The 2001 season saw Jim Tracy take over as the Manager, after serving as the Bench coach the previous two seasons. The Dodgers won 86 games, finishing third in the Western Division of the National League, six games behind the eventual World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks. This was their last season to be broadcast by KTLA. Shawn Green had his best season, hitting a Dodger-record 49 home runs and also setting L.A. records for extra-base hits and total bases. Paul Lo Duca became the full-time catcher and led the team with a.320 batting average and Jeff Shaw became the Dodgers all-time leader in saves, with 129.
The Dodgers selected 49 players in this draft. Of those, only three of them would eventually play Major League baseball. They lost their first round pick this year to the Atlanta Braves as a result of their signing free agent pitcher Andy Ashby. The second round pick was right-handed pitcher Billy Pilkington from Santiago High School in Garden Grove, California. He played four seasons in the minors and had a record of 30-21 and a 3.67 ERA in 19 games before he was released. This years draft class was so bad that only four players in the top 20 picks even reached AAA. The only player that made the Majors for more than a cameo appearance was Edwin Jackson, selected in the sixth round as an outfielder out of Shaw High School in Columbus, Georgia. He was converted to a pitcher and made it to the Majors in 2003 with the Dodgers and was then traded in 2006. He was a 2009 All-Star with the Detroit Tigers and also pitched a no-hitter in 2010 while a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
