PROSPECTS Meanwhile, Down on the Farm

Kike's like our fourth most effective reliever right now... possibly third.

 

Three pitchers of interest took the mound today for OKC.

The starter was Sheehan. Six days after he pitched 2 perfect innings on 29 pitches in the Arizona rookie league, he faced tougher competition this time in the PCL. He went 3 innings, threw 27 of 39 pitches for strikes, gave up 2 hits but zero walks and zero runs. He struck out 5. Nice progress!

Henriquez made his second rehab appearance. 1 IP, no hits, 2 BBs, 0 runs.

Kopech threw an inning. No hits, 1 walk, 1 strikeout. Took 21 pitches to get through it, but that's consecutive games with a scoreless inning for him. Baby steps.


Comets scored 12 and that's 29 over two games. FWIW, Outman homered for I think the third game in a row, but also struck out twice.

 

very encouraging

 

The Sheehan news is very exciting. Read he averaged 97 MPH on his fastball and topped out at 98 while getting 11 swings and misses. That’ll definitely work!

 

pros, cons?

 

Just a general observation...

The Dodgers farm system is not very top-loaded right now, meaning majors-ready players. Most of the talent is at least a couple years away in A-ball -- Great Lakes and Rancho. We talked about the plethora of OF talent at those levels and there are some IF prospects as well.

In AAA OKC, Rushing was the big name and now is up. Next up could be Freeland -- he's still only 23. As far as other position players, the rest of the roster is dominated by what likely are career minor-leaguers. Almost all are ages 27, 28, 29, and while a couple of them have good numbers this year and could possibly be injury fill-ins, they're blocked at the big-league level. I do think the Dodgers should trade Feduccia as he can definitely fill a back-up role with some major-league team, but they probably want to hold on to him as an insurance policy.

Pitching in OKC is even more bleak. Not counting River Ryan who's out for the year and Knack who will hopefully stick with the Dodgers this time, there's really nobody else. Well, there's Miller and we can hope that his last couple of starts demonstrate the possibility of a slow turn-around. After that, Wrobleski and Frasso are on the organization's top-30 list, yet both - to put it mildly - suck this year. (I'm not including Sheehan since in my mind he's no longer a prospect).

This is why it's important for Jackson Ferris, who's in AA Tulsa, to continue to progress. From just a numbers perspective, he hasn't had a great year, but his start last week was a move in the right direction. Other than Ferris, that roster is pretty devoid of talent. There are two other prospects on the top-30 list. One is SS Noah Davis, a weak-hitting defensive whiz (projects as a 65 with the glove) whom the Dodgers got from Minnesota in the Margot trade. If he can ever get it together at the plate, he could make the move up (and FWIW he is hitting over .300 this year, albeit over only 42 ABs). The other is pitcher Peter Heubeck, a 2021 third-round pick, but statistically there's not much yet to get excited about.

 

Bobby Miller's last three games, which include the two innings against the Mets on May 24, look like this:

13.2 IP, 7H, 1 ER, 6 BBs, 11 Ks, 0.66 ERA, 0.95 WHIP. Remove the Mets game as that was a relief appearance, and his scoreless streak is 11.2 innings.

His walk totals still need to come down further, but maybe, just maybe (and I say this with the utmost of caution), he's starting to turn a corner.

He's on the mound tonight for OKC.