Many Dodger fans want another High Leverage Reliever for the bullpen and for the record, I am down with that too… but not at any cost. I have a list of prospects I would not trade and I am sure that the Dodgers do as well. Here’s my list:
- Keibert Ruiz
- Gavin Lux
- Dustin May
- Tony Gonsolin
- Will Smith
- Jeter Downs
That’s it! I would not trade any of those six players, but under the right conditions, I would trade others. Josiah Gray and Michael Grove are also close… but not on the A-List.
The Dodgers are now 31 games over .500. 8 games better than any NL team and 4 better than any AL team… and they are getting two of their starters back in a week or so. Scary!
This is short and sweet because I am flying to NYC in a few minutes with my family to visit my oldest son, who lives in Brooklyn. We will be back late Monday night. AC is also on vacation but I will be posting… it just might be sporadic and DC will cover the minor leagues. We have a new poster Monday, 2Demeter2. I am looking forward to it.
DC’s Minor League Lowdown
Highlight of the Night: Luke Heyer grand slam.His second of the year.
DSL Dodgers (Bautista) 4 – DSL Braves 0
It was nice to see a strong pitching performance. Andrew Budier (4 IP), Jeremi Rodriguez(3.2 IP) and Carlos De Avila(1.1 IP) combined to hold the Braves to 3 hits along with 9 strikeouts and 2 walks.
One run scored in the 3rd inning on a WP, a second in the 4th inning on a Francisco Feliz single and 2 in the 5th inning on a Luis Yan single and a Carlos Santiago HBP.
DSL Dodgers (Shoemaker) 2 – DSL Pirates (1) 6
The pitching was not so good in this one. Harold Galindo allowed 2 runs in his 4 innings, Juan De La Cruz 3 in his 1.2 innings and Fran Castro 2 in his 1.1 innings. Eli Moron did pitch 2 scoreless innings.
Offensively the 2 runs scored on a Brayan Rodriguez SF and a Marlon Cairo home run in the 9th inning.
AZL Dodgers (Lasorda) 1- AZL Royals 4
Israiky Berroa gave up all 4 runs, 3 earned, in his 3 innings. After that Adolfo Ramirez, Jeff Belge, Gabe Benavides, Max Gamboa and Nick Robertson combined for 6 innings of one-hit ball with 2 walks and 9 strikeouts.
The lone run scored in the 7th inning on a ground out. The Lasorda Dodgers had only 4 hits on the day.
AZL Dodgers (Mota) 0 – AZL Giants Orange 3
Huei-Sheng Lin gave up 2 runs in his 2 innings. Following Lin, Mitchell Tyranski, Jacob Cantleberry, Ryan Pepiot, Aaron Ochsenbein and Jeisson Cabrera combined for one run on 6 hits in six innings with 2 walks and 7 strikeouts.
The Mota Dodgers were limited to 5 hits with Danny Sinatro collecting 2 of them.
Ogden Raptors 4 – Rocky Mountain Vibes (Milwaukee) 2
Alfredo Tavarez had a nice start for the Raptors tossing 5 innings of 1-run ball on 7 hits no walks and 6 strikeouts. Ricardo Hernandez allowed a run in his 2 innings while Corey Merrill had 2 scoreless innings.
The Raptors scored 2 in the 5th on a Zac Ching single and a Sauryn Lao steal of home Two more came home in the 8th on a Sam McWilliams home run and an error on a Joe Vranesh fly ball.
Great Lakes Loons 8 – Lansing Lugnuts (Toronto) 1
Twenty-year-old right-hander Jose Martinez had another good outing after a dry spell and gave up only one run in 5 innings on 3 hits, one walk and 6 strikeouts. Justin Hagenman who has become a staple of the Loons relief corps followed Martinez and tossed 2 shutout innings on one hit and with 4 strikeouts. Justin Bruihl followed suit with a clean inning and 2 strikeouts as did Yeison Cespedes with a scoreless 9th.
At the plate the Loons scored one in the 2nd inning on a Leonal Valerie single and piled on 5 in the sixth inning. In that inning they had 6 consecutive hitters reach base, five hits and one walk. The big blow was a grand slam by Luke Heyer followed by a run producing sacrifice fly by Matt Cogen. Hunter Feduccia chased another run home in the top of the 8th inning with a double.
Ranch Cucamonga Quakes 3 – Lake Elsinore Storm (San Diego) 0
Leo Crawford (5.2 IP), Max Gamboa (1.1 IP) and Sven Schueller (2 IP) held the 66ers to 9 hits, struck out 14 and walked 4, 3 by Gamboa.
Out hit 9-5, the Quakes had two long flies. Marcus Chiu homered in the 2nd and Starling Heredia hit a 2-run home run in the 4th. A.J. Pollock was hitless in 3 at bats in his first rehab game.
Tulsa Drillers 2 – Northwest Arkansas Naturals (Kansas City) 7
Parker Curry got the start for the Drillers pitching 5.1 innings with 6 hits, 3 earned runs and 5 strikeouts. He left in the top of the 6th inning with one out and 2 on. Yordy Cabrera came on to try to settle things down and although it was not totally easy he did strand the runners with a double play. In the top of the 7th Cabrera exited with the bases loaded without a Naturals hit and with one out. Logan Salow took over and struck out two to close out the inning. Unfortunately a run came home with a walk sandwiched between the strikeouts. Nolan surrendered a further 2 runs in the 9th inning.
The Drillers scored 2 runs in the bottom of the first inning on a Christian Santana double and a Chris Parmalee single. Santana had a 3-hit game.
OKC Dodgers 13 – Round Rock Express (Houston) 7
Daniel Corcino led things off with 6 innings limiting the Express to 2 runs. Shea Spitzbarth was considerably more generous surrendering 4 runs in an inning. Chris Nunn got touched for one and Kevin Quackenbush once again cleaned up with 1.1 scoreless innings and stranding 2 runners.
The offense did put on a fireworks show with 16 hits, 9 for extra bases. Gavin Lux had another 4-hit night while Connor Joe had 3 including a home run and a double. Besides Joe, Ben Moore, Shane Peterson and Jon Kemmer homered.
Discussion (54)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Mark,
I haven’t lived in Brooklyn since 2006. Prior to leaving, I lived there from birth in 1946. I now live in Rockville Centre on Long Island. Although I was in Brooklyn earlier this week visiting a former, now 96 year old neighbor, who I drop in on once in a while.
Fix the bullpen and upgrade defense.
The RC Quakes are showcasing a powerful lineup in tonight’s High A game vs the 66ers.
Batting 2nd is AJ Pollock. Batting 3rd is Corey Seager.
Here’s the game cast via GameDay: https://www.milb.com/gameday/quakes-vs-66ers/2019/07/05/576450#game_state=live,game_tab=,game=576450
Anyone not want Bellinger in the HR Derby? Just trolling..
DODGERS MAX MUNCY NAMED NL ALL-STAR
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Max Muncy was named to the 2019 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which will take place on July 9 at Progressive Field in Cleveland, OH. The infielder is replacing Washington Nationals Anthony Rendon and will join teammates Cody Bellinger, Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu at the 90th MLB mid-summer classic.
Muncy, 28, will make his first trip to the All-Star Game after competing in the 2018 T-Mobile Home Run derby. The infielder is slashing .276/.379/.921 with 21 homers and 59 RBI this season. Since May 1, he is batting .290 (58-for-200) with 16 homers and 42 RBI. The former Baylor Bear is among the National League leaders in homers (10th), RBI (13th), OBP (14th, .379) and OPS (14th, .921). On the road, he boasts the seventh-best OPS in all of baseball (.995) and has amassed 14 homers and 36 RBI away from Dodger Stadium.
Los Angeles will have the five representatives at the game, the most in the NL and second to the Houston Astros who will have six players at the game.
Guessing that everything I’ve posted is still awaiting moderation.
I forgot to ask in my previous posts today, whether or not anyone has any information regarding players the Dodgers may have signed since the international signing period opened on July 2nd.
The post I put up with links to articles about Muncy replacing Anthony Rendon has suddenly disappeared. Maybe it will appear later, but just in case, here are the links.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2844363-max-muncy-shane-bieber-liam-hendricks-named-replacements-for-2019-mlb-asg
https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/news/shane-bieber-liam-hendriks-max-muncy-all-stars
And I’m adding this from the LA Times, which some of you may not be able to open without a subscription.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-max-muncy-all-star-20190705-story.html
Regarding my post above, here’s a couple of links to articles announcing Muncy’s addition to the All-Star team. No doubt he deserves it. This should make Joe Davis very happy.
https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/news/shane-bieber-liam-hendriks-max-muncy-all-stars
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2844363-max-muncy-shane-bieber-liam-hendricks-named-replacements-for-2019-mlb-asg
Max Muncy has been named as a replacement for Anthony Rendon on the All-Star team.
Interesting article about the 10 best teams in the history of the Dodgers
https://lasportshub.com/2018/06/27/los-angeles-dodgers-best-teams/
Today’s lineup vs LHP Eric Lauer:
CT3
Verdugo
JT
Belly
Muncy
Kike
Garlick
Barnes
Kersh
Let’s give him a go at 1st – he can platoon with Goldie.
Shelby Miller anyone?
For his health..
Tommy John, hip and a hammy.
Can’t hurt can it??
Wouldn’t be better to have Seager move over to 2B and have Lux at SS??
I suppose we can speculate all we want, but does anyone have a clue what AF is going to do? I think not..
All I know is I’d love a ring. Getting to the Twilight of my career.
Mark ranked his top 6 Do-Not-Trades. Others have chimed in with their Do-Not-Trades.
I find it fascinating that not only are we enjoying the best record in baseball, (and yet still arguing about who should be playing and who should be shipped out of town or sent down, etc) but we also have an abundance of riches in the minor leagues that we can argue about who needs to be protected and who is excess that can be dealt away.!! Life is good if you’re a Dodger fan.
My 1 cent (because I don’t know that my thoughts are worth the full 2 cents) is that for this current MLB team, which has only 1 goal, AND has a lot of young talent (so it’s not some vet team on its last run), ANYONE from the minors is expendable in the right deal. We need to address our bullpen, and as much as we’d all love for Kenley to become 2017 Kenley, and for Chagois and Floro and Kelly and Roscup and whatever else we toss out there to magically all get hot in October, it’s a huge risk to assume or hope that happens. The risk is we lose another World Series because we went cheap on the bullpen again, and that’s just unacceptable. It’s like we’re riding in an Audi A8, but the car is sitting on tires from my old Toyota Corolla an we refuse to buy good tires.
Most of these minor leaguers we want to hoard on to won’t become the MLB impact players that they are in the minors. We have to take the risk that we ship out a potential multi time all star for something we need today and for something we need this October.
If we ship out Lux, well we have Downs and Esteves and maybe this Michael Bush behind him. If we ship out Ruiz, well we have Will Smith and Cartaya and others behind him. If we ship out May or Gonsolin, then we always have a Mitchell White, Edwin Uceta, and Josiah Gray and maybe even this Lewis high school kid if he signs. The farm will be replenished by Friedman and Friends. Now it’s time to replenish the MLB bullpen and win a damn ring!
Oh, and today is the day that Kawhi will decide!!!!
I was impressed with Shaggy striking out all 5 batters he faced last night. He struck out 5 another time in 2 innings a couple weeks ago. He is filthy with his movement and almost never leaves the ball up with ground ball and swing and miss stuff, his only problem is consistent command of the strike zone. Let the kid have some run, he is young and cheap and already here. Along with the resurgence of Kelly they only need a lefty in the pen and don’t look now but Caleb is doing well at OKC.
After Busch signed they can go over slot and full court press on Jimmy Lewis to have him forego his college commitment. If they fail there they have lots of money to sign some of the late round flyers they took on other HS guys judged as ‘tough signs’ but Lewis is the priority. Wish AC was here to do the numbers but I think they can go to $1.3M or so for Lewis without penalty with his slot value at $793K.
Doc commenting how Muncy ‘protects’ Cody in the lineup batting 5th-only took him a couple months to realize what I was preaching but now that’s one of the few constants in the lineup. The only other guy who should bat 5th sometimes is Freese-put your best OPS guys besides Cody in the 5 hole if everyone is healthy.
The Cubs gave up Torres to get Chapman. Do you think they’d give up that trophy to get him back and Torres is better than any prospect we have. I’d include Gonsolin, Smith or Downs to get Vazquez in a heartbeat!
Bum – you’re pulling my leg to get it even with the other one, right?
32 y.o. Goldy in 2020..Scintillating! !
Is everyone still drunk from last night?
If Verdugo remains as good as he has been and keeps the outfield crowded, might the Dodgers be better off trading Pollock for Goldschmidt and extending Pederson? Rumor has it that Goldschmidt hits fairly well at Dodger Stadium.
I would trade Downs if the return was worthwhile but agree with sbuffalo that Gray is a keeper. He’s a former shortstop who has only concentrated on pitching fairly recently. I think by next year we’ll be talking about him like we do May and Gonsolin this year.
I love your comments Mark and Bum.
The is absolutely no way AF trades Ruiz. I said the same about Seager, Urias, Belli, and Verdugo. He’s of that ilk!
I would like to know what players the Dodgers could obtain with Ruiz as the key piece of a package. The Dodgers have Smith and Cartaya and other catchers in their system.
Good list, but I would probably add Gray. The Dodgers can still make some good prospects available to pursue Will Smith and another good bullpen piece. They had a good draft, both the college hitters should move up quickly. The July deadline will be interesting with an expected flurry of activity, especially with the removal of waiver trades.