DODGERS 2019 MINOR LEAGUE/PROSPECTS THREAD

You scared me for a second so I had to look up weather patterns really quick, but it looks like that is one of the better times of year to go temp wise! I like that Will is responding better this season at the level, but the K's are still worrisome. I am hoping that this was just a little funk, not a hole getting figured out since the numbers were great before last week. I think the main problem we keep running into is that he gets gassed fairly easy, so he really may be a 2nd/3rd string catcher that plays the IF a couple nights a week too.

 

@ColoradoKidWitGame ...

I read this story...

https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/1759408/amp

The article lists MLB's six top young phenoms to be... Mize, Franco, Pierson, Madrigal, Bohm, & Gorman.

Do you concur with that list, or that article? Outside of your excellent rankings of Dodger prospects, do you have Intel on these guys as well?

 

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/top-35-prospects-los-angeles-dodgers/

Top 35 list via Fangraphs. Really high on our top 6 guys

 

I'd buy Mize and Franco for sure right now. Those other 4 are reaches for me as of this moment. I think Whitley is gonna be a monster, Adell is sounding like a true stud and I personally think Brendan Rodgers is gonna put up some ridiculous numbers in Coors surrounded by Arenado and Story. I'm also incredibly bullish on May and though most think he is a #3, I think he is going to be more than that and could be the true #1 in this rotation. There are too many things that he has done that stand out in my book. 1. He's really tall, 2. He's very athletic for how tall he is, 3. He continues to get stronger, 4. His spin rate is considered elite and rated near the best in all of MiLB, 5. Just picked up a 5th pitch willy-nilly last year that is already considered above average, 6. Has continued to improve on his change, 7. Is apparently a pretty ferocious competitor. I think this best showed in the Cubs game in ST. He came out attacking those guys and you could tell he wanted to shut them down. I think he is showing a lot of positives that could make him into a superstar.

 

Is Mitch White back?
6 scoreless innings today. 9 K’s. 1.85 ERA 11.2 K/9.

Gavin Lux with 2 more homers. Star potential.

 

Based on reports on him from down the stretch last year, he may be finally starting to figure things out. That should be one of his last starts in AA at this point. 35 starts seems like plenty at this point and it may be time to get him up against some stiffer competition.

 

He should be in AAA tomorrow and possibly LA soon. If nothing else he might be a bullpen option with all the struggles going on and his stuff ticking back up.

 

MLB Top Int' Prospects List just came out. Dodgers are in line for
4) Luis Rodriguez, OF, Venezuela - The best overall player from Venezuela in the class, Rodriguez is a pure hitter and natural athlete with solid baseball instincts across the board. He has been linked to the Dodgers.
21) Kristian Cardozo, RHP, Venezuela

There were a few undecideds so I would not be shocked if the Dodgers land one more as they seem to grab about 3 Top 30's a year.

 

Two things to watch:

- Jordan Sheffield has come out dealing in the early going after being lights out in the AFL until literally the last batter that he faced. Still struggling with command somewhat, but his K's are WAY up as going into today he had been at a near 17 per 9 clip. FG says his FB velo was down at the tail end of last year, but I have heard nothing in the early going. Has potentially 2 plus breaking pitches to go with that FB, so he could make for an interesting person to watch. Needs to head to AA soon if he is to be considered for an impact this season.

- Gavin Lux was not having the same season he had a year and then May started. Lux just had one hell of a 4 game series against the Astros affiliate that saw him hit 5 home runs to up his season total to 8 in the early going. He is showing power to all fields and is getting more positive reviews early. He is still hitting the ball on the ground a lot more this year, which could likely shine light on his low XBH totals in the early going. Hoping this is the start of a season long tear and not just taking advantage of one club. If he were to continue to put up strong numbers though, I could see him taking the next jump around Mid-June so the club could try to get him around 100 AB's in AAA before the deadline to see if they may have something for later in the season.

 

Any indication they'll move him to 2B?

 

He is spending most of his time at SS, but he is also still playing some at 2B. In all honesty, I think we see him play as much SS as possible. He very well may be in line to take over the position with Seager moving over to 3B when Turner's contract expires. There are also not really any interesting SS prospects that are close with Amaya still being young with some questionable tools, so in case of an emergency they may want him to be full capable of handling the position. Both Downs and Estevez are viewed as 2B and they are the closest MIF prospects that have MLB regular potential.

 

- Early trend to watch. Omar Estevez has been hitting the shit out of the ball after his introduction to AA, but some other interesting bits are that is K's are way down and walks are decently up. He is in a bit of a funk over the last 9 or so games, but has been still finding ways to get on base.

- Josiah Gray has reportedly been promoted already. It is expected to be Rancho, but no confirmation yet. This is an incredibly quick promotion as Gray only has 75 innings of professional ball under his belt after logging 52 innings at the rookie level a year ago. Reports on him during the early going are incredibly positive with one FG writer believing that he is going to "explode" this year.

- Speaking of breakout candidates, Zach Willeman made his first start this week and it was a solid one to begin the year. 4 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 2 K's. The Dodgers top and rising pitching prospects are off to some good starts. Kind of a nice transition as that is the next item up in the org that is going to start taking some heavy losses due to free agency.

 

Peters power will always play, but like Joc he has severe limitations. He has DH written all over him.

 

Billy Ashley says hello.

 

Horrific start to the year, beginning to come out of it A BIT. So far, he is striking out more than ever while repeating AA with his power way down. Not great, but I'd still give him half a season to see if he is working out the kinks in his new swing mechanics. It is not always like switching on a light. Not sure where the DH thing came from above, but Peters definitely can man the OF.

 

Is there a reason most of our impact prospects recently have been domestic products? The Braves and Phillies, among others, seem to be doing better than us with finding young stars from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba, etc.

Is it due to $$? scouting..? Approach? Or is it just my imagination?

Puig and Ryu have both earned their contracts, but were a little more established professionally and signed 7 years ago now.

Urias looks awesome and so does Ruiz...now that I list a few maybe we are doing okay. It just seems like we used to be THE team for international success stories. Feels like other teams are finding the best, young impact guys in that market. I heard McCourt set us back a bit in that department but Guggs has built new camps and facilities.

 

You hit one piece in that McCourt fucked things up, the next was AF and FZ came in and a year later fired the crew that Colletti and Kasten hastily put together that turned out to be a skeezy bunch of dudes. Their huge class turned out to be shit outside of a couple guys, but the best prospect is now in the Astros org. The first gen of guys the new scouting department found are still REALLY young since most Int’l signings are 16, plus we had the 2 year minimum penalty. Cartaya is getting a lot of publicity and we’re in on a top guy for this year too. It’s gonna be a couple of years, but I expect them to start churning out some solid talent.

 

Loved doing this stuff on the ESPN boards, glad you picked it up CKG