Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
June 7th, 2022 Scoreboard
- Triple A Oklahoma City 6, Sugar Land 4
- Double A Tulsa 5, Northwest Arkansas 2
- High A Great Lakes 8, Dayton 14
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga 11, Stockton 6
- ACL Dodgers 2, ACL Rangers 4
- DSL Dodgers Mega 11, DSL Marlins 6
- DSL Dodgers Bautista 6, DSL Boston Blue 15
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Gavin Stone is laying waste to the Texas League:
Stone’s previous career high in strikeouts was 12, which came in his last start for Rancho Cucamonga, on August 13th, 2021. Via Tulsa play by play announcer Dennis Higgins, Stone finished one strikeout shy of the ONEOK Field record, 14, set by none other than Dustin May, back in 2019.
On top of lowering his ERA to 0.41 with Tulsa, he lowered his FIP to 0.82, the lowest mark at the entire AA level (minimum 20.0 innings)… by a lot. Second place is nearly a run higher, at 1.73. In his 22.0 Texas League innings, he has 37 strikeouts, and has issued just three walks. For the season, Stone’s ERA is 0.96, which is second out of the nearly 300 full season, qualified minor league pitchers, just 0.01 behind the overall leader, Mariners farmhand (and Sherman Oaks native/Crespi Carmelite alum) Taylor Dollard.
Stone’s K%-BB% rose to an exceptional 30.8% — that’s ties him for 7th in all of minor league baseball among qualified pitchers. Who’s he tied with? The #1 pitching prospect in all of baseball, Grayson Rodriguez of the Orioles. Really, what Stone is doing, without getting much, if any recognition, is shocking.
As noted in the tweet, Stone’s last fastball of the night (and his 90th pitch) was 95 mph. Two starts ago, it was mentioned here in the Propect Notes that as Stone’s velo dipped into the 92-93 range as he got to 60+ pitches in recent starts. Encouragingly, that late 95 wasn’t just a rear back and huck it one-off; he was living 94-95 throughout the outing, topping out at 96 several times. Holding his velo this late is perhaps, at least in part, due to having two extra days of rest, as his scheduled start on Sunday, June 5th, was canceled due to positive COVID-19 test results among the Amarillo players and coaches. Given the extra rest, I’m not all in on him being fully stretched out just yet — let’s see what his next start brings. But yeah, super encouraging either way.
One last note — Stone threw a large number of curveballs, something he hadn’t done too much of recently. Some were better than others, as is often the case when working on a fourth pitch, but the added wrinkle in the low 80s did a good job of complementing the mid 90s heater and mid to upper 80s slider and changeup, with opposing hitters very clearly off balance from having to factor in a different look, and an expanded velo range.
It’s high time folks took notice. But then, even if they don’t, Stone has shown that he’s just going to do his thing, and shove anyway.
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On any other night, Andy Pages would be leading off this article, because he had a monster game as well, both with the bat:
And with the glove:
The 11 total bases were a career high for Pages, whose previous was 10, which he tallied on four different occasions.
Pages has really broken out in the last couple of weeks, slashing .351/.489/.784, as he continues to walk (6) more than he strikes out (4), with the abbreviated leg kick he is now employing.
It’s important to note that Pages is doing this while being 3.2 years younger than average for the Texas League, and excelling against older competition is what led to him being ranked as the #13 overall prospect in the game by the projection system ZiPS.
Thank goodness Arte Moreno saved Andrew Friedman from himself here.
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Max Muncy, folks. What a sight for sore eyes:
I love the slightly muted walkoff dogpile at home. Precious cargo there, gents.
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Kendall Williams continued his solid run for Great Lakes:
Williams is showing impressive pitchability. If the fastball ever takes the jump into the mid-90s that was widely forecast when the Dodgers acquired him, he could be a quick riser.
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Damon Keith was the offensive star for Rancho Cucamonga, going 2/4, hitting his 6th and 7th homers, the latter of which was an inside the parker. He also reached via a walk, and his big day at the plate raised his OPS to .979.
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The Arizona Complex League and the Dominican Summer League have both kicked off play. As was likely surmised from the scoreboard, the Dodgers have their one ACL team, but two DSL teams.
The ACL roster features several notable prospects, from rehabbing guys like Carlos Duran, Robinson Ortiz, and Cameron Gibbens, to big time international amateur signees like Wilman Diaz, Jesus Galiz, Rayne Doncon, and Joel Ibarra. Though 10 year MLB vet Dellin Betances isn’t listed, he is with the club on a rehab assignment as well.
The DSL Dodgers Mega roster has the #1 player in the January ’22 IFA class for the Dodgers, Samuel Munoz. The #2 player in the class, Accimias Morales, is on the DSL Dodgers Bautista roster.
It can be difficult to find out much information aside from stat lines for these minor league levels, but I’ll endeavor to pass on whatever details I come across.
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Lastly, today’s starting pitchers for the full season affiliates:
- Triple A Oklahoma City – Andre Jackson
- Double A Tulsa – Clayton Beeter
- High A Great Lakes – Ben Casparius
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga – Peter Heubeck
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Enjoy your hump day, folks.
