Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
June 4th, 2022 Scoreboard
- Triple A Oklahoma City 2, Round Rock 5
- Double A Tulsa, San Antonio PPD
- High A Great Lakes 7, Fort Wayne 8
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga 2, Lake Elsinore 3
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Jose Ramos had his best day at the plate since being promoted to High A Great Lakes, hitting a pair of homers:
Ramos ended up going 2/5, knocking in three.
Compared to his time with Rancho, Ramos had been scuffling a bit with the Loons — a 51 point change in wRC+ is certainly going to stand out, no matter the direction. That said, it was just 16 games, and that aforementioned 51 point drop in wRC+ put him at 87 going into yesterday’s action. Being merely slightly below average while adjusting to a new, higher level, is totally fine, though it is great to see the exciting talent translating into success in ballgames.
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Ramos’ fellow recent ascender to High A, Diego Cartaya, went deep for the first time at the new level as well:
I wish the launch angle was available, because it looked like an absolute missile, as it got out real quick, ricocheting nearly straight up in the air. It’s incredible that he’s still just 20, and showing grown man power like this. Thank goodness he’s now at a level where we’ll be able to see nearly every game the rest of the way.
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Unfortunate news out of San Antonio, as Tulsa’s game on Saturday night was postponed:
Hopefully everyone’s alright.
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Emmet Sheehan started off his pro career on fire, racking up 41 Ks in his first 19.2 innings, though he did walk nine in that span. Still, the ability to miss bats was off the charts.
Sheehan’s first outing of the 2022 picked up where he left off in 2021, as it was pretty fantastic:
After this, he went on the IL, missing five weeks of action. His first outing back was solid, striking out five over 2.0 perfect innings. Nothing to complain about there.
Since then, things have been rough. In the three subsequent outings, he has tossed just 3.0 innings, total, allowing 12 earned runs, on eight hits, and nine walks. Perhaps most jarring of all — he has struck out just one batter.
This led me to wonder what, if anything, changed. So, here’s a side by side, his April 9th outing is on the left, and last night’s outing is on the right:
In addition to what’s in the tweet, the very obvious change is he’s lifting his lead leg higher, and that appears to be the largest intentional change. Before detailing some of the stuff that happens as a result of this change (or, at least, what’s happening in the near term), it’s important to note that when trying to make a change to a delivery, you don’t do it all at once. You work on A, then B, then perhaps C and D if they’re hand in hand, etc. So, a lot of the other stuff could simply be incidental.
Some of the possibly incidental stuff though, it’s not good. The leg lift might be causing the posture change, the delayed separation, and causing his external rotation to be flatter and longer. Also, when he’s scap loaded, his elbow is now above his shoulder line (a mild inverted W, or an M, if you prefer).
To this #notascout, the change/cause/effect appears to be less than ideal. One of Sheehan’s biggest strengths is his fastball’s vertical approach angle, and a higher gather that has him sitting down and getting into his legs later, would run counter to that. But, we’ve yet to see all the dominos fall, and I’d love to be wrong. Getting to watch and document how a pitcher’s mechanics change for the better long-term, even if it’s tough in the interim, that would be great. Right now, though, I’m struggling to see the benefit when they’re weighed against his strengths.
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Lael Lockhart was the scheduled piggyback for Sheehan, and that turned into a backpack outing:
If you noticed the sword that Lockhart picked up on the first K, those don’t just happen accidentally. A hitter being woefully late on an 88 mph fastball doesn’t happen accidentally, either, as Lockhart excels at both sequencing and tunneling:
I’m looking forward to when spin data is available for guys like Lockhart — the Dodgers don’t appear to draft guys on a whim.
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Jerming Rosario had another no-hit outing for the Quakes, though like his last one, it was a little bit of a wild ride.
In his 4.0 innings, he walked four and struck out three. Across his last two outings, that gives him a line of 8.0 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 8 walks, and 8 strikeouts. Missing bats, that’s good! Free passes, not so much. Still, the 20 year old has been nothing if not entertaining, as this was his third no-hit outing of the season. A Nuke Laloosh of our very own, who’d a thunk.
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Lastly, starting pitchers for Sunday, June 5th:
- Triple A Oklahoma City – Beau Burrows
- Double A Tulsa – Gavin Stone is currently listed as the starter, though the status of the game is uncertain.
- High A Great Lakes – Kyle Hurt
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga – Huei-Sheng Lin is the currently scheduled starter, and, via the Quakes’ recap linked above, he will pitch at some point in Sunday’s contest. This is due to a potential Clayton Kershaw rehab assignment; he did not pitch on Saturday, and his status for Sunday was unconfirmed at press time.
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Enjoy your Sunday, folks.
