Right-hander Jack Little was selected by the Dodgers in the fifth round of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft out of Stanford University. His three-year teammate at Stanford, outfielder Brandon Wulff, was also selected by the Dodgers in the 17th round.
Although the Dodgers picked Little with starting in mind, he had been a reliever exclusively at Stanford with a total of 53 relief appearances in his three-year career with the Cardinal. Stanford has opted to have pitchers with starting potential stay in the bullpen because it’s more valuable to be able to use them multiple times over the weekend. Dodger fans will remember that the team’s first-round selection in 2011, left-hander Chris Reed, was also a relief specialist at Stanford. Coincidentally enough, he too has 53 relief appearances and was drafted as a starter. Reed began his first year as a professional with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the A+ California League in his draft year. It is too much of a distraction now to look more closely at his career that seems to have been mishandled.
Getting back to Jack Little and a confidence that his career will be more successfully guided, he was born in Louisville, Kentucky but attended high school at Bishop Gorham High in Las Vegas. In his senior year in high school in 2016, he was a first-team all-state honoree going 5-1 with a 1.85 ERA and 53 strikeouts against four walks in 34 innings for the Gaels. Other names we might recognize from Bishop Gorham are current Texas Ranger outfielder Joey Gallo and former Minnesota Twin 1995 Rookie of the Year, outfielder Marty Cordova.
The 6’4”/190-lb. Little headed off the Stanford after his high school graduation and had a disappointing freshman year in 2017 logging only 2.1 innings.
Following his college season, he went to work on figuring things out or as one article noted, to reinvent himself, after that first dismal Cardinal season. Stanford was in the midst of a coaching change so Little was somewhat free to strike out on his own and experiment with what works. He spent the summer with the Newport Gulls of the New England Collegiate Baseball League and while the results were not overwhelming, he did strike out 30 in 25 innings. It was not so much the results but the change in focus that propelled Little forward.
“I took it as an opportunity to work on things on my own and try figure out what worked best for me,” Little said of his summer in Newport.
With his own introspection and a new coach, he found a new lease on life. Stanford assistant baseball coach Thomas Eager handles the pitchers and felt that Little’s career turned a corner when he embraced a new role as a relief specialist. That is, as a closer. It took some time and among other things a call to his mother in which they discussed a closer’s mentality. Gotta love those baseball moms.
On his part Eager reported. “I said ‘I’m not going to change you or do anything, but now’s the time to do what you think is best and let you run with it.” Run with it, he did.
They decided to add a curveball and continue to develop his slider. Little continued to use his changeup and found success with the multi-pitch mix. His fastball is in the low to mid 90’s. Not overpowering stuff, but it works.
“It was a clean slate, and I could go out and show them what I’m capable of,” Little said.
That aforementioned change in focus allowed Little to live in the moment with the task at hand, not concerned about what had happened or looking ahead to what could happen.
“Staying present, you’re not focused on the result,” Little said. “You’re focusing on what you can control which is giving total effort and having no regrets.”
That transition came in 2018 and what a season it was. He dominated the collegiate baseball scene tying the Stanford single-season save record with 16. With a minuscule 0.61 ERA, Little went 3-0 and struck out 56 batters in 44.0 innings pitched while walking eight.
Among several other post-season awards for Little were D1 Baseball first-team All-America, Baseball America first-team All-America, Perfect Game first-team All-America as well a finalist for the NCBWA Stopper of the Year trophy which was won by Michael Byrne of the Florida Gators.
His 2019 college season was not quite as dominant yet strong enough to make him a fifth-round selection, 161st overall. He made 24 appearances as a reliever. He converted 12 saves and had an ERA of 3.37 and a WHIP of 1.08. In 42.2 innings, he struck out 55 and walked only 11, while holding opponents to a .221 average.
What was it that caused the all-time Stanford program record holder with 28 career saves to be drafted in the fifth round after having a good but not repetitive 2019 college season? On second thought, who could repeat his 2018 season?
For starters (no pun intended) Little has a big body quite similar to Don Drysdale. This is not intended to give even the slightest hint that Little could be a Drysdale. Not many are. It is just that the Dodgers seem to like the big-bodied pitchers.
Beyond that Little has an arsenal of pitches, albeit some still the proverbial work in progress, and is working to strengthen it although Baseball America questions the quality of his curve and slider.
MLB Pipeline writes: “(Little) has the potential to have a four-pitch mix should he get the chance to be in a rotation. He’s added a little velocity while at Stanford and can touch 94 mph on occasion, but typically sits in the 90-92 mph range with his fastball. He added a curveball in his sophomore season and it’s become his go-to breaking ball. He continues to work on his slider, and some think if he does end up in a bullpen at the next level, that would be a better breaking ball option for him. He can mix in a solid changeup as well.”
Little has worked on his repertoire as he has progressed and made, “adjustments”. In college, he moved from a normal three quarters arm slot to a lower slot, which immediately played into an increased strikeout rate. He began getting more swings-and-misses with his fastball, and unlike many pitchers who move to a lower slot, the movement wasn’t downward. It was upward.
“I started missing above barrels a lot more,” Little explained. “I became more deceptive, and while I’m not 98 [mph] — I’m only low 90s — it kind of gets on the hitter, and plays more up in the zone.”
An emphasis for Little has been to move his slider into the number two spot in his repertoires and he has done so by adjusting the nature of the spin on the pitch along with his dropped arm slot. In a pre-draft interview, he stated that the biggest adjustment he has made in baseball has been with his slider and, “… it’s been my best out-pitch by far. I am really excited about it.”
“I wasn’t putting it on the right axis before,” explained Little, whose bullpen sessions are now blessed with elite, Rapsodo-aided instruction. “I had the wrong idea of where to point the nose of the ball. My thumb was stuck on the seam, so it was kind of grabbing the ball at the last second. I was putting pure gyro spin on it, as opposed to spinning it on the axis I needed. Now I know how to spin my slider.”
What else did Jack Little bring with him out of college? Among his intangibles is a competitiveness that can’t be taught. When asked in the same interview what gets him excited in playing the game of baseball, he replied,
“The first thing I would say is competing. I love being out there in a competitive zone, it’s you vs. the hitter with the game on the line. It’s a battle, you’re out there trying to give your team the best chance to win. That competitive aspect is a ton of fun.”
In a follow-up question in his pre-draft interview, he was asked what he could guarantee if he was signed.
“I can guarantee you that I am gonna be a person that is gonna work hard definitely, every single day will bring a ferocious sort of mindset and mentality regardless of the situation whether its 120 degrees or 70 and sunny. I definitely will think being out there I can give the same effort and same ability and mindset whether my body is at 100 percent or 30 percent. It’s the kind of guy I am and I’ll go out and work hard no matter what.”
There is something else about Jack Little. The Dodgers love a high baseball IQ. He appears to have that. He majored in Management, Science, and Engineering at Stanford. As a term project with some Cardinal classmates, they submitted a term project on which they got an “A”.
“We tried to predict the Average Annual Value of free agents signing contracts this past offseason,” Little explained. “We put in a linear regression model and scraped a bunch of online data from places like Baseball-reference. We used a bunch of inputs, including age, years played, and WAR. We used FanGraphs to do research on what kind of predictors to use. There are a lot of great articles on FanGraphs.”
Little made his professional debut with the Arizona League Dodgers (Lasorda) on June 26, 2019. After two scoreless appearances, he was promoted to the Great Lakes Loons being the first 2019 draftee to play with the Loons. On the season with Great Lakes in nine starts, limited to two innings each start, he posted a 3.79 ERA along with a 1.37 WHIP while striking out 17 and walking 14.
The question is, starter or reliever? I expect the 22-year-old Little may begin 2020 with the Loons in a starting role to help determine if that is to be his role. Ultimately it seems he may well transition back into a relief role depending on how his changeup may play out. In 2018 he was as dominant of a closer as any college pitcher in the nation. Stay tuned.
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IMO, Jack Little and Braidyn Fink are the two pitchers I am most interested in from last year’s draft (excluding Jimmy Lewis, who I see as a starter). In 2018, these two dominated in their relief role for two highly acclaimed University baseball programs. I know Jack is being stretched out as a starter, very similar to how Josh Sborz was first used. But also similar to Sborz, Little is primarily a reliever who can go multiple innings because of his pitch repertoire.
Little could very well move quickly through the organization. I see the potential for Little to move as quickly as did Jo Jo Gray last year; starting in Great Lakes, but ending the year in Tulsa.
I think he will move fast, but I could also see him staying a starter due to his pitch repertoire. He could be a very solid starter.
His ceiling as a starter is back of the rotation. His pitch repertoire is not at the level of Tony Gonsolin or Mitchell White’s. With the relative youth of the rotation after Kersh, the path to the rotation is somewhat blocked except for a top of the rotation pitcher. Buehler/Urias/May/Gonsolin/Gray, with Maeda for the next few years, seems to give the team a solid rotation. Edwin Uceta is ahead of Little, and Uceta’s “stuff” does not play in relief so if he is to make it to the Show, it will be as a back end rotation pitcher.
Of course like Sborz, Little will want to start, because that is where the “BIG” money is. The Dodgers can pick up a back of the rotation starter like Drew Smyly as they need one and continue to look for the Ace. But a pitcher who can be a huge reliever makes his trek to MLB much quicker and more stable.
Good choices to follow although I don’t expect to see Fink pitch competitively until later in the season as Dodgers are conservative with pitchers rehabbing from TJ surgery. I am looking forward to seeing how Ryan Pepiot and Aaron Ochsenbein do this season. Repeating myself, but I really like the Dodgers 2019 draft – both pitchers and position players.
Agreed with the apparent quality of the 2019 draft. Time will tell if it will have anywhere near the impact of the 2016 draft, but it should prove to be very valuable.
Jack Little, his “total effort” attitude seems to have paid off. I like his positive approach. Yet, another promising young man I am adding to my list. Keep them coming DC. Great article. Thank you.
On a lighter note; Phillynews channel interview with Astro’s trash can:
https://twitter.com/FOX29philly
Thanks for the laugh!
I was bored so I decided to make a 2020 Dodger roster that I would personally go with and I decided to place the pitchers in the best position to succeed according to their career OPS stats. Other people like to use other stats but my personal favorite stat for both the offense and the pitching is OPS.
First the offense:
Smith C
Muncy 1B
Lux 2B
Seager SS
Turner 3B
Verdugo OF
Bellinger OF
Pederson/Pollock platoon OF
The Bench:
One of Pederson/Pollock
Beaty backup all 4 corners
Taylor backup SS 2B CF
Hernandez backup SS 2B CF
Barnes backup catcher
Starting pitching with career OPS stats from best to worst as a starter:
Kershaw 580 OPS
Buehler 592 OPS
Gonsolin 607 OPS
May 622 OPS
Maeda 676 OPS
Bullpen with career OPS stats from best to worst as a reliever:
Jansen 537 OPS
Wood 566 OPS
Urias 581 OPS
Baez 636 OPS
Treinen 653 OPS
Kelly 662 OPS
Stripling 673 OPS
1 Open Spot hopefully for Giles 607 OPS
The pitchers are listed according to their career OPS stats, it doesn’t mean for example that I think Kershaw is a better pitcher than Buehler at this stage of their careers. Both Gonsolin and May have small samples. The guys listed in the bullpen that have started in their careers have put up better OPS stats as relievers and some of them have way better stats as a reliever. As for Jansen, he has the best career OPS but his stuff is declining.
I’d rather the Dodgers not have Jansen and Kelly on the team but their contracts are hard to move or impossible to move. I’d rather have Stripling in AAA but that means the Dodgers would have to make a trade to upgrade over Stripling.
Other names to mention along with their career OPS stats who would be in AAA or released depending on options:
Alexander 679 OPS as a reliever
Ferguson 791 OPS as a starter and 719 OPS as a reliever
Sadler 731 OPS as a reliever
Floro 700 OPS as a reliever but a ROOGY with an 833 OPS against LHB
Kolerak 702 OPS as a reliever but a LOOGY with an 849 OPS against RHB
Nelson 738 OPS as a starter and 788 OPS as a reliever
I think the pitching still has weaknesses at the moment, but things could happen to change that.
nice info, thanks!
Thank you.
Quik thought, it’s so funny how there saying Cardinals have the prices for Arenado and so do Rangers, but the truth is Arenado HAS to APPROVE the trade lmao, y do they think it’s a shoe in?? Any thoughts?
Arenado would seriously consider a trade to the Cards. He knows the Rockies aren’t going to win anything during his contract. But, the Cardinals are always contenders.
But will Arenado waive his opt out after 2021? Doubtful unless he gets a nice bonus for giving up that very nice contract element. If he will not waive the opt out then the Cards are not going to give up all of the quality prospects the Rockies desire.
He would like to be a Dodger but who knows how that will affect his future.
That is what I have read. I think the Dodgers would be willing to make a very good trade offer for Arenado if he will waive his opt out (even if they had to pay him extra $$$. But I just don’t see the Rockies trading him to the Dodgers.
Friedman might be willing to trade Seager to Rockies and that would be a trade of stars within the Division. That would put Lux at short probably Muncy at second.
I’d love for one of our Fab Five writers to do a piece on Driveline and Rob Hill. What are they doing to improve pitchers velocity and spin rates. Have they had success? And what are their theories behind their therapy. What are the most important bio mechanical factors involved in velocity and spin rates. You see some pitchers with increased velocity after Tommy John surgery like Buehler. So are tighter ligaments a factor? Increased muscular strength with rehab. Any hope for Kersh and Wood who are working with them? Thx
Cassidy – this might be a primer that I wrote back in October, 2016. It does not include Rob Hill. It definitely does not include much of what you have mentioned.
https://www.thinkbluela.com/2016/10/dodgers-prospects-subscribe-to-driveline/
Cassidy, this link might provide a primer for you. I wrote it back in October, 2016 but it does not include much of what you mentioned.
https://www.thinkbluela.com/2016/10/dodgers-prospects-subscribe-to-driveline/
Thanks, that was helpful
Thanks DC. Still would like to know more specifics about the program if possible
Good idea Cassidy. I second the motion, especially in view of Rob Hill and the work Kenley has been doing with them. They will, no doubt, be very important to potential success for us this year.
I am always curious about what each Dodger is doing in the off season to get ready or improve. That goes for both hitters and pitchers.
More possible fallout from the cheating scandel;
The fallout from the Houston Astros illicit sign-stealing scandal continues to leave more bodies in its wake, with New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran perhaps its latest casualty.
Days after Astros Manager AJ Hinch and Red Sox Manager Alex Cora were killed off from their high profile jobs in succession, an alleged niece of Beltran, a member of the 2017 World Series champion Astros team, tweeted ‘My Tio Carlos is stepping down as Mets manager’ with a sad face emoji.
The now private account even has ‘My Favorite Uncle @CarlosBeltran15’ in her Twitter profile.
Yeah, it would be hard to see Beltran survive when Cora didn’t.
I have to think Manfred is going to come down hard on Cora and Beltran.
Allegedly, he is not going to discipline players and Beltran was a player then.
Interesting fact; if the Mets fire Beltran then they could end up paying 3 managers in 2020 ( Callaway, Beltran and ?).
DODGERS SIGN LHP ALEX WOOD
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed to terms with left-handed pitcher Alex Wood on a one-year contract for the 2020 season. In order to make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers have designated right-handed pitcher Casey Sadler for assignment.
Wood, 29, rejoins the Dodgers after spending last season with the Cincinnati Reds. The southpaw was sidelined most of the campaign with back issues, making seven starts and going 1-3 with a 5.80 ERA (23 ER/35.2 IP) and 30 strikeouts against nine walks for the Reds. Prior to getting traded to the Reds on December 21, 2018 along with Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp and Kyle Farmer in exchange for Jeter Downs and Josiah Gray, he went 31-20 with a 3.46 ERA (167 ER/434.2 IP) and 401 strikeouts against 121 walks in four seasons with the Dodgers. He posted the best season of his career in 2017 with the Dodgers, recording a career-high 16-3 mark with a 2.72 ERA (46 ER/152.1 IP) and earning his first career All-Star Game selection.
The North Carolina native was originally acquired by the Dodgers in 2015 in a three-way trade with Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins. In seven Major League seasons, he is a combined 53-43 with a 3.40 ERA (317 ER/839.0 IP) and 768 strikeouts in 179 games (136 starts). He was originally drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the second round of the 2012 First Year Player Draft out of the University of Georgia.
Sadler, 29, joined the Dodgers on July 3 from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for right-hander Nathan Witt. The Oklahoma native made 24 appearances (one start) with the Dodgers, posting a 4-0 record with a 2.33 ERA (7 ER/27.0 IP) and 20 strikeouts. In four Major League seasons, he is combined 5-1 with a 3.55 ERA (26 ER/66.0 IP) and 46 strikeouts in 42 games (two starts).
Glad to have Wood back. \
Fun facts:
Alex can’t see the catcher’s signs if his mouth is closed.
Alex owns a company that makes a device that removes bubble gum from cleats.
No wonder he’s always spitting his gum on the field.
Exactly.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/dodgerblue.com/casey-sadler-designated-for-assignment-make-room-dodgers-40-man-roster-alex-wood-signed/2020/01/15/amp/