Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
June 2nd, 2023 Scoreboard
- Triple-A Oklahoma City 15, Reno 9
- Double-A Tulsa 9, Wichita 1
- High-A Great Lakes 5, Beloit 4
- High-A Great Lakes 5, Beloit 0
- Single-A Rancho Cucamonga 3, Inland Empire 2
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River Ryan‘s top of the rotation quality stuff really showed up and showed out on Friday evening, as he mostly cruised through what was the 24-year-old’s best outing of the season:
There’s a saying out there about pitchers: the hitters will always tell you. Good, bad, or somewhere in between, what the hitters do and how they look will give you a clear idea of what’s going on.
River Ryan gets hacks like this:
That’s Brooks Lee. Brooks Lee was the 8th overall pick in the 2022 draft. He’s MLB Pipeline‘s #23 overall prospect. He can hit. And, that right there, that is what he told you about River Ryan. Yeesh.
Anyway, I say mostly cruised because, inexplicably, the former Padres farmhand, who had hit just three batters all season, hit that amount in this game alone. Three HBPs, but they weren’t particularly egregious or intentional — a fastball ran in a little and grazed a hand, and two breaking balls clipped the toes of a pair of cleats. Just an odd bit of traffic in an otherwise dominant performance.
Apart from some incidental contact, Ryan showed the kind of efficiency that had been eluding him, as he needed just 63 pitches to complete 5.0 full frames for the first time this season. With his athleticism and repertoire, he has among the highest ceilings on a ridiculous Tulsa pitching staff, and if things are indeed coalescing, look out.
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Ronan Kopp got Great Lakes off to about as good of a start as they could have asked for in Game 1 of their doubleheader:
The 6’7 southpaw lost fastballs up at times, but he was able to rein things back in rather quickly, as his pitch count of just 37 to complete three entire frames will attest.
Still just 20 years old, while Kopp has been tossing about 60 pitches per outing, Friday’s pair of seven-inning doubleheaders curtailed what was one of the better outings of the season for the former South Mountain Community College Cougar. Though things like this can be frustrating, zero rain is in the forecast for the Loons’ return home to Midland, Michigan, so you hope to see him carry the strong momentum into the next one. Keep at it, kid.
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Justin Wrobleski shined for Great Lakes in the second game of their doubleheader, as the southpaw appears to have turned a corner for the Loons:
Though there was no radar gun on the stream, Beloit’s pxp mentioned a handful of 95s.
Frankly, it’s killing me that Statcast data for a guy like Wrobleski isn’t available, because despite the way he slings it from a 3/4 slot, he appears to still get decent carry on the pitch. Which, really, would come as no surprise — if the Dodgers were willing to invest a coveted 11th round pick on a guy recovering from Tommy John surgery, you have to think he has that patented one weird trick going for him. Alas.
Regardless, with how he Wrobleski has settled in with the Loons in recent weeks, the former Oklahoma State Cowboy should find himself an hour or so East of his alma mater before the end of Summer, perhaps in time for Tulsa’s catfish noodling demonstration in mid-August. There’s nothing wrong with dreaming big!
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Devin Mann, who has been Oklahoma City’s Swiss Army knife for about 2/3 of a season now, put together another solid offensive performance on Friday, going 3/4 with 2 singles, a double, and 5 RBI:
The former Louisville Cardinal is slashing .281/.393/.488 for Oklahoma City, and doing so while playing five different positions so far this season (and as many as seven in years past).
I’ve said it before, and I will reiterate — Devin Mann is a big leaguer in some capacity, and any number of teams could use a guy like this, who will grab whatever glove you want, draw a walk, and has just enough bang to make it hurt. In any number of organizations, he might already be a big league contributor, but this Dodger club is a very difficult group to break into. Having deep depth is great, but it sure as heck feels like the 26-year-old has earned a shot.
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While watching Tulsa trounce Wichita, I saw something at a baseball game that I have never seen before.
A fireworks delay.
The Drillers and the Wind Surge had an hour and a half rain delay in the 1st inning, so if I had to guess, the show took place when it did due to a local ordinance that restricts fireworks after a certain time. Or maybe they were up against overtime for the fire department. Who the heck knows.
Whatever the case, it was a tough night for the home crowd, and those that hung around through a lightning storm deserved a little something for their troubles. I didn’t mind the surprise, either, though I might (read: definitely) have picked a different song.
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Here’s Saturday’s start times for the minor-league clubs (all times Pacific), along with the Dodger affiliate’s starting pitcher:
- Oklahoma City vs Reno – 5:05 PM, Gavin Stone
- Tulsa at Wichita – 4:05 PM, Emmet Sheehan
- Great Lakes at Beloit – 1:05 PM, Maddux Bruns
- Rancho Cucamonga vs Inland Empire – 6:30 PM, Waylin Santana
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Enjoy your Saturday, folks.
