Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
June 4th, 2023 Scoreboard
- Triple-A Oklahoma City 7, Reno 4
- Double-A Tulsa 6, Wichita 5
- High-A Great Lakes 0, Beloit 6
- Single-A Rancho Cucamonga 1, Inland Empire 8
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Jorbit Vivas started off 2023 like a house afire, sprinting out of the gates with an OPS of 1.125 for the month of April, which is the better than any monthly mark the 22-year-old posted in his previous four seasons of professional baseball.
That scorching beginning to the season was followed by some May gray, as his OPS for the second month of the season was just .611. Baseball is a game of adjustments — the Texas League hurlers adjusted to him, and it was on the Venezuelan to adjust right back, which he appears to be doing in the early days of June:
The second baseman went 3/4 at the dish, with the homer, a pair of singles, 3 RBI, and he drew a walk as well. In his four games in the current month, Vivas is 8/16, with 4 walks and no strikeouts.
The one area of concern remains the same as it has ever been — splits, and the gap is wider than it has ever been in full season ball. Vivas’ OPS vs righties is .942 and just .687 vs lefties. As he is pretty much limited to second base, where he is already buried on the depth chart, resolving this gap in handedness is of paramount importance if he is to gain further footing long-term.
In the meantime, it will at least be entertaining to watch him barrel up righties as well as he does, eking out every ounce of pop available out of his 5’10, 171 lbs frame.
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There was some unfortunate news out of Oklahoma City on Sunday — Andy Pages, who is MLB Pipeline‘s #6 prospect in the system, will miss the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery:
The injury took place back on May 16th while Pages was swinging during his fourth plate appearance at the Triple-A level. He was out in front of a 2-2 slider away, and after waving at the pitch, he immediately clutched his left shoulder and was pulled from the game.
What does this mean, long-term? I dunno. I’m not a doctor. But for what it’s worth, this article at FanGraphs tracked before and after performance of a number of players, and things were typically not terrible, but also not quite the same as it was before. Which, I suppose, is to be expected. What is also to be expected is that Pages will have every cutting edge resource made available to him to aid in what is hopefully a full recovery.
At this point, all you can do is wish the young Cuban the very best on his road back.
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Dalton Rushing was the recipient of a rather quick heave-ho on Sunday:
There was more video after this, consisting of Rushing touching first base, walking off the field, and chirping from the dugout while manager Daniel Nava tried to figure out what the heck happened. But, as far as impetus, what’s in the video above is all there is — just a couple of frustrated utterances, which is all it took for Rushing to get rung.
Angel Hernandez would be proud, I guess.
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As for the strangeness, Luis Yanel Diaz, who was supposed to be the Loons’ leadoff hitter, didn’t show up to the ballpark. The 23-year-old Dominican had been one of Great Lakes’ hottest hitters, slashing .395/.422/.558 over the last couple of weeks, a welcome bit of success that had eluded the 2016 IFA ever since he was initially promoted in July of ’22. Hopefully he just overslept, or something.
The second odd happening was the day’s starting pitcher, Yon Castro, getting pulled from the contest. Beloit’s pxp commentator relayed that he was told Castro fell ill mere minutes prior to the first pitch. In Great Lakes’ recap of the day’s action, it simply says that the 24-year-old hurler was a late scratch, and absent any actual updates, it’s probably best to roll with that for the time being.
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As was mentioned a week ago in a post providing information and video on some of the prospects who will be playing in the Arizona Complex and Dominican Summer Leagues, opening day for the pair of short season circuits is on Monday. At the moment, the Dodgers have one club in Arizona and two in the DR, and their schedules for the day are as follows (all times Pacific):
- ACL Dodgers at ACL Giants Black – 6:00 PM, TBD
- DSL Dodgers Bautista at DSL Dodgers Mega – 8:00 AM, TBD
Opening day, and the kids at Campo Las Palmas get an intrasquad. Just a little anti-climactic, but hey, it counts.
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Enjoy your Monday, folks.
