Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
August 5th, 2022 Scoreboard
- Triple A Oklahoma City 13, Salt Lake 0
- Double A Tulsa 12, Northwest Arkansas 9
- High A Great Lakes 5, Lake County 6
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga 5, Inland Empire 8
- ACL Dodgers 2, ACL Rangers 9
- DSL Dodgers Bautista 8, DSL Pittsburgh Black 5
- DSL Dodgers Mega 3, DSL Tampa Bay 0, Susp Bot 2nd
======
Jason Martin‘s strong campaign for Oklahoma City continued on Friday night, as he had his fourth multi-homer game of the season, hitting his 23rd and 24 jacks of the season:
Martin went 4/5, tallying a double, a single, and drawing a walk, and he both scored and drove in four runs. His 11 total bases tied his season high from back on July 1st, when also had two homers, a double, and a single.
Martin, who was drafted out of Orange Lutheran High School down in the city of Orange, has been consistently excellent for Oklahoma City all season. His OPS this season is .977, his lowest OPS in any month is .901, and his platoons splits are excellent for a LHH (.911 vs RHP, 1.075 vs LHP). Additionally, his wRC+ going into last night’s action was 129, and he is second in all of Triple in homers.
Martin is still just 26, so there’s likely some big league productivity in his tank. As he’s not on the 40 man roster, he likely doesn’t have much of a chance to get to the big club this season, but he is doing everything he needs to do to make it back to the big leagues.
——
Brandon Lewis did a lot of the heavy lifting for Tulsa, driving in half of their 12 runs on Friday, and hitting what ended up being a game winning grand slam:
2022 has been rough for the former LA Pierce College Brahma, but things improved a bit once the calendar flipped to July, as his OPS since then is .938. Though the strikeouts remain too high, the quality of contact has drastically improved, and he is back to getting to his power in games. His 70 raw power might be the best in the system, but it will require a bit of patience to see if he can tap into it often enough to make an impact.
——
With Chris Taylor returning from his rehab assignment, James Outman was the odd man out, but he didn’t miss a beat in his first game back with Oklahoma City:
Outman went 1/4 with a walk and a stolen base.
——
Andy Pages had a bit of a down July, but he’s heating back up again to kick off August:
Pages is now 6 for his last 8, with a homer, a triple, a double, and three singles.
——
River Ryan had a fantastic High A debut. In his 4.0 innings, he allowed just one hit, a solo homer, walked one, and he racked up an impressive eight strikeouts, and he had a whiff rate of 46%.
Unfortunately, Lake County, whom Great Lakes is visiting, doesn’t stream their games. Thankfully, every series from here until the end of the regular season is streamed, so expect more looks at his developing repertoire. Here’s a reminder of how electric Ryan can look on the bump:
Thanks, Preller.
——
Blast from the past time — Yadier Alvarez, the very same Cuban righty who was once one of the best prospects in baseball, appears to have had something click:
With nearly equal strikeout and walk rates (just 2.8% apart), it’s a little early to get too hyped about anything.
That said, this is a remarkably different look from the last time he was mentioned in the Prospect Notes. Back then, he was only throwing four seamers, and it averaged 92.7 mph in that outing. Last night, 80% of his fastballs were cutters, and they averaged 97.2 mph, which is definitely an attention-grabbing change.
Whether or not this will translate into him becoming a viable bullpen piece remains to be seen, but someone who has had more downs than ups in recent years, regaining his velocity is a start. Where it goes from here, only time will tell.
——
Tulsa’s pitching staff is gassed. They used six pitchers on Wednesday, and six pitchers and a position player on Thursday, which is already a hefty load to bear. On Friday, after the starting pitcher Kyle Hurt was pulled after just 1/3 of an inning and using another six pitchers, they went back to the same position-player well, calling on utility man Abiatal Avelino to lock down a six-out save, and boy, did he deliver:
Avelino’s last two games have been an adventure. In addition to pitching on Thursday night, after an injury he was the emergency catcher for two outs, a position he has never played in his 11 professional seasons. He also went 4/8 at the plate, with a homer, a double, a pair of singles, and three walks.
Move on over to Friday, and he was living the dream of every position player who has made a knuckler dance or a slider bend as their team warmed up along the foul line in left or right field, telling anyone who will listen that they’re nasty.
Man, this one was fun.
——
Lastly, here’s Saturday’s scheduled starting pitchers for the full season affiliates:
- Triple A Oklahoma City – Michael Grove
- Double A Tulsa – Gavin Stone
- High A Great Lakes – Ben Casparius
- Low A Rancho Cucamonga – Peter Heubeck
——
Enjoy your weekend, folks.
