2017 LAD Minor League All-Stars

Phil Gurnee ♦ June 15, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

Pacific Coast League – AAA – no announcements yet for the July 12th game in Tacoma. The voting is still going on. I voted for Wilmer Font to start the game, no one deserves it more. Bellinger, Calhoun, Verdugo also got my votes. And Oaks.

July 12th – Update – Wilmer Font made the team and started going one shutout inning.  Calhoun and Verdugo also started the game with Calhoun being the hitting star for the night, slugging two doubles in three at-bats. Madison Younginer won the game pitching one scoreless inning.

Texas League – AA –  Nine Tulsa Drillers made the all-star team with two starters.  The starters are Edwin Rios and Michael Ahmed.  The others are Paul Hoenecke,  Matt Beaty, Tim Locastro and Kyle Garlick to help man the all-star bench.  Scott Barlow, Walker Buehler and Corey Copping were chosen as pitchers.

If you don’t have much of a chance for a major league future, it must be nice to make a minor league all-star team to hang your hat on.  Ahmed came into the year having played 3rd base most of the time, but in 2017 has spent the majority of his time at SS. He’s 25 in AA and is hitting well.  Ahmed, Hoenecke, Beaty, Locastro, and Garlick should all get some burn in AAA but it will probably take a different organization or significant Dodger injuries for them to get any major league time in their professional careers.

Edwin Rios was the Dodger minor league player of the year last year and is making another run at it this year with an outstanding offensive campaign. Rios leads the league in RBI, Total Bases, Slugging%, and OPS along with being 2nd in hits, doubles, and home runs,  He’s basically been the MVP of the Tulsa League and is doing it as a 23-year-old 3rd baseman.

Walker Buehler might eclipse Yadier Alveraz as the best pitching prospect in the system if he can stay healthy all year and prove his stuff still plays in the 5th/6th inning.

Scott Barlow hasn’t been the best pitcher in the league but he’s in the top five. At 24 he’s making up for lost time when he lost all of 2012 to injury. Barlow has always had promise but had never put together a great season until now.

A notable exception was Cuban import, Jose Fernandez. You’d think a 29-year-old middle infielder could make an AA  all-star when nine of his other teammates were selected. You’d think.

California League – A+ –Dennis Santana and Caleb Ferguson made the team as pitchers. Will Smith, Ibandel Isabel, DJ Peters, and Luke Raley made the team as position players.

Will Smith was a supplemental number one pick last year, Ibandel is leading the league in home runs, DJ Peters has the best hair and I know nothing about Luke Raley.

Dennis Santana is someone I’ve been keeping an eye on so it was great to see him make the All-Star team. Santana is a converted position player who started out as a relief pitcher but has been in the rotation since coming to the mainland.  He was having a rough June but may have turned it around with a brilliant start on June 14th. He worked seven innings for the first time this year, gave up one run, walked two, and struck out eight.

Two notable omissions were the Dodger Cubans. Am I sensing a trend here? Yadier Alvarez came into the year as the consensus top pitching prospect and has failed to live up to that billing so far.  He’s been OK, but Urias showed us that dazzling was what we expect of our top pitching prospects.  The other was the big Cuban bonus baby Yusniel Diaz who just recently started heating up.  Diaz is hitting .381 in his last ten games with three straight multi-hit games. I guess he just needed the weather to heat up.

I also expected Mitch White to make the team and be replaced since he broke his toe but he didn’t.

Midwest League – A Ball – Keibert Ruiz, Dustin May, and Brendon Davis will represent the Loons and play before their own fans.  The 18-year-old switch-hitting catcher Ruiz is currently my number one positional prospect. Brendon Davis was added as a replacement. Dustin May has been sensational with only one bad start since April 8th. He has a brilliant K/BB ratio and is certainly one of the top pitching prospects in the organization.

A notable omission was last years number one pick Gavin Lux who has failed to get any traction going with his bat and instead of being the shortstop of the future is playing as much at 2nd base as at shortstop.