Robbie Peto is a 6’4 pitching prospect in the Dodgers organization that has always stood above the pack on the baseball diamond, but the qualities that stand out the most about the tall Right-Handed pitcher have nothing to do with throwing a baseball. Peto comes from baseball bloodlines and has learned how to become a leader, as evidenced by his Bio on the Stetson Hatters baseball site, his alma mater, where the first thing you see is “Team Captain”. His grandpa played as high as AAA with the Yankees and his dad played College Baseball at Rutgers, so he has learned how to approach the game, both on and off the field, from people who have done it, and now is adding his own career to his great family bloodlines of baseball.

History

Peto grew up in the New Brunswick area in New Jersey and went to High School at Monroe Township where he had a record-setting career. As a Falcon, the 6’4 hurler became the school’s all-time winningest pitcher, was a 3-time all-state selection and was a 2016 Perfect Game 2nd team All-American. He was also the #24 ranked pitcher in Prep baseball’s national coverage area and was ranked as the #2 Right-handed pitcher and the #4 overall player coming out of New Jersey in 2016.

My High School career is still something I look back on ’til today and I miss playing with those guys because, fortunately for me, most of the guys I played with in High School were the same close knit group of guys that I grew up playing with. So I made life long friends and having a good program at Monroe made it awesome to take the field everyday with the guys that I still consider my brothers to this day, so that was awesome and still something I think about to this day.

Tar Heel

With a mountain of success and elite bloodlines on his resume, the angular New Jersey native was highly sought after and committed to North Carolina, a College Baseball powerhouse before being drafted in the 30th round of the 2016 MLB draft by the Angels. Peto’s family were UNC fans and his Uncle had worked on the Dean Smith show when he was a kid, so the younger Peto had connections to the Tar Heels and eventually decided to turn down the offer from the Angels and make Chapel Hill his home.

When I was really young, or maybe before I was even born, my uncle worked for the Dean Smith radio show so I had that connection and a lot of my family grew up rooting for UNC so that was my dream school so when I got that offer it was an easy decision for me to commit. Before that I ended up getting drafted after my Senior year but I didn’t think that I was ready mentally or physically for the Pro ball level at the time and it just seemed to me that going to college and getting my degree would be something that would benefit me and hopefully I would still have the chance to play professionally after College.                                                                                      

Collegiate Career

Peto redshirted his first year on campus in 2017 at North Carolina, then decided to transfer to the State College of Florida, a JUCO powerhouse, for his Redshirt Freshman year. The State College of Florida has 10 JUCO World Series appearances, has produced 31 Major Leaguers, has sent 476 players to four-year Colleges and Universities, and has also sent 260 players to professional baseball, one of which is High A Great Lakes manager Austin Chubb back when the College was known as Manatee Community College. After throwing 41.1 innings for the Manatees, Peto then decided to stay in the Sunshine State and transferred to Stetson University for his Redshirt Sophomore and Redshirt Junior years.

Logan Gilbert had just been taken in the 1st Round and I had looked into the program a lot and Stetson pretty much told me they were looking for someone to come in  and replace Gilbert and be the guy for them. So I could easily tell that they wanted me there and they wanted me to pitch and help them out so seeing a team invest in me like that was big for me and it made my decision pretty easy.

Stetson

As a Redshirt Sophomore in 2019, Peto started 15 games on the mound for the Hatters and allowed 2 runs or less in 10 of those outings, was part of a combined no-hitter against Florida State, and got drafted again following that season. Tampa Bay drafted the hard-throwing Hatter in the 26th Round, but with 2 years left of eligibility, he once again turned down the offer to turn pro and decided to return to Stetson.

As a Redshirt Junior Peto became a Team Captain in 2020 and had 4 great starts including his last start where he out-dueled Ohio States star pitcher Seth Lonsway. But, just as he was off to a great start, the 2020 College baseball season was canceled and that’s when Peto finally decided to turn Pro. Although he did not get drafted, it is important to understand that the 2020 draft was reduced to just 5 rounds, so a lot of great prospects, like Peto, signed undrafted Free Agent deals when, in every other year, they would have been drafted. In fact, Billy Gasparino, director of scouting for the Dodgers, has been on record as saying that if the draft had been extended to normal lengths that Peto would have been drafted in the next 3 or 4 rounds. So, although on the surface it appeared that he down-graded by going back to school, that is absolutely not the case. As anecdotal evidence, his teammate at Stetson, Mitchell Senger, was also drafted in the 26th round, but in the 2019 Draft and Peto signed for just $5000 less than Senger did. As a trade-off, Peto got to choose his organization and got an extra year of College at Stetson paid for which is worth $70,000 so the math shows that he made the right decision by waiting until he did. And, by signing with the Dodgers who have the best developmental system in the League, his decision could have long-term net positive results that are quite substantial.

When Covid happened I didn’t really know what was going to happen. At first they were saying the draft was going to be 10 rounds and when I heard that I thought that I should be safe to get picked so I was feeling okay with that but when they said it was going to be 5 rounds I knew I would be on the grasp of the 5th or 6th Round so the draft was a pretty tense couple of hours for me. I got some calls but ultimately didn’t get picked and there was a 3 day waiting period before teams could sign free agents and I knew at that time it was now or never for me to go pro and that I couldn’t turn it down again. There were a bunch of reasons why I wanted to sign with the Dodgers because compared to all the other teams I had talked to they had all these plans layed out and they showed me all the ways they invest in their players and it’s pretty easy to tell why they’re so successful and it starts down here on the Minor League level. So it felt like the right fit for me and I knew they were the best organization and why not go with the organization that has the most success at developing players year in and year out, so choosing the Dodgers became easy for me.

Dodgers

Although signing with the Dodgers was an unbelievably exciting moment in and of itself, signing on the dotted line had extra significance for Peto. Peto became close friends with Zach Attianese while as a Freshman in High School and they went to both UNC and State College of Florida together and both shared the same dream of playing in the Major Leagues. In fact, the Dodgers had shown interest in Attianese while the 2 were playing baseball for the Manatees, but after committing to play for Florida State, Attianese and his father were killed in a six-vehicle car crash on I-75 in Michigan. In honor of Attianese, Peto waited until the 2 year anniversary of Attianese’s death to sign with the Dodgers.

There was a lot of scentiment in me signing with the Dodgers and that played a huge role. Zach lived in the town over from me and I met him after my freshman year of High School when we were playing in an All-Star game together. He was like the top rated pitcher after his Freshman year in High School and he was already committed to UNC. UNC didn’t really work out for either of us and while I was at State College I told the coaches about him and he ended up there. We were best friends, and he committed to Florida State, but then that Summer he and his dad were driving to a funeral and they were killed in an accident. That was tough for me and I decided to wear his number and I wear a chain with his number on it and I write something on the mound every time I pitch so he holds a special place in my heart and I know he’s always with me.

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Peto features a fastball that sits at 94-95, seems to jump out of his hand, and has a great “riding” effect up in the zone. He pairs that with a ++ Changeup that he can get to move in different ways and a breaking ball that I call a “slurve”, meaning it is in between a curveball and a slider. Here is a video of several fastballs up in the zone to give you a good visual as to the amount of “ride” he gets in the pitch up in the zone.

Peto pairs that fastball with a changeup that he pulls the string on, then also induces tumble and a lot of fade

Peto also has a breaking ball that has both “slider” action on some pitches, then more true 12-6 “curveball” action on others. He throws it in the high 70’s to low 80’s, so it gives him a big differential off of his fastball.

Finishing Up

Peto is flying a touch “under the radar” in my opinion, just simply due to the fact that he was not drafted, But, don’t let that fool you because, again, it happened in 2020 a year that only had 5 rounds and in every other year he would have been a 7th or 8th Round draft pick. 2021 was his first season to pitch as a professional and he spent the entire season with Low A Rancho Cucamonga where he threw 70.2 innings in 20 appearances, so, at 23 years old, it could be assumed that he will break 2022 with High A Great Lakes, then likely get moved to AA Tulsa towards the end of the season. He is another pitching prospect that fits perfectly into the Dodgers system because he has a tall frame, a big fastball, a tumbling, and fading changeup, and a “slider” type pitch.  He is able to move the ball in every different direction as his fastball gives the perception that the ball is rising, his changeup gives him tumble and arm-side fade, and his breaking ball gives him glove side break. With the bloodline he was born into and the type of character he has developed, he will give himself every chance to maximize his tools and those tools are already pretty advanced, so he has an exciting future ahead.

Deep in the heart of Texas, just South of Houston is a place called Friendswood, a town in the Lone Star State that offers entertainment and fun that seemingly has no end. Trips to Galveston beach, Amusement parks, the Space Station, or the boardwalk are common, and although all of the area’s attractions are attractive, Lael Lockhart Jr., a left-handed pitching prospect in the Dodgers organization, became most attracted to baseball.

History

Lockhart Jr. graduated from Friendswood High School and had a wildly successful prep career where he earned All-State Honors as a 2-way player, was district MVP, and was elected to the Texas All-Star team. He was also voted as the Galveston County MVP, was part of the Perfect Game Texahoma Region Dream team, and was voted as a Texas Sports Connection Top 50 player after he hit .590 as a Senior and went 6-0 with a 1.26 ERA as a pitcher.

Lockhart led the Mustangs to 4 straight Playoff appearances, a District championship, and won the U.S. Marine distinguished Athlete Award for off the field excellence.  Needless to say, he had plenty of options in terms of where he could have went to College, but eventually chose to stay close to home and play for Houston where several of his travel ball friends were going as well.

High School was a blast and it was kind of crazy because when I was a kid there was a group right before me that got really close to winning a championship, and it was really cool to look up to those guys and see them get that close and my family and I always thought it would be really cool if we could win that Championship when I played. I played on a travel ball team down in Houston and a lot of us ended up committing to Houston. In my mind I had several choices but I knew the kind of caliber guys that were going to Houston and so I thought it would be a blast to keep playing with good friends of mine.

As a freshman at Houston, the 6’3 lefty was a position player and had a good year and helped the Cougars win both the regular season and conference titles in the American Conference. As he entered his Sophomore year in 2018 he had a lot of momentum and had a great year both on the mound and as a position player, and that propelled him into the spotlight as he entered his Junior year as the #17 preseason draft prospect in the American Conference.

I came into Houston as a 2 way player and Frank Anderson and I had a talk and we decided to put pitching on the backburner for my Freshman year because we had guys that were throwing harder and were very good, so our pitching staff was just loaded. I didn’t want to Redshirt or take a year off and I had a really good fall and then Opening day I was in the lineup and so that’s just kind of how it went. Then, in my Sophomore year, I came back to pitching and started throwing a little bit more, and, at the same time, we had a new pitching coach come in, Terry Rooney, and he taught me how to be a professional in everything I did and how to develop a routine. He took me from the very bottom of the foundation and built it back up and so I am forever thankful for him for that.

After a good Junior year in which he was a very effective 2-way player, Lockhart Jr.’s Senior year was cut short due to Covid, and after finding out the news that College players would be getting that year back, the Friendswood native entered the Transfer portal and ended up at Arkansas, a national powerhouse in college baseball. As a Senior with the Razorbacks, the left-handed Texas native made a team-high 14 starts and helped the Hogs win the SEC title in a season in which they were ranked #1 for much of the year.

Coming into my Junior year I worked my way into the Friday Night job and then Senior year comes around with Covid and the team started out hot, and while we were out in UNLV our coach called a team meeting in the breakfast room and told us we were canceling the day and we all knew what was going on with all of the Covid stuff. We got back to Houston and got the news about Covid, then on the day they were going to decide whether we got the year back or not I was out playing golf with some buddies. I was thinking that if they counted it as a full year I was done and hoped I had enough on my resume to get drafted, so I was stressed. Me and my buddies were playing the easiest hole on the Golf Course when we got the news that we were getting the year back and we were so excited all 3 of us hit our shots straight in the water. We were like, we’re just going to chalk it up and bring it back to the clubhouse, so it was the best-worst hole I ever played.

Lockhart Jr. had a great experience at Arkansas and is very thankful for all of the opportunities he was given as a Razorback. The fans at Arkansas are great, and so are the facilities, and the Arkansas baseball program has all the modern-day technology that makes analytics available to their players. Lockhart Jr. was introduced to his pitching profile from a metrics standpoint and really started to understand what makes him good as a pitcher and, as a result, learned to maximize his ability.

Arkansas was an absolute blast. I grew up a diehard LSU fan though, so once I went into the portal my family was all for LSU.

With a light-hearted chuckle, Lockhart Jr. added

But I was like, hey, I’ve got all these other schools, and my dad was in my corner on that so I ended up talking to a bunch of schools. I put my name in the Portal, and on Friday night an academic advisor told me I might get some phone calls on Monday, so I thought I had the weekend to decompress. Well, Saturday morning my phone starts blowing up and it was kind of a whirlwind that I wasn’t expecting but it was really cool to see interest from a bunch of schools. I narrowed it down to Arkansas, Louisville and Texas Tech and then had some conversations with some people that I really trusted and they told me that if I wanted to develop as much as I possibly could in 1 year and have an incredible College baseball experience that Arkansas is a great place. So I chose Arkansas and Matt Hobbs sold me on the analytics and getting to work with him one on one was something that I’m always going to be grateful for that he and Dave Van Horn and the rest of the coaches invested in me when they knew I only had 1 year and so I got the most out of it as I could. When I heard my name called in the draft I knew it all payed off so it was an awesome experience all the way around.

Next Step

After a very successful college career in which the left-handed Lockhart Jr. shined in the spotlight, the Dodgers drafted him in the 9th Round of the 2021 draft. The tall lefty spent all but 1 start in High A Great Lakes and posted a 3.95 ERA and had almost 4 times as many strikeouts as he did walks in his 13.2 innings. Lockhart Jr. is not an over powering pitcher but has a great understanding of the type of pitcher he is and knows what makes him good.

I was never an over-powering guy, so I really had to learn how to pitch, and a lot of that goes back to Terry Rooney and the foundation he built with me. When the velo started increasing I started being able to get away with a little more so that helped, and, for me, the curveball is a big strike 1 pitch when I start to pitch guys backwards, or just as a freeze pitch in general. The slider has kind of been my out pitch and I just let that pitch “rip” and aim down the middle and let the action take over and let the grip do its thing, so it’s been really lucky for me to have those 2 pitches.

Since becoming a professional I have started hammering more 4 seams to work up in the zone. and I’ve tried to throw a true “fading” changeup but I could never get the feel for that pitch off of a mound, so I’ve gone back to my splitter that I threw a lot in High School and I still have the slider and curveball.

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Lockhart’s fastball sits 91-95 but has a much higher effective velocity because he sets it up with his off-speed pitches, and hides the ball so well with his delivery.

Through location, changing speeds, and hiding the ball very well with his delivery, Lockhart recorded close to a 4:1 strikeout to walk ratio. Here is a sequence of fastballs that shows how he is able to use location to set up hitters and make it a swing and miss pitch.

Lockhart has gone back to throwing his split finger and the spin, tumble and fade of the pitch provides the profile he is looking for in his changeup.  It also gives him another option to induce swing and miss strikeouts.

Lockhart’s curveball is very important to his success because it gives him a strike pitch and allows him to pitch backwards.  Lockhart likes to pitch backwards the 2nd time through a lineup, and so, having an off-speed pitch with such high strike efficiency allows him to face the other teams order multiple times without losing effectiveness. His slider has become his “go-to” pitch and he uses it as a “strike” pitch, and also as a “strike-out” pitch.

Moving Forward

Lockhart Jr. was moved to High A Great Lakes after his first start of the season and had 10 starts with the Loons. He is 24 years old and is very developed in his understanding of how to pitch and how to use advanced metrics to maximize his effectiveness. He also has an established profile in terms of his arsenal of pitches, has a lot of experience in big-time environments and atmospheres, and is left-handed.  The vast majority of the young pitching talent in the organization is right-handed, so, by being a left-hander combined with all of the other qualities he brings, he has a chance to move up very quickly. Lockhart Jr.’s profile is one of a starter but he was used mainly in relief last year for the Loons and is open to any role the organization chooses to use him in on his path to L.A., a place I think the Friendswood Native will land sooner rather than later.

The Dodgers have made a habit of drafting well-rounded, versatile, multi-sport athletes that have lots of tools, a strong competitive element, and great character. Clayton Beeter is a right-handed pitching prospect that checks all the boxes and is quickly becoming one of the hottest prospects in the entire organization.

Multi-Sport Star

Beeter grew up in the Great State of Texas and was a multi-sport star at Birdville High in the DFW area where he earned letters in all 4 years of his High School career. He was All-District on the gridiron twice and led the Hawks on the diamond to 2 Bi-District Championships while receiving All-District honors as a Senior where he averaged almost 2 strikeouts per inning and posted a 0.81 ERA. Although the DFW native was not drafted out of High School, he did have several high-level Division I offers and eventually settled in the West Texas town of Lubbock to play for Head Coach Tim Tadlock as a Texas Tech Red Raider.

Texas Tech

Under the guidance of Head coach Tim Tadlock, and pitching coach Matt Gardner, Texas Tech has become a power in College Baseball and has made the College World Series 4 times since 2014. Tech has a reputation as being “West Texas” rowdy, and, as a diehard Oklahoma State fan, I mean that with 100% respect. The Red Raiders love to have fun and have one of the best competitive elements of any program in the Country. A weekend series with Tech feels like a backyard brawl, and when teams leave Lubbock they are exhausted both mentally and physically.

Tommy John Surgery

Beeter was forced to Redshirt his first year on campus after injuring his elbow and eventually had Tommy John surgery in December of 2017. During the rehab process, the hard-throwing right-hander was able to focus on the weight room while not having to worry about being ready to pitch so he got a lot stronger, and eventually made it back to the mound as a Redshirt Freshman in 2019. Beeter’s return was a total success as he earned Freshman All-American status after throwing 20.2 innings in the closer role on a Tech team that won the Big 12 title, and finished in the Final 4 of the 2019 College World Series. With Tommy John in his rearview mirror and bigtime momentum, Beeter was moved into the Friday Night Starter role the next year as a Redshirt Sophomore and had 4 appearances before the 2020 season was canceled due to Covid. 

Despite all of the stops and starts, the Dodgers saw his flame-throwing potential and drafted him in the Competitive balance Round of the 2020 draft as the 66th overall pick. The Competitive balance draft was put in place as part of the 2012-2016 Collective Bargaining Agreement and is meant to give the 10 lowest-revenue clubs from the 10 smallest markets an extra pick between rounds to help them become more competitive. The Dodgers acquired the Competitive balance pick used to acquire Beeter in a trade that sent Kenta Maeda to the Twins, which was the same trade that brought Brusdar Graterol and Luke Raley to the Dodgers as well.

On to the Dodgers

Beeter had pitched in the 2 most high-profile roles at Texas Tech and had shown that he could perform in big moments, so the Dodgers knew they were getting a player that was extremely competitive, was a great athlete, had multiple plus pitches, and could handle pressure. The Organization also knew that he had been an Academic All-Big 12 honoree as a Mechanical Engineering Major at Tech and had shown incredible work ethic during his Tommy John rehab, so he had elite intangible qualities to match his arm talent.  The Dodgers have become masters at projecting the upside of prospects based on certain sets of measurables and intangibles, and have had a lot of success in developing young players that fit their mold. So, while 41.2 innings and just 4 starts may seem like a thin resume to some, the Dodgers had all the evidence they needed to feel good about drafting Beeter as highly as they did, and it is quickly turning into another big time success story.

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Beeter has a big fastball that sits 94-96 and can reach as high as 98, and when he is commanding his pitches, he has some of the best stuff in the organization. He has a unique “over the top” delivery and likes to use his fastball up in the zone, then tunnels all of his off-speed off of it.

Here is his breaking ball tunneled off of the high fastball

Here are the two side by side showing how well they are tunneled together.  As you can see, both pitches start at the same tunnel, but his fastball on the left ends up at the top of the zone and the breaking ball on the right ends up in the dirt.

He pairs that combo with a really good slider.

Final Thoughts

If Beeter continues to develop his command for his secondary pitches, he will be a very effective Major League pitcher for many years. Beeter is crazy strong, extremely intelligent, has elite work ethic, is ultra-competitive, has a unique delivery and big stuff. His longest outing last year was 3.1 innings, so 2022 will be fun to see his pitch count increase, more than likely substantially, and to see how his game develops around longer outings. The Native Texan has shown that he becomes more consistent the longer he stays on the mound, so 2022 is setting up to be a huge year.

Carlos Duran is an MLB Pipeline Top 30 pitching prospect in the Dodgers organization who was signed in 2018 out of the Dominican Republic. At 6’7, and with a big fastball, Duran fits the formula as the Dodgers love Big frames and lots of projection in their young pitching prospects.  Duran is 20 years old and spent most of 2021 in Low A Rancho Cucamonga before being moved to High A Great Lakes in September for his last 2 starts.  

Background

The Dominican Republic is a well-known hotbed for baseball and has produced more Major League baseball players than any other Latin American Country.  Baseball isn’t just a pastime there, it’s a way of life and Duran learned that way of life at a very early age.  Duran began playing baseball at 6 years old and grew up around friends who almost all have become professional baseball players. He has a lot of experience in the game playing in High Profile tournaments and was noticed by the Dodgers at a Perfect Game tournament in Miami.

Quotes are courtesy of Interpreter Alex Cotto:

The Dodgers saw me at a Perfect Game tournament in Miami in the states. After seeing me at that tournament, they held a private workout at the facility I was training at in the Dominican.  At the time of that workout, Ismael Cruz, who was the director of International Scouting for the Dodgers, gave me a handshake and told me that I was going to be a Dodger soon.

With all of the amazing talent that the Dominican Republic produces, Duran had an unlimited amount of players to look up to, but it was Cuban-born Jose Fernandez who Duran grew up admiring and patterning himself after the most.

Growing up I liked the way Jose Fernandez carried himself, the Pitcher for the Marlins that sadly passed away. I liked the way he performed, the way he acted on the field, how he was agressive and the way he did everything he needed to do to help his team win.

International players sign at younger ages than American players and Duran signed at the young age of 16.  Signing at that early of an age is difficult enough, but then having to prepare to move to an entirely different country just adds to it. When asked how that process has been, this is what he had to say:

The day I signed was a very special day for me because it was my older brothers birthday. So I viewed that as a gift to my family of all the hard work I had put in. Everybody was very emotional that day and it was a very special day for me and my family.  The big transition was getting on a plane and traveling and coming Stateside. I love the culture and the different things there are to see here in the States, and I love the way I’ve been treated by the American people in general. So, so far everything has been very positive and I have felt very welcomed and I like being here.

It is no secret that the Dodgers are the standard-bearers when it comes to International players, something that Duran is excited about.

It’s been great because the way the Dodgers operate it’s just like a big family where everybody is welcomed and everybody is on the same page and everybody does what is best for the team. So it’s been a really good experience and I feel very proud to be with the Dodgers.

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Duran features a fastball that sits at 93-94 and hit as high as 98 this past season.  His fastball also has very good arm-side movement with sink. and he pairs that with a tumbling curveball, a very good slider, and a developing changeup. Duran’s slider is, at times, more than 10 mph off of his fastball, and he has a lot of confidence in the pitch, so his fastball/slider combo is very good.  

Duran’s curveball is a pitch that has an incredible amount of tumble.

Duran has been a starter so far in his Dodgers career and is excited to stay in that role and with 4 pitches he fits the profile.  

I picture myself as a starter, and that’s what I’m working for.  I want to be the biggest benefit to the team as I can be and my heart is stuck on being a starter.

Duran finished last season at High A Great Lakes and is just 20 years old, so one might suspect that the Organization will do with him this year like they did last year and that would be to leave him at Great Lakes, then move him to AA Tulsa at the very end of the year.  Duran is already very, very good, but still very young, so he is an exciting young prospect with a massive amount of upside, physical tools, experience in the game, and overall ability.

The road to the Major Leagues is a long journey that is full of roadblocks and overwhelming challenges.  As players jump from one level to the next, the stakes get higher, the talent level becomes elite and the need for great instruction gets put at a premium. High A Great Lakes manager, Austin Chubb, is entering his 2nd year at the helm of the Loons and checks all the boxes as he has a world of experience, is known as a “players coach”, and is the model for how to pay your dues, how to “Get to Work”, and how to earn each step.

Worldwide of Experience

Chubb has an amazing journey in the game of baseball, so let’s start at the beginning, in the Sunshine State of Florida, at Division II powerhouse Florida Southern after a 2-year JUCO career at Manatee Community College.  Florida Southern, at the time, was led by Pete Myer who was both the Athletic Director and the Baseball coach.  The program has won 9 Division II National titles, has been runners-up on 4 other occasions, and, under Myer, produced over 30 Draft picks.  So, while it may not be a Division I school, it certainly is a powerhouse, and after a great career as a Mocassin, Chubb got drafted by Washington in the 2012 Draft.  Chubb spent 3 years in the Nationals organization before electing Free Agency where, in 2015, his Dodgers career began, and, “as they say”, the rest is history.

The current Loons manager made it all the way to AAA OKC as a player before retiring after the 2015 season and entering the coaching ranks the next year.  Chubb started his coaching journey as the Ogden Raptors hitting coach in 2016, then became the manager of the DSL Dodgers in 2017 and 2018 before going back to Ogden as the manager in 2019.  He then got promoted to Low A Rancho in 2020 before the season got canceled then, this past year in 2021, he managed High A Great Lakes.  This is the 2nd time in his Coaching career that he will be at the same place for the 2nd year in a row, so he is excited to reach out to the community in Midland to connect them even further with the Loons.

Influences

Chubb has been with the Dodgers either as a player or a Manager since 2015, so he has become a Dodger Blue and Blue, pun intended.  He has had some really incredible people to learn from since becoming a Dodger and none more influential than the legendary Tommy Lasorda.

So my first year in 2016 I was the hitting coach in Ogden, and Tommy managed in Ogden which I wasn’t really aware of.  He made 2 or 3 trips to Ogden that year and loved coming to Ogden so I have fond memories of him just sitting in the locker room after games and telling some of his legendary stories. Then I got the chance to manage Ogden in 2019 and had some visits from him then too and he would sit in the managers office and I was amazed at how, as an iconic figure,  he really treated Minor League coaches so well. He didn’t have to do that and we were pretty star struck and the way he tells stories, and he remembered my name, so for him to do that was pretty impressive. He’s an iconic figure and to get to be around him was very special.

Managing in the Minors

Managing in the Minor Leagues can be a very tricky endeavor on many different fronts.  For one, a manager is tasked with promoting a “team-first environment” amongst a world full of prospects that are playing for personal promotion.  When asked how he deals with that dynamic, Chubb had this to say:

That’s a good question and it’s not always easy.  As a manager and as a staff we try to sell to the guys that being an unselfish player will bring out the best in them which I truly believe.  But when it comes down to it, that’s what makes the Minor Leagues so unique is that guys are, to some degree, playing for themselves and their families and they want to be able to make money and it is a business, so that’s obviously a hard thing. But, I think, more than anything, we want to see all the guys reach the big leagues with the Dodgers, but I think one thing you can sell to players is that every time you step on the field it’s an audition because there are always scouts in the stands and there’s 30 other teams. So, while I want the guys to reach the Big Leagues in L.A., and I want them to help the organization win another World Series, that’s just not the case for everyone. So you see guys like Donovan Casey, or Keibert Ruiz get opportunities elsewhere so I think every time a player steps on the field they are auditioning to advance whether it’s with L.A. or somewhere else.

Another interesting dynamic to managing in the Minor Leagues is, while you are trying to win a Division, players get moved up during the latter part of the season, so you lose your best players.  Chubb has the perfect take on that, and acknowledges that situation as being a challenge, but notes that the Dodgers are so deep in talent at all levels that it is next man up.

Yeah, so that’s a tough one. You know it’s expected and it’s gonna happen and I think, from a coaching standpoint, we take pride in the fact that we helped players get to the next level because ultimately that is the number one job for us.  But, I would be lying if I said we didn’t want to win. From our standpoint we know there are good players at Low A that will step right in, so, from a culture standpoint, it’s just next man up. That sounds cliche, but, that really is how it is and I think we have the best scouts and the best talent in the game all the way up from the DSL league so there really isn’t an excuse.

Chubb is a manager who lets his players play, as long as they are playing hard every day.  He’s able to get his players to “buy-in” because he is considered a “players coach”

I was fortunate enough to have good coaches and mentors growing up. One person that comes to mind is Bill Haselman because he was my manager in 2015 and has been a mentor and I feel like I’ve taken a lot of things from his style and that is to view the players as professionals and just to let them play.  Obviously, when they need a kick in the butt I’m gonna give it to them, but I think, more than anything, I try to never forget that baseball is really hard and players are going to respect that. Players are going to make mistakes so finding the right moments to talk to players about certain things is important, but players, for the most part, really know when they screw up or when they do good, so that’s kind of my style is to let guys do their thing.  I just expect them to play hard and to play to win so if they do those things I feel like I’m pretty easy going.

2022

Chubb is entering 2022 as the manager in the same location for the 2nd time in his career and is looking forward to mentoring the next crop of highly talented Dodgers.  He knows many of them as some will be returners, but he also spent this last winter in Puerto Rico coaching in the Puerto Rican winter league.  In fact, he just recently got back home from that experience, just in time to get ready for Spring training, so it’s pretty easy to see that he is a “gym rat” when it comes to baseball.  He loves the game, loves managing it, loves helping players advance, and loves when it’s “Time to Get To Work”.

Jesus Galiz is an 18-year-old catching prospect in the Dodgers organization who was signed in the 2020 International Signing period and joins Yeiner Fernandez and Diego Cartaya as catchers that hail from the South American country of Venezuela.  Venezuela is a hotbed for baseball talent that has produced more than 400 Major Leaguers which is the 2nd most of all Latin American Countries behind only the Dominican Republic.  Although Venezuela has long been a baseball hotbed, it no longer has an Affiliated Summer league, so Galiz had to make the 1422 mile trip to the Dominican Republic to play in their Summer League in 2021. The Dominican Summer League is a branch of affiliated Minor League Baseball and is the only Latin American Rookie League that is still in existence.

2021 was my first year as a professional baseball player, and, for me, it was a good year and a good season. I got to experience new things in my life, and I’m so excited about my future with the Dodgers. Right now I’m in Arizona in the early camp before Spring Training with the team, so the plan is for me to play here in Arizona for my 2nd season as a professional baseball player and I’m so happy and excited to get it all started.

Background

Galiz was originally expected to sign with the Yankees until New York pulled their offer with the reasoning of Covid reductions which opened the door for the Dodgers to sign the young Venezuelan who was the top catching prospect in the 2020 International class.  The Dodgers have a great history with International players which is something that Galiz is excited about.

It’s such a good feeling to be a professional baseball player for the Dodgers because they have such a good history with International players.  It’s really good to be a Dodgers player right now.

Growing up in Venezuela, Galiz grew to love baseball at an early age and had a father that was always his biggest influence. He loved spending time with his dad on and off the field and learned how to play baseball and most of his life’s lessons under his guidance.

I always loved spending time with my father.  He was always my biggest influence as a child and for my whole life.  I’ve been playing baseball since I was 3 years old, and my whole family, my father, my grandfather all played it so I think baseball just runs in the family and that’s why I love it.

Tragically, Galiz lost his father in 2021 to Covid, and while it was a devastating blow, he has learned to use it as inspiration.

My father passed away 1 year ago from Covid and that was so hard.  I really can’t even explain what it felt like and I don’t really have words for it because he was my inspiration everyday, so I’m doing everything for him to give thanks to him.

Galiz’s dad was more than just a father, he was also a great baseball coach and put Jesus in situations that gave him great experience in the game.

I have a lot of experience because I played in National Tournaments and International Tournaments all through Little League.  We traveled all through Venezuela, then also places like Guatemala and even in the United States. I only played for 1 team in Little League, all my childhood and throughout my life.

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Galiz checks several boxes that fit within the Dodger formula as he is the third catcher the Dodgers have taken from Venezuela in consecutive years, and, he grew up playing infield the same as Austin Barnes, Will Smith, and other catching prospects in the organization.  

Yes, I was an infielder.  I played infield literally my whole life and the infield helped a lot in making me a good catcher because it helped me learn to have quick feet, soft hands, and a lot of those kinds of things.  It helped me be more athletic as a catcher.

Here was his response when asked about being the 3rd consecutive Venezuelan catcher taken by the Dodgers in consecutive years of the International Signing period.

Yeah, I know Diego and Yeiner and they are my friends and they are my teammates too as we are on the same team.  We have a good relationship and Yeiner has helped me a lot with my defense and everything so we are good friends.

Offensively, Galiz is very talented and prides himself on using all fields, and with power.

I think I’m a hitter that uses the whole field. I can hit homeruns, I can hit doubles, I can hit triples or I can get just normal basehits. So I think my strength as a hitter is that I can use the whole field and I can hit with power.

Here’s a video of him taking B.P. working on all of those skills

And here it is in live-action

Wrapping Up

Galiz is just 18 years old, and so he has a lot of time to continue to grow his game in the organization.  But, for his age, he has a lot of experience in the game because he has played in so many big tournaments in so many different parts of the world.  And, he has 2 really good friends, Yeiner Fernandez and Diego Cartaya, that will help mentor him through the process.  When you combine his experience with the game, great attitude, and love for baseball with the Dodgers instructional system, it’s gonna make for a very good situation.

7921 miles from Los Angeles sits a unique suburban town in Australia known as Berwick City.  Berwick City is just Southeast of Melbourne and is known for having a unique mix of 19th-century characteristics, mixed with 21st Century amenities. It is also known as the home of one of the most unique prospects in the Dodgers organization, Cameron Gibbens. 

Gibbens is a 6’8 pitching prospect that grew up playing baseball in the Berwick City baseball Club from T-Ball all the way through Senior baseball and has finally taken the next step, affiliated baseball in the States.  Berwick City baseball runs deep in Gibbens’s bloodlines as his entire family, his mom, dad, brother, and sister were all Cougars dating back as late as the 90’s.

Journey Begins

Gibbens tried out on several different occasions for the Melbourne Aces of the ABL,  but didn’t make the team. So, he got a full-time job, kept playing for Berwick City, continued to get better, and eventually, at the age of 22, was signed into the Melbourne Aces developmental program and fairly quickly made their big club. 

Yeah, I played at the Berwick Baseball club from TBall all the way up through Seniors.  I was a 2 way player until I was 16 where I started pitching more, from there I played there all the way up until I got signed by Melbourne.

After playing for Berwick it was a bit of a whirlwind.  I tried out for the Aces for a long time, starting when I was 18, but I didn’t make it.  But I kept playing and got a lot better before getting selected when I was 22. The first year I played for them I pitched maybe 3 innings, but I went on one away series, and it’s really cool because in the ABL you get to travel all around Australia, and you fly everywhere, so it’s a great league.  Then, the following year I was selected for the team again and I had a bit more of an impact.  I got thrown in there by Peter Moylan who was our pitching coach and is a really well known name from the Atlanta Braves. He threw me into lots of really tough situations, and I kept getting out of them and so he kept putting me in there. Before you know it I was the guy they went to out of the pen in the Championship game.

As an Ace, Gibbens played for John Deeble who is an International Scout in the Dodgers system in Australia.  Deeble played in the ABL, and also in the Minor Leagues, so when he introduced the idea of coming to the states to Gibbens, he welcomed it.  Gibbens was eventually offered an undrafted free agent contract, he accepted, and took his big fastball and tall frame to America to compete against the greatest competition in the world.  But, just 7 days into his first Spring Training in 2020, the Dodgers sent him back home due to Covid cancellations. Fortunately for Gibbens, the lockdown restrictions in Australia eased after time, the ABL started back up, and he got to pitch with the Aces during 2020.  

I was only at Spring Training for 7 days before all of the stuff happened with Covid and they sent us back home so I had 18 or 20 hours of travel in a week which was crazy.  So I got to come back to Australia for a whole year and we were locked down here in Australia and it was pretty bad, but I definitely didn’t take it lightly, I worked really hard, eventually built a mound in my backyard and I threw into a net so that was pretty crazy.  And then the ABL season started and I got to pitch with the Aces and had 9 or 10 outings in that 2 month long season and I believe that gave me such a good start to the Minor League season because I was so far ahead of guys that hadn’t played in almost 2 years.

Movin On Up

Gibbens was 24 years old at the time he signed in 2020, and turned 26 during the 2021 season, so the Dodgers advanced him from Low A all the way to AA in just 3 months, a time frame that is certainly quicker than usual.  In May, at Low A Rancho Cucamonga,  he gave up no runs in 10.1 innings and earned a promotion to High A Great Lakes at the beginning of June.  The hard-throwing Australian continued his dominance by giving up just 2 runs in 9.1 innings across 7 appearances with the Loons, and,  in fact, didn’t give up an earned run until his 14th appearance and 18th inning of work in 2021.

July was another great month for the Australian as he posted a 1.04 ERA and combined with Clayton Beeter, Bobby Miller, and Jake Cantleberry to close and record the last 3 outs of the first no-hitter in Great Lakes history. He was promoted again at the beginning of August and spent the remainder of 2021 in AA Tulsa.  

Yeah, it was awesome, I mean for me, being the older guy, I was just trying to show that younger group of guys that I was serious about it and that I wasn’t just some guy from Australia that likes to throw baseballs and that I could actually pitch pretty well.  I got off to a really good start and I didn’t really notice it, but I started getting messages from a whole bunch of people telling me good job.  One of my friends messaged me the night before I gave up my first run and told me I hadn’t given up a run.

With a good laugh, Gibbens jokingly continued

I was like, thanks, thanks so much, but, yeah, going up to Great Lakes after having a really good start in Rancho was awesome and my first outing at Great Lakes was one of my favorite because I pitched a 2.1 innings save and it was really cool.  It was the coldest weather I had ever pitched in, I think it was like 35 degrees the whole time and I felt like I didn’t get warm the whole outing, but that was so cool to do, to show my stuff being the Australian guy coming up to the team and having a really good outing was awesome and that kind of sky rocketed me into the next however many games it was that I had a scoreless streak.  And then, when the no hitter came up that was such a shock to me because I didn’t even know it was a no hitter until the 6th inning.  We were all sitting in the bullpen in Lake County and I think one of the fans told us and was asking who was going to screw it up, and who was going to be the next guy in and I was like, what?  And then I realized it was a no hitter and at that point I was the go to guy for the closer role so I wasn’t expecting to be the guy that went in because it was like 14-1, so I didn’t know that I was going in until the radio rang and the adrenaline came up and it was a really cool experience to be a part of with multiple pitchers that are all really good friends of mine.

Gibbens Travels

As stated earlier, it is 7921 miles from Melbourne, Australia to Los Angeles, California.  Gibbens started in 2021 in Rancho Cucamonga which is 41 miles from L.A., then got promoted to Great Lakes which is 1996 miles from Rancho, then got promoted to Tulsa which is 935 miles from Great Lakes.  If you add all of that up it equals 10,893 miles traveled by the Australian before the road trips that his teams took during the season.  The fact that he traveled that much, and finished 2021 having thrown 46.2 innings while posting a 3.47 ERA is a testament to his aforementioned perseverance and was an impressive show of endurance.

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Gibbens has always been a pitcher that records a lot of strikeouts, and 2021 was no different as he struck out 83 hitters in 46.2 innings and had one of the highest strikeout rates in the Minor Leagues.  As with most pitchers, he relies on his fastball and throws it 75% of the time if not more on occasion, and then tunnels his slider off of it.  He sits at 92-94 with his fastball when he is at least somewhat rested, and keep in mind that he traveled close to 15,000 miles last year, and threw more than 4 times as many innings as he had thrown combined in his professional career up until that point, so he was fairly burned out, as he put it, by late August and September.  So, it will be very exciting to see the pop he brings with his fastball to Spring Training. 

He throws his fastball to the glove side and hits what the Dodgers call the 4 slot very well, then gets very good ride on his 4 seam when he throws it up in the zone.

Gibbens has plenty of secondary stuff to be a very effective back-end reliever.  He throws a “Gyro” ball that really progressed in 2021 because he learned how to throw it as hard as 86-87 mph, and it has tremendous tumble.  In the first pitch of this video you’ll see him start it inside on a lefty, then get it to “hop” back over the plate, then, on the next pitch, you’ll see the amount of tumble the pitch has as it falls off the table. In the third pitch of the video, you’ll see a great combination of both tumble and fade that demonstrates the potential this “Gyro” pitch has.

Gibbens also throws a slider that, again, is a very good pitch. He’s not afraid to throw it in any count and has a lot of confidence in the pitch.  

What’s Next?

Cameron Gibbens is a very talented prospect that has traveled close to 8000 miles for the opportunity he has been given. He also had to wait until he was 25 to get this chance, so, needless to say, he’s going to do everything within his power to make the most of it.  He will be 26 at the beginning of 2022, so, if he shows progress early in the season, it is more than plausible to think that he will get an opportunity with LA sooner rather than later to show what he can do at that level. And, quite honestly, I’m excited to get a bucket of popcorn and sit back and watch that process in action.  Has Spring Training started yet?  It can’t get here fast enough!