Twenty-year-old Braydon Fisher was selected by the Dodgers in the fourth round of the 2018 First-Year Player draft out of Clear Falls High School in League City Texas. League City is in the Greater Houston Metropolitan Area with a population of just over 100,000.
The 6’4”/180-pound right-hander was a stand out in high school. In his senior season at Clear Falls, he was a bit of a strikeout machine, sending 110 batters back to the dugout in 73.2 innings pitched while compiling a 11-2 record as a starter with a 1.43 earned runs average. He was equally as impressive as a hitter with a .393 average, 37 runs batted in and seven home runs in 112 at-bats.
Fisher had committed to Lamar University in Beaumont,Texas prior to the June draft in 2018 and admits having a stressful few days prior to the draft. He said he was at home watching the draft with his parents when he got a call from his advisor who advised him to pay attention to selection 134.
“He said, ‘Pick 134, watch for it, the Dodgers,’” Fisher said. “I was sitting on the couch waiting on pick 134, and he said that around pick 129, so it was a little bit of a wait. Every pick, my anxiety got higher and my heart was racing, and then when they finally called my name, me and my parents jumped off the couch and went crazy.”
He thought about his commitment to Lamar but being selected a high as he was, just behind right-hander Michael Grove and left-hander John Rooney, he made the decision with his parents to sign with the Dodgers.
“The Dodgers are a great organization, they have a great minor league system,” Fisher said. “I was very happy with the Dodgers. … This is definitely a lifelong dream, but it’s just a step toward the ultimate dream, which is playing in the Major League, playing on TV and playing with the big boys.”
Like so many young athletes, Fisher acknowledged his parents for the hard work they put into helping him follow his dream.
“I want to thank my parents for all the money and the time and sweat and tears they’ve put in for me,” Fisher said. “I want to thank my friends for always keeping me humble and allowing me to have fun with the game and take the stress away from it. And, I want to thank my coaches for teaching me everything that they know and helping me become who I am today, whether it’s on the field or as a person.”
This is MLB.com’s scouting report on Braydon Fisher at that time.
“Fisher’s fastball has added significant velocity in the last year and now sits in the low 90s while topping out at 96 mph with some run and sink,” the report states. “Considering that his arm is so quick and clean and he has the room to add plenty of strength to his 6-foot-4 frame, he could work in the mid-90s once he’s a finished product.”
He made his professional debut with the Arizona League Dodgers on June 28, 2018 against the AZL Mariners. He gave up two earned runs in 2.1 innings pitched. He had not yet turned 18 with a birthday on July 26. On the season he made nine starts over 22 innings pitched posting a 2.05 ERA along with 19 strikeouts and nine walks.
While throwing a bullpen early in the spring of 2019, Fisher hyper-extended his elbow which was the catalyst for UCL surgery and he spent all of 2019 recovering from the procedure.
“I have always dealt with some soreness since high school, but this definitely came as a surprise,” Fisher said.
As with all minor league players, Fisher lost his 2020 season to Covid-19. And, like others he used the time to work on what he must do to pick up from where he left off.
What might have he worked on during his past two years? He concentrated on his off-speed pitches, putting on some weight and just returning to play healthy.
“I throw a four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball, a curve ball and a changeup. The four-seam has to be my best pitch because the off speed stuff is still developing,” he said. “The fastest I’ve ever been clocked was 96 MPH in high school.”
Scouts would agree with Fisher. Their assessment was that his slider was trending upwards before his surgery, but his changeup was still very raw.
“Physically, I’m purposely trying to add some size and strength so I can be in better shape and have more stamina,” he confirmed.
“I will be in Arizona for the whole year[2019]. My goal is to get bigger and stronger, recover well, and come back even better than I was before,” Fisher said at the time.
He did return to the field bigger and stronger for the 2021 season and was assigned to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the Low-A California League.
To date, Fisher has made nine appearances with the Quakes over 19 innings pitched. Back on May 14 he had one of those nights that he most likely wanted to forget. He surrendered nine hits and six earned runs in 2.2 innings pitched. That’s the bad news. The good news is that over the other 16.1 innings pitched he has given up two earned runs.
On the season he has struck out 27 and walked six. In his last two appearances, both in June, Fisher has pitched 7.2 innings giving up one single while walking three. He has struck out 12.
Since that one forgettable outing on May 14, Braydon Fisher has posted a 1.10 ERA along with a 0.98 WHIP over 16.1 innings pitched.
On June 6 I checked on the Quakes game and noticed that Fisher had entered the game with a runner on. By the time I switched over to the audio which first insisted I watch an advertisement, his half inning was over. Looking back at Gameday I discovered he had retired the side on three pitches, via a pop out to short and a double play.
Fisher, who will turn 21 in about a month, may well celebrate his birthday with the High-A Great Lakes Loons. Then I can view him live and not just on audio as I do with the Quakes.
Player of the Week
More Info:
Video: https://www.si.com/mlb/dodgers/news/interview-with-dodgers-pitching-prospect-braydon-fisher
Video: https://thinkbluepc.com/2020/02/14/catching-up-with-pitching-prospect-braydon-fisher/
Dodgers Minor League Report
- OKC BOXSCORE – Did not play
- TULSA BOXSCORE – The Drillers won 1-0 on just 4 hits. Romar Cuadrado drove in the only run on a walk-off single. Neither team had an extra-base hit. Andre Jackson (2.76 ERA) pitched 4 scoreless innings, and Justin Hagenman pitched the final inning for the win.
- GL BOXSCORE – History was made in Dayton for the Great Lakes Loons Wednesday night with a Miguel Vargas leadoff single in the top of the first inning to extend the third baseman’s hit streak to 25 games. Vargas broke a franchise record of 24 games that was set by Brian Cavazos-Galvez in 2010 with a 2-for-5 night against the Dragons, making him the new record-holder. The Loons (16-16) lost their second straight game to Dayton (18-14) with a 6-5 outcome. Vargas also homered as did Andy Pages. Pages was 2-3. Ching also had 2 hits. Gamboa pitched 5 innings allowing just 1 run on 2 hits. Morgan Cooper pitched an inning and allowed a hit, run, and 2 walks while striking out 2. 6′ 7″ Mike Mokma blew the game by giving up 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th, including the 2-run walk-off by Reniel Ozuna.
- RC BOXSCORE – The Quakes lost 8-5. Nothing memorable about this one…
Love these reports on kids I have no knowledge of. I really hope I get to see some of them next spring.
Great job, DC – this is s kid who is ready, willing and able to really grow.
Well, that damn bullpen failed the Dodgers again last night!
Kenley Jansen is finished. Gonzalez, Price, Kelly, and Treinen are all bums.
This team is doomed!
There: I hope this makes some of you feel better… or worse… if you are so inclined.
Mark, as you have said so many times, relievers are fragile. They get injured, as do starters and position players. They don’t just pitch every fifth day for which they can prepare and often have to just work out of jams that are left to them. It is a marathon and not a sprint and there will be blips along the way. What counts is what happens on the last day of the season, a series and the WS. You can’t win every game but can win the last one.
I rarely speak to things Dodgers but I do believe the bullpen has a good mix with others waiting in the wings. They will lose, blow games, but they will win more than they lose. My favorite bullpen piece is Victor Gonzalez, an unlikely guy a few years ago to turn into a MLB stalwart, and one I have followed closely for several years.
Another one I have watched closely who has progressed without any fanfare is lefty Justin Bruihl.
To the Player of the Week, Braydon Fisher is just a great kid. Hard work, confidence and humility are great personal qualities that will serve him well over the span of his baseball career and his lifetime.
Don’t get too excited about the bullpen because the Pirates have the worst OPS in the National League.
If they were facing a better offense it would be a different story.
Today’s early game winning lineup:
Mookie RF
Max 1b
JT 3b
Cody CF
Matt LF
Zach 2b
Gavin SS
Austin C
Julio
Urgh. Sitting Smith, CT3 and Pollock at the same time is never a good idea. I guess they like the pitching matchup. Left handers are hitting over 300 against Keller. Hopefully this works out.
JT seems to be playing a lot.
I like Muncy batting second with his OBP and pop. Or third or fourth after Seager comes back.
Stumbled upon another reason like Max in a Fangraphs article about how the Angels’ Jered Walsh has become an excellent fielder at first that cites some advanced fielding stats:
Jared Walsh is so effective as a first baseman for the LA Angels due to his quickness.
Hooper used some data from Baseball Savant to find the best 40-foot splits from first basemen, and found that Jared Walsh has the second-best time among the league’s first basemen at 2.18. Max Muncy was number one with a 2.17 40-foot split time.
Whoda thunk it?
I think Muncy was the only starting player without a hit today.
You never know who has an “owie.”
Braydon looks like a guy that can develop into a stud. He has a pitcher’s frame and getting it up to 96 in prep is impressive.
I really didn’t expect too much from Tony yesterday. Starting the season with shoulder inflammation is never a good sign. While they wanted him to be built up in the minor leagues, he never got out of the 4th inning in any of his rehab starts. The result was another bullpen game with no off days coming on the schedule to bail us out. Thank God we have the Rangers up next. Tony’s next start will be against the Phillies at home.
Even with our horrible bullpen, we managed to win another bullpen game. It was against the Pirates, so there’s that. Each of our last three pitchers walked a hitter, yet we managed to win a one run game. The big difference? Kelly, Treinen and Jansen pitched those last three innings instead of Vesia, Cleavinger and Santana.
Julio on the bump in just a couple of hours setting us up for a much needed sweep. A 4-2 road trip would be a welcome sight after dropping two in Atlanta. Julio bounced back nicely last game after a real pooper against the Giants. The Pirates are especially horrible against left handers this year, so I would expect a good outcome today.
Today is the Youtube game of the week, so don’t try to watch it on TV.
I have really enjoyed the joe&nomar team these games.
I totally agree. I suggested Orel and Nomar job share not long ago.
I like that they switch back and forth. Kirsten Watson has no business being on TV… or radio. I am sure she is a wonderful person, but she just is so bland.
100% she adds nothing at all to the broadcasts, rather have Andre Ethier on there…
I don’t think the players would like Andre calling them out to their faces. 😉 That would make for great TV though.
I must say. There’s someone I hate much more than Kirsten and that’s David Vasseh. He has such a bad attitude and constantly insults guests while hosting Dodger talk and talks to players disrespectfully. He just makes me angry every time I hear him.
Joe Davis is great.
It’s a quasi-miracle both that the Dodgers found him to follow Vin.
He didn’t shrink from the task of following Vin.
PS: Steiner is great as well. IMHO
i think Joe could pull off a one-man booth!
I agree. I think Orel and Nomar are just training wheels at this point. Another couple of years.
I don’t know what you mean about David Vasseh he is a great radio man
Just ask him
Now 3 and 2 on this trip. This wasn’t one for my video collection, however. Thank you JT. I don’t really understand the move to KJ in the 8th. Was it a match up preference. Jokes aside, KJ has struggled in back to back outings and with 4 and 5 out saves. Maybe he’s by that. He’s throwing well but why push it. Treinen was fine. Just seemed like an unnecessary move.
Kirsten Watson had another monotone mumbling, rambling, offering last night the was unintelligible. It’s like she writes down lengthy, run on paragraphs with no punctuation and then reads them on air as fast as she can. Geez, take a breath and enunciate a syllable.
Good start against this punching bag.
Urias is a better hitter than Yoshi!
Going out on a ledge on that one, eh? HA!
Put urias in the starting lineup. Should boost our offense.
Trade out Bellinger’s spot for Julio
Home run ball bites him again, really bad pitch.
Dodgers going small ball. Bellinger with a two strike approach. What is the world coming to?!!!! Julio finishing strong after a rough start. I love his mental makeup!
Just call the game. We’ve got a plane to catch!
Looked at the radar, but not sure what would be required to restart. Looks like the heavy rain should end in about 20min as of 4:30est, but does not look like all the rain will end for HOURS.
Jerry Hairston says he lives in Manhattan Beach but is afraid to swim in the ocean due to sharks. What a PUSS.
I went to school in Manhattan Beach even though I lived in Redondo. He is a wuss. I went swimming all the time. Love the stadium in Pittsburgh, but I hate the weather there.
I lived in Redondo & Hermosa for a bit. Also Huntington & then Fallbrook. I used to be in the water almost every day when I lived in socal, which was pretty much my entire life until about 45 years old. Hence, the name someone gave me to try insult me one day, so I just nipped it in the bud & adopted it as my handle. 🙂
Cheers
I got mine while I was in the Army. I guess I snored as loud as a Bear. Went to Mira Costa. Usually went to Hermosa to swim though.
That view of downtown from the stands is pretty damn nice!
Fisher is the exact same size as Jacob deGrom.
I forgot to mention earlier that I heard Duane Kuiper is going to miss broadcasting some Giants games for an undisclosed health diagnosis that will require chemo. That’s not good news and you can guess what the diagnosis is. I really enjoy him with Kruk despite they do Giant games. I was sorry to hear that new.
Very nice, game called. It’s a W and saves two innings worth of bullpen. That’s a sweep and wrap for the 4-2 road trip. Can’t complain, everything is grande. I think I’ll go to the record store.
Wasn’t pretty, but now we are 1.5 behind the Gnats and .5 ahead of the Pads.
Speaking of Gnats …….. Let’s go NATS!
Looks to me that we are 1 full game ahead of Pads. Am I wrong??
You are correct!
And TWO ahead in the loss column
Not bad for a team with a crappy bullpen and no depth!
If only we could play the Pirates for the next 20 games!
Just some idle stat-gazing….
My favorite catch-all batting metric is OPS. To me, .800 OPS is sort of like a .300 BA. Anyway, some comments here had me was wondering about the heavy-righthanded lineup against the Pirates.
Small sample, of course, but Albert is indeed leading Dodgers in OPS versus lefthanded pitching with a 1.166 OPS. (I think we can discount the small-sample factor for Albert given the sample of his 21 year career.)
Next comes Muncy at 1.048, Taylor at 1.047 , Turner at .885, Seager at .826. Mookie at .801, McKinstry at .752…
I find it really surprising that Pollock (.671) and especially Smith (.581) haven’t been hitting lefties better….But Lux has been awful: .454
And now.. let’s look at Dodgers versus righthanded pitching:
At the top, with really too small samples to matter, are irregulars DJ Peters and Neuse.
Then, to my surprise, the top OPS among regulars is:
Smith at .932 (a reverse-split guy, I guess) followed by…
Muncy .876
Beatty .842
Turner .838
Betts .817
Pollock .809
And then in descending order Taylor, Seager, Lux, Barnes, McKinstry.
The stats are arguing that Pujols should be the de facto first baseman against lefties, with Muncy shifting to 2nd. Should Beatty always play against righties, either in left or 1B?
Clearly Taylor is outperforming Lux with the bat by a wide margin. Should he take over SS until Seager comes back?
Yeah, it’s only one-third of the season, but these numbers have me wondering about Lux and his “runway.”
If he’s really just a platoon player, should he be traded?