Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
June 1st, 2022 Scoreboard
- Triple A Oklahoma City 0, Round Rock 4
- Double A Tulsa 3, San Antonio 4
- High A Great Lakes 3, Fort Wayne 1
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga 3, Lake Elsinore 12
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Diego Cartaya debuted with Great Lakes, and he reached base three times, drawing two walks, and singling back through the middle:
Cartaya did his best Max Muncy impersonation, seeing a gaudy 25 pitches in his four plate appearances. No runners attempted to steal a bag, so there wasn’t a chance for him to show off the arm.
Cartaya started off the season in the lineup for four games out of every six games series, with three coming behind the plate, and one as the DH. As the season progressed, that ramped up to playing in five out of every six, catching four, and again, one as the DH.
Familiarity with the pitching staff is of paramount importance for catchers, and in Cartaya’s debut, his former Rancho batterymates, Kendall Williams and Braydon Fisher, pitched eight of the nine innings. It’s only speculation on my part, but in the early going, he could DH a bit more with the Loons than he had with the Quakes, increasing in frequency as he gets to know the rest of the Loons’ pitching staff.
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Speaking of Kendall Williams, he broke some new ground en route to his first W of the season:
Over his last two starts, Williams has allowed two runs in 11.0 innings, striking out six, walking two, and getting 17 groundouts vs just five outs in the air.
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Andy Pages continued to use the more modest leg kick that was covered in the Prospect Notes back on Sunday, May 30th, and he went deep for the first time since making the adjustment:
Bleh, ytpos.
Pages went 2/4 for Tulsa, singling, drawing a walk, and he struck out once, which was just his second K in the past nine games. His strikeout rate prior to this nine game run was 26.9%. Since then, it’s a pretty miniscule 5.3%. If a guy who has some of the biggest pop in the system, (60 to 70 raw, depending on the prospect outlet), has added significantly improved bat to ball to his game, look out.
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Jorbit Vivas hit a laser of a homer for Great Lakes:
Vivas ended up going 2/3, also reaching via a single and an HBP.
After a rough start to the season, Vivas has been exactly as advertised — plus bat speed, plus bat to ball, with a little bit of pop now and then. His swinging strike rate of 7.8% is the third-lowest in the Dodger farm system among qualified hitters, and he’s the only qualified hitter in the system with a single digit strikeout rate — 9.0%, which is the 7th best mark out of the 813 qualified affiliated minor league hitters. He also has the best BB/K ratio in the system, 1.39.
He might have the second best hit tool in the system (just behind Miguel Vargas, for me), with fantastic strike zone judgement to boot. It’s high praise for the Dodgers to add someone in High A to the 40 man roster, and Vivas is starting to show why he belongs.
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Here’s tomorrow’s starting pitchers for each affiliate:
- Triple A Oklahoma City – Ryan Pepiot
- Double A Tulsa – Landon Knack
- High A Great Lakes – Ben Casparius*
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga – Peter Heubeck*
*Level debut
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Apropos of nothing, today is probably Thirsty Thursday at your local minor league affiliate.
Go Dodgers.
