MiLB Odds and Ends

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.

HERE’S A LINK TO MY ARTICLE ON PEPIOT BEFORE THE PANDEMIC