/.332/.455 with 19 home runs. He struck out 94 times and had 49 walks.
He ranks 12th among switch-hitting Los Angeles Dodgers with those 19 home runs. Betemit has the fewest plate appearances of any switch-hitting LA Dodger with 10 or more home runs. Maury Wills, for instance, had 6,745 plate appearances and hit 17 home runs in his Dodger career.
Betemit was one of the bright spots in the 2006 Divisional Series against the Mets. He went 4-for-8 with a home run and had a 1.600 OPS in 10 plate appearances in the series.
Betemit was traded by the Dodgers on July 31, 2007 to the New York Yankees for right-handed pitcher Scott Proctor. Betemit would play for seven teams in his major league career. He debuted as a Brave on September 18, 2001 and his last game was on September 12, 2013 for the Baltimore Orioles.
This concludes the first entry on this series, I’ll fire up the ramdomizer and get another story out soon.