DODGERS ANNOUNCE SELECTIONS FROM SECOND DAY OF 2018 DRAFT
With the final two picks on Day 2 of the First-Year Player Draft, the Dodgers picked up senior outfielder Josh McClain from North Carolina State University in the ninth round and junior infielder Deacon Liput from University of Florida in the 10th round. Both McClain and Liput were selected by Los Angeles in the 2017 First-Year Player Draft in the 14th and 29th round, respectively, but did not sign. McClain started 60 games for the Wolfpack this season, hitting .344 with 51 runs and four home runs. He was also named to First-Team All-ACC performer in 2017 with the Wolfpack. Liput was voted to the 2016 SEC All-Freshman Team, 2017 SEC All-Defensive Team and was announced as a finalist for this year’s Brooks Wallace Award, which is presented to college baseball’s top shortstop. In 2018, the Oviedo, Florida native started 45 games at shortstop, committing only two errors, and hit .286 with 43 runs, 13 doubles, eight home runs and 36 RBI.
Attached is the list of the top 10 Dodger selections from the 2018 First-Year Player Draft.
The 2018 First-Year Player Draft concludes tomorrow with rounds 11-30 starting at 9:00 a.m. (PST).
| LOS ANGELES DODGERS 2018 FIRST-YEAR PLAYER DRAFT |
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| Round | Pick | Player | Pos | School |
| 1 | 30 | J.T. Ginn | RHP | Brandon HS |
| 2 | 68 | Michael Grove | RHP | West Virginia |
| 3 | 104 | John Rooney | LHP | Hofstra |
| 4 | 134 | Braydon Fisher | RHP | Clear Falls HS |
| 5 | 164 | Devin Mann | INF | Louisville |
| 6 | 194 | Bryan Warzek | LHP | U New Orleans |
| 7 | 224 | James Outman | OF | Sacramento State |
| 8 | 254 | Luke Heyer | INF | U Kentucky |
| 9 | 284 | Josh McLain | OF | NC State |
| 10 | 314 | Deacon Liput | INF | Florida |
Any speculation about who goes down when Ferguson is officially brought up tomorrow? Valera, Hudson?
Hudson is my guess.
Stripling only goes 5 innings but pitched shutout ball, and the Dodgers win.
Ferguson tonight, let’s see how it goes.
Buehler, Stripling, Santana, Ferguson, and Wood, wouldn’t that be interesting?
Toles back in the lineup for OKC goes 1 for 5.
Gavin Lux has hit an HR in each of his last four games, he is now hitting .320.
It’s starting to look like I was wrong about Lux.
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I’m in Chi-Town today and won’t be back until late, so I likely won’t have time to post as we are at the IRCE.
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I’m eager to see Caleb when I get back but will listen on MLB Radio as I drive back tonight. It would be nice to be over .500 and keep the Giants under it.
Maybe I should add Lux to my underdog players like Joc that Mark has said he might have been wrong about. Okay, I am now officially a Lux fan.
I have changed my mind on him. I am still a Bo Bichette fan, but now I am also a Gavin Lux fan. I do not see him lasting at SS, but I was wrong about him before.
Bum,
You should not let me have that much control over you.
Wood is under performing, or actually it might be his new normal. Hasn’t pitched well since the 1st half of 2017 season. Lost his velocity and his effectiveness. Hope he surprises me and does better, but I doubt it.
It will be interesting to see Ferguson tonight and Santana on Thursday. Hard to believe we are starting two rookies. I have a feeling Santana may pitch pretty well. He has one game under his belt and looked like the stage was not too big for him.
James Outman is only west coast player drafted so far. His last name would be a good one if he were a pitcher. Maybe he will be a plus plus plus defender a la Kevin Kiermaier.
I have never been more disappointed in a game/team than I was last night with the OKC Dodgers. It wasn’t that they lost, it was how they lost. It started out great. Locastro led off with a big double into CF, followed by a hard hit ball by Toles snagged by the pitcher. Farmer hit the ball hard on a fly to RF allowing Locastro to tag and go to third. Verdugo walked and Taijeron hit it hard right to the CF. Okay no runs, but they hit the ball hard.
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Moscoso got out of the 1st inning with a walk, and nothing hit out of the infield. But then something flipped. I do not know if it is entitlement, but the team, with a few exceptions, principally Tim Locastro, Angelo Mora, and Matt Beaty, just gave up (??). I have lost a ton of respect for Alex Verdugo. I have never seen a player who comes across as arrogant and entitled than Verdugo. If he were traded, I would not lose one minute of sleep even if he won three batting titles. He is absolutely not a team player (at least last night). He was generally the last one out of the dugout to play defense, and half walks and half jogs to CF. Taijeron (RF) gets a ball from the bullpen to throw to Verdugo so Verdugo can play catch with Toles (LF). By waiting for Verdugo, neither Taijeron nor Toles were able to warm up much. In one inning, Verdugo was last out again, but this time went out to the bullpen (in right-center) and started talking with one of the players. Toles is waiting to play catch just standing around. When Verdugo did move to play catch, Taijeron flips Verdugo the ball, and he absolutely launches a throw well over the head of Toles. This continued most of the night.
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But it did not end there. After Verdugo walked, the next time up, he hit the ball hard that the 1B made a good play, but was unable to make a good throw to 1st and Verdugo was safe. I honestly do not remember how hard he ran down the line. But I did get an eyeful his next three AB’s. His 3rd AB he hit a ground ball to 2B and barely jogged down the line. His 4th AB, with runners on 1st and 3rd, he hit a dribbler out of the box about 20 feet up the 3rd base line but did not get out of the box quickly and the catcher made the play. Verdugo did turn it on the last 40-50 feet, but he may have beat it out had he gone hard out of the box (maybe not – but we will never know). On that same AB, he looked at two pitches, and was backing out with the 2nd pitch without calling time. After that, there was a walk to Taijeron, a HBP to Beaty to score a run, and then an infield single by Angelo Mora who absolutely hustled down the line to beat out the throw by the 2B and scored another to tie the game.
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In the 9th, on his last AB, Verdugo hit a two hopper to 2B but jogged out of the box, carrying his bat half way to 1B before tossing it to the dugout and was thrown out by 20 – 30 feet. With 2 outs, Taijeron got a big single to CF, followed by a walk to Beaty and Mora’s 4th hit on the night to score Taijeron. Edwin Rios PH for Michael Ahmed and hit an absolute pea that just went foul before striking out to end the game.
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Verdugo was not alone. Moscoso looked as if he did not want to be there. In the 4th inning with the bases full, Moscoso actually swung twice (surprise), and on a 3-2 count hit a ball to the 3B and did not get half way down the line with a jog, before he turned to go to the dugout. There was no thought that the 3B might throw the ball away, he just gave up. I recognize that he is the pitcher, but that does not excuse not running it out.
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In the 8th down 7-3, Paredes gave up a lead off single to Austin Slater. With Steven Duggar up, Paredes uncorks a WP over Farmer’s head, and Farmer casually jogs to the backstop, and Slater was almost half way to 3rd before Farmer got the ball. I would have liked to see Slater keep going forcing a play. The way OKC was playing, Farmer would have thrown the ball into LF.
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While I cannot blame it on poor attitude or indifference, JT Chargois looked absolutely horrible. OKC tied the game at 3 in top of the 7th, Chad Girodo got two quick strike outs, but then Ahmed booted a 3rd out ground ball, and Girodo followed that up with a walk. Now comes disaster. With runners on 1st and 2nd and 2 outs, JT Chargois is called in and proceeds to walk the next three batters. He threw 9 straight balls before he threw a strike. In 15 pitches, 3 were strikes. He wasn’t being pinched, he wasn’t close. Venditte is then called in and walks the 5th straight batter before he strikes out Eury Perez to end the inning. The River Cats “batted” around and scored three runs while hitting the ball once which Ahmed booted.
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Locastro had 2 big doubles, and Mora had 4 singles (two hustle infield singles). Matt Beaty went 1-3 but was on base 3 out of 5 PA. Kyle Garlick hustled to 2nd base a pop fly into right-center which was dropped. I do not know why Michael Ahmed was playing SS over Mora. There were two balls hit to him and he made an error on both. I have nothing negative at all to say about Toles. He hit the ball hard twice and did strike out three times, the last 2 looking. But he looked like he was ready to play and play hard.
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The biggest positive I got out of last night’s experience was Matt Beaty. The clubhouse is behind CF at River Cat Stadium, and as soon as Beaty came through the CF gate, he came to the 1st base fans and started signing autographs and taking pictures with the kids. He did this WILLINGLY and with a SMILE. He did this for 10+ minutes. After stretching and running, Toles came over and signed several as well. But those were the only two (that I saw). There was a large Dodger contingent on the 1st base side past the dugout.
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My wife grew up with a baseball junkie father, and then married a bigger baseball junkie husband. She raised a major league baseball player. So she has seen a ton of baseball games. Both she and I agree that this was the worst game/effort we have ever seen. Her comment over and over was…”they have just given up”. Our grandson played LL for the 1st time this year. He is more of a soccer player and runner than a baseball player, but our daughter grew up knowing how baseball is so important in our lives signed him up. The one point that I drove home every game was, I do not care how well you play, but you have to play hard and DO NOT DISRESPECT THE GAME. Last night’s game was a total antithesis of that, and we were glad he was not there to see this debacle.
I usually get accused of trying to push up Joc when I am critical of a players performance or my guess at their weakness. I have never been a Verdugo fan.
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I am a Bellinger fan but I worry about his swing. I thought he used to stand too close to home plate and had too much of an uppercut. He seems to stand back from the plate this year and I like that. He could use a 10 day break and spend it in AZ training camp. I said the same thing about Joc in his rookie year. The brain needs time to process everything which means cramming is unproductive and destructive.
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I am all in for trading Verdugo.
AC
I am sorry you had to see that, but you do see a lot more about a team and their players, when you are actually there at the game.
I would have been disappointed myself, too.
Hopefully it was just a bad night for the team, and with certain players.
I did see Toles give a picture to a 12 year old boy at the airport in Arizona, on his way to Sacramento.
But right now is your time, your going to watch your guy Ferguson pitch tonight, and Muncy who you talked about, before everyone did, is also doing well right now too, so forget about that game, and enjoy tonight’s game.
And hopefully, it was just a bad night for everyone.
Besides that, Mrs. Lincoln… .
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Thanks for the painful write-up. very discouraging.
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Where was the manager during all this? Shouldn’t he have yanked Verdugo? Laziness on the diamond is something that cannot be tolerated.
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Good to hear about Toles. I hope we see him with the big club sooner than later.
I do not know if it is laziness or how he plays. Entitled is the best adjective I can come up with. He is talented, but I am underwhelmed as to how he approaches the game. Bill Haselman is the OKC Dodger manager, and he was my son’s roommate while with Pawtucket. He is a no-nonsense guy. So maybe this is how he plays. He is not going to remind anyone of Chase Utley or Corey Seager with how he plays. Kershaw has run out ground outs harder than Verdugo did last night.
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What was embarrassing for me was that in Verdugo’s first AB I was telling my wife that Verdugo could be a great Dodger. Just a hitting machine. As we were leaving, my wife turns to me and says, if that is the Dodgers #1 prospect, your boys are in real trouble.
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I will pass on seeing OKC tonight and instead watch Caleb. OKC goes to Reno this summer, and I do plan on making that weekend trip to see if there is any improvement.
On a USC/UCLA side note:
I came across a picture circa late ’90’s of me playing in the 17th Annual Sydney M. Irmas USC Law School Golf Tournament at Wilshire CC. I’m as unbiased as they come. :0)
Rudy, the Dodgers just selected your new favorite Dodger…13th round, 6’3″ 200 pounds USC Jr. 1B, Dillon Paulson.
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Fight On!!
Perfect.
To put the draft in perspective…
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How many current Dodgers were first round draft choices. Turner, Taylor, and Muncy were basically obtained from Walmart. Fergusson and Pederson were late round pickups. Santana and Stewart are both converted shortstops.
Painful game AC.. I had hoped Vedugo would have shed these problems with his cup of coffee with the Blue and maturity… No cigar!!! Probably one of these kids who has been told he was a can’t miss blue chipper since grade school… I want no part of this in our system and packaging him will hopefully add to our coffers…
Go get em Caleb…
Happy Birthday Julian Smith. 15th round draft pick for the Dodgers. LHSP 6′ 4″ 190 from Catawba Valley CC. Born 6/6/97.
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Just missed birthday. 12th round pick Hunter Feduccia, 6′ 2″ 183 Catcher from LSU. His birthday was yesterday…6/5/97.
Mark,
I don’t want the Giants kept under .500 tonight. I consider the D-Backs a longer term threat, so as much as it hurts, I’m rooting for the Giants (midgets) tonight. And unless things change, I would also root for them against the Rockies.
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If AC is correct about Verdugo, then I would guess that FAZ is aware of it, and would in that case be amenable to trading him. That would make a package deal to rent Machado that much more palatable.
100% agree about rooting for SF at this stage of the season. I expect them to slide back and I expect AZ to be the team directly behind us. So go giants today !
https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-most-astonishing-early-statistic/
Verdugo is a frustrating player because you can see his talent but also his swagger. He annoyed me in the batters box checking his bling and giving the umps dirty looks (something all players do but rookies have to earn it) and his over sized batting gloves were red, not blue as was his NASA sized oven mitt sliding contraption. It rubbed me the wrong way and I don’t think I’m alone. I heard a lot about his dad being ‘one of those dad’s’ we have all seen at the youth and club ball levels, and I was hoping he would grow out of it. Chase Utley is an example of someone who has had a great career and still always hustles down the line and on the bases, Verdugo should watch and learn. I am ok with trading him for the right piece, I don’t think he will ever develop Joc’s power.
I know I’m unfair and I’ve too often been wrong by prejudging those who simply rub me the wrong way. Verdugo is one that I dislike by first impression and it’d be hard to be friends with. I’ve felt the same way at first with some of my later dearest friends. It wasn’t easy for those to break the ice and it won’t be easy for Verdugo. Which of us has the larger attitude hangups, me or him?
Considering the way starting pitchers are used, should there be a change in requiring 5 innings to be the winning pitcher? If you have someone pitch to one batter and then have your “starter” come in to pitch, he could be the winning pitcher if he only pitched a few innings. A reliever can be the winning pitcher with only facing one batter!
There is no questioning Verdugos talent and I had heard his attitude was improving especially after Rich Hill dressed him down last year but it appears he may be a Moron. We have always thought FAZ would not trade him but other teams know the score too. What if no one wants him ? Maybe he was not included deals because no one wants the moron. That changes all of our suppositions.
Or…
Maybe everyone wants him in addition to the front office of the Dodgers…
Not shocked but surprised at the level of excellence Stripling has risen to. Last year at this time I never would have thought Strip would or could pitch this good or this consistently. Guess it’s a matter of mind and body maturing at the same time. Also some good instruction from Dodger pitching coaches and Strip absorbing and using the instruction. He got the opportunity provided by injuries and now he is solid as a rock in the rotation. He is throwing as good a curve ball as anyone in MLB right now, and with command. Plus he’s got some junkyard bulldog in his make up. Hope he keeps it rolling for the Dodgers for a long time.
It doesn’t appear the team drafted any 3rd basemen.
Baez optioned to OKC to make room for Ferguson. I didn’t see that coming. I figured Hudson.
Now if we can only trade Forsythe the games may be easier to watch.
El Gasolino is El Gonzo.
A couple weeks ago I exposed myself as being old school, I am. I commented that the costume Verdugo wore a Dodger Stadium was telling of an attitude. Someone commented that he was just expressing himself. I’d agree, expressing that he was little respect for the game. Ok then, maybe it’s hard to teach old dogs new tricks.
Bobo
It was everyone only wanting to give a young kid the benefit of the doubt, it was nothing against you, or your feelings.
Meant, ” has little respect for the game”.
Pre-spring training I made a comment relating somewhat that Kemp and 40+ HRs will sure welcome. It’s not real likely he’ll reach 40 but he’s really giving much more than that in being clutch and dependable. It says how being a Dodger shouldn’t be taken for granted, that it’s worth extra effort.
Well they took out a pitcher who can’t throw strikes only to put another one in who has proven he can’t throw strikes.hudson is worse than Baez by far but Baez will be right back up probably after the game. The minor league umpires cause pitchers who move up tough outings. Santana couldn’t find the plate either. Nothing takes away the euphoria of getting back in a game only to give it back again. Maybe bellinger is getting it going. Kemp hates to see Williams leave.
I recall someone on this sight talking about Matt Kemp as a potential MVP, how crazy was that !
Baez isn’t any prize but he’s far better than Hudson.
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Stewart hasn’t pitched well all year either.
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The Dodgers will need to get 9 out of Santana tomorrow. The ‘pen is getting blown up.
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Why leave Stripling in for only 5 last night? They used more relievers than they needed. They are used needlessly by Roberts and when they are needed like tonight they end up being ineffective and overused.
Free El Gasolino!!
Just got in… what did I miss?
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JK – I watching on MLB. Radio.
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I guess we have one more shot!
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1. Not sure why Baez went down, but I heard that he sometimes doesn’t listen… Just sayin’
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2. What’s wrong with Stewart is that FAZ needs to tell him he is a reliever… not a starter… and to plan accordingly!
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3. Ferguson had a big case of nerves. I like him.
I would like to see the team give Ferguson another shot.
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I would like to see him throw something different than fastballs and curves though.
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Win or lose, it was good to see them keep battling back.
He wasn’t missing by much. He threw one bad pitch to Harrison. Right now he is a fastball/curveball pitcher. His change is average at best. He is supposed to be in AA working on it. He is going to have to get another shot. Who else is going to start? He certainly threw well enough (even with the walks and HBP) to get another look.
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I do not know if he was getting pinched but 16 walks for both teams???
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Cingrani goes on the DL, and either Ferguson or Stewart gets optioned tomorrow. I am guessing Baez and Liberatore (unless he is pitching tonight). If he has not pitched, a call should go to Haselman to put him on a plane to Pittsburgh.
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Just checked…Banuelos is still in and Rios and Garlick have hit HR’s tonight. Time to watch the OKC game.
Do you wanna’ talk about a player who has attitude and doesn’t hustle all the time on pre-conceived outs?
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Look no further than one Bryce Harper!
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Verdugo may be an A-Hole, but Kemp was once one. So was Ethier, and Harper still is!
I was thinking the same thing…except Verdugo hasn’t earned the right to act like Harper.
Tomorrow morning’s game should be interesting. Both teams need to get some innings out of their starters.
Pen is taxed and what is the answer going forward? Can we be like the Dbacks or Mariners and make a June trade for a couple of bullpen arms??? The Royals are selling and have the arms we need. I realize what you pay is much greater now as opposed to the deadline but not that much and we need the help now. We are too thin right now and with are anemic start need to still keep the foot on the pedal. I just don’t see much relief in double and triple a and now with arguably our best setup guy on the shed for awhile it is time? AC, Mark am I off base in my worry?
Well maybe… Maeda could be back this weekend and Hill is not far behind. I also think there’s a chance we see Ryu before the end of the month.
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That said, I’s still like to see Iglesais and Gennett. They can be had.
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Trade Verdugo for Brad Hand – give them the next Tony Gwynn…
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Santana, Ferguson, Sheffield, Forsythe and Verdugo for Machado, Brach and Britton…
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I am worried about Alex Wood going on the DL. He has some shoulder issues.
Might have to bring up Verdugo for one day and add him to the bullpen for tonight’s game.