Another rainy day and not great results in the minor league system yesterday. Well, that isn’t quite true. The nature of the day is not always decided by wins and losses. It is an individual game played in the context of a team game. Here is a bit about some individuals.
Jake Vogel
In Rancho Cucamonga 19-year-old Jake Vogel seems to have shaken off his early injury woes while having played only one game in June. In July he has played six games. In the lead-off spot he has recorded five hits in his last two games, including his first professional home run on Wednesday, July 7.
AC posted a nice Article on Jake Vogel last June.
Brandon Lewis
Over in Midland, Brandon Lewis is gaining some attention. He has homered in four straight games including a two-out game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth on Thursday. His blast to left field left the stadium. Over seven games with the Loons, he has four home runs and 12 runs batted in with a triple slash of .313/.333/.750 and an OPS of 1.083.
Lewis and Ryan Ward seem to be likely candidates to move on to Tulsa as the season progresses. Right now Andy Pages is struggling. In July he has two hits in 29 plate appearances while striking out 12 times. He now seems very susceptible to the low-breaking ball off the plate and then tied up on an inside pitch.
Luis Rodriguez
Here’s a LINK to THINK BLUE PC with an article written by Dennis Schlossman on Rodriguez.
From Fantrax:
Regarded as one of the big-4 from the 2019 international class, Luis Rodriguez has already begun ascending up prospect rankings before he’s even taken his first swing in a minor league game. Signed for a tick under $2.7 million, Rodriguez hasn’t been ranked as high as Jasson Dominguez, Erick Peña, or Robert Puason as he doesn’t have any standout tools. But for fantasy purposes, he’s highly-intriguing as he could be above-average across the board as a 5-cat asset.
From the right side, Rodriguez has a simplistic swing with fluid motions, but is able to generate plenty of bat speed and torque thanks to quick hands and a strong lower half. He’s exhibited an all-fields approach with legitimate above-average or better raw power to all fields and has a great feel for the barrel. He’s also an above-average runner presently, but likely settles in around 50-grade there once he matures and fills out a bit. But hey, that should still translate to 10-15 steals to pair with a good average and 20+ home runs annually. There might even be more power than that at peak. Thanks to his all-around offensive skills, L-Rod is on the rise and will likely shoot up into many top-50s if he has a strong professional debut in 2021.
Rodriguez had a slow start to his 2021 season in June going 0-8 in two games with five strikeouts. In July in five games he has hit four home runs with 11 runs batted in while slashing .300/.427/.900 with an OPS of 1.317.
These two former Dodger prospects were Players of the Week last week. I don’t really follow them but do know when they are highlighted in some way:
High-A East: Niko Hulsizer
Bowling Green Hot Rods (Rays) outfielder Niko Hulsizer batted .325 and led the league in home runs (10), RBI (30), slugging percentage (.779) and OPS (1.220). He finished second in runs (25) and on-base percentage (.441) and third in total bases (60). He homered twice on June 13 and homered in three straight games June 17-22. Hulsizer, 24, was originally selected by Los Angeles (NL) in the 18th round of the 2018 MLB Draft out of Morehead State University.
Triple-A West: Cody Thomas
Las Vegas Aviators (Athletics) outfielder Cody Thomas led the league in home runs (11), RBI (28)total bases (74) and slugging percentage (.747) and was second in runs (24) and triples (two). He finished third in OPS (1.124) and fifth in hits (31). He posted nine multi-hit games and eight multi-RBI games. Thomas, 26, was originally selected by Los Angeles (NL) in the 13th round of the 2016 MLB Draft out of the University of Oklahoma.
Alex Vesia: K Machine
This guy is a Dodger toiling with the OKC Dodgers, but perhaps not for long. We may recall that the left-handed Vesia was acquired from the Miami Marlins along with RHP Kyle Hurt to the Dodgers for Dylan Floro.
Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia entered Tuesday’s game in the eighth inning and struck out the first two batters he faced to extend his strikeout streak to 15 consecutive batters dating back to June 17 at Round Rock. Salt Lake’s Jo Adell broke the streak with a single up the middle, but Vesia then answered with a strikeout of Kean Wong to end the inning for his 16th strikeout against the last 17 batters he faced. For context, the Major League record for most consecutive strikeouts by a relief pitcher is 10 by Eric Gagné in 2003 with the Los Angeles Dodgers…Over his nine appearances with OKC, Vesia has allowed just one run and three hits over 9.0 total innings with three walks and 19 strikeouts.
In his minor league career, the 25-year-old left-hander has struck out 157 in 109 innings pitched while walking 29. With OKC he has struck out 19 in nine innings and walked three. We might recall that with the Dodgers he struck out 16 in 10.2 innings but walked 11.
HERE’S A LINK TO VESIA’s 13 STRAIGHT STRIKEOUTS AND RYAN PEPIOTS NO-NO
The Other Vargas
Everyone knows about Miguel Vargas and with good reason. The 21-year old third baseman has worked his way up to AA Tulsa. Hands up! How many know about the other Vargas? Bluto does as he asked about him back on May 24 and Mark posted a video and note on Vargas.
The other Vargas is right-hander Jesus Vargas.
This is Mark’s note:
Bluto asked about Jesus Vargas, who has been in 4 games for Great Lakes. He has a 2.51 ERA and a 0.63 WHIP and has seemingly been in the Dodgers system all his life. Actually, he has been in the system since 2015 when he was 16 years old. He was signed as an international free agent in December 2014, and has a career ERA of 3.15 and a WHIP of 1.11. This is his second tour of duty at GL, In 2018, he was there as a 19-year-old. He missed 2019 with injury and 2020 because of COVID-19. This is the first we have seen him in two years. He was a scrawny kid when he signed, and he is still slim but is now 6′ 2″ tall. He looks like he throws in the mid-’90s and has late movement, but that is just from watching him once on MiLBTV.
The 22-year-old Vargas is a versatile pitcher, capable of starting or relieving especially piggybacking with a starter such as Clayton Beeter as he did on Thursday.
He delivered five innings in relief for Great Lakes, walking two and striking out three. Vargas surrendered one earned run on four hits, exiting with two outs in the seventh inning.
He is the only Loons pitcher to qualify with one inning pitched per team game. To date he has pitched 50.2 innings with a second best ERA in the league at 2.66 and a league leading WHIP of 0.91. He has struck out only 35 but has walked only seven while giving up 35 hits.
Discussion (33)
Disagree, not disagreeable
I hope we saved some runs for today’s game before the break. A reminder today at 7pm EST, the the First Year Player’s MLB draft starts on the MLB Network.
Best thing about last nights game? Only 4 K’s all night. Considering how many times they have been striking out lately, seeing all of that contact was fun. I am pretty sure Arizona did not have any fun.
Hey, I could care less about Reddick He sucked as a Dodger and I would have loved to see them score more off of him. Pujols crushing a 60 MPH pitch just made me feel that much better, Why should any of us care about embarrassing a team as bad as Arizona??? They embarrass themselves every time they set foot on a ball field.
We lead the NL in runs scored.
How is that for offense.
Why is there no mercy rule in baseball? I thought that MLB teams tried not to humiliate their opponents in lopsided games. This strikes me as bad karma, piling on like this when AZ puts in Josh Reddick to pitch.
Pollock’s SLG% is up to .518
Time to lay off him.
I’m not opposed now to using Lux in a trade for an impact arm and letting CT3 and ZMack take over 2b.
Any news on Seager?
Ronald Acuna tears right ACL. Obviously out for the year. Troubles continue for Atlanta.
Wow I didn’t know this was JT‘s first grand slam SLAP ASS
Josiah Gray makes a start for Oklahoma City tonight.
Uceta still in the pen, Dodgers made a trade today, they sent Hugo Beltran to the Orioles for Cash! Money, dinero, lettuce. Snakes sent last nights starter Weider back to AAA and activated former Angel Kole Calhoun from the IL. Acuna carted off of the field with a leg injury. Braves will know later how serious it is. Anyone see Ohtani’s 33rd HR on replay at all??? He hit it into the upper deck in Seattle. What makes it more amazing is that he hit it off of a lefty. Ball was hit 115.6 MPH and supposedly traveled 463 feet. Maddon said he thought it was hit farther than that. My pick to win the darby. Bellinger needs to stay low in the order until he starts hitting. No Lux today against a lefty. None of the Dodgers have had much experience against this guy. But they have been better against lefty’s lately than they were earlier in the year. Theralten, I respect your opinion my man, but listening to the broadcasts, Buehler is making a concerted effort to be more pitch efficient and not getting a high pitch count so early in games, so he is pitching more to contact than he has before. That means taking some velocity off of some of his fastballs. He still dials up 98 pretty regularly. Personally, I would have dropped Bellinger to 7th and have him hit behind Pollock, who has been a much better hitter than Cody all year long.
Tonight’s lineup:
RF Mookie
SS Chris
3B Justin
2B Max
1B Albert
CF Cody
LF AJ
C Austin
P Walker
Finally Cody dropped to sixth. He needs to stay there.
I haven had much to say lately. There isn’t much to say. I’ve never seen us play worse and the reasons have all been explored ad nauseam.
I’ve heard all the updates and speculation I need to on the Bauer situation and refuse to add any more. Nobody here knows either, so until something concrete is comes out, it all bloviation.
I’ve talked enough about Doc’s bullpen use and in-game decisions while knowing how difficult it is to navigate these waters without a full navy.
We still need 1.5 more starting pitchers at least
While I have no clue about Bauer’s guilt or innocents and refuse to comment on it, I do know his poor judgement has created more problems than just his absence and has killed what’s left of the Dodger rotation and bullpen. So far, his 2 missed starts have necessitated 2 more bullpen games and 15 more appearances, stressing more an overly stressed pen. That’s made for 4 pen games in the last 6 games. That’s made for 28 pitching appearances. That’s 7 pitchers per game which in entirely unsustainable. While I can question Doc’s use of these guys until the cows come home, this just can’t work.
Our play is streaky and inconsistent. Is it possible Doc’s line ups du jour have caused some of the stability problems?There’s plenty of blame to spread around like manure. I’ve said enough and read enough about Bellinger’s batting. I personally don’t like how he hits but he’s never been that fond of me either. He is who he is. He will always be streaky with the long swing with all these moving parts He relies on timing more than more most anybody especially those with simple swings. He will be awesome when he gets hot for awhile and than he won’t be able to hit a bull in the ass with a tennis racket.
I need an all-star break.
I also am finding that I’ve become less patient with a couple of posters who feel the need to dominate the site. One troll likes to constantly reply to other’s posts with nonsense and feeble attempts at humor. He’s failed his anger management class and gets very personal when he feels challenged.
The other has emerged as Mr. Baseball in his mind. Somedays he has 1/4 to 1/3 of all the posts, needing to prove he’s the smartest guy in the room. Now he can’t talk enough about the Trevor Bauer situation. He too becomes combative and competitive when he perceives to be challenged with other people’s opinions. He goes to extremes to defend his statements even if they are based on something he misread or misunderstood. He has thin skin and a long memory and will never be a good relief pitcher.
I find both overbearing and somewhat bullying to others. This site is a competition for both. I’m not interested in that. So, I will just be quiet and read the blog without comment for awhile.
Bellinger STINKS! Send him to wherever Uceta is going! I can only hope and pray that Mark posts my comment and calls me a moron come October! It won’t be the first time!
Negative rants:
Lose 3 out of 4 to the Marlins.
Lose the 1st of 3 to the Diamondbacks.
Betts OPS is .799. Consider the money he is making.
Bellinger OPS is .594.
Lux OPS is .671.
Uceta in the 9th inning in a close game not once but twice.
Doc’s insistence on resting guys right before the all star break.
The last 5 games have been mind boggling.
Proud of Mookie for bowing out of the game. He has been there before and he felt he was not having a very good season, He also cited the fact he has been battling wrist and back injuries. I am tired of the Bauer circus, and will be glad when the whole damn thing is just over. I like Lux, but he should sit against LHP same as Joc did. Neither can hit lefty’s worth a damn. Nunez impressed me a lot. He made one bad pitch. Defense still a problem this week. 14 errors over the last 5 games? Terrible. Muncy leads all 1st basemen in defense, so the criticism of his fielding is wrong, he just misplayed that ball. Pollock is a much better hitter when he uses the entire field. Bellinger needs to be moved down in the lineup. He is not a viable option in the 4 hole right now. I do not know how Theralten can even think that we could not count on Buehler in the post season. He gets stronger as the year goes on. He did it last season and he is doing it again. In my estimation, he is the ACE of the staff. Not Kersh or Urias. Yep, Roberts makes the strangest pitching decisions at the worst times. Uceta had no business coming into that game. You need to beat teams like the D-Backs, especially when your two main protagonists are both starting to win again. And the Pads are playing the leagues other big patsy, the D-Backs. Hoyer now says the Cubs will be selling at the deadline, and the clamor on Twitter for the Dodgers to bring back Joc is huge. Not so much for Kike.
Lux is the jewel in the future, but for some he is the favorite villain, just leave him in the eighth place in the line up and from there do not move him, in most games he gets a single and a BB, he has a positive defense in the SS and he already has 2 WAR, let him play, Lux IS NOT THE PROBLEM, injuries and SBs allowed IF THEY ARE.
Dodgers Will Be in Attendance When Free Agent Pitcher Cole Hamels Throws a Showcase
A southpaw arm to watch for the Dodgers.
Hamels is now 37-years-old and was last with the Braves after signing an $18 million deal in December of 2019. He pitched in just 1 game and was charged with 3 earned runs with Atlanta. Shoulder issues kept him out of games for most of the shortened season, but the Dodgers might need him.
Badger brings up some good points about our justice system. But, I think he’s looking at this from the lense of his own personal experiences, sorry to rehash Badger…
“Innocent until proven guilty”. Uh, no. Not in our justice system. Once you’ve seen in operation, you know better.
She asked for it? Yeah, maybe. She got it. Now she’s asking for a lot more. And she’ll probably get that too.
Not so fast Badger. Maybe for me or you, but this case involves Trevor Bauer, Fernando Tatis Jr., The Los Angeles Dodgers and Guggenheim. We aren’t dealing with the guppies, we are dealing with the sharks.
The Pasadena Police Department, I’m sure, has plenty of experience dealing with extortion involving their rich residents. The cops had interrogated her about “setting this up” is very telling to me. The Radar Online text messages between her and her friend back this up. Do you realize that she is a guppy like me and you? Not a shark like Guggenheim, the Dodgers and Bauer and Tatis. This could completely backfire on her and exhonnerate Trevor.
The case is very political considering how vocal Bauer has been regarding the current commissioner. But, Marfred has to tread lightly here. If he does something that looks retaliatory towards a big name player the upcoming CBA is going to turn into a shit show like nobody has seen before. The fact that the new “Face of Baseball” Tatis just got dragged into this makes it all the more complicated. Is it coincidence that Tatis is .233/.258/.467 over his last 7 games?
If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck…
Talk about sight vs vision.
I’m wondering if Kasten is talking to Manfred behind the scenes letting him know how bad it looks that she was doinking Tatis right before the Bauer setup.
I’m wondering what a suspension would look like if lawyers could show coordination between Tatis and the accuser. Everyone involved has been stupid enough to use text messages and dms which can be easily recovered. The Internet is forever.
I’m sure MLB as well as the PPD are looking more at this as applying damage control as opposed to justice.
The reason I would like to see Ruiz is his low strikeout rate. This is in huge contrast to the rest of the team. Plus he is a switch-hitter. I like Barnes, but I think Ruiz is better… much better!
I believe none of what I read about Bauer. Good or bad. We may have more info after the All-Star Break, but don’t hold your breath. Obviously, Bauer used poor judgment, but to what degree? We do not know.
Mookie Betts Withdraws From 2021 MLB All-Star Game
Dodgers: Justin Turner and Walker Buehler Added to the NL All-Star Team
PLEASE
Could someone tell me what Tatis has to do with everything related to the Bauer problem? I missed that information and read that Tatis and Clevinger are involved, and the only thing I can think of (not knowing anything about the facts) is that …. Tatis and Clevinger hired and sent that woman with Bauer? Was it a plan to get him into trouble? It wouldn’t seem strange to me coming from those SD assholes!
In fact the only thing that would be strange is that Manny was not involved
I know, I think I’m exaggerating, but nothing is impossible and everything is possible
Why did Nunez throw a fastball and not his change? He was making him look silly with the change. Why is uceta always in the ninth? Whose bright idea was it to bring up Reed? We look like Oklahoma City. Muncy has come back to earth. He is first pitch swinging with no results. His defense is unacceptable. Betts should drop out of the all star game. Use an injury as the excuse.
I used to watch Taylor and as soon as he got 2 strikes I just wrote k in the book. Well somebody showed the stat and it was unbelievable how true that was. Bellinger looks like Taylor with 2 strikes. It gets a little old watching them bring Beaty to ph. He is a dp waiting to happen. Our catching is really in a funk. Smith looks bad on both sides of the ball. Barnes well embarrassing!
The silver lining is the team is still within 2 games and can’t play much worse!! Of all the pitchers it seems like Buehler is just missing something. He just doesn’t seem as competitive or dominant. Finally, as bear says forget Robert’s he is their guy but what a dumbass. How many times can u set uceta up for failure? Do the same thing over and over and expect a different result? Insanity!!
If Tatis Jr is some how involved, Bauer’s is a free man .
Nice update on the Farm DC. It helped take my mind off the horrid display that I had to turn off last night. Unfortunately the distraction didn’t last long.
What a joke of a game yesterday. How does a team go to town and bury the Nats, and then phone it in for the rest of the games leading up to the break? It’s like they’re all looking forward to their vacation plans.
The defense is pitiful this year as a whole and it was on full display last night. The ground ball that JT missed as disappointing and the ball that Muncy whiffed on was inexcusable. But the sac fly turned Home Run really takes the cake. How the F was Mookie not able to get to that ball? With Nunez pitching, it seemed pretty predictable that any batted ball would be really early or really late. What the hell was Mooking doing playing Right Center? How do you give up a 330 foot homer that barely clears that waist high fence with all those Gold Gloves? Then put a cherry on top with another 0-fer from the leadoff spot.
There were some bright spots. Vesia and Nunez both looked good even if Nunez’ line didn’t reflect accurately on his performance. I can see why they would comp him to Chapman, but it’s a bit of lazy comp unless you’re sitting triple digits. I’ll take 94-97 with that wicked change in his debut. He should have had a clean sheet if it weren’t for the JT ground ball and Mookie’s non catch on a perfectly catchable homer.
Invisible man AJ continues to roll with a homer and double from the 8th spot in the lineup. The algorithm apparently hasn’t noticed either.
Can we just go ahead and move on from Uceta? He’s clearly not up to the task of competing at this level. I can’t say he won’t ever be good, but he certainly isn’t fulfilling the role of a multi inning reliever.
Price wasn’t efficient, but he was effective. With a minimum of 6 days of rest before his next start, they couldn’t stretch him out to 4 innings? Give me a freaking break.
Lux reminds of that guy in the movies with a shovel that has to dig his own grave. JT gets two days off during the Marlins series and Pollock seems to sit every time he has more than one hit, but they seem to roll Lux out there every game when he clearly needs to sit from time to time when he isn’t producing at the plate.
I’m not saying the Lux doesn’t have a future here, it takes a little longer for some to develop than others and the short season last year didn’t help his development.
This team is like binge eater. They’ll feast of long winning streaks just to go lay a big turd afterwards. So much for 1st place at the All-Star break. Still hopeful for a large lead by the end of July.
I swear that the Bauer drama is more entertaining than the product on the field right now. I would love to be a fly on the wall when Bauer’s lawyers depose Tatis Jr. and the other Clevinger. I can only imagine what they’ll find when they subpoena the accuser’s text messages. So, far we’ve only see the texts from Bauer and the accuser’s “friend”.
Jake Vogel was 2-3 again last night with a walk as well.
Vargas, Pages, and Busch are all struggling with advanced pitching and I believe all will adjust. It takes time.
Great Lakes lost both games of a doubleheader 2-1.
Kevin Quackenbush has been a journeyman reliever in his MLB career which spanned 2014 to 2018. He has pitched in the minors ever since. In his major league career, he is 13-15 with a 4.38 ERA and a 1.329 WHIP in 207 IP.
In 358 MiLB innings, he is 25-15 with a 2.16 ERA and a 1.110 WHIP. He has 149 Total Saves, including 11 this year, and a 0.00 ERA in 21 IP.
He might be worth a look-see, but they would have to clear a roster spot. Perhaps, right about the All-Star Break would be the time to trade Barnsie and a lower-level prospect or two for more depth and call up Ruiz and Quackenbsuh. Nunez looks like the real deal!
Thought exercise: assuming the Dodgers have a Top 30 prospect list, what number will the new draftee [R1/#29] be after he signs?
Nice.
Pepiot/Miller/Gray all scheduled to pitch today. Our big 3. Jimmy Lewis too but he’s a tier lower.