Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
May 3rd, 2022 Scoreboard
- Triple A Oklahoma City 4, Albuquerque 5
- Double A Tulsa, Wichita PPD
- High Great Lakes, Beloit PPD
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga 5, Lake Elsinore 4
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Diego Cartaya hit a brief speedbump out of the gate, scuffling to a .143/.268/.343 line after his first eight games, while striking out multiple times in seven of those contests, 18 total whiffs.
He is quickly making up for lost time:
Cartaya is slashing .370/.514/.778 in the seven games since, and struck out only five times over that span, a massive reduction.
Cartaya, who was MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 ranked international amateur prospect in the 2018 class, shined for the Quakes for nearly two months before having his season ended in mid-July by injury issues. Fully rehabbed, and having gotten past a brief adjustment period as he returned to full season ball, this torrid stretch is displaying why nearly every prospect outlet has him as either the No. 1 or 2 prospect in the Dodger system — he learns quickly, he makes adjustments, and his response is loud.
Oh, and he has both quick feet and a cannon:
The ride up is just starting.
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Bobby Miller‘s Dodger Stadium debut in the Freeway Series got a lot of chatter going, as if it was a thing that gets people fired up, he did ’em:
After a Miller tossed four innings of 1-hit ball in his season debut for Tulsa, he ran into a rough patch in his next two outings, tossing a total of 3 2/3 innings, and allowing six earned runs on nine hits, while striking out just two.
Miller righted the ship in the subsequent trip to the mound:
So, what gives? Well, it appears a very minor change may have paid some dividends:
Miller’s fastball command suffered in those two outings, and the misses were a bit indicative of an arm that was late — his four seamer was typically either flat and running arm-side due to the lateness, or he was yanking it low and glove-side as the arm tried to catch up. A small adjustment, and he regained the kind of four-seam carry and command of his hundo that has him looking like a future ace.
Going through and overcoming periods of struggle at the minor league is an exceptionally good thing. Major League Baseball is merciless. Hitters will adjust, and they will keep adjusting, the game will grind you down and end your career if you can’t adjust back. The quickness with which Miller made this particular adjustment is reassuring, more than anything.
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Lastly, there was another no-hit outing in the system — this time, it was via 2021 5th-round pick Ben Casparius:
I mean…
With Casparius getting movement like this, it’s pretty easy to see why he was in the top 10 in the NCAA in strikeouts while at the University of Connecticut. At the time of the draft, Casparius’ fastball was 92-95 MPH, and (yeah, another one), he has reportedly added a tick or two bit since joining the Dodger organization.
At 23, stuff like this should see him off to Great Lakes before too long.
