Watch the latest Dodgers Daily Podcast that covers last nights action.
The Dodgers have had some Jekyll and Hyde aspects to their play scoring a bunch of runs in one game, only to not score very many the next.
One of the aspects of this year’s team that had reason for concern was the starting rotation. Dustin May and Noah Syndergaard are coming off of Tommy John surgery, Tony Gonsolin is already injured, Ryan Pepiot went down to an oblique strain, Clayton Kershaw is getting older and Julio Urias is coming off of consecutive years where he’s thrown the most amount of innings of his career.
But, at least so far, the starting pitching has been fantastic giving up just 7 runs in 6 games.
Another question mark coming into the season is the extent to which the youth movement was actually going to take place and how the rookies would perform so let’s dive into how the rookies have done.
James Outman got off to a great start going 2 for 3 in the first game of the season, including hitting the first home run and scoring the first run of the season for the Dodgers.
His defense is automatic, in fact, it is, and always has been, the best part of his game. Dodgers fans have gotten to see his range, the ease with which he roams center field, his footwork when needing to make a throw, and his arm itself.
If you’re not impressed with Outman’s defensive game to this point, then we’ll just agree to disagree, which is totally normal in a game like baseball that is so subjective.
One aspect of James Outman that I have continued to preach is that he is equipped to handle the moment, and, once again, he has shown that though his play with L.A. He has had great mentorship going back to his parents teaching him how to reach goals one step at a time, to his High School coaches, Coach Walsh in football and Coach Giannino in baseball, teaching him how to be physically and mentally tough. Reggie Christiansen, his coach at Sac State, taught him how to take things one day at a time, and is a stickler for defense, so, although he did come to the Dodgers a little raw, he was well-refined in some of the most critical aspects of both the mental and physical aspects of being a professional athlete.
Since the first game, Outman has gone 2 for 11, so he’s slowed down, but is still hitting .250 with a home run, 5 RBIs and an OPS of 1.205. Combining that with his great defense the fact that he has walked 4 times, has scored 5 runs and has 11 total bases in basically 5 games he’s played in, I give him a solid A.
Miguel Vargas is showing the baseball world what all the fuss and feathers have been about with this young prospect. Last night he drew his league-leading 9th walk of the season and that moved his on-base % to .714, his OPS to 1.214 and his batting average to .333.
Vargas is showing his elite hit tool that those that have followed him through the Minor League ranks have seen for the past several years. He was the AA Central hitting champion in 2021 for a reason, and backed that up last year by hitting over .300 again at the AAA level.
Those back-to-back years don’t happen if you’re hit tool isn’t legit.
Of course, it’s still early, Vargas still has to prove it over the long haul of an MLB season, especially after other teams get a book on him. But, the thing that suggests that his success will be long-standing is his discipline at the plate. Many rookies come up to the MLB and swing at the first straight pitch they see, and, because the pitcher doesn’t have a book on them, they get hittable pitches. Then, once that book is out, those hittable pitches start disappearing and, at that point, that’s where you actually find out if they can hit at that level or not.
Vargas is not in that typical rookie boat though.
His plate discipline, and the way he can cover both sides of the plate, and the top and bottom of the zone, will make it almost impossible to get a book on him. It reminds me of why Will Smith has continued to get better and better. He makes the pitcher throw strikes, then, once he gets a strike, he can cover the whole zone. Vargas, similarly, has those same tools and approach.
Bad dogs bite when their pups and Vargas is taking his bite out of MLB baseball and he deserves an A+!
Michael Grove made the opening day roster after Ryan Pepiot went on the IL with an oblique injury for an undisclosed period of time. Grove gave up 3 earned runs in his start last night in 4.0 innings, so while the numbers don’t look good they don’t really tell the story about his performance.
Grove was cruising through 4 innings, then walked the leadoff hitter, Ryan McMahon, to start the 5th. In that at-bat, he led him off with a curveball that broke out of the zone, then backed that up with 3 fastballs that were all strikes. After getting McMahon in an 0-2 hole, he spoiled a very good curveball, and Grove was in still in control.
That’s when Grove pulled a curveball, a fastball, and a slider out of the zone on 3 consecutive pitches, and that is 100%, completely, totally, and entirely on him.
But, the 2nd walk of the inning to Moustakas wasn’t.
Moustakas walked on a 3-2 pitch that absolutely, totally, and entirely WAS strike 3. In fact, although ball 3 was definitely a ball, it wasn’t a ball by much. Grove hadn’t walked a batter all night until the 5th inning and had been around the zone, and, typically, when pitchers are around the zone, they tend to get the borderline pitches.
Not in this case though, and, possibly the toughest part of the tough luck last night for Grove was, that, if the 3-2 pitch to Moustakas had been called properly, it was going to be a “strike ’em out, throw ’em out” double play and the Rockies were going to have 2 outs and no one on. Instead, they had runners on 1st and 2nd base with no one out.
At that point, Grove was squarely in a pickle and needed to minimize the damage, something of which, he did, although he didn’t.
Make sense? If not, let me explain.
Grove led the next hitter, Elias Diaz, off with a “dirty” slider for strike 1. He followed that up with an even “dirtier” curve ball for strike 2. He was in control of that at-bat at that point and was in good shape to get that elusive first out. But, instead of just getting the “first” out, he actually did the job to get both the first and second outs. On the next pitch, Grove threw a very, very good slider on the outer half of the plate, Diaz was out front and hit an 83.8 MPH ground ball that should have been a routine double play. Muncy, however, was shifted over playing Diaz to go the other way on the outside pitch that Grove threw, and, instead of being in a position to start the double play, had to dive after the ball and couldn’t get to it.
It was no one’s fault, Grove executed, and the Dodgers had Muncy best positioned for an outside pitch, it was “tough” luck.
Grove had 2 chances to cut the inning off, and both times, he actually executed to do just that. The first time the home plate umpire got the 3-2 pitch wrong, and the 2nd time, Muncy just wasn’t positioned in a normal 3rd base position.
It is what it is, and results do matter, but, so does the process and in this scenario, the process was good. Grove threw great and one of the great aspects of baseball is that it’s a marathon and not a sprint, so, if he keeps throwing like he did last night, the tide will turn and things will even out.
As things even out, instead of a guy getting an 83 MPH double, he might hit a 97 MPH line drive that gets caught, because, like I said, over the course of 6 months, things even out.
Grove did run into “tough luck”, but, in the end, results do matter. So, while he executed well enough to get a A, the fact that he did give up 3 runs has to drop him to a B+, even if the 3 runs scoring were largely due to factors that were out of his control.
Andre Jackson: AA-All the Way-To L.A
Andre Jackson has been one of the most pleasant surprises of this early 2023 season. Dating back to Spring Training, he’s only allowed single runs in 2 of his 7 outings, and his ERA was 2.00 in Spring Training and he didn’t allow a run in his 3 innings in his only appearance in the regular season.
Jackson made his debut in 2021 and caught the attention of Dodgers fans. But, like baseball has a tendency to do, he got knocked down a touch at the beginning of last year, but, after a stint on the Developmental list, he came back throwing strikes and kept improving as 2022 continued.
He finished 2022 by not allowing a run in September in 4 outings and 5.2 innings and carried that momentum into the off-season and eventually into 2023.
Here’s what he had to say told Dodgers Daily about how his Spring has gone so far.
Springs been great! I’ve been building off of each outing and building confidence from them. I’ve just been trying to attack the zone with fastballs and work front-to-back with changeups. Also, slider is feeling good and it’s been a good pitch to get hitters off the fastball. Overall happy with how it’s gone so far and just looking to take the momentum into the season.
Jackson has been fantastic to this point and for his efforts, he deserves a definite A+!
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