Buehler blows Cardinals off perch

Phil Gurnee ♦ May 18, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

Walker Buehler may not find any competition for his pitching repertoire until he hits the major leagues.  Walker struck out nine of his eleven outs yesterday in AAA and there is already talk that the talented Buehler could be used in the Dodger bullpen come Sept. He clearly won’t be stretched out enough to be a major league starter in 2017 but if he can bring his 100 MPH heat to the bullpen he might give the Dodgers a shot in the arm right when they need it.

Baseball America checks in:

Walker Buehler, rhp, Dodgers. The Dodgers have been careful with Buehler, maxing his pitch count at around 65. However many pitches he has, Buehler is using them to great effect. Like Ivan Drago, every batter Buehler faces, he destroys. In just 3.2 innings Wednesday for Double-A Tulsa, the former Vanderbilt ace struck out nine, touching 100 mph according to the Drillers’ Twitter account. Buehler has struck out 39 of the 95 batters he’s faced and opponents are hitting just .195 against him.

Justin Masterson continues to make his case to pitch once again in the major leagues. Masterson went six innings gave up just two runs, walked none, and struck out seven.

Josh Ravin who looked so impressive last Sept in the Dodger bullpen was fantastic last night. Ravin struck out five of the six hitters he faced.  Ravin came off the DL on May 1st, and has appeared only six times but in those six games he has struck out fifteen hitters out of his twenty one outs with only two walks.

Dennis Santana bounced back from his first rough outing in Rancho on May 12 to pitch a solid game last night.  Santana went five innings, gave up zero earned runs, walked two and struck out five.