Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
May 29th, 2022 Scoreboard
- Triple A Oklahoma City 6, Reno 10
- Double A Tulsa 4, Springfield 11
- High A Great Lakes 5, South Bend 7
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga 7, Visalia 1
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Andy Pages went through a rough patch with Tulsa, but he appears to be pulling out of it, and doing so with a bit more of a conservative approach.
For a long time, Pages was immediately recognizable in the box, as he bore such a striking resemblance to someone every Dodger fan knows quite well:
Compare that to this triple from Sunday, and it’s rather apparent:
The last time Pages had a stretch that was similarly free of strikeouts was back in 2018, in the Arizona Complex League, where he struck out once in six games to close out the season, August 17th – August 27th.
Andy Pages, contact edition, had a strong series against Springfield, slashing .316/.458/.526. There were also several hard-hit outs, including a nearly 400′ line drive that was caught against the fence in center.
There’s nothing indicating that this is a permanent change, as this could be a thing they have him using full time for the moment to help him with his two-strike approach. Or, it could be the new normal. Either way, it’s something else added to the laundry list of things to watch for in the system, a quality problem, I assure you.
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River Ryan made his debut for Rancho Cucamonga, and it was a solid one, as he tossed 2.0 scoreless innings, striking out four. As was mentioned in yesterday’s Prospect Notes, Ryan reportedly has a fastball up to 97, and a curve up to 84. It appears there’s a third pitch in the mix:
If you’ll note the grip, it appears he’s throwing either a splitter, or a circle change with an aggressive split of the fingers. Whichever it is, it’s a pitch that wasn’t included in the writeup of him over at FanGraphs just three weeks ago, so this appears to be a rapidly developing situation. The Quakes will be in Stockton from June 7th-12th, so there should be an opportunity to get video of his repertoire then. Stay tuned!
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Jerming Rosario had his second no-hit outing for Rancho Cucamonga. His first one came back on May 6th, when he tossed 5.0 innings, without a walk. Yesterday, he went 4.0, striking out five, but also walking four.
This is where things get difficult to evaluate — the Quakes don’t stream their games, and not all walks are created equal. If Gameday is to be believed, none of those walks should have happened, simply based off pitch location on their zone maps — it has Rosario losing seven (!!!) strike calls in these four ABs. Then again, absent video, there’s no way of telling whether these are actual missed calls, bad misses that had no business being called a strike, or just incorrect input.
Regardless, on the plus side, the Visalia bats couldn’t do a thing with the free passes, as Rosario got four groundouts and an infield fly that were all converted, and he ended up picking up his second W of the season for the Quakes as a result.
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Jacob Amaya has been scuffling a bit with the bat, but the glove is taking no days off:
As for the aforementioned bat, while Amaya is 2/26 in his last seven games, it isn’t all bad. He’s continuing to walk more than he strikes out (5 vs 3), but his quality of contact has slipped a little bit with how pitchers have changed their plan of attack — they’re busting him up and in with fastballs, then going away with off-speed. This is the name of the game — they adjust, and you have to adjust back. Overcoming this with a flourish might be what beats the level, what propels him to Triple A.
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Lastly, there’s some unfortunate news out of Tulsa — Kody Hoese, who was on the best run of his career over the past few weeks, left the game on Sunday after a groundout to short. Sprinting hard down the line, Hoese pulled up after hitting the bag, grabbing either his upper left quad, or the adjacent groin. After battling through so many injuries and finally getting right, you gotta hope this is just a stinger. It’s too soon for any announcements, but we’ll be monitoring for any word on the situation. Fingers crossed for ya, Kody.
