Read More: James Loney (1B – LOS), Andre Ethier (RF – LOS), Hong-Chih Kuo (P – LOS), Clayton Kershaw (P – LOS), Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night non-tendered relief pitcher Hong-Chih Kuo, making the dean of the Dodgers a free agent. On the deadline day to tender 2012 contracts to all unsigned players, the Dodgers did tender contracts to outfielder Andre Ethier, starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw, and first baseman James Loney.

Kuo had a trying year in 2011, battling control problems that caused him to miss over a month on the disabled list with an anxiety disorder. One year after setting a Dodgers franchise record with a 1.20 ERA in 60 innings, Kuo put up a 9.00 ERA in 27 innings in 2011. Then, he ended the season by having arthroscopic surgery on his left elbow on October 28, the fifth surgery on his left elbow in his career.

Kuo was signed by the Dodgers out of high school in Taiwan in June 1999, making him the dean of the Dodgers. He made $2.725 million in 2011 and while he is now a free agent, general manager Ned Colletti has expressed interest in re-signing Kuo, per Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times.

Kershaw is the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner and is arbitration eligible for the first time. He made $500,000 in 2011, but is expected to make at least $8 million in 2012. The 23-year old is a prime candidate for a long-term extension at some point this winter, though that may have to wait until the sale of the team is completed, a process that is expected to last until April.

Ethier made $9.25 million in 2011 in the final year of a two-year deal signed before the 2010 season. He hit .292/.368/.421 in 2011, but suffered a power outage with just 11 home runs in 551 plate appearances. Ethier battled a knee injury that ultimately required surgery in September and caused him to miss most of the final month of the season.

Loney was a clear candidate to be non-tendered in the first part of the season, hitting just .268/.311/.342 with four home runs in 91 games before the All-Star break. But a second half surge by Loney – .320/.380/.534 with 18 doubles and eight home runs in 67 games after the break – assured Loney of a job in 2012. He made $4.875 million last season.

The Dodgers have 39 players on their 40-man roster.

For more on Kuo and the other Dodgers tendered contract on Monday, be sure to read True Blue LA.

NEW YORK (AP) — After struggling for much of the season, the Los Angeles Dodgers are cruising when it comes to postseason honors.

Clayton Kershaw won his first NL Cy Young Award on Thursday, adding to the Gold Glove he won as the Dodgers collected three fielding awards in one year for the first time.

“I always dreamed about playing in the big leagues. I never dreamed about doing anything special in the big leagues. I don’t think any kid ever does,” Kershaw said. “The people I’m now associated with, just by having this award, is something that I never thought would ever happen.”

Kershaw received 27 of 32 first-place votes and 207 points in voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay, last year’s winner, was second with four first-place votes and 133 points. Phillies teammate Cliff Lee was third with 90 points, followed by Arizona’s Ian Kennedy with 76 points.

With a big curveball that might be the best in baseball, Kershaw won the NL’s pitching triple crown. On a team that went 82-79, he led the league with a 2.28 ERA and 248 strikeouts and with a 21-5 record tied Kennedy for most wins.

The 23-year-old left-hander, whose previous high for victories was 13 in 2010, dominated the league during the final two months of the season, going 8-0 with a 0.96 ERA in his final nine starts.

Kershaw was 5-0 against the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants, going 4-0 with a 0.30 ERA in head-to-head matchups with Tim Lincecum, the 2008 and 2009 winner.

Orel Hershiser, who won the 1988 Cy Young for the Dodgers, said Kershaw moved from “good to great.”

“He’s just scratching the surface of what he can become and I know he can reach much higher limits,” Hershiser said.

Kershaw’s .207 opponents’ batting average was the second-lowest in the major leagues among qualified pitchers, trailing only Detroit’s Justin Verlander (.192), the unanimous AL Cy Young winner. Kershaw was especially effective at Dodger Stadium, where he went 12-1 with the lowest home ERA in the big leagues at 1.69.

Los Angeles has a chance to sweep the two major NL awards. Matt Kemp is a favorite to win the MVP, which will be announced Tuesday.

It was the 10th Cy Young won by the Dodgers, following Don Newcombe (1956), Don Drysdale (1962), Sandy Koufax (1963, 1965 and 1966), Mike Marshall (1974), Fernando Valenzuela (1981), Hershiser and Eric Gagne (2003).

Kershaw doesn’t agree with comparisons to Koufax, the greatest left-handed in Dodgers history.

“I’m still uncomfortable with it,” he said. “I don’t want to have any disrespect for Mr. Koufax. He did it for a long time. He won a lot of awards and he won World Series. He threw no-hitters. Just a lot of things I’m not anywhere close to accomplishing yet. I have tremendous respect for him and would never want to ever put myself in the same category as him.”

A bargain with a $500,000 salary, Kershaw did not have a bonus provision. Halladay won $75,000 for finishing second and Lee $50,000 for finishing third.

A Dallas native who still lives in Texas, Kershaw said he comes from an area where “football is king.”

Still, if kids want to emulate him, they can play baseball in the springtime.

“Anything to stay away from lacrosse, in my opinion,” he said, laughing.

By SportsDirect

LOS ANGELES (AP)—The Los Angeles Dodgers are lowering pricing for 96
percent of the seats owned by season-ticket holders in 2012.

The team said Monday it will add new benefits for season-ticket holders in
seven different sections of the stadium. It says more than 35,000 seats will be
available for $20 or less per game for season-ticket holders.

The team, beset by financial problems and a bitter divorce for owner Frank
McCourt, saw its average attendance fall 18 percent to 36,236 this season and
failed to draw 3 million in a non-strike year for the first time since 1992.

Among the benefits the team will offer season-ticket holders is the chance
to enter the stadium one hour before the general public to watch batting
practice and to play catch on the field after select games.

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers are lowering pricing for 96 percent of the seats owned by season-ticket holders in 2012.

The team said Monday it will add new benefits for season-ticket holders in seven different sections of the stadium. It says more than 35,000 seats will be available for $20 or less per game for season-ticket holders.

The team, beset by financial problems and a bitter divorce for owner Frank McCourt, saw its average attendance fall 18 percent to 36,236 this season and failed to draw 3 million in a non-strike year for the first time since 1992.

Among the benefits the team will offer season-ticket holders is the chance to enter the stadium one hour before the general public to watch batting practice and to play catch on the field after select games.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

October 11, 2011, 12:50 PM EDT

By Steven Church

(Updates with excerpt from court papers in third paragraph.)

Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) — Los Angeles Dodgers season-ticket holders, including the heirs of singer Frank Sinatra, urged a judge to let Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig try to sell the bankrupt team.

The self-named Ad Hoc Committee of Season Ticket Holders asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross today to approve Selig’s motion to strip team owner Frank McCourt of exclusive control of the Dodgers’ bankruptcy case.

The team’s bankruptcy “appears to be self-motivated by Mr. McCourt and his personal financial issues and not the interests of the Dodgers and its core creditors, the season ticket holders,” according to a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

Today is the deadline for court papers to be filed supporting or opposing a pair of competing proposals that would either force McCourt to sell the team or allow him to raise money to end the bankruptcy by auctioning the right to televise future games.

The Dodgers filed for bankruptcy in June after Selig refused to approve a new television contract that McCourt had negotiated with the current broadcaster, News Corp.’s Fox Sports.

Frank Sinatra Jr., Tina Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra hold eight box seats their father bought in 1958 when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn, New York. Frank Sinatra died in 1998.

His children belong to the Ad Hoc Committee, which is seeking official recognition by the court to have more influence in the bankruptcy case. There are about 17,000 season-ticket holders.

The case is In re Los Angeles Dodgers LLC, 11-12010, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

–Editors: Mary Romano, Stephen Farr

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware, at schurch3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net.