Willie Smalls goes yard, Tulsa Trio start raking again

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 19, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

Willie Calhoun slugged his 26th home run for the Drillers, Alex Verdugo collected three hits, and Cody Bellinger just hung out.

Let’s check in on how the Tulsa Trio have done since the trading deadline left them in the Dodger organization. I’m going to add in Edwin Rios and Johan Mieses because it will be fun to see their stats. And for good measure let’s also take a look a look at Yusniel Diaz and Yusiel Puig.

Alex Verdugo is the only one of these slumping right now. At one time Verdugo had the most home runs for a 20-year-old in the Texas League but he has not hit a home run since July 16th.

As you can see everyone else is smashing. These are just surface numbers and don’t go into what is behind these numbers such as K rate, walk rate , and BABIP but they are fun to look at.  Much like Brock Stewart and Trevor Oaks on the pitching side, Edwin Rios was barely a blip on the prospect radar headed into this season, but he has put himself firmly in the prospect conversation. He might be an AL type player, doesn’t seem to have the footwork for 3rd base, to slow for the outfield, so 1st base or DH might be his ultimate future. Possibly a Wilson Alveraz comp without the number one pick out of college that Alveraz carried with him to the Pirates. Alveraz never lived up to the lofty status of his draft pick, and now simply hits home runs for the Orioles without doing much else. That could be what Rios can be.

August Splits: