Logan Forsythe comes alive
Either by health, skill, or luck, Logan Forsythe has decided to join the Dodger hit party. On June 17th, the OPS was at .574 and Dodger fans were weary of his weak at-bats. It seems the Dodgers are in almost perfect sync, as Chris Taylor went into a little funk, Logan Forsythe caught fire and has raised his OPS over 100 points in just twelve games. Most of that came this weekend when he collected eight hits in two games, but even before that, his bat was showing signs of life with hits in seven of his previous ten games before going off against the Padres this weekend. Over the last seven days Logan has an OPS of 1.183, over the last fourteen days he has an OPS of .907. That will play.
Cody Bellinger racks up another award
Cody’s mom is going to need to build a new mantle at the rate he keeps bringing home the hardware. Only two months into his major league career and Cody Bellinger has already won:
- NL Rookie of the Month for June (his latest)
- NL Rookie of the Month for May
- NL Player of the Week from June 19th – June 25th
- NL Player of the Week from May 1st – May 7th
- 2017 All-Star berth
His future probably holds a 2017 Rookie of the Year, and just might hold a 2017 MVP award.
Per the Dodgers press release to the media:
Among qualified NL rookie sluggers with at least 20 at-bats, Bellinger finished the month first in runs scored, hits (30), doubles, home runs, RBI, stolen bases and slugging percentage. In addition, his 13 home runs matched Jimmie Hall (August 1963) for the third-most homers by a rookie in a single month in MLB history. On June 19th against the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium, Bellinger went 3-for-5 with a pair of home runs and four RBI. The multi-homer effort was his fifth of the 2017 season and propelled him to becoming the fastest player in MLB history to reach 21 round-trippers (51 career games). Additionally, the Scottsdale, Arizona native surpassed Adrian Beltre (20 HR, 2000) to log the most home runs as a Dodger in a season at age 21-or-younger. The following night, the dynamic slugger connected for his 22nd home run of the season in a game that saw Los Angeles record a season-high-tying five homers. With the prolific output, the Dodgers had blasted 27 home runs in its previous 10 games, establishing a new franchise record for homers over any 10-game span. For Bellinger, it was his 10th home run over his last 10 games (June 10th-20th), and he became just the second player in team history to log 10 homers in 10 contests, joining Shawn Green (May 2002). In addition, Bellinger became the first rookie in Major League history to accomplish the feat, and was the first big league player to do so since Troy Tulowitzki (September 8-18, 2010). Bellinger finished his historic month with a final multi-homer game on June 25th against the Colorado Rockies, establishing a club record for the most multi-home run games (6) in a rookie season. Not even halfway through the season, Bellinger trails only Mark McGwire (7) for the most multi-homer games as a rookie in MLB history. The overall single-season mark of 11 multi-homer games is held by Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg (1938) and Sammy Sosa (1998).
Keibert Ruiz is my Prospect of the Month
As spring has turned to summer the 18-year-old Ruiz has gotten as hot as the weather. Ruiz ended June with a triple stat line of .339 / .435 / .492 which according to my meager math gives him an OPS of .926. Using the table below you can see his progression.
| Month | AB | BA | OBP | Slug% | OPS |
| April | 59 | 0.237 | 0.297 | 0.271 | 0.568 |
| May | 83 | 0.337 | 0.367 | 0.458 | 0.824 |
| June | 59 | 0.339 | 0.435 | 0.492 | 0.926 |
Even though May and June had just about the same batting average, the on-base percentage jumped significantly in June, due to the growing patience of Ruiz. In April/May combined Ruiz struck out 23 times with only seven walks. In June, he improved to ten walks with only four strikeouts.
This from an 18-year-old in an advanced pitchers league. You don’t usually see that kind of improvement.
So what we have here is an 18-year-old switch-hitting catcher, showing improvement across the board as the season is wearing on. His defensive prowess was supposed to be his calling card but someone forgot to tell his bat.
All this is why Keibert Ruiz my Dodger prospect of the month for June. Alex Verdugo had a higher OPS in June at 1.036 and he was a close second. A very close second. At just 21 years old in AAA, Verdugo is showing the Dodgers he’s ready for a possible 2017 major league debut. I can’t wait to see his arm. I guess they aren’t running on him as much as word gets around. With 24 assists in 2015, 13 in 2016 and 7 so far in 2017 that is a boatload of assists.
Didn’t we tell you not to run on Alex Verdugo? This throw got a runner out at home and was named Play of the Game presented by @FollowSNU! pic.twitter.com/JLxLZnogCj
— OKC Dodgers (@okc_dodgers) June 26, 2017
One final note. MLB has Vlad Guerrero Junior as the 26th best prospect in baseball. Rotowire has him 3rd. Baseball America has him 16th. Guerrero and Ruiz are both 18, both play in the same league. Overall Guerrero is outhitting Ruiz by a significant margin, but in June, it was Ruiz who had the upper hand by a significant margin.
There are only five other 18-year-old position players in the MWL who have enough plate appearances to appear in offensive leaderboards. Ruiz is 3rd in OPS but 2nd in OBP among that group. He’s just a tad behind Tatis Junior for 2nd in OPS.
LAD FFA June 26th-July 2nd
Multiple contenders this week as the Dodger prospects kept on their hitting shoes. A new name emerged, my top position prospect continued to surge, the top pitching prospect showed why he’s at the top, and the second three-homer game in two weeks took place.
First off, a few moves took place this past week. Earlier in the week Jose Miguel Fernandez was promoted to AAA and started to play 2nd base making me wonder if Willie Calhoun was being phased out to left field. By the end of the week, Jose Miguel Fernandez was back at AA, and Willie was back at 2nd base. The other interesting move was that Drew Jackson was reinstated from the minor league disabled list and re-installed as the starting shortstop at Rancho Cucamonga. To make room for Drew Jackson the Dodgers promoted the fleet-footed Errol Robinson to AA Tulsa where he started at SS for them. Robinson has now been promoted from the Loons to Rancho to Tulsa in less than a month. I would have expected the older Drew Jackson to get the nod instead of the younger Robinson but I guess this shows us where Drew Jackson is on the Dodgers shortstop depth chart. I don’t think either is a legitimate prospect but Errol Robinson is becoming intriguing.
The Contenders:
DJ Peters – A+ – Rancho – DJ Peters slugged three home runs on Sunday to cap off a solid week of slugging. The 21-year-old from our local Glendora foothills Northeast of Los Angeles is making a case for playing in front of his family someday. Peters went nine for twenty-three for the week. Included in his three-homer game was a grand slam. Peters now leads the California League in home runs passing his teammate Ibande Isabel. His .902 OPS is second in the league to the Rockies top position prospect Brendan Rogers. Peters strikes out a lot but at least takes the walk to go with his power.
Keibert Ruiz – A – Loons – Ruiz continues to rake, going ten for twenty-two, with three walks. Included in that weekly total was his first professional grand slam. The 18-year-old ended June with a .925 OPS for the month and is already five for eight in July.
Cristian Santana – A – Loons – Santana started out the week playing in the short-season rookie league in Ogden but ended the week with the Great Lake Loons in the full-season Midwest League. I noted earlier in the week how Santana was making a mockery of the pitching at the rookie league level and the Dodgers agreed, promoting him the next day. For the week, Santana went eleven for twenty-three with two home runs. Santana is only 20-years-old so he’s not old for the Loons. He played two games at 2nd base while in Ogden but has played only 3rd for the Loons. The Loons have a glut of 2nd/SS/3rd with Lux/Davis/Oneil and now Santana. It would appear that of the four, Santana is the only one who won’t get any burn at shortstop, as the other three continue to take turns playing shortstop.
Walker Buehler – AA – Tulsa – Walker is by now the Dodgers top pitching prospect and for the last few weeks has pitched like it. On June 30th, Walker got sixteen outs, pitching into the sixth inning for the first time in his professional career. Walker gave up only two hits, zero runs, one walk, and seven strikeouts. He is on a nice role and appears on track for a possible Sept 2017 debut.
And the winner is………………
Cristian Santana, can’t ignore the hitting machine that he was last week.
Also the ugh game of the week belongs to Dennis Santana. I’ve been touting him all year as a someone to keep an eye on, but last week he let me down with a horrific effort, giving up seven earned runs while getting only five outs.
No Wood, no way
Every all-star selection season has some head scratchers, but leaving off the best pitcher in the NL seems a bit bizarre.
Jake Lamb is having a fine year, but he’s a 3rd baseman, and for him to make the team while MVP Kris Bryant, Anthony Rendon, and Justin Turner have to get voted on as the last player just doesn’t seem right. There is no metric that would give Lamb the edge over any of those three.
Hopefully when the dust clears, and all the injured have moved to the sidelines, the team will have room for Wood and Turner. That would be six Dodgers but a team headed for 105 wins should have six all-stars.
Eric Stephen showed us just how hard the road to the all-star game will be for Wood this year. None of the starters selected are currently hurt so they won’t need replacing unless they get hurt this week. That leaves the starters who pitch on Sunday and can’t pitch on Tuesday. Eric says that Kershaw will still pitch on Sunday so that is one pitcher who might need to be replaced. It would sense to replace Kershaw with Wood but will they? We will find out in a week.
CBS Sunday Morning Briefs
My favorite show is CBS Sunday Morning and every week they make me less ignorant. Today I learned about the Bradford Watermelon
and finally Mary Colter, an early 20th-century architect.
Dodger Affiliate Minor Leagues Snapshot On July 1st
OKC-AAA
Name Age PA 2B HR RBI OPS Alex Verdugo* 21 307 14 3 38 .887 Willie Calhoun* 22 306 15 17 51 .911 OKoyea Dickson 27 291 15 17 49 .847 Trayce Thompson 26 246 8 7 25 .650 Charlie Culberson 28 232 7 3 21 .675 Max Muncy* 26 209 12 7 32 .905 Bobby Wilson 34 165 7 10 24 .785 Drew Maggi 28 159 8 4 18 .889 Scott Van Slyke 30 138 7 2 6 .726 Kyle Farmer 26 120 9 6 25 .964 Brett Eibner 28 106 4 3 13 .698 Jack Murphy# 29 86 2 0 7 .356 Ike Davis* 30 75 2 3 11 .593 Mike Freeman* 29 65 2 0 4 .699
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/1/2017.
Name Age ERA GS IP WHIP H9 BB9 SO9 Wilmer Font 27 4.27 16 84.1 1.174 8.0 2.6 12.2 Justin Masterson 32 4.27 15 84.1 1.340 7.6 4.5 9.1 Trevor Oaks 24 3.64 14 84.0 1.250 9.3 1.9 7.7 Jair Jurrjens 31 4.64 10 54.1 1.491 10.4 3.0 7.3 Fabio Castillo 28 3.47 8 46.2 1.136 7.5 2.7 9.8 Madison Younginer 26 2.13 1 38.0 1.053 6.2 3.3 11.6 Jacob Rhame 24 4.15 0 34.2 1.327 9.9 2.1 11.2 Layne Somsen 28 2.35 0 30.2 1.272 7.6 3.8 9.4 Joe Broussard 26 1.48 0 30.1 1.121 7.7 2.4 11.0 Brandon Morrow 32 7.20 0 20.0 1.500 11.3 2.3 9.9 Josh Ravin 29 6.23 0 17.1 1.500 8.8 4.7 14.0 Jeremy Bleich* 30 2.16 0 16.2 0.780 6.5 0.5 8.6 Adam Liberatore* 30 0.93 0 9.2 0.621 4.7 0.9 8.4 31 Players 27.6 4.07 79 701.0 1.271 8.6 2.8 9.6
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/1/2017.
Tulsa – AA
Name Age PA 2B HR SB BB SO OPS Edwin Rios* 23 309 19 15 1 16 66 .888 Tim Locastro 24 303 17 4 14 20 42 .779 Jose Fernandez* 29 265 13 8 0 14 22 .835 Matt Beaty* 24 241 15 8 3 22 32 .867 Jacob Scavuzzo 23 230 10 10 1 11 67 .674 Johan Mieses 21 224 5 10 0 17 89 .520 Paul Hoenecke* 26 184 11 7 1 7 44 .660 Wynston Sawyer 25 184 12 4 1 13 40 .768 Kyle Garlick 25 180 8 11 1 11 53 .811 Erick Mejia# 22 151 4 0 8 13 28 .667 Kyle Farmer 26 141 7 3 1 16 13 .879 Michael Ahmed 25 120 5 6 4 13 35 .876
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/1/2017.
Pitchers:
Name Age ERA GS IP WHIP H9 BB9 SO9 Scott Barlow 24 2.02 14 75.2 0.952 5.1 3.4 10.3 Josh Sborz 23 4.74 13 57.0 1.456 8.5 4.6 5.8 Andrew Sopko 22 3.75 12 48.0 1.500 8.3 5.3 6.4 Yaisel Sierra 26 2.51 0 46.2 1.264 8.3 3.1 11.6 Isaac Anderson 23 8.74 11 45.1 1.831 12.7 3.8 6.4 Walker Buehler 22 2.85 9 41.0 1.049 7.2 2.2 11.2 Corey Copping 23 1.85 0 39.0 1.103 5.5 4.4 8.3 Karch Kowalczyk 26 3.08 0 38.0 1.368 9.2 3.1 7.3 Ivan Vieitez 24 4.97 8 38.0 1.658 10.4 4.5 5.0 Ralston Cash 25 4.50 0 34.0 1.441 9.0 4.0 11.6 Michael Johnson* 26 4.75 0 30.1 1.451 7.4 5.6 12.2 Tim Shibuya 27 2.03 3 26.2 0.938 7.1 1.4 5.1 Shea Spitzbarth 22 3.09 0 23.1 1.286 8.5 3.1 8.5
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/1/2017.
Rancho – A+
Name Age PA 2B HR BB SO OPS DJ Peters 21 324 15 13 39 106 .864 Luke Raley* 22 316 11 8 26 74 .782 Yusniel Diaz 20 311 14 7 30 65 .794 Will Smith 22 281 13 10 36 63 .830 Ibandel Isabel 22 279 5 15 25 102 .747 Omar Estevez 19 270 13 3 17 50 .626 Brandon Montgomery 21 194 11 1 8 31 .595 Drew Jackson 23 169 7 5 23 39 .783 Zach McKinstry* 22 140 5 2 13 34 .675 James Kennedy* 24 126 6 4 14 34 .784 Ariel Sandoval 21 108 3 1 7 39 .481 Erick Mejia# 22 97 4 1 8 19 .625 Victor Roache 25 93 7 5 8 40 .819 Jared Walker* 21 77 4 1 10 35 .653 Errol Robinson 22 76 4 2 5 17 .856 Logan Landon 24 67 4 3 8 11 .864
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/1/2017.
Pitchers:
Name Age ERA GS IP WHIP H9 BB9 SO9 Caleb Ferguson* 20 3.24 14 66.2 1.425 8.4 4.5 8.5 Dennis Santana 21 3.58 11 65.1 1.332 9.2 2.8 9.5 Adam Bray 24 3.90 9 62.1 1.267 9.5 1.9 8.8 Yadier Alvarez 21 5.05 9 51.2 1.394 9.1 3.5 9.4 Dean Kremer 21 6.35 6 45.1 1.632 10.9 3.8 11.1 Mitchell White 22 3.72 9 38.2 1.086 6.1 3.7 11.4 Alex Hermeling 24 1.88 0 38.1 0.965 6.3 2.3 7.5 Andrew Istler 24 3.99 0 38.1 1.487 11.0 2.3 7.5 Tony Gonsolin 23 4.21 0 36.1 1.321 9.4 2.5 9.7 Ryan Moseley 22 3.26 3 30.1 1.385 7.4 5.0 5.9 Devin Smeltzer* 21 3.90 5 30.0 1.233 9.6 1.5 9.0 Chris Powell 24 4.67 0 27.0 1.370 10.7 1.7 9.3 Parker Curry 23 3.65 0 24.2 1.257 9.5 1.8 12.0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/1/2017.
Loons – A
Name Age PA 2B HR SB BB SO OPS Brendon Davis 19 297 15 7 3 36 92 .771 Oneil Cruz 18 289 4 5 8 19 80 .601 Cody Thomas* 22 287 12 13 1 19 89 .763 Gavin Lux* 19 252 5 3 11 28 47 .607 Mitchell Hansen* 21 232 6 4 11 28 59 .625 Carlos Rincon 19 231 9 13 4 18 92 .736 Keibert Ruiz# 18 224 13 2 0 17 27 .781 Saige Jenco* 22 192 6 1 8 25 37 .719 Luis Paz* 20 153 4 3 0 10 41 .549 Steve Berman 22 134 7 0 1 6 19 .551 Erick Meza* 19 114 5 1 0 7 19 .600 Gage Green* 24 107 8 0 0 6 18 .569 Gersel Pitre 20 89 4 0 0 7 19 .603 Errol Robinson 22 86 5 3 6 6 21 .745 Zach McKinstry* 22 69 7 1 2 17 10 .978 Moises Perez 19 55 4 0 2 5 9 .481 Darien Tubbs 22 53 0 0 2 6 10 .360
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/1/2017.
Pitchers:
Name Age ERA GS IP WHIP H9 BB9 SO9 Dustin May 19 3.33 15 75.2 1.123 8.2 1.9 9.0 Leonardo Crawford* 20 4.37 13 70.0 1.243 8.9 2.3 6.3 Jordan Sheffield 22 3.49 14 56.2 1.412 8.3 4.4 8.6 A.J. Alexy 19 2.70 14 53.1 0.994 4.7 4.2 10.1 Devin Smeltzer* 21 3.78 10 52.1 0.994 6.9 2.1 9.8 Sven Schuller 21 1.53 0 47.0 1.106 7.1 2.9 5.4 Chris Mathewson 21 3.69 5 39.0 1.436 8.8 4.2 8.5 Christian Stolo* 23 3.09 1 35.0 1.314 9.0 2.8 9.0 Miguel Urena 22 1.67 0 32.1 1.113 6.7 3.3 6.7 Vinny Santarsiero 23 2.81 0 32.0 1.500 10.4 3.1 3.4 Willian Soto 21 3.03 2 29.2 1.685 12.1 3.0 8.2 Nolan Long 23 3.75 0 24.0 1.375 7.9 4.5 12.0 Angel German 21 1.25 0 21.2 0.923 4.2 4.2 11.6 Andre Scrubb 22 1.27 0 21.1 1.125 3.8 6.3 10.1
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/1/2017.
Kershaw game score knocks off Ryu
Clayton Kershaw didn’t crack 80 but he did put up a 79 game score and now has the best game score against the Angels on the road. His brilliant performance knocked Ryu off the perch.
Player Date Tm Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc Clayton Kershaw2017-06-29 LAD LAA W 6-2 7.0 3 0 2 12 79 Hyun-Jin Ryu 2014-08-07 LAD LAA W 7-0 7.0 2 0 1 4 76
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/28/2017.
Cristian Santana explodes
I’ve learned not to pay attention to what happens in the short season rookie leagues but sometimes a performance just can’t be ignored. The Odgen season in the Pioneer League started on June 19th, and one hitter has caught my eye.
Cristian Santana is making a mockery of the Pioneer League pitching. The 20-year-old in his first nine games has twenty-one hits in his first thirty-six at-bats. Throw in six walks and you get a stat line of .583 / .628 / 1.028 / 1.656. He went hitless in his 2nd game but has collected at least two hits in the other eight games.
DATE AB R H HR RBI BB SO 06/20/2017 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 06/21/2017 4 2 3 1 2 0 0 06/22/2017 5 3 3 0 0 0 1 06/23/2017 4 3 4 1 3 0 0 06/24/2017 5 1 2 0 2 0 1 06/26/2017 4 1 2 0 0 1 1 06/27/2017 4 3 3 1 4 1 1 06/28/2017 3 1 2 0 1 1 0
This is what Fangraphs had to say about him at the start of the year:
Cristian Santana, 3B – Santana has the most entertaining set-up I’ve ever seen: he kicks his front leg out in front of his body and points the tip of the bat toward the first-base dugout. I imagine he won’t be doing that for long, so treasure it while you can. Aside from that quirk and the fact that Santana takes hyper-aggressive hacks that cause him to swing and miss a ton, I really like him. I like the body, the athleticism, the bat speed, current raw power, raw power projection, his plus arm and his natural defensive footwork over at third base. I just can’t see this guy hitting at all unless there are serious changes made to his approach.
Makes me wonder if they made those changes to his approach.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 