Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
July 28th, 2022 Scoreboard
- Triple A Oklahoma City 7, Sugar Land 12
- Double A Tulsa 4, Arkansas 2
- High A Great Lakes 7, Lansing 2
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga 3, San Jose 2
- ACL Dodgers 1, ACL Royals 3
- DSL Dodgers Bautista 6, DSL Marlins 9
- DSL Dodgers Mega 2, DSL Miami 9
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Dustin May is looking like he never left, as his latest rehab outing was his best yet:
May’s sinker got as much as 20 inches of horizontal movement, and it has averaged 17 inches during his rehab. The pitch looks downright possessed at times:
lol
We fans should feel fortunate to be able to both laugh, and shake our heads in amazement, at that pitch. Tommy John surgery is no sure thing. They take a knife to your elbow, disconnect this, remove that, take a piece from yonder, use it to reconnect to the other thing, and casuals act like it’s a video game powerup, +2 mph.
That couldn’t be farther from reality.
You can’t throw until you can regain your range of motion, and you can’t regain your range of motion until you’ve gotten that rusty beach chair of an elbow to open smooth as silk, fully extended. And then, of course, all of the strengthening, which happens incrementally and painfully. And who knows whether the nerve sensation will be right. It’s long, grueling, filled with uncertainty, and you have to start the process off by fighting to just prepare to do the one thing that has come so naturally to you for your entire life. A thing you did better than anyone you knew before pro ball. A thing that might be gone.
A thing Dustin May is bringing back, with gusto, a little more than a year later. Bringing it back accompanied by his trademark whirls on the mound, which he did after all six of his strikeouts last night. If ever there were a sign that the elbow isn’t a thought in his mind, and that the pitch is the focus, that’s it.
Youth is fleeting, but don’t tell that to this young man. He has regained the magic, and he’s taking it for a spin.
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Bobby Miller was largely dominant for Tulsa:
The growth was on display tonight — Miller got strikeouts with the fastball, slider, curve, and changeup, and while he tossed a career-high 96 pitches, he held his velo throughout. This version of Miller looks basically big-league ready, with ace potential. Doing this on a more consistent basis is the thing, but it’s inescapable that there’s a wow factor with his stuff that’s clearly a step ahead of every other prospect on the list.
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Diego Cartaya had another huge day at the plate for Great Lakes, hitting a pair of homers to fuel the Loons’ victory on Thursday night:
The 20-year-old Venezuelan backstop went 2/4, with two runs scored, and four RBI. He raised his OPS to .952, good for third in the Midwest League. For a little context as to how impressive that is, when Will Smith was 20, he put up a .665 OPS … for Louisville, in the ACC. Obviously you can’t compare them apples to apples, but one of these numbers is more in line with dominating, and the other is most certainly not.
Catchers don’t do this. It’s a really special bat.
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Michael Busch seems to have cracked the code at Triple A:
Busch went 3/4, with a pair singles, and both scoring and driving in a pair of runs as well.
After a bit of a rough start at his new level, the former UNC Tarheel is slashing a healthy .310/.384/.529 for the month of July. It’s impossible to say at the moment whether they would be able to make room for him on the big league roster, but for a few weeks now, he has been doing all that he needs to do to make it a tough decision.
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With the trade deadline looming, it isn’t lost on anyone that some of the best and brightest talents in the system are having their names furiously entered into the Trade Simulator, as both fans and the Rockies attempt to conjure up pathways to their championship hopes.
The players hear more chatter than we do; it’s an ever-present part of their day, and it’s a testament to the professionalism and focus they possess that they can go out and shine like this, when the entire prospect-loving world is watching. What a fun night of baseball.
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Lastly, Friday’s scheduled starting pitchers:
- Triple A Oklahoma City – Michael Grove
- Double A Tulsa – Alec Gamboa
- High A Great Lakes – Nick Nastrini
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga – River Ryan
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Happy Friday, folks.
