The Midwest League has a strong reputation for being a pitcher’s league. It is easy to get frustrated with lower batting averages in players. Gavin Lux is a great example of a player who could not get untracked in the Midwest League, but has been unstoppable since ”graduating” from low level A Ball. This is generally the first full season experience a player will get, and it is a tough transition for many, especially 2nd year HS players. DC religiously follows the Great Lakes Loons, the Dodgers affiliate in the Midwest League.
GREAT LAKES LOONS
The Loons have an all RH pitching corps but have been fairly productive with a team ERA of 3.19. That ERA is good enough for 6th out of 16 teams. Half of the Midwest teams have ERA’s south of 3.25. A lot of the early season pitcher marks can be attributed to the cold weather in the early month(s) in the Midwest.
The Loons have three starting pitchers with good starts to the season. RHP Josiah Gray has 2 starts and has accumulated 9.2 innings with a 0.93 ERA. Gray has allowed 2 walks but registered 11 K’s in those 9.2 innings, with an impressive WHIP of 0.41.
Guillermo Zuniga has two starts and 7.1 IP with a 1.23 ERA. but still needs to improve on his control. With his 5 walks and 4K’s in those 7.1 IP, Zuniga still needs to work in his control. His WHIP is NOT an impressive 1.77.
Jeronimo Castro is the third strong starting pitcher who started his second game on Saturday going 5 strong innings allowing Castro 0 runs on 2 hits, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. Castro has now pitched a total of 9 scoreless innings and has generated 13 strikeouts while issuing only 4 walks, and a 0.89 WHIP.
Joel Inoa, Justin Hagenman, and Alfredo Tavarez have been productive relievers. None of the three have been scored on:
Hagenman – 4 games – 6.2 IP – 1 BB and 6 K – 0.90 WHIP
Inoa – 3 games – 4.1 IP – 4 BB and 5 K – 1.15 WHIP
Tavarez – 2 games – 6.1 IP – 3 BB and 5 K – 1.11 WHIP
But the star of the bullpen thus far is Jose Chacin. He is tied for the team lead in IP with 9.1. Like Gray he has an ERA of 0.93. He is a strikeout pitcher with 10 in those 9.2 IP, and a WHIP of 0.62.
The Loons have good pitching and with some of the advanced ages, I would expect several of the pitchers to find their way to RC. I fully expect Gray and potentially Jeronimo Castro to get a promotion to RC before too long.
Offensively, the current star is catcher Hunter Feduccia. In 6 games and 17 ABs, Hunter is slashing .412/.583/.647/1.230, 4 of his 7 hits have been doubles. The other two catchers are a combined 0-10.
The Loons have a pair of OFs who have been off to a good Midwest League start. Romer Cuadrado is batting .333/.436/.394/.830 in his 29 ABs, while Niko Hulsizer is batting .267/.324/.467/.790, 6 of Hulsizer’s 8 hits have been doubles. In very early season league leaders, Niko is tied for the lead league in doubles.
The Loons as a team have 2 HR’s; one each by Jacob Amaya and Luke Heyer. I fully expect Amaya (a Southern California native) and 3B Miguel Vargas to warm up as soon as the weather does. Like their parent club, the Loons often get off to poor starts, but seem to put it together when playoffs are on the line.
Tulsa Drillers
The Drillers play in the 8 team Texas League. While the Midwest League is generally considered a pitcher’s league, the Texas League is largely considered a hitter’s league. It is generally conceded that if a player does well at AA, he is a true MLB prospect at some level. There are some very interesting and surprising starts for players on the Dodgers AA affiliate, both positive and negative. Starting with the positive side, the Drillers have 5 of the top 10 batting averages in the Texas League. It would be 6 out of 11 if Logan Landon had 3 more plate appearances, but with how he is hitting, I think he will get those PAs before too long. In 21 PAs (19 ABs). Logan is batting .474/.524/.579/1.103 which would be good enough to lead the league in batting average. Instead,, Zach McKinstry is leading the league in batting average, slugging, and OPS, and is second in OBP (to teammate Jared Walker). Zach is slashing at .455/.556/.864/1.419.
Gavin Lux is batting .424/.472/.667/1.139. That is top 6 in all four categories.
Omar Estevez is batting .417/.450/.611/1.061. Top 10 in all four categories.
Jared Walker is batting .391/.563/.522/1.084. That leads the league in OBP and is top 7 for BA and OPS.
Cristian Santana is batting .361/.395/.417/.811. That is #10 in BA.
On the negative side, and very surprisingly so, is catcher Keibert Ruiz who has 3 singles on the season and is batting .30/.286/.130/.416. Ruiz has 3 walks, but only 1 strikeout. He still shows tremendous hand/eye coordination, but his pitch and plate recognition need a lot of work. Also on the negative side of the ledger is OF DJ Peters. Peters is batting .188/.297/.219/.516. Of his 6 hits, 5 are singles and 1 is a double. He has 3 walks and is tied for the league lead in strikeouts with 14 in 38 appearances. That is a 36.8% K rate. This was the year DJ was supposed to work on his bat to ball skills.
On the pitching side there are some positives and negatives as well. Probably not as much of a surprise. J.D. Martin has 2 starts and leads the team in IP with 10.2. He has a 5.06 ERA. He has 9 walks to go along with 9 strikeouts, with a not impressive 1/1 BB/K ratio. Dustin May and Yadier Alvarez are the other two pitchers with two starts, and there could not be two more different outcomes. Dustin May has 9.0 IP with a 3.00 ERA and 0.89 WHIP due to on 2 walks to go with 12 Ks. On the other hand is Alvarez who has 3.2 IP for his two starts and sports a 14.73 ERA and 2.45 WHIP. He has 4 walks and 6 Ks. Mitchell White was supposed to have his second start tonight, but the game was postponed.
From a relief standpoint, Michael Boyle has come to the forefront with 3 games and 6.1 IP. He has a 1.42 ERA with 2 walks and 8 strikeouts and a 0.95 WHIP. Shea Spitzbarth and Adam McCreery have both appeared in 4 games. Spitzbarth has 5.0 IP with a 3.6 ERA, 4 walks and 9 Ks. McCreery has 3.1 IP in his 4 games with a 2.7 ERA. He has 3 walks to his 2 Ks. The fourth primary reliever would be Andre Scrubb who has appeared in 3 games and 5.1 IP. He has 3 walks and 6 Ks to go along with a 3.38 ERA.
Mitchell White is going to need to pitch well if Tulsa wants to repeat as Texas League champs.
I will be doing writeups for OKC and RC shortly.
Minor League Recap – Saturday April, 14
Game 1 – OKC 3 – Iowa Cubs 0
Game 2 – OKC 1 – Iowa Cubs 2
The Dodgers split a pair, winning the first in shutout fashion 3-0. Tony Gonsolin started and fared much better this time throwing 5 shutout innings allowing 2 hits and 3 walks and 4 strikeouts. Zach McAllister continues to shine in relief to register his 2nd save. Zach allowed 1 hit and 1 walk with 3 strikeouts to complete the 7 inning shutout.
The Dodgers used an Errol Robinson walk, Gonsolin sacrifice, Daniel Castro single for first run, and followed by Will Smith 2nd HR of the season to score 3 in the 4th.
In the second game, pitching was still very good but the bats stayed too quiet Daniel Corcino started and went the first four innings allowing a single run on a HR. He allowed 2 other hits and 2 walks to go with 7 strikeouts. Kevin Quackenbush pitched the final 3 innings allowing 1 run on 2 hits 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. Matt Beaty continues his quick start with 2 more hits. The lone Dodger run was scored on a throwing error.
RC Quakes 6 – Lancaster JetHawks 7 (Rockies)
Michael Grove started and did not match his outstanding inaugural start. This time Grove lasted 1.2 innings surrendering 3 runs on 4 hits, 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. Wills Montgomery followed with 4.0 innings allowing 2 runs on 3 hits with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. But he did leave with the lead. Yeison Cespedes pitched a scoreless 8th but could not close allowing a pair of runs in the 9th for the loss. 2 hits and 4 walks did not help the cause. New addition, Connor Mitchell struck out the two batters he faced to close out the 9th.
Brayan Morales finally broke out a bit with a 3 hit game and stole his 7th base. Carlos Rincon and Devin Mann each contributed a pair of hits including a double for Rincon and Mann’s 3rd HR. Starling Heredia also hit a HR, his first on the year.
Great Lakes Loons 10 – West Michigan Whitecaps 1 (Tigers)
The Loons finally got a laugher scoring 10 runs on 10 hits. The offense was fairly well spread with only Romer Cuadrado and Miguel Vargas getting 2 hits. Niko Hulsizer did get his league leading 6th double. But the night belonged to pitching with Jeronimo Castro building on his first start with another strong 5.0 shutout innings, allowing 2 hits, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. Brett de Geus followed with 2 innings allowing one unearned run on 0 hits and 1 walk. Justin Hagenman finished with 2 more scoreless innings to complete the win.
Discussion (38)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Finally the really nice pitching performance needed to give the team a boost. Now let’s hope the pitching can get and stay tough and the offense can score enough to win. Stripling throwing a zero for 7 is huge.
Really good game for the crew today. I can’t believe Doc actually let Strip go 8 innings. Happy he used Schultz to finish instead of wasting Kenley. If Schultz is used often enough to keep his pitches under control, he could become a factor this year. On the other hand, he might draw the short straw and be back in OKC tomorrow. I wouldn’t be totally surprised to see Kelly come up with a phantom injury and take a couple of weeks to rehab in Az. Verdugo proving he should get regular playing time and even CT3 has looked better the last couple of days.
The next time any of us is feeling sorry for ourselves as a Dodger fan, think about being a Giant fan these days. Of the starting nine today Crawford had the highest batting average at .232 and four of the nine starters were batting under .200. Final result – Marquez shut them out on a complete game one-hitter. Yikes!!
The thing is Verdugo hasn’t seen much of these same pitchers like everyone else, and he has only had two starts in a row once.
I think working with our new hitting coach, has helped him to gain more power.
So Tulsa just lost 1-0 in 10 innings, despite throwing a no-hitter. Love it.
This Verdugo dude is all right!
It’s only 4 innings but the Dodgers seem like a different team today and Strip looks very efficient. I was looking at who had done well in the past off Chacin and how Doc could get everyone in the lineup but he did including CT3. Sborz may be here for just one game with Kershaw due to be activated tomorrow so you know they will use him.
ok the Pacers/Celtics are playing early 90’s basketball. U G L Y!!
1. Pederson LF
2. Seager SS
3. Bellinger 1B
4. Pollock CF
5. Muncy 3B
6. Verdugo RF
7. Taylor 2B
8. Barnes C
9. Chicken Strip
The Dodgers are focused on getting CT3 untracked.
Really good article today in the LA Times re Yasiel Puig:
https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-yasiel-puig-dodgers-legacy-reds-20190414-story.html
Peter is going to be happy that Sborz was recalled.
Tiger Woods currently tied for first in Masters.
Walton should excel as Sacramento coach. I am going to try to be a Sac Kings fan.
Need 6 or 7 innings from Strip today. If you recall he used to share a house with Seager, Pederson, Thompson, and Wood.
Josh Sborz just recalled. Santana optioned.
Gotta admit — seeing the 1972 Topps card design makes me feel like a little kid 🙂
Haven’t posted in a while, but I still appreciate very much the balance on this site.
Crazy start to the year. It seems like it is going to take a good while for this team to sort itself out and determine its true identity. So I am not going to live/die with every game and just see what happens (and enjoy Cody going beast mode). It seems like every year has four or five (at least) chapters, and we haven’t even finished chapter one.
Cheers.
I am still in NYC with my oldest son. https://www.nicktimmons.com/ I went out last night with him and his film industry friends, so I missed the game… speed watched it this AM… It was ugly, but it’s early and we are have a much better record than this time last year. It’s going to take a while for the new hitting culture to truly set in, although it is working on some players, better than others.
CT3 gets a pass because he had a great year in 2017 followed by a decent year in 2018. If he plays like last year, I will be satisfied. It’s way too early to pull the plug on CT3. He has earned better. In case you wonder why CT3 played last night, his career BA is better against RHP than LHP. They are trying to get him untracked… because they need him and RVS has been working with him diligently. Patience!
The Dodgers are making some changes in Joe Kelly’s pitching and while it may look like a failure now, Honeycutt has a history of success – but it takes time. You can rant and rave and bitch and moan, but when it comes down to it, the Dodgers will be there. They have a couple of months to evaluate any trade possibilities. Like Bumsrap said, it’s not the time yet.
I ran into a Yankees employee who used to be with the Reds late last night and he said that the Reds were swindled in the Farmer trade. He is sky high on Downs and Gray. He said “That’s why the Reds have a losing culture!” Again, the conventional thinking was likely wrong (time will tell). In the meantime, Kemp and Puig are hitting .271… if you add their batting averages together (.132 and .139)!!!! Alex Wood is still on the IL and would be back in May at the soonest.
These guys will get it sorted out. May or Gonsolin… or both could get the call before June.
Just let them play.
Ferguson and Santana are not starting pitchers, which is why Caleb got a quick hook yesterday. They can be excellent relievers as their control dictates….
AC
Thanks for keeping us up to date, it is very helpful for someone like me, who doesn’t keep up as well as some, with our minor league guys.
So far so good for Gray. Great scouting on the Reds trade as both he and Downs look like solid, well-rounded athletes.
The Loons bats are just waking up. Niko Hulsizer is soon ready to turn doubles into home runs. As a team the Loons are not hitting all that well and are at or near the bottom of the heap in most categories. They do lead the league with 62 walks in 10 games.
Starters Stephen Kolek, Guillermo Zuniga, Josiah Gray , Jeronimo Castro and Andre Jackson had a combined ERA of 4.86 and a WHIP of 1.80 in 16.2 innings pitched in their first starts. In their second starts they had a combined ERA of 1.52 and a WHIP of 0.97 over 23.2 innings. Kokek and especially Jackson had a good second start of five and four innings respectively.
According to the Tulsa site,
Omar Estevez has now hit safely in all eight games he has played in this season.
Lux has hit safely in all seven games to begin 2019.
With two more hits on Friday, Landon brought his average up to .474 on the season. He has appeared in seven games this season (five starts) and is 9-19 with three RBI.*
McKinstry has a very healthy seven-game hitting streak going. He is hitting .455 on the season with two doubles, two triples and a home run to go along with a team leading eight RBI.
That offense is poised to do some real damage. Very pleased Zach McKinstry has had a good start. Keibert will come around unless injured but not so sure about DJ. Hopefully he will turn the corner.
Good post AC…it’s always nice to know there are players on the way. You and DC do a fabulous job of keeping us informed on all the affiliates. I have my eye on Zach McAllister as this years possible Brandon Morrow-a vet guy with starter experience going to the bullpen and reinventing himself and already performing at AAA.
Santana has a nasty movement to all of his pitches but needs more command to get the calls from major league umpires. He is not ready right now but he is a keeper for the future. Alexander needs more work, he is not flashy but is a ground ball machine when on his game.
I think we fans should be able to question things like a bullpen game in a losing streak and why break the platoon mantra for an ice cold CT3 when both Joc and Verdugo were available without being labled as hating Doc/Freidman. It’s not that we fans never learn it’s that management has not learned or just does not care about poor play early. Can’t we ask why? Boston is off to a poor start and I wonder if management gets a pass from their fans on their blogs? MT what would you do right now if you had the power to get the team going in the right direction and avoid a second straight sweep, this time at home? You were right about missing Grandal but I noticed he was getting RH AB’s that Doc rarely let him have when he played for him and he produced with those AB’s.