PROSPECTS Meanwhile, Down on the Farm

hopefully he’s just rusty from his IL stint

 

For sure. But the positive here is that while wildness has been his biggest issue in the past, this year he's issued only 4 walks in 12 innings - one every three innings. In 2025 he gave up one every 1.49 innings, and in '24 it was one every 1.65 innings.

However, we're looking at small sample size this season, so it'll definitely take much more for him to show that the improvement is for real.

 

The outfield prospects continue to produce. Ehrhard hit his 18th HR for OKC. Davalan hit his 22nd for Great Lakes. He has 59 walks vs only 51 strike outs on the season.

Aiden West went 2 for 4 with 4 ribbies for ONT.

Halverson got called up to the Dodgers.

Zazueta, Ferris, and Leiter are on the mound tonight.

 

@Bnicklaus7
#Dodgers OF/1B prospect James Tibbs III since the All-Star break:

• .320/.453/.544
• .997 OPS
• 155 wRC+
• 18.2 BB%
• 14.5 K%

With roster expansion coming and LA continuing to struggle with corner outfield production (especially LF vs RHP), it would make sense for Tibbs to get a look.

​

 

OKC today:

Sheehan 5.2 IP, 1 ER
Wrobleski 1.1 IP, 1 ER

Ehrhard with his 19th HR. Will 2 for 4, both doubles.

 

Mairo Martinus continues to impress. I would imagine he's just outside of the Dodgers Top-30 list. I'd argue he should be on it, but his case was probably hurt by his first three seasons with the organization, all in rookie ball, where he didn't do much. But that began as a 17-year old from Curacao. He's still only 21. He's the one that I highlighted earlier who this season played every position except catcher for Ontario. In 94 games with the Tower Buzzers, he hit 15 HRs, batting .317 with an OPS of .896. He got promoted to Great Lakes.

Now, Ontario plays in the California League which is very much a hitter's league. In contrast, Great Lake's Midwest League is considered pitcher-friendly. We saw both Quintero and Morales struggle to adjust to the league after their promotions.

Today, Martinus hit his 5th HR for the Loons. No adjustment needed for him. After his first 23 games at this level, he's batting .311 and has an OPS of .852. Over the course of his season with both teams combined, he has 28 doubles, 9 triples, 20 home runs, and 31 stolen bases.

Standing out on a team with Davalan, Quintero, Morales, Perez, Elkins, and Harlan is not an easy task, but he's doing just that.

 

@MLBPipeline
Emil Morales

MLB's No. 24 overall prospect (#Dodgers) launched his 25th dinger of the year on Friday for High-A Great Lakes and leads all of the Minors with 113 RBIs -- including 27 in 22 games this month:

MLB.com article and video

​

 

Great overall numbers and he's having a phenomenal year, but the wording makes it sound like he's amassed all these at high-A Great Lakes. Some came at low-A Ontario.

 

Wow, another home run and 2 hits for Martinus. What a break out season!

Davalan also with a bomb. A couple hits for Quintero too.

 

August games have ended, so here’s the monthly Top-30 report. This will be the final one, at least in this format – Single A and High-A end in one week, while AA has two more weeks and AAA has three remaining. This will give an indication of which players are finishing 2026 on a high note and which are stumbling into the end of the season.


1. De Paula – OF – This is how you want your #1 prospect to end his final full month. He hit a whopping 9 HRs in August, plus 7 doubles. .283 AVG was below his season rate, but he muscled up with exactly a 1.000 OPS for the month.

2. Sirota – OF – Something’s up with Mike, I’m guessing he’s still dinged up. He was Mr. Consistent all season until August. Then went on the 1-week IL, came back for four games where he went 1-for-16, then sat out the final two. For the month, he batted .163 with 1 HR and a .614 OPS.

3. Quintero – OF – He got progressively better each month this season, finishing August with a stellar .342 batting average and 1.077 OPS. This included 8 doubles, a triple, 2 HRs, and 7 steals.

4. Morales – SS – Another solid final full month. Emil hit 7 dingers in August, plus 7 doubles, and drove-in an eye-opening 29 runs. .298/.996. Look forward to seeing him in Tulsa next year.

5. Zazueta – P – Five starts total in August. Got hit hard in two, allowing 6 earned in one and 5 in the other. In the other three combined he only gave up one run over 15 innings. Seems he got hurt by the long ball in his two outliers, because for the month he struck out 33 vs only 5 walks. 4.70 ERA and 1.26 WHIP.

6. Davalan – OF – Another outfielder finishing the season strong. 7 HRs, 5 doubles and a triple. .299 batting average and 1.011 OPS from the CF position. He’s justified his high draft pick in ’25 and should be moving up pretty fast from here.

7. Tibbs – OF – Was on fire in April and May, stone-cold in June, started re-heating in July, and back to killing it in August. 6 home runs for the month, with a .326 average and a 1.023 OPS. He also walked as much as he struck out – 23 of each, an improved ratio compared to the rest of his season.

8. Root – P – Pitched only in 3 games this month. Results were subpar, and I’m thinking maybe they shut him down to cap his innings. 3 runs in 6 IP early in month, followed by 6 in 3.2 innings his second start. He finished well with only 1 ER over 4 in his final start, but that was Aug 19 and hasn’t pitched since and they have him on the IL so I’m assuming he’s done until next year. If that’s the case, he finishes a solid first year with a 3.54 ERA and 3:1 K/BB ratio.

9. Harlan – 3B – Played in the first six games of the month and has been on the IL since. 1 HR over 18 ABs, .222/.780.

10.Lowrance – SS – Has yet to play.

11.George – OF – Did not play, knee surgery at the beginning of the month.

12.Ko – OF – Ching-Hsien has had a consistent but somewhat unspectacular season. Perhaps in another organization not stacked with OFers he’d rate much higher. Hit 4 HRs in August, with 3 doubles and two triples. Drove in 16 runs batting mostly cleanup for Ontario. .260/.830 for the month. He’s up to 20 homers and 83 RBIs, so he has produced in 2026, but in the Cal League the batting avg is a little low.

13.Lindsey - 2B/SS – Staying mostly healthy after missing a big chunk of last year has been a big plus for Kellon. I’m surprised to see his August numbers are down: .222/.799. It’s been a good year, though, with a .935 OPS overall, so perhaps he’s just a bit worn down here in the late season.

14.Serwinowski – P – He’d probably rather forget 2026. Started atrociously, got his feet under him in the middle months, but has regressed late. 6.53 ERA and 1.55 WHIP in August. Four starts, surrendering 3 or more in each. K/BB ratio is around 2:1 – needs to improve that a bit, but mostly it’s the hits that are hurting him – almost one per inning.

15.Ehrhard – OF – I swear he and Tibbs are negatively correlated. Ehrhard started slow when Tibbs was dominating headlines early season, then Tibbs slumped and Zach carried the Comets, and now that Tibbs is going again Ehrhard has cooled off. Not a terrible month though: .265/.823, 4 HRs, 3 doubles, a triple. 10 steals vs only 3 times caught is a plus, as well as a solid CF played.

16.Leiter – P – In the middle of the month he was promoted from Ontario to Great Lakes. Five starts overall, with a terrific 0.63 ERA and 0.84 WHIP in the month. For the two GL games, he allowed only 3 hits and 0 runs over 6.1 innings. Only downside is that they’re still capping him at 3-4 innings per start, but it’s been a great year and carries high promise for the future.

17.Ferris – P – People say that Dodgers basically converted Busch for Skubal, but they forget that Ferris also came over with Hope. You can blame Ferris for that, as his numbers have made him easy to forget. It’s been mostly an up-and-down season. August was a decent month, comparatively, with a 4.28 ERA. Actually, other than one start where he was blasted for 9 runs, it was a good month. In his other four starts he only surrendered 4 runs over 22.2 innings. It’s just a shame that his performance doesn’t justify him being moved to OKC by now.

18.Elkins – OF – In his first full month since his promotion, Jaron hit .280/.741. Considering that the Midwest League can be difficult to adjust to, not a bad start. His power numbers are down some from earlier in the season with Ontario, but that’s to be expected. Hopefully he builds on this start next year.

19.Wagner – 3B – Got promoted to AA in the third game of the month and went on to post .176/.681 stats for August. Rough start for the Drillers, but he can only go up from here, right?

20.Ward – OF – I find it comical that he’s still classified as a prospect. Really wish they had traded him so that he could get more of a shot elsewhere. .256/.816, 5 HRs in August.

21.Foeller – P – Promoted to Tulsa for five August starts. Keep in mind that the Texas League is less pitcher-friendly than the Midwest League, from where he came. And yet he only allowed 3 runs for the month, finishing it with a 1.40 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. Good numbers.

22.Hainline – SS – It’s been a fairly ho-hum season, and August didn’t help. .220/.667 for the month. Following the box scores, he’ll have a big game and then be mostly nonexistent for the rest of the week. Frankly, I’m surprised he’s still on this ranking list – there are others I would put in his place.

23.Perez – 2B – He raked early in the year which is probably why he was added here midseason. Seems he’s had a couple short stints on the IL, so he’s probably playing dinged up. .208/.686 in August.

24.Patick – P – His stats have progressively worsened each month this year. 6.46 ERA with a 1.52 WHIP in August. If he can’t do better in the Midwest League, it doesn't seem likely for a promotion anytime soon.

25.Kmatz – P – In relief for Tulsa, he pitched to a 1.32 ERA over 13.2 August innings. 15 K’s vs only 3 BBs, and a 0.80 WHIP. Not bad for a throw-in on the Feduccia trade.

26.Miller – SS – Started 2026 strong but then regressed to his mean. August was good for him though. 27 hits translated to a .290 AVG for the month. No home runs this month, but however far this guy goes, it’s his glove that will get him there.

27.Nieves – P – Not a good season, but August gives some hope going forward: 3.32 ERA. Although, with a 1.62 WHIP for the month, you have to wonder if he just got lucky in the runs-allowed department.

28.West – SS – He got promoted from rookie ball in late July. For the first three games that month, he came out with guns a’blazin. But August has been a different story: .238/.630. He’s only 19, so still has plenty of time to prove himself.

29.Auger – P – Overall a good season, but not a good month. 5.59 ERA over 4 starts.

30.Rojas – C – Who? Promoted from rookie league to Ontario and played one game, going 1 for 4.


Others of Interest:

Tyler Gough – P - 2.30 ERA, 0.77 WHIP in four starts for Great Lakes. 22 strikeouts over 15.2 innings with just 6 walks.

Easton Shelton – 1B – Took a big step back this month. .231/.914. Still hit four HRs, giving him 35 on the season, but with 157 strikeouts, he’s got a hole in his swing that needs to be fixed if he expects to climb.

Caleb Johnson – SS/3B – The 2026 13th rounder started his minor league career this month, batting .306 with a .403 OBP and a .935 OPS over 62 ABs for Ontario. Flash in the pan or the early part of a Cinderella story?

Joendry Vargas – SS/2B – Okay, like Lindsey he missed a big part of 2025 due to injury. Then he had a pedestrian first four months of 2026 and got completely dropped off the Top-30. It looks like that was a premature move by the list-makers, because he’s gone nuclear in August. Over 96 at bats, he amassed 38 hits (.396 AVG), 11 doubles, 2 triples, 3 HRs, and 4 steals. OPS is 1.063 for the month. He and Lindsey switch off between SS and 2B regularly (with West also getting some PT at short), which I like because they’re both getting reps at each position. Will be interesting to see if he gets put back in the ranking during the offseason. Personally I’d have him there in place of Hainline, Miller, Nieves, and Patick.

Mairo Martinus – He got bumped up to Great Lakes on August 5, and so far no adjustment has been needed. 32 hits in August over 100 ABs (.320). 6 HRs, 3 doubles, 1 triple, .877 OPS. And can play practically any position. If this guy isn’t an organizational top-30 prospect, I don’t know what is.

 

okay pedo

 

great post statman
i remember back in the day when teams routinely called up tons of prospects come september
in either 1969 or 1970 alston called up a group of guys i had only read about — ferguson, garvey, buckner, cey, lopes, paciorek, joshua, valentine, and many others
times change, and mostly for the better
but i miss those days too

 

Yeah, the September expansions to 40 were pretty wild. Imagine if they could call up another 14 players right now with the group currently in the minors.

 

I agree it's better this way.

 

no doubt better
was just reminiscing about a different time
a whole different vibe back then…
no internet so every preseason i immersed myself in the dodgers yearbook, baseball digest, SI and whatever else i could find
no espn, so i had to wait for the nightly news and their 2-minute sports segment
gil stratton on cbs or stu nahan on ktla
oh, almost forgot — no free agency

 

1. Listening to Vin on my small transistor radio on a feed from a Las Vegas station. For whatever reason his words wouldn't come through to my area in Norcal until around 8:15-8:45, so I'd miss the first part of the game. The feed was very feint at first, but by the last couple of innings it was loud and clear. Every single night. I still don't understand the physics of that. Was it weather related? Or other stations went off the air to clear the airwaves? But the LV station came in first. By about 10pm an LA station would start coming in.

2. For day games, or when I couldn't listen to the night game, the score would be reported on the nightly news, but obviously there were no details. So for years I had a paper route, partly so that I could read the box score and tiny blurb on the game. It was the morning paper, the SF Chronicle, and I'd get up 10 minutes early just to pull the Sporting Green out of one of the papers and get my morning fix.