Alex Verdugo has little left to prove in AAA
Alex Verdugo is tearing up AAA right now but the Dodgers are so loaded with major league outfielders there doesn’t seem to be any room for the talented outfielder. Over his last ten games, Verdugo is hitting .476. The table below is courtesy of www.milb.com.
Over those ten games, Alex had multiple hits in seven of them while striking out only one time in his last 42 at-bats. That is a skill set you don’t see much anymore.
| DATE | OPP | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06/06/2018 | @SAC | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .309 |
| 06/07/2018 | @SAC | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .306 |
| 06/08/2018 | @FRE | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .318 |
| 06/09/2018 | @FRE | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .329 |
| 06/10/2018 | @FRE | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .327 |
| 06/11/2018 | @FRE | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .323 |
| 06/14/2018 | SL | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .327 |
| 06/15/2018 | SL | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .333 |
| 06/16/2018 | LV | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .335 |
| 06/17/2018 | LV | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .341 |
| TOTALS | 42 | 4 | 20 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 1 | .476 |
The problem for Alex Verdugo and Andrew Toles is that unlike the Dodger rotation, the Dodger outfielders are staying healthy with nary a DL stint since Puig came back in Mid-May. Healthy and productive.
This is a good time for Verdugo to get smoking hot as the trade talks will start going into high gear over the next six week and the hotter Alex and Toles can get, maybe the more the Dodgers can get for them if the Dodgers decide to trade from the outfield strength. It would have made some sense to expect Matt Kemp to have hit the DL by now but Matt is defying all odds as he continues to make his case to represent the Dodgers in the All-Star game along with Ross Stripling and Max Muncy.
Other minor league notes:
Matt Beaty joined the OKC team on May 25th and after a period of adjustment seems to have gotten it figured out and finished the week with a four-hit effort on Sunday. His OPS is now up to .836 and will probably continue to climb from here.
25-year-old infielder Angelo Mora has hit .486 with eight walks in his last ten games for OKC.
The Dodgers signed Drew Hutchison last week after he was released by the Phillies. Drew once looked like a promising young pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays back in 2014/2015. Drew made his 1st appearance for OKC yesterday and picked up the win though his numbers weren’t impressive.
The highly ranked catchers for Tulsa aren’t doing much with the bat these days. Will Smith is hitting .161 over his last ten games, and Keibert Ruiz is hitting just .216 in his last ten games.
Jeren Kendall hit home runs in back to back games capping a good week for the 2017 number one pick. Jeren almost managed to have more hits than strikeouts but it ended up a tie at 7. With 81 strikeouts in just 211 at-bats at this level (a+) it is hard to imagine any kind of major league future for him other than as a defensive replacement/speed option. Not something you want from your number one pick.
Dustin May has pitched two games in a row without allowing a run. In those two starts, May has gone 11 innings, given up six hits, zero runs, four walks, and struck out twelve.
I haven’t written much about Dean Kremer but he has been on a strikeout tear for the Quakes. Over his last four starts, Dean has thirty-five strikeouts in just twenty-two innings with just six walks. The 14th round pick in 2016 is just 22 years old.
Just saying
The Dodgers brought up Caleb Ferguson on June 6th and he’s now made three starts for the Dodgers with each start getting better and better but doing little to prove that he should actually be in the major leagues right now. The Dodgers have won only one of those three starts and that was due to the offense scoring twelve runs.
Gcar Date Tm Opp Rslt IP H R ER BB SO
1 Jun6 LAD PIT L9-11 1.2 2 4 4 3 3
2 Jun12 LAD TEX W12-5 4.0 5 2 2 2 3
3 Jun17 LAD SFG L1-4 5.0 2 4 3 1 6
1-2 10.2 9 10 9 6 12
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/18/2018.
Manny Bañuelos is on the same pitching timetable as Caleb Ferguson and while Caleb has been struggling in his three major league starts, Manny continues to pitch well in AAA. The Dodgers skipped Manny’s start last week when it appeared they would use him but instead they opted with Caleb again. Manny is in a tough spot if the Dodgers bring him up for a spot start they have to let him go when the pitcher he replaced comes off the DL, and any team can claim him in which case they would lose him. On the other hand, we are nearing the 1/2 mark in the season and if they didn’t use the Manny bullet during this three-start stint by Caleb it seems unlikely they will use it at all this season. It is very possible that Manny would have struggled just as much as Caleb in these three starts, but I’d rather have taken my chances on Manny than on a 21-year-old with two AAA starts on his resume.
| DATE | OPP | W | L | ERA | SV | IP | H | ER | BB | SO |
|---|
| 06/06/2018 | @SAC | 1 | 0 | 3.45 | 0 | 5.2 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
| 06/15/2018 | SL | 1 | 0 | 3.14 | 0 | 6.0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
Even more fun is what Wilmer Font is doing for Tampa as “bullpen starter”. In his best professional appearance to date, Wilmer Font got 14 outs against the studded NYY lineup pitching the Rays to a victory. I’m probably only pointing this out because back in March I said that Font would be the biggest surprise for the Dodgers this year. It was a small limb to crawl out on in that many didn’t even think he belonged in the major leagues much less on the Dodgers roster. Foolish me, I should have gone with a AAA hitter like Max Muncy, or a Ross Stripling who seemed destined for many non leveraged middle relief appearances but no I went with the guy who was released in April.
Date Tm Opp Rslt Inngs IP H ER BB SO
Jun8 TBR SEA L3-4 GS-3 2.1 2 2 1 5
Jun13 TBR TOR W1-0 GS-4 3.1 2 0 3 1
Jun17 TBR NYY W3-1 GS-5 4.2 4 1 1 5
6-11 33.1 42 28 13 29
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/18/2018.
Can Matt Kemp escape gravity?
Much has been made about the resurgence of Matt Kemp but we need to keep one very important thing in mind. Matt Kemp had an OPS in 2017 of .922 on this date. It is not like Matt Kemp stopped hitting a baseball and shocked the world with what he has done in 2018. He did exactly the same thing in 2017. The big question is, can he continue to do it for the rest of the year or will gravity take him down as it did in 2017.
As noted above his OPS was .922 on June 14th, 2017. That was the last time it would be that high. By the end of June, it had dropped to .869. By the end of July, it had dropped to .813. It pretty much stabilized at that point with Matt ending the season with a .781 OPS.
Everyone seems to be saying this is a different Matt Kemp but I wonder what they were saying in Atlanta on June 14th, 2017?
Either way, there is no argument that so far in 2018, Matt Kemp has performed at an all-star level. Eventually, he is going to have a slump, how deep and how long is the only question? Luckily the Dodgers still have a plethora of outfielders waiting in the wings if it does get ugly.
Andrew Toles is playing once again back in AAA. Alex Verdugo is still honing his immense skills in AAA. Max Muncy can actually play the outfield. All are left-handed and maybe the way to keep Matt fresh is for a right-handed left fielder to show up on the roster. With Chris Taylor now a permanent fixture at shortstop, Kiké is now the only right-handed hitting outfielder on the roster and he’s being used to platoon with Joc in CF on the days that Cody Bellinger is not the CF.
Matt Kemp helped carry the Dodgers when they needed his offense the most. If he does slump this summer, it will be upto the rest of the lineup to help carry Matt Kemp.
Maybe he never slumps and never gets hurt and beasts like this all year.
Maybe
Is anyone betting on it? I’m sure the Dodgers aren’t.
Standings a year ago
The Dodgers had 45 wins at this point in the season a year ago but their actual place in the standing only varies by a few games. Right now the Dodgers are in 2nd place, 2 1/2 games behind the Diamondbacks while last year even with ten extra wins they were only 1/2 game in front of the Diamondbacks and were tied with the Rockies for 1st place.
The biggest difference standing wise is that the 2017 Giants had already imploded on their way to a 64 win last place season.
Tm W L W-L% GB RS RA pythW-L% LAD 41 25 .621 -- 322 228 .653 COL 42 26 .618 -- 351 285 .594 ARI 41 26 .612 0.5 344 261 .624 SDP 27 40 .403 14.5 243 356 .332 SFG 26 41 .388 15.5 242 315 .382
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/15/2018.
This year the Giants already have 34 wins compared to only 26 last year and could conceivably contend if they don’t get swept up in the Dodger dinger maelstrom this weekend.
| Tm | W | L | GB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 38 | 30 | .559 | — |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 35 | 32 | .522 | 2.5 |
| San Francisco Giants | 34 | 35 | .493 | 4.5 |
| Colorado Rockies | 33 | 35 | .485 | 5.0 |
| San Diego Padres | 33 | 38 | .465 | 6.5 |
Dodgers could get more separation this weekend
It was just one week ago that the Dodgers/Giants/Rockies were all tied for second place, just a scant 1 1/2 behind the Diamondbacks.
NL West Standings on June 8th
Tm W L W-L% GB RS RA pythW-L% ARI 33 29 .532 -- 249 223 .550 LAD 32 31 .508 1.5 302 257 .573 COL 32 31 .508 1.5 278 310 .450 SFG 32 31 .508 1.5 268 295 .456 SDP 29 36 .446 5.5 253 302 .420
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/15/2018.
One week later a bit of separation has occurred. The Diamondbacks won five games but only the Dodgers could keep pace jumping into second place by themselves. The Rockies won only one game and have dropped into 4th place. The Giants went 2 – 3 and fell into 3rd place two full games behind the Dodgers.
Tm W L W-L% GB RS RA pythW-L% ARI 38 30 .559 -- 301 254 .577 LAD 35 32 .522 2.5 327 271 .585 SFG 34 35 .493 4.5 291 320 .457 COL 33 35 .485 5.0 302 346 .438 SDP 33 38 .465 6.5 273 320 .428
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/15/2018.
The Dodgers host the Giants for a three-game set at a good time. The Giants just finished a taxing trip East Coast road trip which ended in Florida and the getaway game involved a sixteen inning affair which should leave them a tad tired as they arrive in Los Angeles.
The Giants did get back Madison Bumgarner but they have lost Longoria for at least six weeks. Brandon Belt was one of the best hitters of early 2018 but he has been out of the lineup for several weeks. He was supposed to return next Monday but it is possible he will be activated with the injury to Longoria. Pablo Sandoval has been playing 1st for Belt, and will now shift to 3rd base to replace Longoria. Pablo has had a bit of a revival this year and has a June OPS of .872 in 43 plate appearances.
The Giants have been led offensively in June by Brandon Crawford who sports a robust 1.187 OPS. Andrew McCutchen is not far behind with a June OPS of 1.071 with five home runs.
The Dodgers have been winning by hitting home runs or dancing their way to victory. This should be a fun series between the two rivals with much at stake as each team tries to stay within the striking distance of the Diamondbacks who found their footing once Paul Goldschmidt remembered who he was.
Bullpen not as good as I thought
After that great bullpen performance last night I wondered over to Fangraphs and expected to see our bullpen near the top for June, but to my surprise they are 19th.
As expected Erik Goeddel has been great but did you know that left-handed specialist Edward Paredes has been incredibly effective? Or that Dan Hudson has been the second-best right-hand relief pitcher in June for the Dodgers? That Kenley Jansen is getting saves but he’s not doing it the way he’s always done it as his K/9 rate in June is only 4.5 compared to his career of 13.69? Scott Alexander has a GB% of 86%.
| Name | WAR | G | IP | K/9 | BB/9 | GB% | ERA |
| Erik Goeddel | 0.3 | 6 | 7 | 10.29 | 1.29 | 45.00% | 0 |
| Edward Paredes | 0.2 | 4 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 |
| Daniel Hudson | 0.1 | 4 | 4.2 | 9.64 | 1.93 | 60.00% | 0 |
| Tony Cingrani | 0.1 | 3 | 2 | 13.5 | 4.5 | 33.30% | 0 |
| Scott Alexander | 0.1 | 6 | 5.1 | 8.44 | 5.06 | 86.70% | 5.06 |
| Dennis Santana | 0.1 | 1 | 3.2 | 9.82 | 2.45 | 25.00% | 12.27 |
| Josh Fields | 0 | 5 | 3.1 | 2.7 | 2.7 | 22.20% | 5.4 |
| Pedro Baez | 0 | 4 | 5 | 1.8 | 3.6 | 35.70% | 1.8 |
| Pat Venditte | 0 | 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 13.5 | 20.00% | 13.5 |
| Daniel Corcino | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2.25 | 6.75 | 46.20% | 2.25 |
| Kenley Jansen | -0.1 | 5 | 6 | 4.5 | 3 | 50.00% | 3 |
| Adam Liberatore | -0.1 | 3 | 4 | 6.75 | 2.25 | 66.70% | 2.25 |
| Brock Stewart | -0.1 | 3 | 4 | 6.75 | 4.5 | 47.10% | 9 |
| Yimi Garcia | -0.3 | 6 | 5.2 | 3.18 | 1.59 | 52.40% | 4.76 |
Max Muncy and Dylan Covey have a bit in common besides that “y” at the end of their name.
Max Muncy and Dylan Covey were both drafted fairly high by the Oakland Athletics and both are now producing at the major league level for other organizations while Oakland got little to nothing in return.
Most Dodger fans by now, know that Max Muncy was cut loose by the Oakland Athletics after being drafted by them in the 5th round of the 2012 draft. Muncy made it to the major leagues for Oakland by 2015 but was unable to impress with a Mendoza type stat line. Muncy followed that up in 2016 with a tepid AAA performance and had an even worse stint in the major leagues. It made perfect sense for Oakland to cut ties with Muncy following the 2016 season. With Max Muncy now the leading OPS hitter in the NL with at least 150 PA, and the ability to play 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and the outfield I can only imagine the regret going on right now in the Oakland front office.
I expect most Dodger fans have never heard of Dylan Covey and I only recently stumbled upon him because of a game against the Red Sox I happened to catch last week. Dylan Covey was a 4th round pick for Oakland in the 2013 draft. He had been drafted in the first round by the Brewers in 2010 but elected to deal with type one diabetes and go to college. As a college pitcher, Covey took his time moving up the Oakland ladder and by the summer of 2016 was still in AA. In the fall of 2016, Oakland had to make a decision about whether to add Covey to the 40 man roster and protect him from the rule 5 draft or leave him unprotected. They chose to leave him unprotected and the Chicago White Sox picked him up. Because Covey was a rule five pick he had to stay on the White Sox major league roster all year and he took his lumps. By the time 2017 had ended, it didn’t look like Oakland had made a mistake by leaving him unprotected as Covey ended the season with a 7.70 ERA and his FIP was nearly identical. Covey didn’t make the team this spring and started out in AAA but once some injuries hit the White Sox rotation he was called up and has been the ………………wait for it…………….the ace of the White Sox since he joined the rotation on May 23rd. It is a small sample size but his latest victory was over the Cleveland Indians, giving him three straight victories over three of the best teams in baseball this year, the Brewers, Red Sox, and Indians. To be sure he has not been dominant but I like how his innings have increased with each start from 4 to 5 to 6 to 7 over his past four starts. He has yet to give up a home run. He won’t keep this up but the scouting reports have said the reason for his newfound success is that he ditched his four-seamer for a two-seamer and not only increased his velocity a few ticks but is getting over a ground ball rate over 60%.
Rk Date Opp Rslt Dec IP H ER BB SO HR ERA Str 2 May23 BAL W11-1 W(1-1) 7.0 6 1 1 8 0 3.46 65 3 May28 CLE L6-9 4.1 5 2 3 3 0 3.63 48 4 Jun3 MIL W6-1 5.0 4 0 3 7 0 2.82 62 5 Jun8 BOS W1-0 W(2-1) 6.0 3 0 1 7 0 2.22 56 6 Jun13 CLE W3-2 W(3-1) 7.0 10 2 0 5 0 2.29 60
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/14/2018.
Oakland has one of the tighter budgets in baseball and they can ill afford to simply give away major league talent. Right now, Billy Beane should be evaluating his minor league developers and evaluators and figure out why they weren’t able to see any of this coming. Maybe they simply don’t like players whose last name end in “y”?
The Dodgers and White Sox are glad they didn’t.
Joc is on an extra base hit tear
At this point, you could write about every Dodger starter and find something amazing but today I’ll focus on Joc.
Since Joc Pederson showed up as a full-time player in 2015 we have learned several things about our Joc. He is one streaky dude. One moment (for long swaths of at-bats) Joc looks very much like someone who needs to be in AAA, a long moment later, Joc is all-world and you can’t remember why in the world you thought he should be in AAA.
Joc started the season in one those of frigid streaks and just as you thought is this all there is, he exploded and is now hotter than the Western San Fernando Valley in August.
Joc Pederson is on the second hottest extra-base hit run of his career with at least one extra-base hit in his last five games. His hottest streak which helped get him into the 2015 All-Star hitting contest started on May 31st, 2015 and went six games. This streak is only at five games but it is the best of his career because he has four doubles and five home runs giving him nine extra-base hits in this stretch.
Joc Pederson batted 8th last night and normally that would be an affront for the hottest hitter in baseball, but with everyone except Justin Turner hot in the Dodger lineup, you can’t complain.
Strk Start End Games AB 2B 3B HR OPS 2015-05-31 2015-06-04 6 24 1 1 5 1.512 2018-06-05 2018-06-12 5 19 4 0 5 1.947 2016-06-10 2016-06-14 5 20 3 0 3 1.331 2017-07-24 2017-07-28 4 11 2 0 2 1.720 2017-07-07 2017-07-15 4 16 3 0 1 1.283 2016-08-12 2016-08-16 4 15 4 0 2 1.663 2016-05-06 2016-05-10 4 16 2 0 2 1.125 2015-06-19 2015-06-22 4 13 2 0 2 1.394 2015-04-27 2015-05-02 4 14 1 0 4 1.756
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/13/2018.
Evidently, Max Muncy can do everything
This is getting beyond the ridiculous. Max Muncy came into yesterday’s game with the best OPS+ of any National League hitter with at least 150 plate appearances. He had appeared in 23 games at 3rd base, 18 games at 1st base, and 5 games in the outfield.
He started yesterday at 2nd base. And hit a home run.
He now has the highest OPS on the Dodgers and maybe in baseball at the following positions.
1st Base / .996 OPS
3rd Base / 1.102 OPS
2nd Base / 1.750
Split PA BA OBP SLG OPS as 1B 68 .281 .382 .614 .996 as 2B 4 .500 .500 1.250 1.750 as 3B 74 .283 .419 .683 1.102 as LF 3 .000 .000 .000 .000 as PH 8 .167 .375 .167 .542
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/13/2018.
Caleb Ferguson ignites Dodger offense
Caleb Ferguson has now started two games and gotten a total of seventeen outs but the team has scored twenty-three runs in both of his starts. Can you imagine how many games Clayton Kershaw would have won in a month if the team had scored twenty-three runs in a month back when he was the best pitcher in baseball every month of every season for about eight years?
I’m guessing there are two reasons why Caleb got this start instead of Manny Banuelos. First, they probably wanted him to wash away his debut start so that didn’t linger in his mind. If that was the case they succeeded. It wasn’t a thing of beauty but he managed to get twelve outs and be replaced with a pinch hitter instead of being removed with runners all over the place in the second inning. The second is that if the Dodgers had brought up Manny, they run the risk of losing him. Now, I have no idea how big a deal that might be, but given that he is now the last man standing OKC in the system who can reasonably be expected to start a game it might be a big deal. If Manny had started and then Kenta / Hill / Walker all show back up within the next ten days, they don’t have a place for him at the major league level and they probably would have lost when they tried to return him to the minor leagues. So they went with Caleb and the gamble worked as the offense and bullpen made this an easy victory over a bad team.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 