Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Been a while since I did one of these, as the focus has been on the season, but there’s been some interesting stuff that I’ve read.
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The Marietta Times: A great story on Dodgers prospect Patrick Copen and his road back after being struck in the head by a liner last year, which caused him to lose vision in his right eye.
“Even though I don’t have vision in my right eye, it crosses my mind how it could have been a lot worse,” Copen said. “I’m thankful how it turned out. My support system has been there to help me out. I wouldn’t be in this position at this time without that support.”
“I’ve been in contact with a handful of other guys in the minor leagues, some who had a major league career and lost vision in an eye completely. They’ve given me optimism with their words and positive feedback – that it can be done.”
“It’s going to be hard. There are definitely people who say it may be improbable, but it is not impossible by any means.”
I knew about him getting injured, but I didn’t know he actually lost sight in an eye, mainly because he’s returned and been effective. Remarkable story that hopefully gets a storybook ending.
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FanGraphs: All jokes aside, Tommy Edman is very much a power hitter from the right side.
There’s Edman tied for second place with Ketel Marte, right behind Mickey Mantle. Yeah, that Mickey Mantle. I will now pause for a moment so that you can reassemble your exploded head. He ranks fifth in slugging and 15th in OPS. Although he has just 67 total home runs, Edman is, somehow, one of the most powerful switch-hitters of all time when it comes to facing left-handed pitching. We don’t need to limit ourselves to switch-hitters either. Since his debut in 2019, Edman’s .228 ISO against lefties ranks 42nd in baseball, right between Ronald Acuña Jr. and Mike Trout. Yeah, that Ronald Acuña Jr. and that Mike Trout. He ranks 35th in terms of slugging percentage against southpaws, right between Fernando Tatis Jr. and Willson Contreras.
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Baseball America: Right-handed pitching prospect Sean Linan is turning heads in the Dodgers system by missing bats at a ridiculous rate.
Among teenage pitchers who finished the year with 70 or more innings in 2024, Linan’s 31.3% strikeout rate ranked third, just behind the Braves’ Didier Fuentes and the Nationals’ Alex Clemmey and a few clicks in front of Marlins lefty Thomas White and Rays fireballer Trevor Harrison.
This year, Linan has upped his game even further. Through April 21, he had punched out an MiLB-best 29 hitters. His 24.5% swinging strike rate is atop the leaderboard, too, while his 51.8% strikeout rate ranked third behind only Oakland’s Wei-En Lin and Boston’s Connelly Early.
The comp on his changeup is … well, promising to say the least.
“It comes in around 82-84 mph, and it’s a really, really high-spin changeup,” Dodgers director of pitching Rob Hill said. “It’s like 2,700-2,800 rpm. usually, and about one inch (of induced vertical break) and 17 inches of horizontal break and has the exact same release traits as all of his other pitches.”
“It’s kind of like a Devin Williams-style (changeup), like a screwball, almost, the way he releases it. So it’s just a super unique offering, and, because of how high the spin is, it’s almost impossible to tell that it’s anything other than a fastball. And that’s why I assume people swing at it so much.”
I see it.
Sean Linan has three double-digit strikeout games in four starts and leads the Minor Leagues with 40 punchouts.@USAFRecruiting #AimHigh pic.twitter.com/irvpcRCvqd
— Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (@RCQuakes) April 29, 2025
Baseball America: Left-handed pitching prospect Jakob Wright has drawn attention for his retooled arsenal and velocity bump.
Wright mixed a four-seam fastball, sinker, cutter and changeup. His velocity was noticeably up from his time at Cal Poly, as his fastball sat 93-95 mph—a four mph jump from college. This newly-added velocity wasn’t the only change in Wright’s repertoire, as he replaced a slurvy low-80s breaking ball with a mid-to-upper-80s cutter with high spin rates.
This development of both the sinker and cutter have Wright primed for a potential breakout. It’s a good blend of pitchability, stuff and an unusual look for a lefthander. He now has the ability to generate outs with swings and misses and ground balls in a way his previous profile did not.
Someone to keep an eye on.
Jakob Wright made his professional debut yesterday for Rancho, and it was very successful.
— Dodgers Daily (@dodger_daily) April 7, 2025
3.2IP 2H 0R 5Ks 2BB
Wright was a 4th Round Draft pick last summer out of Cal Poly that features a Slider, which is a plus pitch, FB low 90s, change, and good curveball.
Efforting to nail… pic.twitter.com/EXyO44z6r1
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Baseball Prospectus: Not unlike the case that teams should be more aggressive in sending runners home, Joshua Rodrigues argues that teams aren’t aggressive enough in deploying pinch-hitters.
Managers need to rethink their approach to pinch hitting. Waiting until the eighth or ninth inning might feel like playing it safe, but in reality, that non-decision is itself a gamble: that a better moment will come along later. Most of the time, it doesn’t. The data is clear—high-leverage situations don’t just happen in the final frames. A game-changing pinch-hit moment can come earlier when more paths to victory are still open.
For what it’s worth, the Dodgers were the seventh-most aggressive team at using pinch hitters.
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ESPN: Great profile of Dodgers organist Dieter Ruehle, who always seems to be on top of it.
“It’s kind of like you’re doing a live soundtrack. … Those are the stars, those are the actors out there, but it’s not scripted,” Ruehle explained. “They’re playing real and then they’re gonna win, they’re gonna lose, but I’m just kind of reacting to what they’re doing.”
Right, his best moments aren’t even the planned bits, it’s when the broadcasters are talking about something and he improvises for the discussion on the fly. It’s really amazing and contributes a ton to the experience.
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Meanwhile, best record in baseball doesn’t sound bad.
