Caleb Ferguson takes weekly FFA

Phil Gurnee ♦ April 30, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

Caleb Ferguson doesn’t get the press of the other Dodger pitching prospects. Much more has been written about his teammates, Dennis Santana and Yadier Alvarez, but it is Caleb Ferguson who keeps on plugging away solid game after solid game. This week he threw two gems and won the weekly FFA award.

Caleb did it by making two starts, throwing eleven innings, giving up nine hits, zero earned runs, walking three and striking out eleven. Caleb has now given up just one earned run in his last four starts with twenty-six strikeouts in just twenty innings.  He has statistically been the best Dodger pitching prospect so far in April.

Manny Bañuelos also pitched two gems last week. The one time prized NYY prospect is trying to get his career back on a path to the major leagues and statistically, he appears to be moving in the right direction. Walks have plagued him for several years, but so far in 2018 he has gotten the walks under control. In the two starts last week, Manny threw nine innings, gave up seven hits, three earned runs, walked just one, and struck out fifteen. Overall, Manny now has pitched twenty-five innings, given up just eighteen hits, six earned runs, four walks, and twenty-nine strikeouts.  Whatever tweaks the Dodger pitching coaches did, seem to be working.

Rancho 3rd baseman Rylan Bannon had one hit in every game last week. One hit. Three times that one hit was a home run giving him eight on the year and a share of the California League home run lead with eight. He shares that with teammate Connor Wong who did not hit a home run last week.

2016 first round pick Gavin Lux is heating up for Rancho. The twenty-year-old shortstop collected ten hits in nineteen at-bats last week. Included in that was his first home run of the year. He also picked up five walks making him an on-base machine. Lux played 2nd/SS in 2017 but the Dodgers have pretty much left him alone at shortstop this year.