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Justin Yurchak: Rock Solid Great Hitter
Featured Image Courtesy of Tim Campbell
Baseball has many aspects that make it such a grand ole game, but, one of my favorites is the process it forces young athletes to follow. While modern technology is producing a focus on instant results, baseball continues to show that “lasting” success is built over time, without shortcuts, and is the result of real work done every day. When young players who possess a professional level of talent also learn to put in a professional amount of work, that’s when “long-lasting” success is built. Justin Yurchak is an infielder in the Dodgers organization who is all of the above. He is known as a tireless worker, one that is all about helping his team, and, well, he’s also an extremely talented left-handed hitter.
Shenendehowa High
Yurchak grew up in Albany, New York, and had the great fortune of playing for Greg Christodulu who built Shenendehowa into a powerhouse, Under his guidance, Shen baseball has been to the Sectional Championship game 6 times, and is the only program to win Sectional 2 in back-to-back years, both being while Yurchak was a Plainsman. The program has also produced 6 draft picks, one being Yurchak, and Christodulu has been recognized as the New York Coach of the Year 4 different times. Yurchak learned how to win in his prep career and also became known as a tireless worker that shows up every day ready to get better. Here is what Tom Walter, his coach at Wake Forest had to say about the young New York native.
Justin is what we coaches like to call a lunch pail and hard hat player. He doesn’t do anything flashy but every day he shows up and outworks people and everyday he does something to help the ball club win.
Incredible Prep
Courtesy of the Record Yurchak had a standout High School career in which he was recognized with a long list of awards. Coming out of Shenendehowa, he was ranked as the #4 Short Stop in New York by Perfect Game, was selected for the 2013 ABCA High School Rawlings Gold Glove Team, and was also selected for the 2013 ABCA Rawlings High School Region 1 All-American Team. He was also a 1st Team All-State shortstop as nominated by the New York State Sports Writers Association, the 2013 Suburban Council Player of the Year, the Albany Times Union Athlete of the Year, the 2013 Troy Player of the Year, and was the MVP of his High School team that won the Section II championship. He was a great player that had a bunch of offers, and after a successful freshman year at Wake Forest, the Clifton Park native transferred to Binghamton where he fit in right away.
Binghamton was the school that I visited in High School and I loved the coaches there, and the facilities were ahead of the game. It’s even better now, and I just felt like that was the place for me, and it felt like home there, so I loved my time there and it was a good choice.
On To College
After a very successful Freshman year at Wake Forest in which he started in 47 games and hit .312 with an on-base percentage of .424, Yurchak decided to move back closer to home and transferred to Binghamton. In 2017, as a Draft Eligible Redshirt Sophomore, the sweet-swinging lefty hit .320, had an on-base percentage of .474, an OPS over .900, and was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 12th Round of the 2017 draft.White Sox to Dodgers
Photo Courtesy of MLB.com After getting drafted in 2017, Yurchak spent the remainder of that year in Rookie ball, then spent all of 2018 in A ball with the Kannapolis Cannonballs, before being traded to the Dodgers for Manny Banuelos in the winter of 2018. As a Dodger, the left-handed hitting Binghampton Alum split time in 2019 between Rookie ball Ogden where he hit .365, and Low A Great Lakes where he recorded a .292 batting average. After the 2020 season got canceled, Yurchak started 2021 in High A Great Lakes, then was moved to AA Tulsa in August where he hit .383 with an OPS of .940. As incredible as those numbers are, they are made even more unbelievable when you consider that he hit just .095 in his first 14 games in May. Here’s what he had to say about getting so hot at the end of 2021.
It was funny, the season didn’t start so great for me but a couple balls fell here and there and things started rolling and it was nice once I got to Tulsa to hit behind guys like Miguel Vargas because you get great pitches to hit. We had a great lineup 1-9 and it made it easy to hit and when everyone is hitting you hit too so that made it much easier last year.
2022
Yurchak has spent the entire 2022 season in Tulsa, and although he got off to a slow start, he is starting to really heat things up. So far in July, he is hitting .422 with an OPS of 1.119, he had 4 hits in the last game before the break, and he has hits in all 12 games this month. Although guys like James Outman, Ryan Noda, Miguel Vargas, Jacob Amaya, and Michael Busch have already been moved to AAA OKC, the Drillers still have one of the most talented teams in the Minor Leagues, and being a part of a team that has so much talent has been fun for Yurchak.We have a pretty incrediblle lineup and a lot of guys are swinging it really, really well, so it’s a lot of fun to be a part of this team and to be in the lineup.
Finishing Up
Although Yurchak has consistently shown that he can post very high Averages and on-base percentages, some think that, as a corner infielder, he needs to add a little more power to his game to maximize his potential. The Dodgers are one of the best developmental organizations in the game, and for good reason, they evaluate each player and put a plan in place to maximize their abilities. Here’s how Dylan Nasiatka, Great Lakes hitting coach, says that Craig Wallenbrock describes how they evaluate the type of hitter each player should be.
Hitters are like different sized cups. You know, a hitter like Mike Trout or Miguel Cabrera is a Big Gulp, and a Big Gulp that is darn near full. But, if you have a 12 ounce cup and you fill it up you know, you’re doing pretty good and there’s a lot of players in the Big Leagues with 12 ounce cups that are doing just fine. But, what we don’t want to have happen is for a player to have a Big Gulp sized cup and only have 6 ounces in it because you’re trying to do something you’re not capable of.
So, not every corner infielder has to be a Big Gulp, and the fact that Yurchak doesn’t hit a ton of home runs doesn’t automatically mean he’s a 12-ounce cup either. He’s a great combination of both because he can hit for a high average, get on base a lot, but then also post an above-average OPS. That, in my opinion, makes for a great offensive player, one that will contribute in a whole bunch of different ways and on a consistent basis.
Feature Cut
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Jordan Leasure: On the Fast Track
Jordan Leasure is a talented right-handed relief pitcher in the Dodgers organization who fits every description of a young prospect that the Dodgers want. He has a lanky frame at 6’3, 215 pounds, he is a hard thrower with good secondary stuff, and he has always valued his endeavors off the field as much or more as he has his accomplishments on it. Leasure is big, he is talented, he is smart, he is motivated and he is a great teammate and person. He sums up the Dodgers culture all in one person, and he is a model of how it works in real life.
Riverview
Leasure grew up in the Tampa area and was fortunate enough to play in a great program at Riverview High School under Bill Leiby who built a powerhouse during his 15-year tenure as head skipper of the Sharks. Under Leiby’s direction, the Tampa area High School won two district titles and qualified for five regional tournament appearances, and Leasure attributes a lot of his baseball success to that program and the coaches that built it.
I got really lucky going into Riverview into a great baseball program, I mean they built that baseball program from the ground up. Going in as a Freshman was unbelievable going into that school and growing in that program and they helped me a ton. I had a lot of great coaches there and they really developed me as a pitcher.
Leasure continued to talk about how he started throwing harder.
I didn’t go into the program as a pitcher because I was small and didn’t really throw hard so I went in as an infielder then I got a little bigger and started throwing a little harder and that helped a lot. I learned a lot from Coach Leiby, and Coach Rodriguez, I mean those guys were awesome. Being in that program really taught me how to win and be competitive so I’m very thankful for that.
University of Tampa
Going into his senior year, Leasure was coming off surgery and his future at the next level was up in the air. He didn’t have a whole lot of offers, but what he did have was the only offer he would ever need. During the Fall of his senior year, he was invited to pitch in front of the coaches at the University of Tampa, UT, and it was an experience that shaped the direction of his career for good.
The Head coach at UT is Joe Urso, who has won 5 National Titles, more than any other college baseball coach. He has also led the Spartans to 16 Sunshine Conference titles and 11 Regional titles and has produced 74 draft picks. He has built UT into a DII baseball power, and knowing that the school also has great academics, the decision to become a Spartan was made very easy for Leasure.
You can’t really turn down an offer from a place like that. The academics are unbelievable, the program is legendary, getting to play for Coach Urso and Coach Militello was great, and if I didn’t go there, I don’t know where I would have ended up, but I probably wouldn’t still be playing baseball.
Once Leasure reached campus, he kept getting bigger and started throwing harder, and he also learned a lot of the finer details of what to throw and to which locations, and when. He got good mound time as a Freshman and Sophomore, then had Tommy John surgery during his third year on Campus, in 2019, and after a period of rehab, he returned to the Spartans and threw in 8 games in 2020.
When Covid shut down the 2020 season, the Tampa native focused on getting bigger and stronger and throwing harder as well.
Whenever Covid shut everything down I just kind of took that year to get a lot stronger and put some weight on and try to start throwing harder, and I came back after Covid and had a really good year in 2021.
Leasure had better than a good year in 2021, his last year as a Spartan was, in fact, off the charts.
During the 2021 season at Tampa, he allowed a grand total of 5 earned runs in 38.1 innings and recorded an ERA of just 0,94 and a WHIP of just 0.60. He had shown he was past the Tommy John surgery, and that he was back and better than ever, and, as a result, the Dodgers chose him in the 14th Round of the 2021 draft.
Dodgers
Photo Courtesy of Tim Campbell The 2021 Minor League season started later due to Covid, but then it ended later as well, as the season went into September.
That was one of the positive outcomes of the Covid shutdowns because it allowed guys like Leasure more time at the end of the year to advance. He was moved to Low A Rancho Cucamonga in September of 2021, then started 2022 in Great Lakes before being moved to AA Tulsa at the end of April where he has settled in as one of the most reliable relievers on the Drillers roster.
He also had long stretches of dominance.
During June he had 10 outings that spanned 9 innings and he gave up a grand total of 0 runs and paired that with a WHIP of just 1.00. He had 12 strikeouts to just 4 walks, and when paired with his last outing in May and his first outing in July, he went 12 outings in a row without giving up a run.
Fastball
Leasure features a fastball that touches 97, a tight slider, and a change-up that he is working on and looking to throw more in games. Like most power pitchers, he likes to ride the 4 seam fastball up in the zone, but he also gets good carry to his fastball down in the zone too.
Here is a video that shows the riding effect of his fastball in slow-motion, followed by game videos showing it in “real-time” action. It also includes a fastball down in the zone to show the kind of “carry” he gets on the pitch.
Slider
Leasure features a good, tight slider that is 8-10 mph off of his fastball, and it tunnels well off the fastball as well, so it is a very effective secondary pitch for him.
Changeup
Here is a good look at his changeup which, as he said, he is throwing more in games. The change-up is a very feel-heavy pitch and one that he has been working very hard on in the bullpen to get the feel for and trust.
Fast Track
Leasure is a talented right-handed pitcher that is being moved quickly through the system, which tells you the type of progress he is making and the rate of speed at which he is doing it. He only spent 3 weeks in Great Lakes in 2022 before being promoted to AA Tulsa, and, in 2021, he only spent 2 weeks at the complex, after getting drafted, before getting moved to Low A Rancho Cucamonga.
All of this is for good reason because he is very good, and getting better by the day.
His strikeout-to-walk ratio in 2022 was almost 4 to 1 and it was 4.3 to 1 in 2021, so he has great stuff that is only going to continue to get better and possibly more diverse as he incorporates his change up more as he continues to mature.
When you combine those physical tools with his intangible qualities and the fact that he grew up in programs that taught him how to win, it’s easy to see how exciting his future is.
Yogi Berra once said that baseball is 90% mental, and the other half is physical, and while the math in that quote doesn’t exactly add up, the message certainly does. Baseball players have to be tough, both mentally and physically, many times more that they have to be talented, because the mental challenges of the game can’t be mastered.
For the Dodgers, conquering the challenges of the game starts with culture and creating an environment that is comfortable, but, at the same time, ultra-competitive. The exact environment that Nick Nastrini, one of the most talented pitchers in the Dodgers organization, has come to flourish in and, as a result, has become stronger than ever.
Before the Dodgers
Photo courtesy of Nastrini’s Instagram Nastrini grew up in San Diego and was a standout on the diamond at Cathedral Catholic High School, the same High School that produced Austin Barnes, and had the great fortune of playing for the legendary Gary Remiker. Remiker has coached a Cy Young winner, a #1 pick, and a #2 pick, so getting to play for a coach at that level, that has that kind of track record was a great experience for the young Southern California native.
It was really nice playing for Coach Remiker with him having coached all those legitimate guys that had such a great track record in baseball, so I knew I was in good hands there. Our pitching coach was great there too and they just overall have a great group of guys, so it was really nice to be around such high-level baseball players at such a young age.
During his Senior year at Cathedral, Nastrini went 8-2 as a Don and, after winning several of the most prestigious post-season awards, became recognized as one of the top prospects in California.He had several options following his standout prep career, and eventually chose UCLA for a couple of very simple reasons, he wanted to win, and he wanted to stay close to home. UCLA, a school just a short drive north of San Diego, checked every box, especially considering that they had recently won a National title in 2013.
I mean, getting recruited by Coach Savage so early in the process was very exciting for me and my family. I pretty much chose to go there because I wanted to win and felt like Coach Savage and UCLA gave me the best chance to do that. We didn’t get to the College World Series but we had a pretty good team my Freshman year in 2019, and a pretty solid team in 2020 before Covid shut everything down, then in 2021 we just couldn’t close it out, but I really enjoyed my time there, and I learned a lot, and I have nothing to say but great things about Coach Savage and the program.
Getting Drafted
Photo Courtesy of Nastrini’s Instagram The Dodgers have the best developmental system in the world and one of the reasons is that, while they have detailed plans for each player in the organization, at the same time, each player is given the freedom to be themselves.
And that type of environment has been hugely beneficial for Nastrini.
As he continues to rise from one level to the next, the SoCal native is rewarding the Dodgers for acting upon their vision and drafting him in the 4th Round of the 2021 Draft.
Here’s what he had to say about being a Southern California boy and getting drafted by the Dodgers.
Yeah, it’s definitely a dream come true being able to stay in Southern California and staying close to my family. I could go home on off days when I was at UCLA to see my family and that was a huge blessing. I know I’m in Oklahoma right now, but getting to do that at the professional level and hopefully ending up in Los Angeles will end up being very fun for my family.
Time to Work
Tim Campbell/MiLB Another aspect of the Dodger’s developmental system that makes it elite is the coordination of the coaches between levels. Durin O’Linger at Rancho, Dave Anderson at Great Lakes, and Brian Dennick at Tulsa have all coached together on the same teams, and communicate on a very regular basis about the pitchers in the system. So, the handoff from one level to the next when guys get moved up is seamless, which is huge because it allows prospects like Nastrini to keep their momentum that earned them a promotion in the first place.
Here’s what Nastrini had to say about continuing to move up through the system:
I mean, it’s just been about a lot of work with Dave Anderson, the pitching coach at Great Lakes and our pitching development staff. As a whole, in the Minor Leagues, we have a staff that communicates very well, and our Minor League Pitching Coordinator, Rob Hill, was in constant communication with our pitching coach in Great Lakes and he is a pitching guru. He’s gonna be in baseball for quite a long time, and I have nothing to say but great things about Rob and how he helped my transition into pro ball. It’s been incredible how much he’s helped, so I thank him a bunch for that.
Nastrini went on to talk about the environment the Dodgers create from day to day:
The Dodgers give you so much freedom to be you, and It’s a very productive feeling because you go into the day and you’re able to do exactly what you know you need to do to get better. The org. is in communication with you too in terms of how you want to go about your day or week in between starts and they communicate that very well, so I have nothing but great things to say about the organization helping me grow as a baseball player.
Feature Cut
Nastrini features a 4-pitch mix with a 4-seam fastball that sits around 95, a change-up that is 10 miles an hour off of that at 85, a slider that is 86-87, and a curveball that is 78-80. Here is a look at his fastball and the ride he gets at the top of the zone.
Secondaries
Here’s a good look at Nastrini’s secondary pitches which are his slider at 86-87, his change up at 85-87, and his curveball which is 78-80.
Big Goals
Nastrini couldn’t be happier in the Dodgers system and has set the bar very high as to his future expectations. When asked what his goals are he simply said,
My goal is to make it to the Big Leagues as soon as I can. I still have a lot of work to do, but the goal is definitely to get to the Big Leagues as fast as I can.
Nastrini has already made the jump to AA and had success, so he is inching closer and closer to his goal of making the MLB. The organization has a plan in place that is being executed every day, and everyone, both Nastrini and the Dodgers, are 100% on the same page, so his ascent should continue to accelerate.
All the pieces are in place for Nastrini to, one day, in the very near future, be back home in Southern California with his family where he can go home again on off days, but this time as a Major Leaguer.
I would like to say thank you very much to Nick for granting this interview and for this feature to be written to tell at least a part of his story. The interview was done after his start on August 30th around 10:15 at night so it was very kind of him to stick around and talk. It was a pleasure getting to speak with this young man and I am so excited to watch his ascent to reaching his goals in the next year or two and pitch for the Dodgers, which, as a SoCal boy, as he said, would be a dream come true.
Become a subscriber to our YouTube page and follow us on Twitter @dodger_daily or Facebook or Instagram @dodger.daily or tiktok @dodgers_daily.
Yogi Berra once said that baseball is 90% mental, and the other half is physical, and while the math in that quote doesn’t exactly add up, the message certainly does. Baseball players have to be tough, both mentally and physically, many times more that they have to be talented, because the mental challenges of the game can’t be mastered.
For the Dodgers, conquering the challenges of the game starts with culture and creating an environment that is comfortable, but, at the same time, ultra-competitive. The exact environment that Nick Nastrini, one of the most talented pitchers in the Dodgers organization, has come to flourish in and, as a result, has become stronger than ever.
Before the Dodgers
Photo courtesy of Nastrini’s Instagram Nastrini grew up in San Diego and was a standout on the diamond at Cathedral Catholic High School, the same High School that produced Austin Barnes, and had the great fortune of playing for the legendary Gary Remiker. Remiker has coached a Cy Young winner, a #1 pick, and a #2 pick, so getting to play for a coach at that level, that has that kind of track record was a great experience for the young Southern California native.
It was really nice playing for Coach Remiker with him having coached all those legitimate guys that had such a great track record in baseball, so I knew I was in good hands there. Our pitching coach was great there too and they just overall have a great group of guys, so it was really nice to be around such high-level baseball players at such a young age.
During his Senior year at Cathedral, Nastrini went 8-2 as a Don and, after winning several of the most prestigious post-season awards, became recognized as one of the top prospects in California.He had several options following his standout prep career, and eventually chose UCLA for a couple of very simple reasons, he wanted to win, and he wanted to stay close to home. UCLA, a school just a short drive north of San Diego, checked every box, especially considering that they had recently won a National title in 2013.
I mean, getting recruited by Coach Savage so early in the process was very exciting for me and my family. I pretty much chose to go there because I wanted to win and felt like Coach Savage and UCLA gave me the best chance to do that. We didn’t get to the College World Series but we had a pretty good team my Freshman year in 2019, and a pretty solid team in 2020 before Covid shut everything down, then in 2021 we just couldn’t close it out, but I really enjoyed my time there, and I learned a lot, and I have nothing to say but great things about Coach Savage and the program.
Getting Drafted
Photo Courtesy of Nastrini’s Instagram The Dodgers have the best developmental system in the world and one of the reasons is that, while they have detailed plans for each player in the organization, at the same time, each player is given the freedom to be themselves.
And that type of environment has been hugely beneficial for Nastrini.
As he continues to rise from one level to the next, the SoCal native is rewarding the Dodgers for acting upon their vision and drafting him in the 4th Round of the 2021 Draft.
Here’s what he had to say about being a Southern California boy and getting drafted by the Dodgers.
Yeah, it’s definitely a dream come true being able to stay in Southern California and staying close to my family. I could go home on off days when I was at UCLA to see my family and that was a huge blessing. I know I’m in Oklahoma right now, but getting to do that at the professional level and hopefully ending up in Los Angeles will end up being very fun for my family.
Time to Work
Tim Campbell/MiLB Another aspect of the Dodger’s developmental system that makes it elite is the coordination of the coaches between levels. Durin O’Linger at Rancho, Dave Anderson at Great Lakes, and Brian Dennick at Tulsa have all coached together on the same teams, and communicate on a very regular basis about the pitchers in the system. So, the handoff from one level to the next when guys get moved up is seamless, which is huge because it allows prospects like Nastrini to keep their momentum that earned them a promotion in the first place.
Here’s what Nastrini had to say about continuing to move up through the system:
I mean, it’s just been about a lot of work with Dave Anderson, the pitching coach at Great Lakes and our pitching development staff. As a whole, in the Minor Leagues, we have a staff that communicates very well, and our Minor League Pitching Coordinator, Rob Hill, was in constant communication with our pitching coach in Great Lakes and he is a pitching guru. He’s gonna be in baseball for quite a long time, and I have nothing to say but great things about Rob and how he helped my transition into pro ball. It’s been incredible how much he’s helped, so I thank him a bunch for that.
Nastrini went on to talk about the environment the Dodgers create from day to day:
The Dodgers give you so much freedom to be you, and It’s a very productive feeling because you go into the day and you’re able to do exactly what you know you need to do to get better. The org. is in communication with you too in terms of how you want to go about your day or week in between starts and they communicate that very well, so I have nothing but great things to say about the organization helping me grow as a baseball player.
Feature Cut
Nastrini features a 4-pitch mix with a 4-seam fastball that sits around 95, a change-up that is 10 miles an hour off of that at 85, a slider that is 86-87, and a curveball that is 78-80. Here is a look at his fastball and the ride he gets at the top of the zone.
Secondaries
Here’s a good look at Nastrini’s secondary pitches which are his slider at 86-87, his change up at 85-87, and his curveball which is 78-80.
Big Goals
Nastrini couldn’t be happier in the Dodgers system and has set the bar very high as to his future expectations. When asked what his goals are he simply said,
My goal is to make it to the Big Leagues as soon as I can. I still have a lot of work to do, but the goal is definitely to get to the Big Leagues as fast as I can.
Nastrini has already made the jump to AA and had success, so he is inching closer and closer to his goal of making the MLB. The organization has a plan in place that is being executed every day, and everyone, both Nastrini and the Dodgers, are 100% on the same page, so his ascent should continue to accelerate.
All the pieces are in place for Nastrini to, one day, in the very near future, be back home in Southern California with his family where he can go home again on off days, but this time as a Major Leaguer.
I would like to say thank you very much to Nick for granting this interview and for this feature to be written to tell at least a part of his story. The interview was done after his start on August 30th around 10:15 at night so it was very kind of him to stick around and talk. It was a pleasure getting to speak with this young man and I am so excited to watch his ascent to reaching his goals in the next year or two and pitch for the Dodgers, which, as a SoCal boy, as he said, would be a dream come true.
Become a subscriber to our YouTube page and follow us on Twitter @dodger_daily or Facebook or Instagram @dodger.daily or tiktok @dodgers_daily.
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Jake Lamb Joins Dodgers Daily
Big thanks to Jake Lamb for joining Dodger Poke to talk about his career and time with the Dodgers
Jake Lamb got called up today and deservedly so. Lamb leads OKC in average at .290., and on-base percentage at .395. He’s been playing more 3rd base as of late and has been doing very well at the hot corner. Last game at 3rd base he went behind the bag, back-handed the ball & threw it across the diamond for the out. In the game he played previously at 3rd he made a great play coming in on a do-or-die ball, plus his great offense.
Lamb just recently snapped a 14-game hit streak and has hits in 15 of his last 16 games. Click the picture to see the interview with Lamb as he joined Dodger Poke.
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Dodgers Down on the Farm 6-27-22
OKC Dodgers
The AAA OKC Dodgers just finished up a good home series with Round Rock where they went 4-2. The AAA Dodgers are still in first place in the PCL East by 5 games over El Paso and have the best record of any team in either league, the PCL or the International League.Jake Lamb continues to be the best offensive player on the team as he leads OKC in average and on-base percentage, and, of the regulars that have been with the club for the entire year, he leads the team in home runs. Michael Busch is the overall leader in home runs, but he has not been in AAA all year. Jason Martin is having a great offensive year as well and leads the club in doubles, triples, slugging percentage, and OPS. Miguel Vargas leads the team in hits and RBIs, Drew Avans leads the team in steals and Ryan Noda leads the team in walks.
OKC is at El Paso this week to take on the Chihuahuas, the AAA affiliate of the Padres, in a big 6-game series between the top 2 teams in the PCL East.
Great Finish: What a way to end the weekend for OKC with this exciting play to end the game with Round Rock Rock!
Click to watch Justin Bruihl and his slider! Justin Bruihl: Justin Bruihl tossed his 4th straight scoreless performance Sunday going 2 innings, striking out 2, and walking none.
Click to Watch Noda get 3 Hits Ryan Noda: What a weekend for Ryan Noda. Friday night he had 2 home runs, today he had 3 hits, and over the weekend he went 5 for 10 with 2 homers, 3 RBI, and 11 total bases! Atta boy Ryan keep up the good work! Time for a great 2nd half! To see him in action, click on the picture, for his full feature, including an interview with Noda, click on his name.
Click for the Busch Feature Michael Busch: Michael Busch hit his 18th homer of the year which leads the entire organization, including LA. Busch hit 3 homers in that series alone, has his avg. up to .273, and his OPS is at .937. To see him in action, click on the picture, for his full feature, including an interview with Busch, click on his name.
Click to Watch Alvarez in Action! Yadier Alvarez: Yadier Alvarez has been with the Dodgers since 2015 & made it to AA Tulsa by 2017, but has fought injuries, the restricted list, & the cancelation of the 2020 season, then more injuries in 2021. He threw 2.1 scoreless innings Sunday for OKC and looked good. Although he’s been with the club for a long time, he’s just 26, so he still has plenty of time to carve out a good career with the Dodgers.
Click to Watch Jake Lamb Go Behind 3rd Base and Make a Great Play Jake Lamb: Lamb leads OKC in average at .290., and on-base percentage at .395. He’s been playing more 3rd base as of late and has been doing very well at the hot corner. Check out this play where he went behind the bag, back-handed the ball & threw it across the diamond for the out. In the game he played previously at 3rd he made a great play coming in on a do-or-die ball, now this, plus his great offense. Lamb just recently snapped a 14-game hit streak and has hits in 15 of his last 16 games. Click the picture to see Lamb in action, click on his name to see the interview with him.
Jose Adames: Adames got called back up just recently to AAA OKC. The former 1st round draft pick has big stuff and is really good when he’s throwing strikes. He gave up no runs on 1 hit, 3 K’s, and 2 walks in his 1.2 innings on Sunday. See for yourself by clicking on the picture.
Click to Watch Betances in Action! Dellin Betances: Here’s a look at the scoreless inning that 4-time all-star, Dellin Betances threw Saturday night for OKC. His breaking stuff was sharp and he has really good reach with his fastball. Exciting to have this guy in the org.
Click to Watch Kasowski in Action! Marshall Kasowski: Here’s a good look at the stuff of Marshall Kasowski. Kasowski is having an incredible year as he hasn’t allowed an earned run in 9 of his last 10, 13 of his last 15, has an ERA of 2.35, and a WHIP of 1.29.
Click for the Grove Feature Michael Grove: I got to see Michael Grove for the first time in person in 2022 on Wednesday, so that was fun and he was on point! His first pitch of the night was 95, and his stuff popped. He got out of a 3-2 bases-loaded Jam and went 5 scoreless and struck out 5. To see him in action, click on the picture, for his full feature, including an interview with Grove, click on his name.
Click to See Vargas Get Ready for his first-ever pitch in Left Field! Miguel Vargas: Vargas played 2 games in left field this past week and made some nice plays. He leads OKC in hits and is creating versatility on the defensive side.
AA Tulsa Drillers:The Drillers clinched the 1st half Texas League North championship this week which qualifies them for the playoffs regardless of how the 2nd half goes. Tulsa went 4-2 on the week at Midland against the AA affiliates of the A’s. Leonel Valera leads the team in average, but only has 72 AA at-bats so far, so, of the regulars who have been there all year, James Outman leads the team in average. He also leads the team in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, home runs, RBIs, walks, and hits and is 2nd in stolen bases. Jeren Kendall leads the team in stolen bases with 9.
Tulsa plays host to Arkansas this week for a 6 game series at home at OneOk.
Tulsa Clinches:
Click to Watch Devin Mann in Action Devin Mann: Mann is the focus of this week’s feature and is a very talented & versatile player that was drafted in the 5th Round of the 2018 draft out of Louisville. He has a long, lanky frame, versatility on defense, and power and discipline at the plate. Click on the picture or his name for the full feature including an interview where you can hear from Mann himself.
Click to Watch Knack in Action Landon Knack: Knack had his best performance of the year Sunday, IMO. He had 10 K’s & 0 walks. Wow! He gave up a couple of runs in 6 innings, but he was in total control, he was big-time on the fastball control, & was landing all of his secondaries. He did some real pitching! Click on the picture or his name for the full feature including an interview where you can hear from Knack himself.
Click to Watch Outman Hit a Tape Measure Home Run James Outman: Outman hit his 16th home run and 45th and 46th RBIs of the year Sunday, both of which lead the team, and it went away into the West Texas sky! Outman leads the team in average at .296, on-base percentage at .396, slugging percentage at .556, OPS at .952, RBIs at 45, home runs at 16, doubles at 17, hits at 76 and runs at 59. Wow! To see him in action, click on the picture, for his full feature, including an interview with Outman, click on his name.
Click to See Pages Hit His 12th Homer Andy Pages: Andy Pages hit his 12th home run of the year Sunday to put Tulsa up 1-0, and it was a blast! Enjoy the long ball by clicking the picture!
Kevin Malisheshki: Congrats to Kevin Malisheski for a very well-deserved promotion. He is still listed as being promoted to AAA OKC, but it’s possible that he will land in AA Tulsa instead, but either way, being promoted is a great thing. Malisheski hasn’t allowed an earned run this month and has an avg. against of just .122 & a WHIP of just 1.06. The Pride of Wauconda, Wauconda, Il. is headed somewhere in Oklahoma, so I Can’t wait to see him pitch!
Click to Watch Avelino Get 2 Hits! Abiatal Avelino: Avelino had his 2nd 2 hit night in a row for Tulsa on Saturday, which, at the time, increased his average to .258 since being acquired via free agency on June 8th from the Gigantes de Cibao. Avelino is a 27-year-old 3rd baseman that has been with the Cubs, Giants, and Yankees organizations.
Click to Watch Gibbens Pitch for the Drillers Cameron Gibbens: Welcome back Cameron Gibbens who had his first 2 outings this year off of the IL. In his 2nd outing, the 6’8 Australian struck out 2 of the 3 batters he faced and looked like he was rounding back into form. Great job Cameron, excited to watch you pitch the rest of the year! Click on the picture or his name for the full feature including an interview where you can hear from Gibbens himself.
Click To Watch Rooney in Action! John Rooney: Rooney had a great outing his last time out on Saturday. The lefty out of Hofstra went 4, gave up no runs, struck out 6, and walked just 1. Rooney has a WHIP of just 1.28 and a batting average against of just .245. Click on the picture or his name for the full feature including an interview where you can hear from Rooney himself.
Click to Watch Jeren Kendall hit the first walk-off in TD Ameritade History College World Series: The College World Series ended this week, so I thought I would share the first home run in the history of TD Ameritrade. It has a Dodger flavor to it!
Click to Watch the Big Breaking Ball of Clayton Beeter Clayton Beeter: Beeter was wipeout dominant his last time out on Thursday. His stuff has as much swing & miss to it as anyone in the organization. In fact, he’s K’d 66 in 37.1 innings, which is almost 2 per inning. He went 4 scoreless Thursday, K’d 6 walked just 1. Watch the last 3 pitches! Wow! Click on the picture or his name for the full feature including an interview where you can hear from Beeter himself.
Jordan Leasure: Leasure is trying to set a record in June that can never be broken. He has yet to allow a run this month! In fact, he hasn’t allowed a run in his last 10 outings and 13 of his last 14. His WHIP is down to 1.12 and his average against is .191.
Click to Watch Feduccia in Action! Hunter Feduccia: I just featured Hunter Feduccia so if you haven’t had a chance to check it out, click on his name and it will take you to the article. He had a huge night Tuesday with a home run a double, 2 runs scored & 6 total bases. Believe me, this guy is good!
Click to See Taylor get 3 hits and throw out a runner! Carson Taylor: Tuesday might have been Carson Taylor’s best game as a pro. He had 2 hits right-handed, 1 hit left-handed, threw a runner out trying to steal 3rd, & caught & called a game where Drillers pitching gave up just 4 hits. That was impressive to watch! Click on the picture or his name for the full feature including an interview where you can hear from Taylor himself.
Click to See Zuniga Record his 7th Save! Guillermo Zuniga: Zuniga has the most amount of innings for Tulsa, and he is 7 for 7 in save opportunities. He also just hit 100 for his first K of the in this video. Enjoy the Heat! For the interview with Zuniga to hear from him, click his name.
High A Great Lakes LoonsThe Great Lakes Loons completed their miracle comeback and clinched the Midwest League East Division title and a spot in the post-season playoffs. Diego Cartaya leads the team in Average at .314 with Alex DeJesus nipping at his heels and .313. Cartaya also leads the club in on-base percentage and OPS at .943. Johnny DeLuca continues to lead the team in home runs with 17, RBIs with 42, stolen bases at 10, and runs scored at 45.
The Loons have a home series this week with Dayton, the team they just caught and passed to win their Division, so this week surely will be very intense.
Celebration: Gotta start the video section with the celebration for the Loons on the night they clinched their playoff birth.
Click to watch DeJesus Alex DeJesus: DeJesus had another 2-hit day on Sunday and has his average all the way up to .280 and his OPS is up to .888. He’s hitting .315 in June and has a 10-game hit streak and has hits in 13 of 14 and 17 out of his last 19 games. Wow!
Watch Leonard Get 2 Hits! Eddys Leonard: Leonard had his 2nd consecutive 2-hit day in the Loon’s 11-3 win on Sunday and extended his hit streak to 5 games. He is 5 for his last 13 with 7 total bases and has played an awesome shortstop.
Click to see Vargas in Action Imanol Vargas: Vargas continues to play very good offense for the Loons and had another 2 hit day on Sunday. Vargas is hitting .307 in June with an On Base % of .442. His on-base % in May was .425, so not only can this guy hit, he knows how to get on base.
Click to watch Vivas get 2 hits! Jorbit Vivas: Vivas had a big day for Great Lakes on Sunday with 3 hits, 2 RBI, and 3 total bases. Vivas extended his hit streak to 5 games and is 5 for his last 11. He’s hitting .301 in June with an OPS of .878. Vivas is an explosive young left-handed hitter.
Watch Ramos hit a double and a home run! Jose Ramos: Ramos had a huge day Sunday with 2 hits, a double and a home run, 3 RBIs, and 6 total bases. He has homered in 2 games in a row extending his hit streak to 4 games, a stretch where he is 6 for 16. He’s hitting .265 with an OPS of .881.
Watch Carlos Duran Mow Down the Tin Caps Carlos Duran: Duran needed just 30 pitches in 3 scoreless innings on Sunday. He has yet to allow an earned run since he has returned off the IL and features a unique mix of a tall frame at 6’7, a big fastball w/vertical drop to it, unique timing to his motion & the big breaking ball. Click on the picture or his name for the full feature including an interview where you can hear from Duran himself.
Watch Johnny DeLuca Mash! Johnny DeLuca: DeLuca tripled in the top of 3 for Great Lakes and later scored to give them a 1-0 lead on Sunday. He is tied for the team lead in triples (2), leads the team in home runs with 17, and also leads the team in stolen bases (10). DeLuca can beat a defense in every which way!
Click to Watch Harris in his first action at Great Lakes Ben Harris: Harris made his debut with Great Lakes after just recently getting promoted! Harris is a lefty out of Georgia that was picked in the 8th round of last year’s draft and has a lot of potential.
Click to Watch Alcantara get 2 hits! Ismael Alcantara: Alcantara had 2 hits for the Loons on Saturday, including this double that gave them the lead that they never gave back. At the time, Alcantara had hits in 4 of his last 5 games and had multiple-hit games in 2 of his last 4.
Click to watch Lockhart in Action Lael Lockhart Jr. : Lockhart Jr. gave up 1 in 4, had 4 K’s, & just 1 walk in his last outing on Thursday. Lockhart’s ERA is all the way down to 2.19, his WHIP is just 1.22, & he has only allowed more than 1 run in an outing just twice in his 13 outings, and in those 2 outings he gave up just 2. Talk about Reliable! Click on the picture or his name for the full feature including an interview where you can hear from Lockhart himself.
Click to Watch Kyle Hurt in Action! Kyle Hurt: Hurt had a good outing on Thursday as he allowed 1 Earned Run in 4 innings w/ 4 K’s. The Earned Run he gave up was his 1st in June, & if you erase his May 25 outing, which was an outlier, he has given up just 3 ERs in his other 10 outings which spans 33 innings. The dude has been money!
Cole Duensing: I’ve said a couple of times that he reminds me of Gossage so I wanted to put them side by side throughout the motion. He still hasn’t allowed a run in June which spans 6 outings now. In those outings, he has 12 K’s to just 3 walks, & since his first outing in June, on the 2nd, he’s given up just 3 hits. His fastball has been on point & everything else is playing off of it.
Diego Cartaya: had a 2 hit night Tuesday. He leads the Loons in Average (.315), on-base and OPS at .943. He is a great player that is living up to the billing!Low A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes:
The Quakes just finished a high-scoring series with Lake Elsinore in which they went 2-4. Damon Keith continues to impress as he had 3 hits in Saturday’s game and leads the Quakes in Avg. at .308, Home runs (9), Doubles (17), RBIs (46), Slugging % (.527), and OPS at .958. Wow! Austin Gauthier leads the Quakes in on-base percentage at .452, has his average at .274, and his OPS at .873. He had hits in 4 of the 6 games this past week and reached base in all 6 games. In fact, Gauthier reached safely 17 times in this past series, had 8 RBIs, 13 Total bases, and scored 11 runs. He is a great young offensive player out of Hofstra.
Ronan Kopp had a great performance on Friday as he struck out 5, walked just 1, and gave up just 1 hit en route to 2.2 scoreless innings. Kopp has an average against of just .175, his WHIP is down to 1.33, and his ERA is down to 2.51. Madison Jeffrey had a great week as he continued his scoreless streak and increased it to 4 games spanning 5.2 innings. Jeffrey is a late-inning, high leverage reliever out of West Virginia with big stuff and supreme confidence.
Rancho hosts Visalia this week at home for a 6 games series.
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Dodgers Down On the Farm 6-20-22
OKC Dodgers
The OKC Dodgers had a great series this past week at Reno going 4-2 against the Aces and increased their 1st place standing in the Pacific Coast East up to 4 games. Zach McKinstry got called up in the middle of the Saturday night game, Jake Lamb continues to crush the ball, Jason Martin is quietly having a great year, Marshall Kasowski continues to roll and Jacob Amaya lived up to the billing in his first AAA Series.OKC is back home this week for a 6 game series with Round Rock
Watch Mitch White dominate Reno Mitch White: White has had 2 starts back with OKC and hasn’t allowed a run in his 11.2 innings. He also hasn’t walked a batter and has struck out 4. Hopefully he gets moved back up very shortly.
Watch Jake Lamb hit TANKS! Jake Lamb: Jake Lamb leads OKC in home runs with 15, RBIs with 48, avg. at .297 and OPS at .969. He hit 2 home runs in the game on Saturday night, then hit another home run on Sunday, and he is now hitting .396 in June. He is simply having an amazing year and is surely pushing towards promotion if he keeps up this kind of work.
Watch Amaya hit a grand slam for his 1st hit in AAA! Jacob Amaya: Wow this Guy! Amaya hit a grand slam for his first hit in AAA, which isn’t surprising because he’s always had a flair for the dramatic, come up clutch and he’s always had the “it” factor.
Watch the slider of Justin Bruihl Justin Bruihl: Unfortunately, Bruihl is back with OKC, but is making the most of it. On Sunday he K’d 3 & threw up a 0 in his 1.2 innings of work. He had the good slider working in on the hands & to the backdoor of the Reno hitters. He paired that with well-located fastballs, & hasn’t given up a run in his last 2 outings.
Watch J-Mart have some great at-bats Jason Martin: Martin had a home run and a ground-rule double with the bases loaded in Saturday’s game, and, at that time, was hitting .298 and his OPS was .942. Martin is from the LA area and trying to make his dreams come true.
Aaron Ochsenbein: Congratulations to Aaron Ochesenbein for getting promoted to AAA this past week. In AA Tulsa he only allowed runs in 2 performances this year and 1 was coming off the IL. He features a great splitter, fastball, and slider. Can’t wait to see him pitch in OKC, now he’s just 1 step away!
Jon Duplantier: Duplantier is a big relief pitcher that brings MLB experience to the Dodgers and has had a good year. I had a chance to talk to the Katy Texas native and he is an incredible person and fits the Dodgers culture so well. He also has one of the best breaking balls in the org. as well and definitely has big-league stuff that he’s trying to put back together after spending so much time on the IL last year.
AA Tulsa DrillersThe Drillers had a huge series with Wichita this past week who came into OneOk in first place and left in 3rd. Gavin Stone had a big outing, Bobby Miller was good again. John Rooney had a good outing, Guillermo Zuniga is 7 for 7 in save opportunities, Andy Pages is heating up, James Outman is maybe the best player in the Minor Leagues, Ryan Ward keeps hitting well, Clayton Beeter was nasty in his last start, and Leonel Valera was clutch. As much as that sounds, it just scratches the surface as to how well the Drillers played this past week.
James Outman: Outman might be the best player in all of the Minor Leagues. He leads the Drillers in Avg. at .288, Runs Scored at 52, hits at 67, doubles at 16, home runs at 14, RBIs at 39, Bases on balls at 35 and is 2nd in stolen bases. Wow!
Leonel Valera: With the recent promotion of Jacob Amaya, Leonel Valera has taken the “most days” reigns at shortstop for Tulsa and has been killing it. He had the game-winning Saturday nights game and made a game-saving highlight-reel catch Sunday, so it was only fitting that he also scored the game-winning in the extra-innings win too. He is hitting .356 with an OPS of .863 since joining the Drillers.
John Rooney: Rooney had a great outing Thursday night as he went 3, K’d 4 & walked none. Rooney has the big slider that he locates very well, & I especially enjoy watching it tie Right-handed hitters in knots when he throws it to the back foot. He is also a Proud Hofstra baseball Alum.
Gus Varland: Since moving to the bullpen, Gus Varland has been smokin’ hot. He struck out the side in his 1 inning of work for on Sunday, and has given up just 1 earned run in his 5 outings in June. He has an avg. against of .150, a WHIP of 0.88, & an ERA of 1.59.
Jordan Leasure: Leasure picked up his first save as a Driller on Saturday, and it kept Tulsa in 1st place. Leasure has not allowed an earned run in his last 8 outings and has a batting average against of just .208.
Jose Hernandez: Hernandez is just a great pitcher. The lefty out of the DR has a WHIP of 1.08, his ERA is at 2.60 and he was the saves leader in the Midwest League when he got promoted. His fastball hit 99 on Saturday night with his secondary at 86.
Gavin Stone: Wow! He struck out the side twice in his last performance on Saturday, struck out 11, & walked just 2 in 5 innings. He was hitting 97 with the fastball and watch the change-up in the first 2 clips in the posted video.
Alec Gamboa: An Atta Boy definitely deserved by LHP Alec Gamboa on Friday evening. Gamboa went 3.2 innings and gave up no runs and had 5 K’s. His breaking stuff was on point. Watch for yourself in the video posted!
Jeren Kendall: Get On, Get Over, Get In! When Jeren Kendall is getting on base, he’s a disruption! He walked, stole 2nd, stole 3rd, then scored on a balk when the pitcher stepped off the rubber 3 times trying to hold him on. That’s a MiLB rule. That was fun to watch and you can see it for yourself!
Clayton Beeter: Wanna see what Big League secondaries look like? Watch the video! Clayton Beeter has some of the best stuff in the org. & it was on display tonight. He went 3, gave up 0, & K’d 6. Beeter has 37 K’s in his last 21.2 innings & hasn’t allowed a run in his last 2 starts.
Devin Mann: Devin Mann hit his 8th home run on Thursday and it was a 3-run shot that gave the Drillers a 4-0 lead against Wichita who was 1st place at the time. Mann is having a great year hitting. 263 with an OPS of .260.
Ryan Ward: Ryan Ward had 3 hits in the 2nd game on Thursday to extend his streak to 7 games at the time. During that streak, he was 11/26 and was tied for the organizational lead in homers at 14, and at the time was tied for the team lead in RBIs with 38, and 2nd on the team in Avg. at .271.
Andy Pages: Pages 10th Home Run on Thursday was an absolute blast! At that time he had his average up to .260 and his OPS up to .867, had a 3-game hit streak, and had hit safely in 6 of his last 7 games, a stretch in which he is 9 for 25 with 2 home runs, 7 RBI, and 25 total bases.
Guillermo Zuniga: Guillermo Zuniga is one of the Drillers I had the chance to interview today and he came in and put the lights out on Wichita tonight. Zuniga leads the Drillers in appearances and is now 7 for 7 in save opportunities.
High A Great Lakes: Great Lakes had another great week as they took 5 of the 6 games from Wisconsin and are now just 0.5 games back from Dayton. Each team that leads their division at the halfway mark gets an automatic birth to the playoffs so this is a huge week for the Loons. They are at Fort Wayne for a 6 game series this week.
The Loon’s offense keeps using the big part of the field, Diego Cartaya is out of his mind hotter, Alex DeJesus hit for the cycle, Cole Percival is must-watch TV when he closes games, and Jorbit Vivas is a really, really good left-handed hitter. Kyle Hurt threw a no-hitter, Lael Lockhart Jr. was great his last time out, Cole Duensing has been dominant, Braydon Fisher has been his equal, Jeff Belge is back and looking good and Kendall Williams’s split-finger is still tumbling off the table.
Alex DeJesus Cycle: DeJesus hit for the cycle on Thursday and has had a hit in every game since. He’s 9 for this last 19 with 6 RBI and 16 total bases.
Diego Cartaya: Cartaya has had a huge night for Great Lakes on Saturday with 3 hits, and a double that gave the Loons the lead in the bottom of the 8th, 2 RBI, & 6 total bases. His average is all the way up to .356 since being promoted, which leads the team, & his OPS is right at 1.100.
Johnny DeLuca: DeLuca had a big home run on Saturday night, then had a huge go-ahead double that gave the Loons a big 3-2 lead on Sunday. The Loons are trying to catch Dayton for 1st place for the 1st half. Each Division winner of each half of the season makes the playoffs.
Lael Lockhart Jr. : Great outing for Lael Lockhart Jr. on Friday as he & Kyle Hurt combined for a shutout. Lockhart went 5, K’d 6, walked just 1. His younger bro just made the 5A Finals, his Hogs are in the CWS & he threw a 0 in his last outing. Life is good in the Lockhart family I’d say.
Kevin Malisheski: Malisheski has been one of the most unhittable relief pitchers in the org. Hitters are hitting just .127 against the big Wauconda, Wauconda, IL native and he has thrown up 0’s his last 6 outings and 10 of his last 12. Keep your eyes on Malo, the dude is legit!
Carlos Duran: Duran was dynamic in his first start back with the Loons. He was 93-95 on the fastball, 88-89 on the changeup, and 83 on the slider. He has unique “pauses” in his motion, he carries himself with tremendous confidence & positive energy, and he has a lot of fun when he pitches.
Michael Hobbs: I’ve said it before, but Michael Hobbs might be the steal of last year’s entire draft. The 10th rounder out of St. Mary’s has gone scoreless in 3 in a row & 6 out of his last 7. This guy is good, take a look for yourself!
Ben Casparius: Ben Casparius had a good outing Sunday for Great Lakes. He threw 4 innings, had 4 K’s, walked just 1, and gave up 5 hits. 
Braydon Fisher: Fisher had the big breaking ball in his scoreless 1.2 innings on Saturday. Fisher has had a fantastic year & has his ERA down to 2.93 & his WHIP all the way down to 1.16. He’s allowed just 1 earned run in his 5 outings in June.
Cole Duensing: Cole Duensing was draining 3’s with his breaking ball to get out of a bases-loaded jam on Saturday. Duensing hasn’t allowed an earned run in his 4 outings in June & has 9 ks, only 2 walks during that span, and hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 8 of 9.
Cole Percival: Percival let the Big Dog Eat on Saturday when he hit 99 to end his scoreless 6th inning! Enjoy the Heat!
Jose Ramos: Ramos hit his 6th home run Friday night. At that time he had 47 RBI, was hitting .269, had an OPS of .872, had a 4-game hit streak, and had hits in 8 out of his last 9 games.
Kyle Hurt: Kyle Hurt no-hit Wisconsin for 4 innings on Friday & K’d 8. His fastball was hitting 96 consistently & his change hovered around 90. He has his ERA down to 2.93, his WHIP down to a really low 1.16, & he hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 2 and 4 of his last 5.
Nick Nastrini: Nick Nastrini went 4.2 innings last time out and had 9 k’s & just 3 walks. Nastrini has 55 strikeouts now in 35 innings so his stuff is explosive. Here’s a look at the 4 pitch mix he had working tonight. FB 94-96, Slider 80-83, Breaking ball 78-80, Change 85-86.
Eddys Leonard: Leonard had a 2-hit night for the Loons on Thursday and had a 5-game hit streak where he is 8 for 23 with 3 RBI and 10 total bases. At that time he was 5 for his last 10 in the last 2 games.
Imanol Vargas: Vargas had 3 doubles in Thursday night’s game and, at the time, was hitting .304 in June with an OPS of .976.
Jeff Belge: Belge made his 3rd appearance Thursday night since rejoining Great Lakes, but it was his first at home at Dell Diamond. He threw up another 0 and has yet to allow a run in his 4 performances which spans 5.1 innings.
Antonio Knowles: Knowles had his 13th scoreless performance Thursday night for the Loons. Let that sink in for a sec, 13 scoreless performances. He had a good slider/sinker combo to mix with his fastball in his 1 inning of work.
Jorbit Vivas: Vivas had 2 hits Thursday night including his 5th homer of the year. Vivas is an explosive young left-handed hitter with incredible bat speed. He had a 4-game hit streak recently, and also had a streak where he had hits in 11 of 13 games, and had multiple hits in 7 of 16 games.JJ
Julian Smith: The fastball/slider combo of LHP Julian Smith was on point in his last outing, which was his best outing in June going scoreless in his 1 inning. See how good his stuff was for yourself!
Low A Rancho CucamongaRancho split their series with the Angels AAA Affiliate, Inland Empire 3 games a piece. Damon Keith continues to lead the team in average at .291, doubles at 13, tied for triples with 3, slugging percentage at .507, and OPS at .929. Rancho is in 2nd place in the California League behind Lake Elsinore with a 35-28 record. Rancho is at Lake Elsinore this week for a huge 6-game series with Lake Elsinore for a huge 6-game series between the first and 2nd place teams.
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Devin Mann: Every Tool Needed
Featured Image Courtesy of Tim Campbell/MiLB
@dodger_poke
Long, lanky, athletic, versatile, talented, hard-working, tough, disciplined, and powerful are qualities that every organization looks for in every prospect. All professional prospects have at least a certain combination of those skills, but it’s rare to find one that has them all, so when the Dodgers drafted Devin Mann in the 5th Round of the 2018 Draft, they knew they had an exciting young player that fit the description.
Columbus to Louisville
Mann grew up in Columbus, Indiana where he had a standout prep career at Columbus North High School under the direction of Ben McDaniel, a coach that is well known in both the High School and travel ball circuit. As a Bulldog, the long, lanky, and athletic Mann was an All-State shortstop as a Senior, was honorable mention All-State during both his Sophomore and Junior seasons, was a 2-time all-conference selection, and was the 2 time Area Player of the Year. During his sophomore season, he hit .532, which was a single-season record for Columbus North and he finished his career with the highest batting average of any Bulldog in the history of the program at .449. He also finished as the career leader in runs, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, RBIs, and stolen bases. As I said, he is versatile, and he has a rare combination of skills that allow him to do it all, and his prep career showcased all of those talents.
After his record-setting prep career, the long-lanky Hoosier had several options as to where he wanted to play college baseball and eventually chose Louisville. Under the direction of Dan McDonnell, the Cardinals have become a College baseball power and have made 5 appearances in the College World Series, have won 9 Regional Championships, and have won 10 Regular Season Conference championships. It’s a program that breeds winning, and has produced 93 draft picks since the arrival of McDonnell, two of which are fellow Dodgers Will Smith and Bobby Miller.At Louisville Mann made 19 starts as a Freshman and hit .303, hit 8 home runs, and had 44 RBIs in his first year on campus. As a Sophomore, in 2017, on a College World Series team, he hit 8 home runs, had 44 RBIs, and started 64 games. During his final season at Louisville, his Junior year in 2018, he had 7 home runs, 17 doubles, 52 RBIs, stole 15 bases, hit .303, and walked 59 times. Mann had proven to be more than just a basket full of potential, he had shown to be a full bushel of production and the Dodgers drafted him in the 5th round of the 2018 Draft after his Junior year.
Mann, the Dodgers Got a Good One
Mann started his career in 2018 with the AZL Dodgers but was advanced to Great Lakes in June, who was the Low A affiliate at the time. The next year, in 2019, he was assigned to High A Rancho Cucamonga, then, after 2020 got canceled due to Covid, he spent all of 2021 in AA Tulsa which is where he is at now. The long, lanky Hoosier finished 2021 on a tear as he hit .323 for the month of September, hit 8 home runs, and had 17 RBI and 49 total bases. In the 2nd to the last series in Amarillo, he hit multiple home runs in 3 games in a row, and, at one point during that stretch, hit 6 home runs in 10 at-bats. He finished 2021 hot and has continued that momentum into this year as he is hitting .264 with 8 home runs and has an OPS of .881. Here is what he had to say about that the adjustments he’s made and how it has paid off.Yeah, it was nice to make some adjustments and start figuring out the pitching in AA, and how everyone has a scouting report on you. You know, last year I had some struggles early on but it’s nice to have worked through that and figured some things out and it’s nice to have been consistent up to this point so far and I’m just looking to keep that going.
Having a very versatile and certainly complete set of skills, Mann has been asked to play every position other than pitcher and catcher since he’s been a Dodger. Here’s what he had to say about that.
Yeah, that’s definitely been something new. I played 2nd in college and I always knew I had the ability to play all over the place and last year, you know, with the outfield and moving around and having that versatility, I think it was a smoother transition than I expected, escpecially with the outfield. But, it’s part of my game that I embrace and it just gives me more versatility to be able to play everyday wherever the team needs me.
Although Mann has the skills to play every position on the field, he has come back home this year to 2nd base, the position he played in College. Here’s what he had to say about finding a home at 2nd base this year and getting comfortable there.
Yeah, I mean I definitely love 2nd base, it’s my favorite position and that’s where I think I’m most talented at and I think it’s given me the time to work on my craft at that position and I think I’ve gotten a lot better over there too, and I’m just excited that I get to play over there again.
Feature Cut
As stated earlier, between September 9th and 11th of last year, 2021, Mann hit multiple home runs in 3 consecutive games at Amarillo. The following is a video of each home run and what you’ll notice is his plate coverage East and West, and his ability to cover both the top and bottom of the zone. and how he can hit multiple types and speeds of pitches out of the yard as well.
With such a tall and lanky frame, Mann has great plate coverage and can reach the outside corner very well. But, as you see in the picture on the left, he can also stay inside and behind balls and shoot them the other way when he needs to as well. Another one of the things that I think separates him is his reach. He has such long arms, that, if he’s fooled on something on the outer half, he can keep his hands back and still reach those pitches and get the barrel out to create solid contact, as you’ll see in the 2nd hit in the video.
Here’s another example of the reach Mann has and his ability to cover the outside part of the plate, and how he can get the barrel out on off-speed pitches. He continually shows the ability to hit every kind of pitch on the outer half with power. The picture on the left shows how well he stays behind the ball and how well leveraged he gets on balls on the outer half. The video shows it in action and was from just a couple of days ago.OK to LA
Mann has spent the last 2 seasons in AA Tulsa and really started to take off about halfway through last year. Although he certainly can play just about anywhere, and at a professional level, he is definitely home at 2nd base and is having a very good year. He has a unique set of skills when considering his tall and lanky frame combined with his excellent athletic ability, and it gives him a very high ceiling, one that is higher than most. So, it’s going to be very exciting to watch him develop through the system and watch where his journey lands, one that hopefully winds from the Minor League back roads of OK, all the way to the Major League Freeway in LA.
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Hunter Feduccia: Just Does His Job
@dodger_poke
Catching in the Minor Leagues is one of the toughest, most grueling, physically demanding, and mentally taxing challenges in all of sport. Catchers are tasked with handling pitching staffs that are made up of extraordinarily competitive people that are from all over the world, speak different languages, have different styles, different pitch profiles, and all with different temperaments and personalities. And, just about the time you get comfortable, the rosters change and pitchers come and go and, many times, the process starts all over again, at least to some degree. Putting all of these elements together and making it look seamless as a product on the field is a lot easier said than done, but it’s something that Hunter Feduccia, a catcher in the Dodgers organization, has learned to master.Bayou Background
Feduccia grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and went to Barbe High School where he had the great fortune to play for Glen Checcini who just finished his 36th season as head coach for the Bucs, and has won 11 State Titles, 3 national championships, 25 district championships, has been voted the 5A Coach of the year 6 times and has been the National Coach of the year twice. He also reached the 1000 win milestone this year in April and was inducted into the Louisiana High School Hall of fame back in 2019. Needless to say, Feduccia learned how to win, he learned the daily process of what goes into winning and he learned how to play the game of baseball at the highest level.
He hit .353 his senior year at Barbe, his only year as a starter, then chose LSU Eunice with the ultimate goal being a landing spot at the in-state powerhouse LSU. At Eunice, the quickly blossoming catcher hit his stride and hit .390 for his 2 combined years as a Bengal and had an OPS of 1.120 in his Sophomore year in 2017. He was also named the 2016 and 2017 Defensive player of the year for LSU-Eunice and was named the Gold Glove Award winner in 2016 after posting a .997 fielding percentage as a catcher for the Bengals. As a result of his great work, Feduccia’s main goal of landing at LSU and being an impact player for the Bayou Bengals was becoming a reality, especially after having a great Summer in the Northwoods League in which he was voted the #4 prospect of the League. Feduccia spent his Junior year at LSU under the legendary coach Paul Mainieri and had big shoes to fill as he was replacing Mike Papierski who was a 9th-round draft pick of the Astros. The cool-mannered Lake Charles native was up to the task as he started 48 games at catcher for LSU and had a great experience as the Tiger’s backstop.At Barbe, I played under Glen Checcini who was an awesome coach, and he was a really fun coach to play under for 4 years. Then I got recruited to LSU Eunice and had an awesome 2 years there and we had a good group of guys. In my Junior year of college I went off to LSU and that’s always been a dream, so that was fun to get recruited by them and get to play for a year, so it’s been a ride so far
Dodger Draft Pick
The Dodgers drafted the talented Louisianan in the 12th Round of 2018 and started him off in Rookie ball in Ogden, then moved him up to Low A Great Lakes later that year. He started 2019 with Great Lakes, then got moved up to Rancho, which was High A at the time, in July and spent the rest of the year with them. After the Minor League season got canceled in 2020, he then spent all of 2021 in Tulsa and just got moved up to AAA OKC on June 29.Feature Cut
Feduccia has always been known as a smooth operator behind the plate with great footwork and a great release throwing down. Here’s what his coach at LSU Eunice, Jeff Willis, had to say about him the year after he left Eunice and was playing at LSU.
“I thought last year he was the best catcher in junior college baseball, not just from the catching standpoint, but he supplies a power bat in the middle of somebody’s lineup,” Willis said. “To be able to get the combination of those two things is very rare in that position.”
He also has a very short, compact swing that simply doesn’t have any holes and allows him to use the entire field, hit every kind of pitch, and against both right-handed and left-handed pitching, and still make good contact even if his timing isn’t perfect. Here’s what his head coach at LSU, Paul Mainieri had to say about his swing and overall offensive game.
“He doesn’t really have a weakness at the plate,” coach Paul Mainieri said. “He handles all kinds of pitchers, he handles all kinds of pitches, he covers the whole plate with his swing and uses the whole field.
“He’s not going to strike out much and he hits in the clutch.”
In this first video, I wanted to show how well Feduccia hits breaking balls and some of the reasons why, in my opinion. He lets the ball get deep, which allows him to track the ball very well, he’s willing to use the big part of the field and he just keeps everything very simple, short, and compact. His movements are so quiet that he’s able to keep his weight and his hands back, so even if his timing isn’t perfect, he can still make great contact.
Although Feduccia can use the entire field, he is still extremely quick on anything thrown to the inner half of the plate. Watch him turn on this ball and hit it 423 ft.. with an exit velocity of 107.
The Dodgers don’t place a huge emphasis on holding runners and prefer that their pitchers concentrate mainly on the hitters, so it makes it tough on the catchers to throw runners out. Feduccia, however, does a good job with his footwork when setting up to throw to 2nd, has a quick release, and accurate throwing arm as you can see in the video below.
Feduccia Future
Feduccia has developed a very effective way of handling maybe the most talented staff in all of the Minor Leagues and pitchers love throwing to him. I know this to be a fact because I have talked to several of them and they have gone out of their way to mention how much they like throwing to “Feddy” as they call him. He understands each pitcher’s strengths and weaknesses, he does a very good job framing pitches, throws the ball well, has a great demeanor, and carries a good bat with him. In fact, he just finished a month in which he hit .340. Feduccia is an excellent combination of being hard-nosed but also MLB talented, and he helps his team win games in a myriad of different ways that you need to see every day to truly appreciate just how valuable he is.
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Dodgers Down on the Farm 6-13-22
AAA OKC Dodgers
The OKC Dodgers just finished a great series against Salt Lake, the AAA affiliate of the Angels, in which they went 5-1 against the Bees. Zach McKinstry is back down with the Dodgers AAA club and is the team leader in batting average at .335 and on-base percentage at .419. Jake Lamb leads the team in home runs at 12, OPS at .905, and Miguel Vargas leads the club in RBIs. It may come as a surprise to find out that Jason Martin, the former Texas Ranger, leads the team in slugging percentage at .531 and doubles with 12. Click on this highlighted area to visit the official stats page. of the OKC Dodgers. OKC is at Reno for their 6 game series this week.
Click for the Direct Link to purchase Covid Curveball Covid Curveball: Get your copy of the book Covid Curveball, a book written by Tim Neverett that gives a “behind the scenes” look at the Dodger’s 2020 World Championship. I have a copy and have read it multiple times and it is a fantastic book and very well written. For details on how to order, click the picture on the left. Neverett was kind enough to join Dodger Poke so click on the Covid Curveball title for that feature which includes his interview linked at the top.
Click to watch OKC’s comeback win last Wednesday Comeback Crew: The OKC Dodgers were trailing all day in their game last Wednesday until Jake Lamb tied in with a bases-clearing double in the 9th, then Michael Busch hit the game-winner! Awesome call by OKC Dodgers PxP Alex Freedman too!
Watch Max Muncy hit a walkoff for OKC Max Muncy: 2 nights before he got called up, Muncy hit a walk-off for OKC. It had a 109 mph exit velocity and traveled 441 ft. so Enjoy!
Andrew Heaney: Heaney was on point with the riding 4 seam & sweeping slider combo in his last start on Thursday for OKC. He went 4.1 innings, K’d 5, & walked none. He’ll have at least 1 more rehab start before the club makes a decision on him. Take a look for yourself!
Zach McKinstry: Zach McKinstry is back in OKC, unfortunately, but is doing his thing again, and that is, making the most of the situation. He just hit his 3rd homer and is hitting .335 with an OPS of .881. McKinstry was kind enough to join Dodger Poke a couple of weeks ago, so for his feature, including an interview linked at the top, click on his name for the direct link.
Click to watch Kasowski in action from Saturday night! Marshall Kasowski: Kasowski put up another 0 for OKC Saturday night. He has now gone scoreless in his last 7 outings which spans 6.1 innings & has gone scoreless in 12 of his last 13 spanning 16 innings. His FB, Slider, and Change mix has been on point. Click the picture on the left to see for yourself!
Watch Vargas hit his 10th home run! Miguel Vargas: Vargas hit his 10th home run and had 2 RBI today for OKC on Sunday. He now leads the team in RBIs, is 2nd in homers, doubles, and batting average, and is 4th in OPS. He is truly an incredible young offensive player!
Click to watch White in Action from Sunday Mitch White: Having had success with LA at the end of last year, and so far this year, surely it was disappointing for Mitch White to find out he was going back to OKC for Sunday’s start. If he felt that way, he didn’t show it though, and, instead, showed how professional he is by going 5.1 innings scoreless w/ 6 K’s. White joined Dodger Poke toward the end of last year, so for his feature, including an interview linked at the top, click on his name for the direct link.
Watch Jake Lamb drive in 2 Runs! Jake Lamb: Jake Lamb has 2 hits for OKC Saturday night, and now has a 6 game hit streak and hits in 9 out of his last 10 games. He leads the team in home runs with 12, is 2nd RBIs with 39, is 2nd in OPS at .884, and is 4th in average at .270. It has been reported that he has an opt-out coming up, so we’ll see what happens with him, but he is having a great year in AAA OKC.
Click to watch Erlin in action! Robbie Erlin: Robbie Erlin had a great outing for OKC tonight going 5 and giving up no runs. The Oakland native has a batting average against of just .129 in his 2 starts in June and brings 341.2 innings of MLB experience to the pitching depth in the Dodgers system.
Watch Pepiot tunnel his fastball and change up Ryan Pepiot: Here’s the latest example of how elite Ryan Pepiot’s stuff is. Watch the inside fastball, tumble/fade changeup combo. Then look at the picture in the last frame & look at how they tunneled off each other but ended in such different locations. This “tunneling” effect, combined with how he knows how to sequence, is why he has “elite” potential. When he’s landing it all for strikes, he makes quick work of MLB hitters. Pepiot has been kind enough to join Dodger Poke twice now and most recently talked about his MLB debut. Dodger Poke has also done a feature cut on the star right-hander that explains how he tunnels and sequences his pitches and how that gives him the ability to be elite, so click on his name for the full feature,. His first interview is linked at the top, and his 2nd interview and feature cut are linked at the bottom of the feature.
Watch Jason Martin hit his 8th home run of the season! Jason Martin: Jason Martin hit his 8th homer of the day for OKC and is hitting .283 with an OPS of .908. Martin now has a 6-game hit streak in which he is 8 for 22, .363 with 2 homers, 6 RBI, and 18 Total Bases. I have to think he’ll be promoted to LA sometime this year, which would be a dream come true for him because he is from the LA area. Martin was kind enough to join Dodger Poke so click his name for his full feature including an interview that is linked at the top.
Click to watch Telis hit a double Tomas Telis: Catcher Tomas Telis had a huge day for OKC with 2 doubles and a single. He’s now hitting .323 and has hits in 6 of his last 8 games, a stretch where he is 9 for 26. He is another fringy AAAA guy that has to be making the club think and adds MLB depth to the organization.
Watch Noda hit a double Ryan Noda: Ryan Noda continues to be a stat stuffer! He is 2nd in homers & walks, a stat that should surprise no one, & is also 3rd in doubles, and batting avg. & OPS. This is the payoff to being a hitter that uses the whole field! Dodger Poke was fortunate enough to talk to Noda towards the end of last year and featured him, so click his name for his full feature including his interview that is linked at the top.
Watch Avans hit a homerun Drew Avans: Avans has gotten hot. He is hitting .324 so far in June with 10 RBIs and an OPS of .990. He has raised his average by 78 points since April 27th.
AA Tulsa Drillers
The Drillers are in the midst of their longest home stand of the year and just finished a rough series with Northwest Arkansas in which they went 2-4. A weird stat that has no logical explanation is that the Drillers are just 15-5 at home at the beautiful OneOk field. I imagine that will drastically improve as the Summer goes on. Leonel Valera has had a hot start in his time in AA as he is hitting .379, but of the guys who have been with Tulsa for the whole year, Kody Hoese and James Outman are tied for the team’s highest batting average at .284. Outman and outfielder Ryan Ward are tied for the team lead in home runs with 13 and Ward leads the team in RBIs with 36. Outman leads the team in hits, doubles, walks, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS. The Drillers continue their home stand this week against Wichita who is in first place in the Texas League. Click on this highlighted area to visit the official stats page. of the Tulsa Drillers.
James Outman: James Outman leads the AA Tulsa Drillers in hits, doubles, walks, on-base %, slugging %, and OPS. Outman is also tied for the team lead with Kody Hoese in batting avg. at .284 and home runs with Ryan Ward at 13. Wow! Surely he’s due for a promotion to AAA OKC sometime soon.
Click for the full feature on Knack! Landon Knack: Knack was this week’s main feature on Dodger Poke so click on the picture on the left for his full feature, or on his name to go directly to his interview. Knack features a 4 pitch mix with a fastball that is 93-96, change up at 83-84 with swing and miss tumble and fade, and 89 MPH slider, and a softer breaking ball that sits at 78-79.
Click to see Kendall’s latest home run! Jeren Kendall: Jeren Kendall homered last night, then homered again today, and was on base 3 times. This guy can “disrupt” games as well as anyone when he’s getting on base like he did today. Kendall was kind enough to join Dodger Poke and mentioned that he is trying to get back to the player he always has been, and, there’s no doubt in my mind that he will! Click on his name for his full feature including an interview with him linked at the top.
Click to watch Ward get 2 hits in Sunday’s game Ryan Ward: Ryan Ward had 2 hits Sunday for Tulsa and leads the Drillers in RBIs and is tied in home runs. This young Woolie is a Mammoth of a good young left-handed hitter! Ward also joined Dodger Poke and talked all about his background, his career, and his future, so click his name for his full feature that includes his interview linked at the top.
Click to Watch Beeter from Saturday’s game Clayton Beeter: Clayton Beeter went 2 on Saturday, and gave up 0, due in large part to what you’re gonna see in this video on the left. What you’ll see is his riding 4 seam at 85, tumbling change up at 84, slider at 85, then his 4 seam low with carry. I threw in another tumbler for fun. Beeter also joined Dodger Poke and talked all about his background, his career, and his future, so click his name for his full feature that includes his interview linked at the top.
Click to watch Varland in action form Saturday Gus Varland: Gus Varland has moved to the pen, and has been lights out! He was hitting 97 again with a tight slider and a 90 mph change on Saturday night. See for yourself by clicking the picture on the left! He now has gone scoreless in his last 4 since the adjustments have been made. Varland also joined Dodger Poke and talked all about his background, his career, and his future, so click his name for his full feature that includes his interview linked at the top.
Click to watch Leasure in action! Jordan Leasure: Jordan Leasure was hitting 97 Saturday night with his fastball and he paired that with a tight slider. See for Yourself by clicking the picture on the left! Leasure has been overpowering in June and he hasn’t allowed an earned run yet this month. In fact, he has gone scoreless in 5 in a row and 6 out of 7.
Click to watch Ochsenebein in action from Saturday’s game. Aaron Ochsenbein: If you miss the 92 MPH fastball from Aaron Ochsenbein, you’re getting his split-finger and his slider, &, well, you’re out! The only outing on the year where he has allowed a run was coming off of a stint on the IL. Everything else has been 0’s. Ochsenbein also joined Dodger Poke and talked all about his background, his career, and his future, so click his name for his full feature that includes his interview linked at the top.
Click to watch Taylor’s 2 hits Saturday night! Carson Taylor: Catcher Carson Taylor had 2 hits tonight. His consistency is remarkable as he has a hit in all but 12 games this year, but, yet, with his 2 hits Saturday night, he has reached base in 13 straight games. Taylor also joined Dodger Poke and talked all about his background, his career, and his future, so click his name for his full feature that includes his interview linked at the top.
Click to see Yurchaks 2 hits in Saturday’s game Justin Yurchak: Justin Yurchak is showing signs of starting to hit the ball like we’re all accustomed to seeing him hit. He’s had multi-hit games in 2 of his last 4. Dodger Poke did a feature cut on the Binghampton Alum and broke down what makes him such a good hitter. For that feature cut, click on his name.
Click to watch Jacob Amaya get 2 hits Jacob Amaya: Jacob Amaya had a big night for the Drillers on Saturday with 2 hits! He is now hitting .264 with an OPS of .870 to pair with his elite defense at shortstop and unquestioned leadership skills. Amaya also joined Dodger Poke and talked all about his background, his career, and his future, so click his name for his full feature that includes his interview linked at the top and a feature cut linked at the bottom.
Click to watch Lewis get 3 hits in Saturday’s game Brandon Lewis: Lewis, like Yurchak, is showing signs of getting hot and hitting the way we are accustomed to seeing him hit. He had 3 hits Saturday night and is now 4 for his last 8. He is a tremendous young corner infielder from the LA Area with more than just power, he can hit and hit to all fields. Dodger Poke featured Lewis and also did a feature cut that is linked at the top of his feature, so for his full feature click on his name above.
Click to see Pages 9th Home Run of the season Andy Pages: Andy Pages hit his 9th home run of the season on Saturday. He now has hits in 19 of his last 24 games and has 4 home runs, 5 RBI, and 23 total bases in June. Pages is an impressive young hitter so click on the picture to see for yourself!
Watch Drury hit 95! Austin Drury: Thursday night, IMO, was easily the best stuff LHP reliever, Austin Drury has had all year. He hit 95 on the first pitch in the sequence featured, and paired that with a tight slider! Drury threw 1 scoreless tonight! Well Done by the former UNF Osprey Alum!
Gavin Stone:
Gavin Stone was 95-96 on his fastball in Tuesday’s start, which I got to see from the front row. This kid is absolute dynamite who, injuries notwithstanding, is 100% on a crash course path with MLB stardom. Dodger Poke featured Stone so click on his name for his full feature that includes an interview linked at the top.
Watch Hernandez in action from last Thursdays game Jose Hernandez: Jose Hernandez is a left-handed relief pitcher that was recently promoted from Great Lakes to Tulsa. Hernandez was the saves leader in the Midwest League when he left the Loons and has an ERA of 1.93 with an over 3:1 K/BB ratio. If he’s not on your radar, he needs to be.
High A Great Lakes:
The Great Lakes Loons just completed the best series of any team at any level in the organization, and that includes LA. The loons entered this last week’s series against 1st place Dayton down 7 1/2 games in the Midwest League standings. After losing the first game, Great Lakes opened up a can of “whoop-ass” and won the next 6 games amongst the rain, cold, and everything else. The Loons are now just 33-24 and just 3.5 games back in the Midwest League. Great Lakes returns home for a 6 game series this week against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers who are the High A Affiliates of the Brewers.Jorbit Vivas has been super hot and now leads the team in batting average at .272 and walks with 34. Imanol Vargas leads the team in OPS at .826, and Johnny DeLuca is the ultimate stat stuffer. DeLuca leads the team in home runs with 13, RBIs with 31, stolen bases with 11, and runs scored with 35. Eddys Leonard is having a very good year and leads the Loons in doubles and slugging percentage.
Click to see the back-foot slider of Belge Jeff Belge: Jeff Belge is an 18th-round draft pick out of St. John’s who threw up his 2nd 0 in a row on Sunday since being recalled to Great Lakes. The 6’5 Right-Hander had the back door & back-foot slider to righties working, paired with a 92-94 MPH fastball. See for yourself by clicking the picture.
Click to watch the Split-Fingers of Williams Kendall Williams: Kendall Williams had another scoreless start Sunday throwing 3, and striking out 8! His 4 seam gives the “rising” effect, split gives the tumble and fade, and slider gives the cut, so he has every shape. Plus, he only walks 1 per start on average, so he really pitches. Williams was kind enough to join Dodger Poke in the off-season, so click his name for his full feature that includes his interview linked at the top.
Click to watch the last inning of Kyle Hurt’s no hitter Kyle Hurt: Kyle Hurt threw a no-hitter this past week, and was absolutely rolling again on Saturday, but was removed for an undisclosed injury. Here’s a 91 mph slider he threw in the 1st inning. Let that soak in, he threw a 91 MPH slider! Here it is!
Watch DeJesus hit a “frozen rope” of a home run Alex DeJesus: This is what you call a frozen rope off the bat of Alex DeJesus. This was his 6th of the year and he is now hitting .271 with an OPS of .903. He’s hitting .324 in June with an OPS of .954. Great young left-side infielder!
Click to watch DeLuca get a big 2 out 2 RBI basehit. Johnny DeLuca: The Loons had a huge win on Saturday and DeLuca’s 2 RBI single in the 1st is a big reason why. DeLuca leads the Loons in Homeruns with 13, RBIs with 31, stolen bases with 11, and runs scored with 35. This Oregon Duck is really a stat stuffer!
Click to watch Malisheski in action Saturday night Kevin Malisheski: Malisheshki won a couple of Dodger Poke helmet stickers this week. In his last performance, he came in the 2nd inning after Kyle Hurt had to leave due to injury and went 3, struck out 6, & had the riding 4 seam up in the zone paired with the slider combo working bigtime tonight. Malo hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 2 outings and 8 out of his last 10.
Watch Ramos hit the game-winner from Friday Night Jose Ramos: Ramos led the way offensively for the Loons Friday night with 2 hits that included a double and the game-winning hit! Here’s the winner!
Click to watch Fisher strike out the side with the bases loaded Braydon Fisher: Braydon Fisher had some competitive energy working Friday night. The situation in the video was 1 run lead, runner, at 3rd, no outs, and he struck out the side with 96 mph fastballs and 89 mph sliders. Well done and very clutch! has a habit of doing this stuff!
Watch Duensing put out a fire! Cole Duensing: Watch Cole Duensing come in and put out a fire! Duensing entered with runners at 1st & 2nd & no outs, then struck out the next 2. He went 2 scoreless striking out 4 & walking none in Friday night’s exciting win over 1st place Dayton.
Click to watch the slider of Antonio Knowles Antonio Knowles: Knowles has given up just 14 hits in 19.2 innings this year and has an ERA of just 2.75 for Great Lakes. I say it almost every time he pitches, but his slider is one of the best pitches in the organization. It needs a name!
He was absolutely,100%, totally, and entirely OUT! Lael Lockhart Jr.: Lockhart Jr. gave up 2 runs in the 4th inning of Friday night’s game, and the ball left the infield 1 time, in large part to this call that was 100% incorrect, which you can see by clicking the picture! Other than that, he went 5 and gave up just those 2 runs. Lockhart Jr. was kind enough to join Dodger Poke in the off-season, so click his name for his full feature that includes his interview linked at the top.
Watch Alcantara stay inside the baseball Ismael Alcantara: Ismael Alcantara had 2 hits Friday night in the 2nd game for the Loons and both hits were a clinic on how to stay inside the ball and not try and do too much. His 12-ounce cup was filled to the top!
Watch January go the other way for 2 hits Ryan January: January may be a cold month, but Ryan January is burning hot at the plate. In this week’s Dayton series, as of Friday, January was 4 for 6 with 2 home runs a double, 6 RBI, and 11 total bases. He’s raised his average by 29 points in this series! Dodger Poke featured January a few months ago, so click on his name for the full feature.
Click to watch Vivas get 3 hits on Thursday Jorbit Vivas: Vivas had 3 hits Thursday for the Loons. Vivas has a 6-game hit streak and has hits in 8 of his last 9 games, a stretch in which he is 11/31 with a home run, 7 RBI, and 16 total bases. Vivas is an explosive young player.
Watch Percival close the Dramatic win last Thursday Cole Percival: Watching Cole Percival in the closer role for the Loons has become must-watch TV. Percival ended the dramatic game on Thursday by throwing 2 innings in which he did not allow an earned run, and he has not allowed an earned run in his last 2, and 3 out of his last 4.
Watch Eddys Leonard get the game-winning hit last Thursday Eddys Leonard: Eddys Leonard had 2 hits in the first game of the Loons double header against Dayton on Thursday. Leonard had the game-winning hit in the 8th and also had his 17th double.
Click to watch Cartaya hit his 11th home run of the year Diego Cartaya: Diego Cartaya hit his 11th home run of the year for the Loons in the first game of the Double header Thursday. He has hits in 10 of his last 12 games and is hitting .263 with an OPS of .963 for the year.
Low A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes
Rancho didn’t have video again this week so we will just type up a review of the week. The Quakes went 4-2 at Stockton and are now 32-25 on the year and 2 games back of first-place Lake Elsinore.Damon Keith continues to lead the Quakes in batting Average at .306, slugging percentage at .513, OPS at .939, RBIs at 32, doubles at 13 and runs scored at 40. He is 2nd on the team in On-base percentage and 3rd on the team in triples with 3. Luis Diaz is tied with Damon Keith with the most amount of home runs with 7 and he also leads the team in stolen bases. Austin Gauthier leads the team in on-base percentage at .444.
Gaige Howard is 4 for his first 8 since being called up to Rancho and he had 2 hits in Saturday night’s game. Yunior Garcia had 3 more hits for the Quakes on Saturday night as well, has hits in 9 for his last 12, and is hitting .484 so far in June with an OPS of .1167. The dude is mashing! Jake Vogel might be the hottest hitter in the organization right now. He ended a 5-game hit streak Sunday which was a streak where he was 10 for 22 with 2 triples, a double, and 15 total bases. This kid has the ability to “disrupt” games as well as anyone in the organization. Austin Gauthier had 2 hits & was on base 3 times for Rancho on Friday. Gauthier is one of my favorite young hitters in the organization because of his approach and how short his swing is. He ended a 9-game hit streak on Sunday where he is 14/34, .412 with 2 triples and 22 total bases. Adolfo Ramirez continues to turn heads as he had another scoreless outing on Thursday which moved his era all the way down to 1.32 and his WHIP down to 1.02. He has had scoreless performances in 6 of his 8 outings so far this year.
The Quakes are home this week for a huge series with the Angels Low A affiliate, Inland Empire for a 6 games series. There will be no video, so, if you’re in the area make sure and get your tickets and go check out the Quakes.
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Jon Duplantier: Putting It All Together
@dodger_poke
Baseball is a sport that takes so much time and focus, it makes it easy to lose perspective on, well, just about everything other than trying to make it to the Big Leagues. The sport is consuming, and, although sometimes mundane and repetitive, it’s addictive, and it requires such a commitment that there are times when a player would seemingly do anything for a spot on a 26-man MLB roster. Those moments, many times, end up defining the end results of a player’s career, but they, every time, reveal a person’s true character. Jon Duplantier, a 6’4 pitcher in the Dodger’s organization, was taught at an early age the lessons of character and perspective and a sense of family by parents that helped define who he is, and the game of baseball has simply been a part of that, and probably, more accurately, just one of an infinite amount of successful results of it.Background
Duplantier grew up in Katy Texas and was a standout multi-sport star at Seven Lakes High School where he recorded 83 strikeouts on the mound as a Senior, a 1.60 ERA, and was the quarterback on the football team in an area of the world where High School football reigns supreme. All of those things are very impressive but are expected for someone who has made the Major Leagues and just scratches the surface as to how impressive his career actually was as a prep. He was also named first-team Academic all-state, had a 4.32 GPA on a 4.00 scale, and was a Member of the National Honors Society, all of which are far more impressive than anything he did on the diamond or gridiron, in my opinion. As successful as his High School career was on the diamond and gridiron, as he was deciding where to go to college, however, athletics weren’t the focus, academics and family were. After touring several of the most elite academic institutions in the United States, the Katy Texas native found a perfect fit with closeby Rice which offered close proximity to home, elite educational opportunities, and lastly, and only as icing on the cake, great baseball as well.
I never really thought about playing college sports. My family was always academic based and talked about going to school and taking care of our grades and going on and making a successful life. My best friend in High School ended up playing college football and he was like, hey, you could play college football too, and I was like really? So I started thinking about that and that was the first time we started thinking about college sports and so we went to the Ivy League schools, then Stanford and Rice and thought about that as the next route. Then we did that with baseball as well and, all in all, Rice ended up being a great fit because I had less injuries in baseball than I did in football. My dad and I took a month long football camp tour and went to all the Ivy League schools like Harvard and Princeton and I was gone from home for about a month and I remember missing mom so much, that I was like, I don’t want to do that. So, eventually the Rice offer lined up and I wanted to play baseball over football and Rice was only 30 minutes down the road so it was a “no brainer”, and that was before I even thought about how great their program and Coach Graham were. The program, the location, the academic standing of the school, and the fact that I had a buddy there made everything about Rice line up for me and my personality.Rice proved to be the perfect fit and the 6’4 right-hander flourished as an Owl and became an All-American and Conference USA Pitcher of the Year in 2016. He was 2nd in all of Division I in strikeouts, recorded the 6th highest amount of strikeouts for a single season at Rice, and was 8th in the nation in K’s/9 innings. As a result of his great career at Rice, the Arizona Diamondbacks drafted him in the 3rd round of the 2016 Draft and by 2019 he was in the Big Leagues.
Duplantier threw 36.2 innings for the D-Backs in May and June of 2019 and was off to a promising start to his MLB career, but that’s when the unfortunate injury bug got in the way. On June 12th he was sidelined with shoulder inflammation, then on July 7th was sent on a rehab assignment to Visalia and reassigned back to the Minor Leagues. Despite all of that misfortune, the tall Texan fought his way back and was eventually recalled in August of that year, but, then, after being optioned and recalled 3 times between then and August of 2021, he, unfortunately, had to fight injury until he eventually chose free agency and signed with the Giants in December of 2021. While with the Giants he was subjected to the Rule 5 Draft, the Dodgers drafted him and now he is thriving in the best developmental system in the game. When asked what he is trying to get out of his AAA stint in OKC, this is what he had to say:The first goal is good health. The majority of my career right now has been plagued with injuries, so being with the Dodgers and being in OKC, the #1 goal for me is to stay healthy and show up everyday and be available, and whenever my name gets called go get outs for my team. The next goal is getting back to learning how to pitch and moving the ball in and out and tunneling my pitches off of each other and reading swings. Another thing is how to be a professional and how to show up to the field everyday, because when you’ve been spending so much time in rehab you kind of forget that. Things like getting used to Hotel living again and the travel and being in cities and how to navigate that and seeing your buddies that play for other teams is just all part of getting re acclimated to the everyday mundane sense of professional baseball
Feature Cut
Duplantier is a big right-hander that sits in the 92-94 range with his fastball, and features a ++ slider, a big curveball, and a very smooth “over top” arm action. His fastball has a good “ride” factor to it at the top of the zone, good carry at the bottom of the zone, his slider is tight and his curveball falls off the table. He is using his time in AAA OKC to put all of those pieces together to tunnel and sequence off of each other and he is doing a good job of it.
Fastball At 6’4, Duplantier is very angular so, he is able to get a lot of “ride” on his fastball where the pitch gives the appearance that it is rising to a hitter when he throws it up in the zone. But, he also gets great “carry” to it at the bottom of the zone as well. When he’s hitting the bottom of the zone with his 92-94 mph fastball, his ball has a lot of vertical drop, so, to a hitter, balls at the bottom of the zone appear as if they will continue to drop out of the zone, but, because of the good “carry” he gets on the pitch, it stays in the zone. He also is extremely good at hitting the 4 slot which is down and away to righties to his “glove-side.” Everything Duplantier does revolves around him throwing strikes and setting “tunnel” locations with his fastball that he uses with his breaking balls. The following video shows all these processes in action, so give it a look and you can see it for yourself.
Secondaries
Duplantier has some really good secondary stuff. His slider is tight, his curveball seems to fall out of the sky, and he is learning to trust his changeup more and thinks it will eventually be his best secondary pitch. In this video you’ll see three tremendous breaking balls in a row, 2 tights sliders and a change up with good fade and tumble.
Here’s an example of one of the reasons why Duplantier thinks that, despite having such a good breaking ball, his change-up will end up being his best secondary pitch. In the first frame, you will see side-by-side pitches with the one on the left being a change-up and the one on the right being a fastball. Notice that they come out of the same “tunnel” meaning they have the same starting point for the hitter when they are trying to figure out the speed, location, and the corresponding movement the pitch will have. So, not only does the change-up look identical coming out of his hand as his fastball does, but it also stays in the same tunnel until the hitter has already committed. As a result, in the videos following, you’ll see the hitter get jammed pretty severely because he is fooled by the speed and location of the pitch.
Next Up
Jon Duplantier is a very talented, smart, hard-working 27-year-old who is trying to get everything put back together at the AAA level. As you’ve seen in the videos, his stuff is plenty good for the MLB, his work process is elite, his clubhouse manner is first class, and he’s in an organization that will max out his potential. As long as he stays healthy and continues to put all of his pieces together the odds are favoring that he will find his way back to the MLB, and maybe sooner rather than later. Good luck Jon, it was a pleasure getting to meet you, it was an even bigger pleasure getting to talk with you, and, honestly, I hope I never get the chance to do it again in OKC, because that would mean you made your way back to L.A.
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Dodgers Down On the Farm 6-5-22
AAA OKC Dodgers
The OKC Dodgers just completed a 4-2 week in their 6-game series down in Round Rock and enter the league-wide off day in sole possession of 1st place in the Pacific Coast East. Zach McKinstry, Kevin Pillar, and Eddy Alvarez were the team leaders in batting average, but all got promoted this week and so now Miguel Vargas is back in familiar territory by leading the team in hitting with a .289 average. Jake Lamb leads the team in home runs, RBIs, and OPS with 12 homers, 36 RBI, and an OPS of 1.034. For more stats click the following link (Link to Official Stats Page of the OKC Dodgers.
Watch Lamb and Vargas go Back to Back! Back to Back Homers: Miguel Vargas and Jake Lamb just went Back-to-Back on Friday and they were both no-doubters. Lamb had 2 hits, and, at that time, had a 3 game hit streak and had his OPS up to .865. Vargas is hitting .289 with a .874 OPS and has a 5 game hit streak.
Pitchers:
Click to see Heaney in action Saturday night Andrew Heaney: Heaney started Saturday night for OKC in Round Rock on a Rehab assignment and had a successful start. Click the picture on the left for a good look at Andrew Heaney’s stuff Saturday night for OKC He went 3 innings, had 5 K’s, no walks, and gave up 1 earned run.
Click to see the sweeping slider of Cleavinger Garrett Cleavinger: Cleavinger doesn’t have much left to prove in AAA as he put up another 0 Friday night and hasn’t allowed an earned run since May 8th which spans 7 outings and 9 innings. He’s only allowed an earned run in 2 of his 11 appearances and has his ERA down to 1.74. He has hit 97 with the fastball as well.
Watch Kasowski’s 94 MPH fastball Marshall Kasowski: Kasowski is a name Dodgers to become familiar with. Kasowski threw up another 0 Friday, & that marks 10 out of his last 11 where he hasn’t allowed an earned run. He’s allowed just 1 earned run in his last 15 innings. He was 94 paired with the big changeup.
Click to watch Fulmer in action during his 4th save Carson Fulmer: Fulmer continues to be very good for OKC and threw 1.2 scoreless Thursday night in Round Rock and collected his 4th save Sunday. His ERA is now 2.35 and that includes a stretch where he didn’t allow an earned run in 11 consecutive outings.
Click to watch Pepiot in action Ryan Pepiot: went 4.2 and gave up 1 earned run in his outing on Thursday. He was 2 outs away from qualifying for a win in his last MLB outing, and 1 out away tonight. Here’s how his stuff looked!
Click to watch the “Greg Maddux” type change-up. Andre Jackson: Jackson had his 2nd really good performance in a row on Thursday. His “Greg Maddux” type change-up was 100% on point to pair with a good riding fastball. Jackson went 6, and gave up just 1 earned run.
Click to watch Washington in action Mark Washington: 4 Seam Fastballs riding up in the zone, 4 slot fastballs to the glove side, then the slider, and watch the slider to end the inning! Mark Washington continues to be video game good with a 1.07 ERA, a 0.75 WHIP, & a lot of confidence and swagger. He has yet to allow a run since being moved up to AAA OKC.
Click to see Burrows in action Beau Burrows: Burrows had 2 great outings this week in Round Rock. In fact, the 2 outings were his best since his first outing on April 8th. Burrows went 5.2, struck out 8, and only walked 2 on last Tuesday, then backed that up with a 5 inning performance on Sunday in which he gave up just 1 run and had 5 strikeouts and only 3 walks.
Infielders:
Click to view the McKinstry Full Feature Zach McKinstry: Congratulations to Zach McKinstry for getting promoted to LA, it was overdue. McKinstry was just the model of class and consistency in OKC and is very easy to root for. He left OKC hitting .338 with an OPS of .888. He played mainly shortstop in AAA but surely will be given the super-utility role with the big club. Good luck Zach and I hope to never see you again in OKC!
Click to watch Alvarez walk it off! Eddy Alvarez: Congrats to Eddy Alvarez for getting promoted to LA, it was well deserved. The 32-year-old Olympic medalist left OKC hitting .304 with an OPS of .930 and has provided good leadership in the clubhouse, so he has been a great addition to the depth of the organization.
Watch Muncy with OKC Max Muncy: Muncy has started his rehab with OKC and has had some typical at-bats where he has worked the count and hit some balls hard but is just 1 for 6 so far.
Watch Burns 7th Home Run! Andy Burns: Burns is another one of the fringy type AAAA guys on the OKC roster who could provide some relief at the Major League level if called up. He plays a good third base and carries a pretty good hit tool with him. He just recently hit his 7th homer of the year so click the picture to the left and take a look at it.
Watch Miguel Vargas hit his 7th Home Run on the year. Miguel Vargas; With the promotions of Eddy Alvarez, Zach McKinstry, and Kevin Pillar, Vargas now leads OKC on average at .289. He and Jake Lamb just went Back-to-Back Saturday night and they were both no-doubters. Vargas also has an OPS of .873 and has improved his defense dramatically at 3rd base.
Watch Jake Lamb’s 12th Home Run Jake Lamb: leads OKC in home runs with 36 and in OPS at .891. He had 2 hits Friday night and now has hits in 4 of his last 5 games.
Watch Busch get 2 Hits Michael Busch: Michael Busch has 2 hits on Friday night including his last which was a 2 run single that gave OKC the lead! Busch is in a bit of a rough patch now as he is hitting just .203 with OKC, but, that is certainly nothing to be concerned with as, like all hitters, he’s had rough patches before and bounced right back.
Outfielders:
Click to Watch Avans hit Home Runs! Drew Avans: Drew Avans has had quite a weekend. Friday night he had 2 hits, including a double, an RBI a couple of stolen bases, and 2 Total bases. He backed that up Saturday by going 3-4 with a home run, an RBI, and 6 total bases.
Watch Noda get 4 hits in 1 game Ryan Noda: Noda is also a 1st baseman by trade, so he could be listed as both an infielder or an outfielder. Ryan Noda had a 4-hit night last Tuesday & had a base hit to every field and 2 opposite-field hits. Noda led AA Central last year in home runs but is much more than just power, he’s also a very skilled hitter. His oppo % is 38.5% which is 6 points higher than his pull rate!
Catchers:
Watch Tony Wolters have a big night for OKC Tony Wolters: Wolters is another guy that brings MLB experience to OKC and had a huge night Friday with 3 hits & 3 RBIs, which came with 2 outs and 3 total bases. At that time, Wolters had a 3 game hit streak in which he is 6 for his last 10.
AA Tulsa Drillers
The Drillers lost 3 out of the 4 games they played this week and didn’t get to play Saturday or Sunday due to health concerns and protocols with San Antonio. They are 28-20 and in 2nd place int the Texas League behind Wichita who has a 1.5-game lead. James Outman leads the team in batting average at .296, and OPS at .994. Ryan Ward leads the club in Home Runs with 13 and RBIs with 34 and is tied with Johnny DeLuca of Great Lakes as the organization’s leaders in homers both with 13. For more stats click the following link (Link to Official Stats Page of the Tulsa Drillers).
Watch the Drillers Get 5 Straight Hits! 5 Straight Hits: Tulsa had 5 straight hits in their last game on Friday and scored 5 in the top of 5. Valera legged out an infield base hit, Outman doubled for his 2nd hit of the game, Amaya fisted one to right and Mann smoked one down the right-field line. Here’s how it looked.
James Outman Throws Out a Runner at the Plate! You Are Out Man! James Outman had 2 hits, including his 12th home run, & this assist from left field in Thursday’s game! His avg.m, at that time, was up to .290/OPS almost .950, & 4 game hit streak.
Pitchers:
Watch Bobby Miller during his last outing Bobby Miller: Bobby Miller had a very good outing Friday night as he went 5.2 innings & is left with a runner on 1st. He gave up 2 earned runs on 4 strikeouts and 3 walks. He threw 87 pitches and 55 for strikes. Here’s how his stuff looked.
Watch Robertson Throw a Scoreless Inning Nick Robertson: Robertson had another scoreless inning Thursday, which, at that time, made 4 out of his last 5 where he hadn’t allowed a run.
Click to see the Ochsenbein Split Finger Aaron Ochsenbein: Aaron Ochsenbein has a unique motion, a unique pitch with his split-finger, late tailing life on his fastball, a good cutting slider, and he can ride the 4 seam fastball up in the zone. He went 1 scoreless in his last outing Wednesday which makes 9 out of 10 on the year.
Click to watch Leasure in his last outing Jordan Leasure: Hard in, Soft Away…It’s like buying your wife flowers, it always works! Click on the picture to watch Leasure execute that game plan to a tee in his 1 inning of scoreless work. Leasure has not allowed an earned run in his last 3 outings and 5 of his last 6.
Watch Gamboa in his last outing Alec Gamboa: Alec Gamboa was really good, as usual, on Wednesday night. He was sinking the ball, sawing hitters off, and the backfoot slider was on point. See for yourself! Gamboa threw 2.2 scoreless innings.
Watch Varland in Action Gus Varland: Gus Varland showed some grit and a lot of stuff tonight as the calendar flipped to June. He was on point Thursday with his good fastball, slider, and always confident swagger. Well done excited to watch him get rollin’!
Infielders:
Watch Mann in Action! Devin Mann: Mann had 2 hits Thursday night for the Drillers. He hit .300 in May and is 3 for 7 so far in June, and is near the top of several categories statistically on one of the most talented teams in all of the Minor Leagues.
Watch Amaya in Action! Jacob Amaya: Amaya has slowed down some from his torrid start but had 2 hits Thursday night for the Drillers and is hitting .277 with an OPS of .934.
Watch Hoese Hit a Home Run! Kody Hoese: Hoese is on the IL currently with a leg issue which is too bad because he had been extremely hot. He hit .333 in May with an OPS of .876 and was playing a very good 3rd base.
Outfielders:
Watch James Outman hit a home run and throw a runner out at the plate James Outman: James Outman hit his 13th home run on Friday which ties him with Johnny DeLuca & Ryan Ward for the organizational lead. He has home runs in consecutive games for the 2nd time this year and has his OPS up to .967. Can’t wait to watch him in OKC!
Watch Ryan Ward Double Ryan Ward: Ward is tied for the organizational lead in home runs with 13 and is hitting .250 with an OPS of .804. I love this young prospect’s energy and hit tool.
Catchers:
Watch Betts Get a Base Hit Chris Betts: Betts is a former 2nd Round Draft Pick that left the game and is back with the Drillers. He provides quality depth to a position that requires depth and is one of the most well-liked members of the team, so he has brought a lot of value to the organization.
Watch Feduccia Get a Hit! Hunter Feduccia: Hunter Feduccia had another 2 hits Thursday night for the Drillers, and has his average up to .266 and his OPS at .909. Feduccia just does his job every night and is a really, really good player!
Click for the Full Feature Carson Taylor: Taylor is a very promising young catcher who has made big strides defensively this year, but is known for his offense. Taylor is a switch hitter that has always hit the ball very well and calls a great game behind the plate.
High A Great Lakes:
The Great Lakes Loons split their 6-game series with Fort Wayne over the past week and now have a record of 28-23 and are 7.5 games behind Dayton in the Midwest League.Diego Cartaya has hit .417 since his promotion and Juan Zabala hit .444 before he was placed on the Developmental list. Alex DeJesus has hit .273 since he got called up, but, from the regulars who have been with the Loons for the entire year, Imanol Vargas, who has been their best offensive player in the last month, has the highest average and leads the team in OPS as well at .889. Johnny DeLuca leads the team in Home Runs with 13, which is tied for the organization’s lead in homers. The Loons have a huge 6 game series this week with Dayton who is in 1st place in the Midwest League and 7.5 games ahead of Great Lakes. For more stats click the following link (Official Stats Page of the Loons Link.)
Watch the Loons get 6 hits to the opposite field or middle Great Lakes Offensive Approach: The Loons use the middle to the opposite field as good as any team I’ve seen. For example, in a game this past week, 6 of their 9 NON-home run hits, as seen in the video, were center or oppo. They have a great approach and it is a job well done for all those that continue to make this happen! If I’ve noticed it, you have to know many, many others have as well.
Pitchers:
Watch Action from the Last Inning of Hurt’s No-Hitter! Kyle Hurt: Hurt bounced back from his loss Tuesday in the first game of the series by throwing a no-hitter in a shortened game on Sunday. Hurt is a big, hard-throwing right-handed pitcher out of USC who was drafted in the 5th Round of the 2020 draft which was just 5 rounds. Click the picture on the left to see action from the last inning pitch by pitch.
Click to see action from Malisheski’s last outing Kevin Malisheski: Job well done to hold down the 9th by Wauconda, Wauconda, IL native Kevin Malisheski on Saturday night. Malisheski has a batting average against of just .167.
Watch Lockhart Jr. in his action Saturday Lael Lockhart Jr.: Lockhart Jr. had a great outing his last time out on Saturday. The former Hog went 5, struck out 4, walked just 1, & gave up just 1 earned run.
Watch Peto in Action from Last Thursday Robbie Peto: Peto has such great versatility as he can be anything from a starter, to an opener, to a chuck inning middle relief guy, to high leverage back inning reliever He went 4 scoreless on Thursday and has his ERA down to 2.57.
What a Pick By Perc! Cole Percival: Percival came in out of the pen on Thursday for the first time this year and needed just 2 pitches to get the job done. Percival is having a great year with a 2.97 ERA and a WHIP of just 1.38.
Watch Casparius In Action! Ben Casparius: Ben Casparius gave up a tough-luck run in the 1st inning of his debut with High A Great Lakes. The leadoff man hit one in the Bermuda triangle, then, with the infield drawn in a ground ball got through that would have been routine at normal depth. Check out his changeup though, that PxP calls “dead-fish”.
Ryan Sublette Has Good Outing! Ryan Sublette: Ryan Sublette picked up his 3rd save for the Loons on Wednesday. He was 93-95 on the fastball, 83 on the slider, and 79-80 on the change-up, all from his side slot. Sublette has not allowed an earned run in his last 5 outings and has his ERA down to 2.86!
Watch the Split Finger! Kendall Williams: Williams was 91-93 on the fastball and had the split finger really tumbling is his last performance on Wednesday for Great Lakes. He went 6.0 innings, which is his longest outing of the year, and gave up just 1 earned while striking out 3. Take a look at his split-finger for yourself.
Click to see Fisher in Action Braydon Fisher: Braydon Fisher threw up a 0 in his 2 innings of work for the Loons on Wednesday and was 93 consistently on the fastball. Watch the tumble he gets on his changeup. Fisher put up 0’s in his last 3 outings in April and 6 of 8 in May.
Infielders:
Watch Imanol Vargas hit one out! Imanol Vargas: On May 12th, Vargas was hitting .182 w/OPS of .574. Since then he is 21/57 & has increased his OPS to .889. He leads the Midwest League in OBP of the players who have been in High A for the entire year.
Jorbit Vivas hits a 2 run homer! Jorbit Vivas: Jorbit Vivas has a 3 game hit streak and has hits in 4 of his last 5 games. The left-handed-hitting infielder has multiple hits in 4 of his last 8 games, and after getting off to a slow start in April, he has rebounded & has his average to .262 on the year.
Alex DeJesus: Welcome to Great Lakes Alex De Jesus. De Jesus was just recently promoted up to High A and hit a mammoth homerun in his first game with the Loons and is 6 for 22 since joining the club. I love how quiet his swing is so take a look for yourself by clicking the picture on the left.!
Eddys Leonard: Eddys Leonard is one of the top prospects in the Dodgers organization and has hits in 4 of his last 5 games. He hit .290 and had 10 multiple-hit games in May to pair with an OPS of .895, so he is starting to heat up.
Nasiatka on Hewitt Max Hewitt: I am biased when it comes to Max Hewitt because I got to see his entire college career at Oklahoma State and I’ve never developed more respect for a player than him. I am so happy that he is getting his chance because that’s all he’ll need because he’ll do the rest.
Outfielders:
Watch Mateo in Action! Edwin Mateo: Edwin Mateo had a huge game on Saturday in the Loons loss with 3 hits and 4 total bases. At that time, Mateo was 4-8 in the 2 games he had played in May, and that game marked Mateo’s 3rd 3 hit game of the season so take a look for yourself!
Watch Jose Ramos in Action! Jose Ramos: Jose Ramos just hit 2 Homers in Saturday’s game for the Loons and it was his10th of the year. His OPS is approaching .850.
Watch the Loons score Multiple Runs Johnny DeLuca: DeLuca is tied for the organizational lead in home runs with 13. The Oregon alum is also a very good athlete and plays very good defense.
Catchers:
Diego Cartaya: The Dodger’s #1 prospect, Diego Cartaya, hit his 9th homer of the year on Saturday and it was a blast. He now has an 8-game hit streak and is 12/-25 during that streak. Here it is so Enjoy!
Juan Zabala: Zabala got traded to the Padres, and the interesting aspect of that Great Lakes was playing the High A affiliate of the Padres when the trade took place. So, Zabala went in Saturday night to say goodbye to his teammates and coaches, then went into the other clubhouse and was in the other dugout for the Sunday game. Listen to Dylan Nasiatka tell the story by clicking the picture on the left.Low A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes: The Quakes didn’t have a video feed of their games again this week, so we’ll just summarize their week without the use of video. The Quakes split their 5 games series with Lake Elsinore this past week and are still behind the Storm by 2 games in the California League standings. Damon Keith still leads the team in batting average at .312, OPS at .941, RBIs with 27 and is tied with Luis Diaz in home runs at 6. Keith is quite a young player out of Cal Baptist, and he has a big arm too.Jerming Rosario posted an ERA of just 1.86 in May and threw well in his first outing in June as well putting up a 0 in his 4.2 innings of work. Austin Gauthier how has a 5 game hit streak for the Quakes. Gauthier is a tremendous young hitter out of Hofstra who is very short to the ball and loves to use the middle of the field. Jake Vogel is one of the fastest young prospects in the organization and is starting to play good offense. He has hits in 6 of his last 8 games. Kenneth Betancourt recently snapped a 3-game hit streak and has hits in 4 out of his last 5 games, and is 6 for 16 during that streak.
One of the better sequences of the week for the Quakes came in Friday’s game when Yunior Garcia singled, Jake Vogel knocked him in with a single of his own, then Kenneth Betancourt finished off the 2-run frame w/an RBI double that scored Vogel. Austin Gauthier then led the bottom of 6 off with a double and Quakes took the lead. Adolfo Ramirez had a great outing for Rancho Cucamonga on Friday. Ramirez is from Mexico and has a 2.25 ERA on the year, and went 3 innings and struck 7 while walking none in his last performance.
Jake Vogel and Kenneth Betancourt had 2 hits a piece in last Wednesday’s game, and Austin Gauthier and Damon Keith each had doubles. It was Keith’s team-leading 12th. Luis Diaz had a hit in every game of the series against Visalia, and he has hits in 10 of his last 13 games and is 16/51 during that time. Infielder Julio Carrion in Tuesday’s game, and, at the time, had hits in 6 of his last 7 and was 9 for his last 25, .360, with 3 home runs. He followed that up on Wednesday with a home run and 6 total bases.
