Can Dodgers continue to ride the Oklahoma pitching train?

Phil Gurnee ♦ June 6, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

Only one Dodger is still standing at the moment from the opening day rotation, thus the Dodgers have repeatedly dipped into their AAA affiliate at Oklahoma to replenish the battered rotation.

Caleb Ferguson will be following in the footsteps of Walker Buehler, Brock Stewart, and Dennis Santana. Walker Buehler, for now, looks like a permanent part of the rotation even as the Dodgers try to manipulate his innings. Brock Stewart has made two starts but the Dodgers seem to think he’s better suited in the bullpen. Dennis Santana hasn’t actually made a start even though it was really a start when he followed Scott Alexander last week in his debut. Dennis will get his first major league start tomorrow, which means the Dodgers will be using two pitchers who started the season in AA in back to back starts on Wednesday/Thursday this week.

What can we expect of a 21-year-old with two AAA under his belt? David Hood at Truebluela gives us a rundown of what Caleb bring to the mound.

Ferguson primarily pitches off of his high spin four seam fastball, which sits around 92 mph in the early innings but he can reach 94 mph when he needs it. His velocity did tend to tail off to 90-91 mph in the middle innings but he didn’t show signs of laboring in his mechanics or command. His fastball has slight armside run, and he primarily pitches up in the zone and can keep the ball above the barrel. The fastball wasn’t a true swing and miss pitch, but he was able to keep hitters from squaring it up much.

David also notes that Caleb’s primary strikeout pitch is his high spin curveball. Caleb also throws a changeup but doesn’t use it much.

Luckily for Caleb the Pirates are in a bit of a hitting slump having been shutout two games in a row by an identical score of 5 – 0 while the Dodgers are hitting home runs like the 27 Yankees.

The Dodgers have played four games in June and have hit three home runs in every game this month. Headed into June the Dodgers had only hit three home runs three times in their previous fifty-six games.