Just a few notes regarding MiLB, Dodger style. There is no significance to the order of presentation. Only one Dodger minor league game on Monday so I was really just bumming around looking for tidbits of MiLB.
Dodger Minor League Affiliate Standings: Monday, June 28
- Great Lakes Loons are in second place 2.5 games back of the Dayton Dragons.
- Rancho Cucamonga Quakes are in first place 1.5 games up on Lake Elsinore Storm.
- Tulsa Drillers are in second place 0.5 games behind Wichita Storm Surge.
- OKC Dodgers are in third place 2.5 games behind the Sugar Land Sketters.
It was announced on Monday by MiLB that Tulsa Drillers starting pitcher Ryan Pepiot, has been named the Double-A Central Pitcher of the Week for the week of June 22-27. The right-hander made one start last week and pitched 6.0 shutout innings, issuing no walks and giving up only one hit, while striking out six batters. Prior to the first hit, Pepiot pitched four perfect innings. The outing marked Pepiot’s first professional win. For the season, Pepiot has accumulated a 1.47 ERA in 30.2 innings pitched. He is the first Drillers player this season to receive a weekly award.
On Sunday Loons first baseman Justin Yurchak recorded his 12th multi-hit performance of the month, increasing his batting average to a league-best .448 in 18 games in June. Yurchak continues a white-hot stretch of seven games, tallying two or more hits in all of those, accomplishing the feat in 11 of his last 12. Yurchak is also second in on-base percentage (.414) and batting average (.312) amongst active members of the HAC. In the month of May, Yurchak was 4-for-42, averaging .095.
Yurchak on Monday led the league with a .316 batting average and was third with a .421 OPS.
Outfielder Ryan Ward is fourth in the league with a .311 batting average. Outfielder Andy Pages leads the league with 15 home runs. Pages and Ward are fourth in the league each with 47 hits.
Andy Pages has been tabbed as the Launch Angle unicorn by FanGraph’s Eric Logerhagen
“He can hit balls out with a flick of the wrist, even when he hasn’t taken his best swing. His speed under way and defensive instincts give him a chance to stay in center field, which would obviously give Pages a little more margin for error as a hitter. If he stays in center, he has a star-level ceiling. If not, then he has a whiff-prone, traditional right field profile driven by obvious impact power. Even if the latter occurs, it’s very likely Pages not only gets to all of his raw power, but might outperform it because of how often he’s able to lift the baseball.”
Maybe this is the hit for Jeren Kendall that will get him moving in the right direction again.
Trailing 3-2, Sunday’s ninth-inning rally began when Carlos Rincon drew a leadoff walk from Edgar Escobar. Escobar retired the next two batters before hitting Michael Busch with a pitch and walking Hunter Feduccia to load the bases, setting the stage for Kendall. The outfielder quickly came through, lining the first pitch from Escobar inside the right field foul pole and onto Elgin Avenue for the game-ending slam. It was a two-out grand slam for Kendall.
Hands up. How many know about Rancho Cucamonga shortstop Eddys Leonard (Leo-nard)?
Shortstop: Eddys Leonard (19 – November 10, 2000) R/R Ht: 6′ 0″ Wt: 160
Leonard was signed in the same class as Jorbit Vivas and Andy Pages in 2017 out of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
This is the scouting report on Leonard by the Dominican Prospect League when he signed.
“Eddys Leonard has the ability to make consistent contact with gap to gap power. His above-average speed allows him to fully utilize his contact and power giving him the ability to extend singles into doubles and doubles into triples. Combining his speed with a high baseball IQ, at 16-years-old, and you get a player who will have the ability to steal bases at every level. His speed also gives him good range at short, while his arm strength and quick hands will allow him to be an above-average defender.”
This from Baseball America in April of 2018.
“Leonard is 6 feet, 160 pounds, a good athlete with plus speed. While some scouts thought Leonard would fit best in center field, the Dodgers have kept him at shortstop after seeing promising strides with his fielding. Leonard has fast bat speed and good swing path from the right side, and while he’s not a big home run hitter, the ball carries off his bat well with a change to develop average power.”
Of note his height and weight are still listed as 6’/160 lb.
He played in the DSL during the 2018 season and moved to the Arizona League Dodgers (Lasorda) in 2019. With the Dodgers over 46 games he slashed .280/.380/.423 but his advertised speed did not result in stolen bases. He homered three times and drove in 20 runs.
Leonard finished out his season with 8 games in the Pioneer League with the Ogden Raptors with a triple slash of .333/.391/.478.
This season with the Quakes he has a triple slash of .279/.387/.503 with an OPS of .891. He has walked 20 times and struck out 44. In June in 20 games he has slashed .299/.407/.597 with a 1.005 OPS. In those 20 games he has hit five home runs and driven in 15 while striking out 18 times and walking 11. He has yet to really use the aforementioned speed and has stolen five bases this season. Eighteen of his 41 hits are for extra bases.
Arizona Complex League:
Arizona League play started on Monday with the league now reference as the Arizona Complex League. The Dodgers team in the ACL plays in the Central Division in the 18 team league along with the Angels, Brewers Blue, Indians Reds and White Sox. The Brewers, Giants and Royals all have two teams in the league.
The ACL Dodgers attempted a comeback in their first game of the season with a five-run eighth inning but fell 9-8 to the ACL Angels. Luis Diaz (3B) homered twice as did Jose Ramos (OF). Jake Vogel has been moved from the RC Quakes to the ACL Dodgers. He was hitless in two at bats. Luis Rodriguez went 0-4. Kevin Bautista who was acquired by the Dodgers in the trade with Texas for Dennis Santana pitched 1.1 scoreless innings.
Song of the Day
Discussion (31)
Disagree, not disagreeable
This will drag on for another month or two!
The is stupid and there is criminal.
As someone else said lets wait until the fact come out. The Duke Lacrosse case looked bad really really bad and those guys were drug threw the mud. We all know now it was a con-job.
That Athletic article was very irresponsible and should not have been published.
I was wondering what happened to Mickey Calloway, Didn’t know he got fired from the Angels and suspended from MLB till the end of 2022 for sexual harassment allegations. For HARRASMENT. In context of the Bauer situation , tells me he won’t be back for a LONG time.
How are the players picked for the Futures Game? I would have expected Ruiz before Busch.
My hope is that the ugliness of the Bauer accusations will be disproven. Realistically, I’m prepared for the worst. I genuinely liked Bauer, he had a genuine love for the game. Watched him a lot with the Reds. Saw the same thing in Sonny Gray. A real love of the game. But Sonny comes across as just a down to earth class guy. I have to admit that Bauer started to rub me the wrong way of late. Arrogance, ego, ya it’s kinda fun to watch in a great athlete. But it started to get a little old.. if he survives this shit, gotta believe he’ll be a changed man.
Pat Beverly is human shit. A bad Gremlin. Academic dishonesty. Go home, loser.
Starters for series with the Nats, Gonsolin, Urias, Kershaw, Bauer. Congrats to Mississippi State on their first ever CWS title. Threw a 1 hit shutout at Vanderbilt. Buehler is crying in his beer tonight. Pads win a rain shortened game with the Reds, still a full game back of LA because they have 2 more losses.
New postseason rotation:
1. Kershaw
2. Buehler
3. Urias
4. Gonsolin
The pitchforks are out. The torches are lit. The centre cannot hold.
Is there no end to smart guys doing stupid shit? Or so it seems. But I learned from the Duke Lacrosse mess a few years ago to never jump to conclusions on these things without the facts. Hopefully the truth will prevail.
News around the league today.. Jackson and Busch picked for the futures game. Turner hits for his third career cycle, and does it on his birthday. First in MLB history to do that. Becomes the 5th player to do it 3 times. Two of the others, Babe Herman and Adrian Beltre played for the Dodgers. Mississippi State leads Vandy 1-0 in the first. Also, as of tomorrow, the NCAA is allowing student athletes to make money off of marketing their image.
Well with the Bauer situation it looks like we know that the team will probably be targeting starting pitching, which makes losing Dustin May even harder. Whether he is exonerated or not I am sure he will be facing a suspension of some kind.
What you read in the Athletic, MLB Trade Rumors, TMZ, etc, it is so hard to believe any of them. Is he guilty or is she a gold digger who hired a tricky lawyer, we will never know.
I’m sure it’s hard to sort through all the come ons and flirtatious advances an athlete receive from other’s people but seeing what is being reported I don’t know how anyone couldn’t see the red flags.
We hold these teams and athletes in such high regard and root for them with such desire that when something like this happens it sure puts little things more into focus.
I’m sure this will only get uglier in the coming days.
CWS final today and compelling WCF Game 6.
With Eastern teams ailing, this could be for all the marbles.
Regarding the Bauer situation, as was mentioned above, I’m sure there will be more facts that come forward in the coming days and weeks that shed light on the situation. So, for the time being, I will withhold my comments on how stupidly I think he behaved. However, for the sake of argument, even if I were to believe only Trevor’s account of the story, apparently he smacked a woman around enough to give her a concussion. Regardless of how much she might have asked him to do so, MLB will not tolerate this. Couple that with how often he publicly criticizes the commissioner and his office and I can’t see this ending well for Trevor. AF and Doc need to work on getting another starter stretched out. Trevor is going to be missing for a long time.
Cubs vs Brewers today. Cubs scored 7 in the top of the first. It’s now the bottom of the 5th and they’re trailing 14-7. When they lose this game they will be 6 games behind the Brewers and Jed Hoyer will be able to trade off a bunch of guys in July, just as he had planned when he got rid of Darvish.
OK folks, anyone on the Cubs you would like to see in Dodger blue?
* What an exciting, fun game last night. There was some serious pitching going on.
Stu Scheurwater is a terrific balls and strikes ump. It was like he could see the pitch trac box like we could on TV. He missed a couple of pitches at the bottom of the zone but had no big misses all night. Super consistent with a good zone all night. Refreshing to see that.
* Because Stu didn’t call low pitches out of the zone, Gausman was forced to elevate that splits change thing he relies on. And we didn’t help him by chasing out of the zone. Not getting low strikes hurts Gausman more than most pitchers. Bad match for with Scheurwater. Good for us.
* Buehler was awesome, with command of 5 pitches. His change is a great addition as he trusts it more. I swear Bauer has had an impact of Beuhler’s pitching. Bauer gets it done with not near the athletic ability that Buehler and CK are blessed with so he has to use his arsenal to get it done. Buehler did that last night and I can’t remember him looking that sharp.
* Joseph is a MF.
* Impressive in game adjustment on the fly last night by KJ. Ever try to find your golf swing mid-round? KJ did that last night.
* We will be in 1st place at the break.
Alex Vesia in its last 3 games (3.0 IP) has 9 SO consecutive
I said it more than a month ago:
“Pages will finish this year in Tulsa, in 2022 it will have a very good ST and at a certain point in the season it will be at OF Dodgers Stadium possibly in LF”
DODGERS CLAIM RHP BOBBY WAHL
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers claimed right-handed pitcher Bobby Wahl off waivers from the Milwaukee Brewers and transferred infielder Corey Seager to the 60-day injured list to make room for Wahl on the 40-man roster.
Wahl has spent parts of three seasons in the Major Leagues, posting an 0-2 record with a 7.63 ERA (13 ER/21.2 IP) and 16 strikeouts in stints with Oakland (2017), New York- NL (2018) and Milwaukee (2020). This year, he has split the season between Double-A Biloxi and Triple-A Nashville, allowing a combined 11 runs in 10.1 innings with 11 strikeouts. The 29-year old right-hander is 9-8 with a 3.80 ERA and 40-for-45 in save opportunities in 172 career minor league games. He was originally drafted in the fifth round of the 2013 First Year Player Draft by the Oakland Athletics out of the University of Mississippi.
Seager fractured his right wrist on May 15 against Washington and has missed 40 games since being placed on the injured list on May 16. The North Carolina native has played in 37 games, batting .265 (39-for-147) with four homers and 22 RBI this season. The NLCS and World Series MVP has been with the Dodgers since being drafted in the first round (18th overall) in the 2012 First Year Player Draft out of Northwest Cabarrus High School and has amassed 92 homers and 329 RBI with a .293 batting average in 578 career games with the Dodgers.
Dodgers prospects Reza Aleaziz and Juan Idrogo receive suspensions for at least 50 games.
Aleaziz was the Dodgers’ 28th-round pick in the 2018 Draft out of Oklahoma State University. The 24-year-old right-hander won all four of his decisions and posted a 2.37 ERA while fanning 34 in 30 1/3 innings across 27 relief outings with Rookie Advanced Ogden and Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga in 2019. Aleaziz received a 50-game suspension after testing positive for the stimulant Amphetamine.
Idrogo, who signed with Los Angeles last summer and had yet to appear in a professional game, picked up a 72-game suspension after testing positive for gw501516, a performance-enhancing substance. The right-hander was slated to pitch for the Dodgers’ Rookie-level Dominican Summer League Shoemaker squad.
Innocent until proven guilty. Amen! But Dude, what were you thinking? This had trouble written all over it. You’re a smart guy. Surprising you didn’t see if coming.
Lost in the euphoria of the win is the fact that the offense was not clicking for either team. Difference in the game was that the Dodgers got a key hit after 2 walks and a hit batsman. Then Muncy’s 3rd inning homer. Buehler kept the Giants at bay until the 7th when Lux’s error gave the Giant’s an opportunity. After the run scored, Kelly came in and slammed the door shut. Both teams managed only 3 hits. Mookie had another blah game after a multi hit game. He has not strung more than 2 multi hit games in a row this season, and he has only done that twice. Still waiting for the MVP style Betts to arrive. Gausman was not as efficient as he has been most of the year walking a season high 5. Kenley gave everyone a belly ache, and then provided the Certs to calm things down. 20 saves on the season and looking like he did a few years ago. He really buckled down with the pressure on him. 10 K’s means another free Jumbo Jack for those of you in the LA area. DC on a 3 game winning streak, so something will have to give when we meet them. Longest active streaks right now are 7 by Milwaukee, and 5 each by the Dodgers and Red Sox. The Bauer situation will not be decided swiftly. These investigations take some time, but it might come into play towards the end of the year. But let us remember, it is supposed to be innocent until PROVEN guilty. But it is not the kind of publicity the team needs or wants. They are supposed to visit the White House on this trip.
I know most here complain about the quality of today’s umpires, especially Angel Hernandez. I was shocked to learn that he has been an ump for 28 years. How does that happen?
I remember back to the late 90’s and the absurd strike zone that some umpires had and MLB allowed. Greg Maddux and especially Tom Glavine greatly benefitted from the wide strike calls. Here’s a link to what was going with the strike zone back then. Be sure to watch the Eric Gregg video of him calling balls (only occasionally) and strikes in game 5 of the 1997 NLCS.
https://www.sporttechie.com/questec-legacy-20-years-strike-zone/
As the article says that performance by Gregg was the final straw in the absurdity of what was the strike zone back then.
Vivas, Duran, Choi, Taylor, Ward.
All sleepers in a deep, varied system.
Looking forward to seeing Vogel get going.
wasnt pages included in pederson deal to angels
Great stuff. Luis Diaz officially on my radar.
Joe Kelly is quickly becoming my favorite reliever to watch. The fastball is regularly hitting triple digits and wicked movement and he seems to have really mastered the breaking ball with sharp bite and downward movement. He looked comfortable coming into that jam last night and getting out of it on two pitches. It’s unbelievable that he couldn’t find the strike zone last year and he’s filling it up this year. Then he gets bonus points for being so weird when he’s out there on the hill.
Kenley scared the crap out of me for the second day in a row. But, he’s still getting the job done.
The bullpen is really starting to come together and look like the pen it was designed to be. It’s very deep and loaded with talent featuring a lot of options for leverage situations. Kelly might just be that missing piece, a guy that can come into tight situations and leave runners on base.
Although the pen is sitting back at no 10 overall in ERA, they’ve been much better as of late. They rank 4th in the last 30 days just .20 points behind the lead league. I can hardly even imagine what they’ll look like once their full strength.
Sweeping two from the Giants is sweet. It’s too bad it was just a two game series, it left me wanting more. The upcoming four game set with Washington on the road will be interesting to see with Schwarber on his home run streak and our propensity to give them up.
It was fun to check the standings again and see that we have the second best record in baseball. We still have only played with our best lineup once this year.
It was not fun going through the sites to see that Bauer is the top story everywhere. After the Urias fiasco, I have no confidence that we won’t get screwed by MLB over this situation. My fear is that the real investigation by the authorities doesn’t find anything, but MLB will conduct their own investigation and issue a suspension like they did with Urias.
I am sceptical about this situation and will reserve final judgement until more information come in, but I feel like I’ve heard this song before. It’s too bad that a smart guy like Bauer puts himself into such a stupid situation. This reminds me of Kobe in a bad way.
Pages could be the next great Dodgers of . Only 20 years old and already at high A ball.
Great win vs the Midgets , only 1,5 out now.
But this could be very bad news for the Dodgers chances this year .
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31735425/los-angeles-dodgers-trevor-bauer-facing-allegations-assault
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!
On to the Big Club…
Joe Kelly is looking like the guy Andrew Friedman signed almost three years ago. I wonder if he will give AF a discount for the BIG CYST ISSUE.
With Kelly, Jansen, Nelson, Price, Cleavinger, Gonzalez, Bickford, and Treinen healthy and performing well, and with Graterol, Alexander, Vesia and Knebel due back at varying times, why do the Dodgers need another arm? They have several excellent options in the minors.
Boy, The Bullpen Bitchers sure are having a bad day!
The Giants bullpen has pitched more than 110 innings than the Dodgers pen and the Padres are closing in. Guess what happens next? Even Ray Charles can see it!
Just a few tidbits from last night MiLB games:
After a horrid start, OKC sits at 26-22.
Darrien Nunez is now 5-0 with a 2.79 ERA.
Alex Vesia got his 2nd save last night (1.29 ERA) – We will definitely see him back.
Don’t look now, but Tsutsugo was 2-4 with a BIG Flay last night!
Tulsa is now 28-20.
Miguel Vargas blasted another HR, his 11th of the year.
Busch is struggling and Hoese is hosed (not playing). I mean, Busch is hitting .222 – there are a lot on the term doing worse Amaya, Mann, Feduccia, Kendal, to name a few)
6′ 6″ 265 Pound RH Nate Robertson now has 23.1 IP with a 1.54 ERA and a 0.86 WHIP. He has 21 K’s to go with just 4 walks. Not a big strikeout pitcher, but also does not walk you. I think he moves to OKC soon.
Great Lakes is 25-24.
AC DC may have mentioned Yurchak was 4-5 and Deacon Liput was 3-4. Ward hit his 9th HR.
Clayton Beeter pitched s perfect 2 innings with 3 K’s. Bobby Miller struck out 6 in 4 IP but gave up 2 Runs. Melvin Jiminez pitched 2 hitless innings (2.78 ERA).
RC is 25-23 – All the Dodgers minor league teams are above .500.
Choi went 5.1 innings and allowed just 1 run.
Do you remember when DC said he was retired?
Me neither! 😉
He lives for this stuff… and does an amazing job!