DODGERS Meanwhile, Down on the Farm

only because he refuses to stop at second base

 

@Howard_Cole
Too funny to see River Ryan and James Tibbs thriving, not to mention Zach Ehrhard in the same game, all of whom cost the Dodgers a grand total of Matt Beaty and Dustin May.

 

Offensive explosion for Great Lakes today (the only Dodger affiliate scheduled to play), winning 16-1 (7-inning game). The three highly-touted prospects at the top of the order hadn't done much in the first two games, but Sirota worked a couple walks today and Quintero singled thrice. The big star, though, was Davalan with two home runs and six RBIs from the leadoff spot.

Also today, Zazueta, who is possibly the organization's second-highest ranked pitching prospect behind Ferris (I'm not counting Ryan), kicked off his year with 1 run over 4 innings with 7 K's vs just 1 walk.

Here's a quick summary of how starting pitchers among the top 30 fared in their season debuts:

Great - Ryan, Zazueta, Leiter, Patick, Copen
Poor - Serwinowski (got roughed up in the opener)
Yet to pitch - Ferris, Root, Nieves, Martin, Heubeck


Edit: I didn't realize that the Loons played a DH today. Root pitched in the first game, gave up 3 in 3 IP. So add him to the poor start category.

 

now he’s throwing out runners too?
what can’t this guy do?

@Bnicklaus7
Top #Dodgers OF prospect James Tibbs III cut down a runner at home plate [VIDEO].

 

@Bnicklaus7
#Dodgers OF prospect Charles Davalan knocked a grand slam for High-A Great Lakes [VIDEO].

 

I keep wondering if I'm giving too much credit to Tibbs for his AAA numbers. After all, the PCL is considered a hitters' league, and I don't want to be disappointed if the success doesn't transfer to the majors.

The case against
James Outman and Ryan Ward. Both had stretches where they dominated the PCL. Both led the league in HRs over significant time periods. Ward was even the league MVP in '25. And both seem to have hit their ceiling there.

The case for
Tibbs is only 23, while the others took longer to get there. He also was a mid-first round draft pick, and while I don't have complete faith in SFG's ability to assess talent, that still has to mean something.

Bottom line. We should always discount hitting stats from the PCL, but that doesn't necessarily mean there's nothing to take away from success at that level. Tibbs is young enough for us to maintain belief that this is his final step stone to the majors.

 

@Bnicklaus7

The day has come!

My 2026 Top 40 #Dodgers Prospects List is live!

The system is stacked right now. Lots of players to know about. I’ve got full bios and scouting grades on all of them.

Check it out (HERE) and bookmark this so you can come back to it!

 

@dodgerslite
Dodgers OF prospects in the last 24 hours:

• #8 Charles Davalan homered twice in the same inning, including a grand slam
• #10 James Tibbs III had a three-homer game
• #27 Brendan Tunink homered for the third time in three games

From: Great Lakes Loons

 

@dodger_daily
Christian Zazueta made a STATEMENT in his 1st outing of the season on Sunday. Zazueta struck out the first 3 hitters of the game, then struck out the side in the 3rd as well & retired the first 9 hitters of the game, and had 7 Ks through 3 innings.

4IP | 2H | 1R | 7Ks | 1BB

He located his fastball to the outside corner; he rode & ran it up and in on righties; he was touching 97; and the breaking ball that got the first hitter was FILTHY.

I've seen many an outing from Zazueta, I'm not sure this one wasn't THE MOST impressive. What a way to start the season!

video HERE

 

Watching that video, it looks like he threw 11 pitches that 1st inning, all strikes either called or swinging.

 

@azfreedman
Jackson Ferris, the top left-handed pitching prospect in the #Dodgers organization, has joined OKC and will make his season and Triple-A debut tonight.

Was org's Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2024 and last year ranked in org's top 3 in starts, IP, ERA, BAA, and K.

 

@dodger_daily
Joseilyn Gonzalez is on the board for 2026. Gonzalez threw a scoreless inning in the 1st game on Sunday and struck out 2.

Gonzalez can run the ball up to home plate pretty well. I don't have velo numbers for Sunday, but he can climb to 96-97, probably touch higher than right on the right occasion. His sinker is heavy, and the change tumbles.

Gonzalez posted a 2.80 ERA in Great Lakes last year, average against of just .208, so he's tough to hit, but with 38 Ks in 45 innings of work, the goal this year is to miss more bats.

His stuff is good enough to do so, but it's also VERY effective at missing barrels, so it will be fun watching him find that "happy medium" between the two.

 

@dodger_daily
Dilan Figeuredo threw 2 very efficient innings on Sunday for Great Lakes & needed just 18 pitches to knock down 2 innings for the Loons.

4 Seam, Sinker, Cutter, Slider, and he can get it to home plate. He was 96-97 on Sunday, and for a first outing, and with it being as cold as it was, that's VERY impressive.

 

Just a brief update on yesterday, going off memory so don't hold me to any of this...

AAA - Ferris' debut looked good over 3 scoreless innings, then he gave up a couple in the 4th and was pulled. Tibbs got HBP but otherwise held in check. Ehrhard with a couple hits. Noah Miller RBI single, doing just enough at the plate.

AA - George had two hits and a walk, and so far his numbers look better than De Paula and Hope who both have had quiet starts to the season. Pitcher Martin, barely in the top 30, got hit hard.

High-A - Sirota still walking (twice) but has yet to hit much. Big 0-fer for Quintero, who also is cold. Davalan with 2 more hits continues to be the best bat.

A - Nieves threw four scoreless in his debut. Morales hitting around .400.

 

@MLBPipeline
Make it a 4-hit, 5-RBI night for Josue De Paula after his first roundtripper of 2026 MLB's No. 12 prospect (@Dodgers) is off to a hot start with a .381 AVG and a 1.051 OPS for the Double-A @TulsaDrillers:

VIDEO

 

Let's use this opportunity to talk a little about the Tulsa Drillers (AA).

Definitely was good to see from De Paula. I wouldn't say he was off to a hot start as this report mentions, since he did practically nothing over his first four games, but one great game this early in the season can sure pump up the stats. Hopefully he takes off from here.

Zyhir Hope didn't play in the last game and has also started slow. Would be great to see him get going as well.

And lastly, the Dodgers #11 prospect Adam Serwinoski didn't fare well in his debut, but he's on the bump again tonight. Let's see if he can right the ship.

On the plus side...

Kendall George, whom you may recall finished last season strong, is batting .364 over the first five games with 4 SBs (he swiped 100 last year). Dodgers don't have many first-round picks in their system, so it's good to see him finding his groove over the last three months in '25 and then continuing here.

Phil's son Kyle Nevin, 3B, is not ranked in the top 30, but he had a decent '25 and as the cleanup hitter for Tulsa he's homered twice, driven in 5, and has a .946 OPS over the five games.

I haven't mentioned SS Elijah Hainline much in the past, but he is prospect #25 and has been producing. Drafted by the Dodgers out of Oregon State in round 7 of 2024, he hit/OPS'd .288/.851 over three levels in '25, and has started this season strong with .368/1.166. With infielders like Freeland and Noah Miller ahead of him in AAA/majors and uber-prospect Emil Morales behind him in A-ball, as well as Vargas and Lindsey who are both ranked higher, I don't see much opportunity so maybe he gets packaged in a mid-season trade (Skubal anyone?).

Closing it out we have pitchers Copen with the one strong start so far and Luke Fox who pitched a game one gem but then came back to Earth yesterday with 4 runs in four innings.

There's a lot to keep our eyes on in Tulsa.

 

I wanted to wrap my head around what the Leiter family has done in MLB, and I debated whether to post here because of the Dodgers 2025 draft pick Cam, or under the current game thread based on Dodgers facing Jack on Saturday. Cam won out.

First of all, kudos to the Leiters for getting four players into the show. That matches the Alous, the Bells, the Boones, and the Hairstons as the only other families with four. (A quick search shows there was a family with five brothers, but this was in the 1800's so hard for me to count that.) If our guy Cam eventually makes it, the Leiters will be the first in the modern era with five.

Not to diminish that family achievement, but for the most part the Leiters haven't been all that successful. I take that back... Al was successful enough, having played for 19 seasons and two AS games, winning more than losing (162-132), and with a 3.80 ERA and a 42.5 WAR, he was mostly an asset to his teams. In '98 with the Mets he had his best season, 17-6 and 2.47, finishing 6th in the CYA voting. But he changed teams six times and had a career WHIP of 1.39, which interestingly is about what all the Leiters have posted in WHIP so far. A solid career overall, but no team is going to look back and say, "Al Leiter was a mainstay in our rotation."

His brother Mark was a marginal pitcher. He did hold on for 11 years, but lost in more than half of his decisions, again played for multiple teams - 8 - and only amassed a paltry 3.8 career WAR.

His son, Mark Jr, is in his 7th season. No surprise, he's on his fifth team, the Athletics. He actually has a negative career WAR.

Al's son, Jack, will be on the mound for Texas on Saturday. He's had a decent start to this, his third season, but overall his career ERA sits at 4.67 and he too has a negative WAR... so far. But he's managed to stick with one team here in the early going, which is noteworthy for this family, and he finished seventh in AL ROY voting last year. Time will tell whether he can put together a career like this dad or if it will be more like his uncle Mark's.

And this brings us to our prospect. Cam is son to neither Al nor Mark. His father is their brother, Kurt, who played in the Orioles organization up to AA. The lineage is there... not the most sparkling but good enough to give hope that he'll make the jump eventually. And the book is obviously not closed on the Leiters. Mark Jr has time to turn it around, while Jack has potential for a long career ahead of him. Cam has a blank slate. It'll be interesting to watch his career play out, at least the Dodgers part.

 

AAA: Tibbs went from blazing hot to ice cold. 1 for his last 15 with nine strikeouts (four today). Hopefully he's not playing hurt. But Ehrhard had three hits today. So did Noah Miller, who quietly seems to be becoming a reliable hitter to go with that glove.

AA: De Paula followed up his big game with 3 more hits. George also with three hits, a walk, and a big stolen base in the 10th inning. He knocked in the go-ahead run, stole second, and scored on a Nevin single to give a 2-run cushion. Walk and single for Hope. Hainline remained hot too, 2 hits and 2 walks. Unfortunately, Serwinowski got hammered on the mound, worse than his first start. Not sure what's happened to him but AA has not been kind.

High-A: Sirota got a hit and walk, scoring twice. I'm sure he'll take that after a slow start. Patick didn't fare as well as his first start, but struck out 7 over 4.2 innings (2 ER). One hit for Davalan. Quintero DNP.

A: (game in progress) Vargas with two hits, and Morales, Vidourek and Tunink are the notables with a hit each.