PROSPECTS Meanwhile, Down on the Farm

@Howard_Cole
Yet another perfect relief inning for Bobby Miller. That’s three in a row and four out of five, and the one that wasn’t perfect was a two-inning appearance in which he allowed a walk and nothing else. He’s got a 1.29 ERA as an RP, with three hits and a walk allowed with five strikeouts in seven innings. If you want to complain about the strikeouts that’s your decision. He hadn’t relieved a day in his life.

 

Latest numbers for Bobby Miller since moving to the pen:

8 IP, 4 hits, 1 walk, 1 ER.

And most of those hits were in his first appearance, while he was probably adjusting. Over his most recent six games:

7 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, no runs.

 

Thought I’d do an update on the farm system, with an emphasis on recent play. This also includes a complete reordering of the Top 30 prospect rankings which I just noticed occurred – looks like they’ve integrated this year’s draftees in addition to prospects received at the trade deadline.



Arizona Complex Rookie League

Note: the ACL plays through July, so there won’t be any stats for players drafted this year.


P Zach Root (prospect #14)

2025 round 1 draftee (40 overall)



P Charles Davalan (#15)

2025 round CB-A (41 overall)



OF Brendan Tunink (#20)

2024 round 8 pick

Played in 39 games and hit .300/.967. Not sure why he didn’t get promoted to Rancho.



P Cam Leiter (#23)

2025 round 2 draftee (65 overall)



SS Aidan West (#30)

2025 round 4 draftee (135 overall)



Single-A Rancho Cucamonga

SS Emil Morales (prospect #7)

Of all the prospects that got promoted last month, Morales has easily had the most seamless transition. He didn’t miss a beat going from rookie ball to single-A. In fact, his batting average (.318), OPS (.945), and HR rate (3 in 66 Abs) are actually an improvement in Rancho over the Arizona Complex League, where his numbers were already solid. Hoping this is a sign of more to come as he makes his way up the system.



OF Ching-Hsien Ko (#10)

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Ko, who made a similar move as Morales. He raked in rookie ball, but so far has struggled at Rancho: .203/.557/ no HRs in 64 ABs. As we know, Dodgers have a stable of OF prospects ahead of him in the system so there’s no hurry. Hopefully he just needs some time to make the necessary adjustments.



SS Kellon Lindsey (#11)

60-day IL.



SS Joendry Vargas (#12)

On-and-off the IL much of the season, which could explain his .221/.646 average. Missed all of July, came back for a few games in August and is now back on the 7-day.



3B Chase Harlan (#19)

Also got the move from rookie ball to A, and he’s held his own with .263/.800/ 3 HR in 57 ABs. Numbers are down slightly from Arizona, which is to be expected.



P Hyun-Seok Jang (#22)

Hasn’t pitched since June 1. Was on the Development List and currently on the 7-day IL.



OF Jaron Elkins (#27)

Okay but not wowing anyone. August: .273/.789.



P Jakob Wright (#29)

Injured since mid-June. Good numbers over six starts to that point.



High-A Great Lakes

OF Josue De Paula (#1)

Had been on the IL since his big hit in the Futures Game. Just returned for past two games so nothing new to report.



OF Zyhir Hope (#2)

Had a solid July (.279/.986/5 HRs) but August has not been good (.160/.497/0 HRs). Playing hurt? Long season wearing on him? Not sure.



OF Eduardo Quintero (#4)

His .246/.769/1 HR after his promotion is a definite regression from his Rancho numbers, but I feel like he’s started to heat back up the past week.



P Adam Serwinowski (#13)

Acquired in the Feduccia trade, he’s started three games for Great Lakes. 17 innings, 9 hits, 10 BBs, 20 strikeouts, and only one ER… an ERA of 0.53!



P Christian Zazueta (#16)

Just got put on the Development List a few days ago. Sounds like they may be shutting him down to manage his workload. He had a really good season – 2.44 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 66.1 IP, 80 K’s vs only 16 BB’s. Will be exciting to watch him next year – I’d think he would start the season in Tulsa.



P Payton Martin (#21)

I don’t remember this guy. I guess he was just added to the ranking list. He’s a 17th round pick from 2022. His numbers are pretty ho-hum on the year (4.19 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 2.5 K:BB ratio), but from what I’m reading he goes through stretches that really impress and make the organization see potential. Somewhat surprised to see him ranked here... maybe there's more than meets the eye.



OF Kendall George (#25)

I’m really, really surprised to see that he’s dropped this far in the rankings. He’s been the most durable of his outfield mates De Paula, Hope, Sirota, and Quintero. He’s manned CF all year. He’s leading the Midwest League in steals with 82, which is 20 more than the next best. And he has slowly but consistently moved his average up all season to where it is now (.270/.741). Actually, over 59 August ABs, he’s at .339/.865. Something tells me there was an overreaction to his slow start with this ranking.



Double-A Tulsa

P Jackson Ferris (#6)

It’s really good to see how he’s turned his season around. July: 1.53 ERA, 28:13 K’s/BBs. Aug: 1.93 ERA 15:7 K’s/BBs. Still needs to get the walks down, but after an ERA in the high 5’s during the first three months, this is very encouraging.



OF James Tibbs (#8)

The Giants drafted him #13 overall just one year ago – and even though their FO doesn’t have the best drafting record, that’s got to count for something, right? Went to Boston in the Devers trade and then here in the May trade. His numbers in both the Gnats and Red Sox organization were less than stellar, but so far he’s looking great for Tulsa - .319 batting average, .952 OPS. Nothing would satisfy me more than if we hit big on this one, and SF and Boston fans get to agonize. We’ll see.



P Patrick Copen (#18)

This is bittersweet for me. You know I’ve been pulling for him since learning of his horrific eye injury last year. He’s moved up nicely on the ranking list. But after a stellar June and July, he seems to have hit a wall in August. Three starts, 8.71 ERA and 2.23 WHIP. 8 walks vs 12 strikeouts which will not play. In his defense, there was an outlier game where he gave up 6 runs and didn’t make it out of the first inning. Remove that and his month looks a lot better. But even in his strong June and July months he was walking a lot of batters. Can’t help but think that his eyesight is going to be an issue over his whole career, and eventually he’ll reach a level where the hitters are too good to keep getting away with so many walks. I hope I'm wrong and will continue to be on team Copen.



P Peter Heubeck (#24)

Had three good starts in early July (3.29 ERA) and has been on the IL since.



OF Zach Ehrhard (#28)

Part B of the May trade, he’s opened some eyes so far in the organization. Doesn't have quite the pedigree of Tibbs (4th round pick in 2024 by Boston), but all he’s done over his first 12 games is hit .348 with an OPS of 1.043. Personally, I think May’s going to be a 4.50 ERA pitcher with the occasional bout of dominance before slipping back into mediocrity. If either of these guys pan out, it’ll be a big win for the Dodgers.



Triple-A Oklahoma City

SS Noah Miller (#26)

Meh… In 126 ABs since this promotion, he’s hitting .238/.566. And this is a hitter’s league while ironically Tulsa, where he had better numbers, is considered in more of a pitcher’s league. It’s always been all about his glove though, so no big surprise.



The rest of the top 30 are either guys out on extended injury (Sirota, Ryan) or on the big-league roster (Freeland, Henriquez).

 

Bit of follow up for anyone who got through my long prospects update yesterday.

I was wrong, thinking this year's draftees wouldn't get any action until next season since the rookie leagues are done. Our competitive balance pick and current #15 prospect Charles Davalan made his debut with Rancho, and went 2 for 4 with a walk, a ribbie and a couple runs scored. Also, our 3rd round pick Landyn Vidourek (not ranked in the top 30) also debuted but was 0-4 with a walk. Both of these guys are 21 and drafted out of college, so perhaps that's why they're skipping rookie ball. Other notes from that game, good and bad. Good - Emil Morales went 2 for 4 with a HR and has his OPS up to .999. Really stoked about this kid. Bad - Ching-Hsien Ko is still struggling, 0-4. Elkins and Harlan also chimed in with a hit each, and suddenly, this roster is pretty stacked with prospects.

At Great Lakes, George had another three hits and a SB, and has his average up to .275. He's en fuego this month, and I'm hoping something clicked for him and he's going to live up to his first round draft potential. Quintero, like Ko, continues to struggle with his promotion (0-4, 3 K's). Hope had an uneventful 1-4. De Paula sat, and I'm wondering if he's still hurt.

Tulsa got rained out, so nothing new on the two guys we got from Boston.

This has nothing to do with following up on my post from yesterday, but in OKC left fielder Ryan Ward went 4 for 6 with two more HRs, and is up to 31. His OPS is .976. Look, I know at age 27 he's likely a career minor leaguer. I know that hitting stats get inflated in the PCL. I know that often guys hit their ceiling in AAA and can't replicate that success in the majors (case in point, Outman). But seriously, if Mookie isn't going to move to right and bump Teo to left, then please please please give this guy a shot to see what he can do in LF for the Dodgers. We can discount his .976 OPS a fair amount in making MLB projections, but there's no way it would be lower than Conforto's .625. And he bats from the left side so Davey can still do his platooning thing with Call. Doesn't Conforto have a mystery injury to shelve him for a couple weeks and see if Ward can Wally Pipp him? (I know that comparison is an insult to Pipp).

Also at OKC yesterday...

Yates 1 IP, 0 hits, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Scott 1 IP, 0 hits, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Miller 1 IP, 1 hit, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
(and Kopech pitched the previous game)

 

obviously a small sample size
but the walks concern me with these two

 

Same here. More just a point that Yates, Scott, and Kopech will be ready to rejoin the club soon (for better or worse). I think it'll be the first time all four (including Treinen) will be healthy at the same time. However, other than Diaz, whose spot do they all take? Henriquez has looked good, but I guess he has options remaining? Banda is a lefty so probably not. I like Wrobleski for multiple innings, but maybe either he or Casparius are out.

 

imo casparius > wrobo right now, although wrobo probably has the higher ceiling
henriquez has an amazing arm
banda has been solid
diaz idk
i have very little faith or expectations for scott or pantload yates, but i do for kopech
and i think treinen will be fine once he washes off the rust

 

Sasaki is on the mound right now for OKC.

 

Sasaki went 3.1 (60 pitches). Lot of traffic on the bases - 3 hits and 3 walks. Somehow only one ER. Struck out 2. Not the best line, but at least he's back on the mound.

Kopech also performed magic, stranding two BBs and a hit in his one inning. (love those walks, right @irish ?)

Miller faced only two batters but got them both, striking out one. He's up to 8.2 innings without an earned run.

Two more hits for Ward. How many did Conforto get yesterday???

Oh, and Kike played DH and went 2 for 3.

 

That's the beauty of releasing Conforto... opens a spot on the 40.

 

Notes/Updates from the past week:



Single-A Rancho

The big news here continues to be our 2025 draftee Davalan (prospect #15). 19 ABs so far, 11 hits including a triple and HR. 8 RBIs and 3 steals. OPS is 1.461. Obviously unsustainable, but what a way to start his professional career.

Vidourek is the other draftee playing. He went O-fer in his first three games, then in game four got his first three hits, and in game five hit a double and triple. OPS is up to .733.

Emil Morales (#7) stayed hot, going 7 for 17 with 2 HRs for the week. He did have errors in I believe three straight games, but that only totals 5 for 20 games since his promotion.

After a miserable start to his time in Rancho, Ko (#10) went 4 for 12 with a triple to close out the week. Hopefully he’s starting to adjust.

Jaron Elkins (#27) had a 4-22 week. Chase Harlan (#19) was 4-17.



High-A Great Lakes

Good news bad news on De Paula (#1). Good is that he’s off the IL. Bad is that he’s 0 for 14 since his return. I hope he’s not trying to play hurt.

Hope (#2) went 7 for 22, with three doubles.

Like Ko in single-A, Quintero (#4) seems to be finally starting to acclimate to his new league. He had a 5 for 19 week, including a HR.

George (#25) – still red hot. His week: 10 for 22 (all singles, lol). Only one steal for the league leader, surprisingly, against four times caught (two of which were pickoffs). He’s hitting .370 in August and has his season average up to a high of .280.

Adam Serwinoski (#13) got knocked around a little this week, 3 ER over 5 innings, but since coming over in the Feduccia trade, he’s 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA.

Payton Martin (#21) gave up 3 in 3.1 yesterday and is having an August to forget.



Double-A Tulsa

Ferris (#6) had a pretty miserable start last week – surrendered 8 hits and 3 walks over 4 innings (somehow only 3 scored), but he has a 3.00 ERA over four August starts.

Tibbs (#8) had a “confortoish” week, going 3 for 23. At least he did homer once and drove in 5.

August has not been kind to Copen (#18), but he had a nice bounce-back game last week, pitching 5.2 scoreless innings. Walks continue to be an issue.

Ehrhard (#28) had a 5-25 week. Still has a .888 OPS since coming over from Boston.



AAA OKC

Nothing much to report. The week mostly just highlighted the rehab of Dodger relievers and utility players.

 

Sasaki takes the mound for OKC tonight for the third time in this rehab assignment. We'll see how he fares. Has not looked good in his first two - 6.75 ERA, 2.44 WHIP, .391 batting average against, 4 walks to 2 strikeouts. I'm trying to not read too much into it... obviously he never got the chance to fully adjust to MLB, then his injury set him back and it'll take time to get to even where he was at the beginning of the season. But I wonder if he regrets not staying in Japan, earning more money with likely better results, and then cashing in on the bigger payday here like Yamamoto did. Again I'm getting ahead of myself - let's see how it plays out. One thing, though... knock on wood that the current rotation of six stays healthy, because I don't think Sasaki is anywhere near being a viable option for the stretch run. At this point, he should be focused on getting to where he needs to be for next year.