Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
July 17th, 2022 Scoreboard
- Triple A Oklahoma City 3, Tacoma 6
- Double A Tulsa 16, Springfield 14
- High A Great Lakes 7, Quad Cities 8
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga 12, Fresno 3
======
Brandon Lewis had his best game of the season, hitting his 10th and 11th homers:
Lewis ended up going 3/5 with the pair of homers, a single, a walk, he scored four runs, and drove in six.
For, Lewis, whom the Dodgers drafted out of UC Irvine, the Texas League has made for some tough sledding, as even after an exceptional game like this, his OPS is just .624. As we are always on the look for positive trends, in July, that has improved to .945.
The former Anteater (and LA Pierce College Brahma, he is a juco bandit) is blessed with some of the best power in the system, graded as high as 70 by Fangraphs. He has, however, struggled with pitches that are elevated. He might need a bit of a path change to improve his coverage vertically, especially with the direction the game has taken, with so many flat plane heaters at the top. As we have seen with a lot of Dodger prospects, the carrying tool is there, and it’s very loud, but being able to tap into it consistently will remain the key. For now, it’s good to see a bit of an upward trend.
——
Justin Yurchak also got off to a slow start out of the gate the season, but, as he has one of the best hit tools in the system, things turned around for him eventually. In last night’s Tulsa game, he reached base six times, going 4/4, with a double, three singles, drawing a pair of walks, scoring four runs, and driving in two. Way to fill up a box score, sheesh.
Yurchak, whom the Dodgers acquired for Manny Banuelos back in 2018, was slashing just .224/.322/.296 after the first three months of the season. After the calendar flipped to July, things changed immediately – he kicked off his current 12 game hitting streak on the first day of the month, during which he’s slashing .422/.519/.600.
Yurchak is still limited to just first base, so a very bat-forward profile will be necessary to have a breakthrough, but there is a possibility for him as a role player. Or, since a lot of folks are looking for guys to drive to the airport, a potential 3rd or 4th piece in a deadline deal. Whatever the case, if he’s hitting, we’ll take it.
——
Ben Harris held serve with his ridiculous strikeout rate:
Number one out of 1,453. Sheesh.
Now, this does come with a flip side – the walks. While with Rancho Cucamonga, Harris, whom the Dodgers drafted out of the University of Georgia, walked 7.2 per nine innings. The stuff was missing both bats and the zone at incredibly high rates.
After the former Bulldog was promoted to Great Lakes, things have begun to get reined in a bit, as the walks per nine has dropped to 4.8. That is starting to get into possible future bullpen arm territory, and if that trend holds, Harris could be the rare prospect who gets promoted multiple times in the same season, because Midwest League hitters are slashing an anemic .129/.289/.225 against him.
——
Lastly, minor league baseball has an All-Star Break as well, with no games scheduled for the full season affiliates until Friday, July 22nd.
——
Happy Monday, folks.
