October 27, 2020…
After that unforgettable strikeout of Willy Adames by Julio Urias Almost four months to the day, the Dodgers are going to be taking the field in an actual baseball game, even if it is only a ST game. The Dodgers are starting 32 year old LHP, Mike Kickham. Kickham signed a MiLB contract on January 27. Lat year Kickham last year pitched for Boston, and pitched in six games. In 14.0 IP. Kickham amassed a 7.71 ERA and 1.857 WHIP. Those six games improved his overall metrics to a 9.95 ERA and 2.053 WHIP in 44.1 IP. 30.1 innings of those 44.1 were pitched as a member of the 2013 and 2014 San Francisco Giants.
Last year, Kickham allowed five walks against 17 K’s. Kickham’s trouble is that he must leave too many pitches out over the plate as he has given up 75 hits in 44.1 IP including 15 HR’s. Oh well, nobody is expecting much out of Kickham anyway. At 32, this Spring figures to be Kickham’s last chance to make an impression. I hope he does well and can continue to pitch at the AAA level and get another chance, however it does not figure to be as a Dodger.
Gavin Lux, AJ Pollock, and Austin Barnes are tentatively scheduled to get some play time in the Spring opener. DJ Peters is scheduled to get playing time in CF for at least the first two games. Peters’ ST will go a long ways to determine whether he is potential RH bat for the LAD. Kickham is scheduled to pitch two innings. Edwin Uceta is scheduled to also pitch today. I am not sure who follows, as it has not been released as I was writing this article.
One of the new relievers to catch Mark Prior’s eye has been LHRP Alex Vesia. He has what Prior calls a “unique” fastball. He is already on the 40 man with options. IMO, he is auditioning for the 2nd LHRP spot against Scott Alexander. LHRP are always a valuable part of any roster. Victor Gonzalez figures to have the top LHRP role in tow. Although Josh Hader would look very good in Dodger Blue.
Regardless of any moves made between now and April 1, the Dodgers are loaded. We fans certainly believe it, but so does MLB Network, which has completed their top 100 players right now. These selections were made accumulating rankings determined by the network’s production and research team.
The Dodgers and Chicago White Sox tied with the most players in the top 100 with 9 apiece. However, there is a world of difference between the Dodgers nine players ranked and the ChiSox nine players. Actually the Dodgers have nine of the top 50 players, while the White Sox had three players from 26-50 and six players from 51-100. The two New York teams have seven players in the top 100, and both have four in the top 50. Below is a table of the top 100 by team. No team approaches nine players in the top 50. The Dodgers not only have the best depth overall, but also leads MLB in elite players.
| Teams | 1-10 | 11-25 | 26-50 | 51-75 | 76-101 | Total |
| – | ||||||
| Dodgers | 2 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| White Sox | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| Mets | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| Yankees | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Blue Jays | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| Braves | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Padres | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Cubs | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| Nationals | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Astros | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Red Sox | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Twins | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Rays | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Brewers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Cardinals | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Phillies | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Reds | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Angels | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Indians | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Rockies | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| A’s | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Royals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| DBacks | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Giants | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Rangers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Mariners | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Orioles | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Marlins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pirates | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tigers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| – | ||||||
| Totals | 10 | 15 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 100 |
The Dodgers top 50 players are as follows:
- Mookie Betts #2
- Cody Bellinger #10
- Corey Seager #24
- Trevor Bauer #29
- Clayton Kershaw #38
- Walker Buehler #40
- Max Muncy #45
- Justin Turner #46
- Will Smith #50
What makes it even more dominating is that three Dodger pitchers are in the top 50 (actually top 40), while the total number of other pitchers in the top 50 is 6, and no team with more than one.
- Jacob deGrom #3
- Gerrit Cole #11
- Shane Bieber #12
- Max Scherzer #28
- Yu Darvish #30
- Hyun-jin Ryu #39
Other than the Dodgers one other team had three top 100 players, Darvish #30, Dinelson Lamet #74 and Blake Snell #80.
Three other teams had two pitchers in the top 50:
- Nationals (Scherzer #28 and Stephen Strasburg #60)
- White Sox (Lucas Giolito #69 and Lance Lynn #75)
- Reds (Luis Castillo #85 and Sonny Gray #86)
The two teams that figure to give the Dodgers the biggest problem in the NL in 2021 appear to be the Padres and Braves who have five top 100 players each. With Freddie Freeman #4 and Ronald Acuna Jr. #7 the Braves have two top 10 players. Marcell Ozuna #37, Max Fried #70, and Ozzie Albies #72 wrap up the Braves top 100. Freeman and Ozuna had MVP like seasons, with Acuna Jr. not far behind. Will they be able to repeat in 2021?
Besides the three starting pitchers, the Padres have perhaps the games future face in Fernando Tatis Jr #6 and Manny Machado #18 in the top 100.
The Dodgers and Padres will have a “fun” April with three games at Petco beginning April 16, followed by two on road against the Mariners, and then four at home against the Padres beginning April 22.
Jeff, your write up on Kickham may be the highlight of his career. Nine in the top 50 and Urias will be there next year! That’s a lot of talent on one team! Can’t wait to see Lux this spring!
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t wait to get started! I guess Kickham will get his 15 minutes of fame today. More power to him! Who among us wouldn’t want that?
Dodgers have so much pitching depth…and what if the Jimmy Nelson rehab project works out? He could be a great trade chip, or enable Friedman to deal a younger arm for a bigger return.
Manchester United at 830. Dodgers at 12pm. Lakers at 5pm
As Ice Cube would say, “today is a good day”
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves Bobby
Just settling in to watch the game myself
Why Mike Kickham?
Simply because you let the non roster guys get a shot. Kickham has zero chance of making the roster, so why burn your guys who are going to definitely make it in an early spring game?
A lot of talk about the Padres being the second best team in baseball and the most serious rival to the Dodgers, but don’t overlook the Braves. The Braves were somewhat middling through the first part of last season but really exploded towards the end, and are a key Mookie catch and a clutch Belli homerun removed from probably being WS champs. They gave the Dodgers more trouble than the Pads did.
Their offense was awesome last year – probably on par with the Dodgers – and only on run scored separated them.
They started the season with a bunch of injuries to their key starting pitchers: Soroko was done for the year, Cole Hamels was injured and never was a factor. When they brought up Ian Anderson they really turned a corner. He’s really good. They have Soroka back, signed the veteran Morton and picked up Drew Smiley. Last year their starting pitching was a mess. This year they have a solid 1-4.
Looking forward to baseball today, big-time. It’s a little cooler today. High at 64. It’s been in the high 70’s. low 80’s. Back to normal on Tuesday.
I have a question. Does anyone know why they plan to play 5, 6 or 7 inning spring training games? I don’t know the official numbers in Dodger camp but I would suspect the 40 man roster and I read 31 moon-roster invitees. I’m no math major but that would be 71 guys+/- in camp. With that number of players to look at, why would there be reduced innings and reduced opportunities?
I have mentioned that if the split is 13 pitchers and 13 position guys,IMO there’s one spot between Alexander and Kelly to get to 13. Assuming McKinstry makes it, there’s one spot left between Beaty, Reks, Raley, Peters, Neuse, Ruiz, Busch and all the rest of invitees to show their stuff. Be nice to have innings for these guys.
With the absence of MiLB last year why would spring training opportunities to see these kids play, be reduced?
It makes zero sense to me. Is it to lessen exposure to covid? Like 4 baseball innings is going to have an impact in the grand scheme of things. Or is it MLB once again dying to change things just of the hell of it? Very Rob-like.
Yeah Phil, the reduced innings for ST games does seem odd. It would be nice if someone in baseball would explain the reasoning for the reduction. Maybe, they are planning to send most of the invitees to minor league camp early. I would like to see Neuse or Peters make the 26 man out of spring training. Seems like Peters should get a shot and determine if he can be a Dodger. If not now, when?
The idea of Nelson, Morrow, or a few other reclamation pitching projects showing well could really benefit the Dodgers. With most likely no place on the 26 opening the season what will AF do with them? Hell, the Dodgers could become MLB’s used pitchers destination for the rest of baseball. One stop shopping for a reliever or opener. Young pitching or outfielders wanted. I ask why does AF sign all these formally injured or overlooked pitchers? Because if he hits on one or two they might help the Dodgers now (Kolarek, Florio) and then traded to add to their minor league system. That’s one way to maintain a strong minor league system while picking at the bottom of the draft in each round. Again, AF playing chess, etc.
Looking forward to watching the 7 inning game today. Love watching the Dodgers of tomorrow.
Minor leaguers are not in camp yet so that the 40-man roster and nonroster invitees for the big league clubs can spread out over all of the facility space. That also means minor league pitchers can’t be called over to big league camp to pitch late innings in spring training games. That is the major reason games will be shorter for a while. Also, there are no split-squad games this year.
Minor leaguers will not report until after the major leaguers leave. Ruiz still not in camp. Kelly is pitching again after being ill this week.
Just two hours and then baseball. Not quite real baseball, but real enough to get my heart workin again. It’s had more rest than it should get.
So, Darvish (and Bauer) is better than Kersh? Not sure I agree with this. I think Kersh is still in the top 25. The guy is a beast!
Ruiz has no shot at making the 26 man roster. He isn’t even in camp yet. He will start everyday at AAA,
Now that fans are allowed in the stands, and respecting the distance between them, I wonder what is the point of sitting them apart, if as soon as there is a foul ball, all the people will run like crazy for the ball, and there will be no healthy distance…
haha that’s a great point
After 2 innngs, I have Kickham as the Opening Day Starter and Edwin Rios has taken the 3B job from Turner.
😉
… and Corey Seager and Zach McKinstry have secured a starting job!
And I’m benching that Betts guy!
Jackson and May are half brothers
Mike Busch needs more reps at 2B. That should have been a DP.
I really liked what I saw from Grove. I wish there was a radar gun to tell us how hard he was throwing.
We may have our RH bench bat in Davidson. Tho he looks like a dh. Grove looked awesome and Jackson has some serious gas. How many good young arms do we have! My goodness! Fun to see the young guys play. And Rios just could be the real deal. Love his swing
I was impressed with Peters two at bats. Last year, he would have chased a couple of those pitches. And he would have probably struck out twice. 2 walks, nice change of pace. Cody Thomas got into the game for the A’s.
Fun game getting to see those prospects we missed seeing last year with no MiLB
AC, if you’re out there, I believe you’ve been on Grove for awhile now. I realize he wasn’t exactly facing Babe Ruth today but his stuff looked good enough that I could see him as our future closer, or are they grooming him to be a starter? As others have mentioned above, he was really impressive today.
Yes, I have been a Grove fan, but not as big of a fan as Mark is. I think Mark has him in contention for CY this year. ☺ I always try to caution people about getting hopes up because of a good Spring outing. Remember three years back (or was it four) when Shea Spitzbarth was unhittable in ST until his last outing in the Spring. Many on this site were calling for Spitzbarth to break camp with the MLB team.
Mike Kickham looked good also, but I am not ready to give him a roster spot. Grove struck out Tyler Soderstrom who was in high school last year at this time and Buddy Reed who has never blossomed as a prospect. Reed has struck out at a greater than 27% rate. Uceta struck out Buddy Reed in the third. What I liked about Grove was how he attacked the batter, and threw a good three pitch repertoire; a very good fastball, curve and slider. Whether his swing and miss stuff will translate during the season against better hitters, we will have to wait and see. But he did look good today with good command, something he has not had much of in Pro ball.
Grove is still considered a starting pitcher, but so it Ryan Pepiot.
Add me to the Michael Grove Marching Society Fan Club. I was impressed. McKinstry also impressive and Clevinger sure throws hard. Loved the game.
Oops meant Cleavinger.