Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
June 18th, 2022 Scoreboard
- Triple A Oklahoma City 7, Reno 0
- Double A Tulsa 2, Wichita 1
- High A Great Lakes 8, Wisconsin 6
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga 7, Inland Empire 6
- ACL Dodgers 12, ACL White Sox 6
- DSL Dodgers Mega 3, DSL Marlins 5
- DSL Dodgers Bautista 6, DSL Rays 5
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Gavin Stone is leading off another edition of Prospect Notes, and with performances like this, it’s unavoidable:
After watching what was Stone’s worst outing of the season on June 12th, seeing him bounce back, and doing so the way he did, it was a ton of fun to watch.
Before delving into how this outing went, a brief preface — starting pitchers very often have one pitch working that day. Sometimes two. On the days that all three or four are working, as they did when Stone struck out 13 back on June 7th, look out. And on other days, well, to borrow from Vin, sometimes you have to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
On Saturday, Stone started off trying to work the changeup/slider, pitch backwards combo, which has served him so well in recent weeks. When he does this, the slider and changeup will tunnel a long time, and sharply part ways, mirroring each other in velo and movement profile. The slider just wasn’t there; when a pitcher loses a short, sharp breaking slider, and loses it up in the zone, it’s an elevated nothingball. That was the case on Saturday, he recognized it, and he pretty much scrapped it early. Given this, Stone had to alter the plan of attack on the fly, going a bit heavier with a heater that was on point, livelier than it has been all season, and he proceeded to cruise through the lineup the first time.
The second time through, he tossed a handful of curves that were strike stealers, were harder than in the aforementioned June 7th outing, and with poorer command. This is another thing about pitching – if you throw both a slider and a curve, sometimes separating feel, and specifically, feel for spin, with two different breakers, it can be a bit touch and go. After he showed the slider, which wasn’t really there, and he showed the curve, which also wasn’t really there, they were used only sparingly, as eye level changers or, as mentioned, strike stealers.
On paper, Stone was dominant. In actuality, Stone was also dominant, but specifically, he was dominant as a pitcher. He had two pitches, and he made it work. A thrower loses this outing with a quickness. Performances like this, with adjustments on the fly, are part of the reason I’m so high on the slender righty. A commanded 95-97, with a devilish change that’s mostly 87-89, which he’ll throw anywhere, any time, that’s another pair of pretty good reasons.
All that said, it’s not smoke and mirrors here; but, Stone has them up his sleeve, too, as needed.
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Diego Cartaya appears to be well-adapted to life in the Midwest League, and his daily highlight is also a game-winning extra base knock:
Cartaya went 3/5 on Saturday, with a pair of a doubles and a single.
The Venezuelan catcher is slashing .356/.482/.644 with Great Lakes, so life at the plate since the promotion has been pretty good, with a small caveat — he’s striking out 30.4% of the time. This is the cat and mouse of baseball — either it’s due to him being just 20, and getting used to the new, advanced level, or the whiffs are an indicator of something that will be picked up on, and opposing pitchers will soon target this in the hopes of avoiding the thunder.
I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if Cartaya does experience a bit of an adjustment period as pitchers with better stuff and command target newly found holes. I’m confident that, ultimately, his talent will win out. Enjoy the ride.
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SIRP: Single inning relief pitcher.
Any contemporary Dodger fan will be in dire need of news about relief options on the horizon. There are a lot.
Cole Duensing keeps on rolling:
Ignore the velo on the scorebug, he’s sitting 94-96, and working on his slider and changeup.
Jeff Belge, ditto on velo, he’s 93-95 with great characteristics, and he slammed the door for Great Lakes:
I might or might not have screwed up a prior tweet.
I definitely screwed up a prior tweet.
Jose Hernandez was pumping 99 from the left side for Tulsa in his scoreless inning of relief. He features a high 80s/low 90s changeup.
Guillermo Zuniga was also pumping 99, and he was largely impressive while striking out four, though he did allow the lone run for Tulsa. Ultimately, it didn’t matter, as we all need to get by with a little help from our friends, now and then.
Cole Percival was charged with a run scored after he left the game, but in his first inning, he was 96-98, showing his pair of serviceable secondaries, and he racked up four Ks in his outing. The velo ticked down by as much as 3 mph in his second inning, so I’d be a fan of them putting him on the short reliever helium plan. One inning, air it out, spit fire, let’s go.
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Scheduled full season Dodgers minor league affiliate starting pitchers for Sunday:
- Triple A Oklahoma City – Andre Jackson
- Double A Tulsa – John Rooney
- High A Great Lakes – Ben Casparius
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga – Benony Robles
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Enjoy your Sunday, folks.
