I am putting my review of the LAD affiliates for the month of April. This will be one of two, and will be just for the Great Lakes Loons and Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. I am working on Tulsa Drillers and OKC Comets.
Great Lakes Loons
The Loons have an 11-10 record, good for 4th place in the 6 team East Division, 3 GB.
The Loons have one player that is in the league top echelon: Zyhir Hope. Hope is slashing .310/.383/.560/.943. Hope is 6th in BA, 8th in SLG, and 10th in OPS.
The next best hitter is Josue De Paula, De Paula is slashing .260/.407/.425/.832. For comparative purposes, De Paula is 58th in BA, 28th in OBP, 51st in SLG, and 33rd in OPS.
23 year old catcher, Nelson Quiroz, has had a good start to his season. He does not have enough PA to qualify. Nevertheless his slash line is .351/.415/.459/.874. Quiroz looks to be another catcher prospect to monitor.
After a very slow start in 2025, Kendall George is slashing .242/.381/.409/.790. He is #3 is stolen bases with 10, and 7th in BB with 16. Over his last 12 games, with 58 PA, Kendall is slashing .311/.439/.556/.994 with 3 HR, 1 triple, 11 BB, 12 K, and 7 SB. What is more emblematic of Kendall; the first 9 games or the next 12.
One other batter of note is 3B Logan Wagner. He is slashing .235/.367/.457/.824. Wagner is one of four Loons with an OPS > .800. Hope .943, Quiroz .874, De Paula .832 are the other three. Wagner leads the Midwest League in doubles with 9. He also has 3 HR.
Brooks Auger is the lone Loon who is considered a qualified pitcher for ERA. Auger has 20.1 IP, 3.10 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, .247 BA. His K/BB is not very good with 11 K to go with 9 BB. His ERA is good enough for 11th in the Midwest League.
Patrick Copen is 1 inning short of being qualified. His 2.25 ERA would place him right in front of Auger. Copen is #2 in strikeouts in the Midwest League with 28. Copen is also #1 in BB allowed.
Team Stats:
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes
The Quakes have a 14-7 record, good for 1st place in the Southern Division. They are 6.0 games up on the Visalia Rawhide (Arizona).
Mike Sirota has been the hitting star for the Quakes in 2025. He is in the top five of all slash line metrics.
- AVG – .368 (2nd)
- OBP – .455 (5th)
- SLG – .649 (1st)
- OPS – 1.104 (1st)
Sirota is #1 in doubles (tie) with 8.
The California League is certainly not holding him back.
Elijah Hainline is in the top ten of the California League hitters for three of the four slash metrics. Hainline is tied for 4th in League with 7 doubles.
- AVG – .310 (10th)
- OBP – .412 (18th)
- SLG – .483 (8th)
- OPS – .895 (10th)
Eduardo Quintero is the only other Quake hitter with a OPS > .800 (.822).
Others amongst the league leaders in other categories:
- Jaron Elkins – #3 in SB with 11
- Jose Meza – #2 in BB with 22
- Eduardo Quintero – #4 in runs with 18, #4 in SB with 10
- Kellon Lindsey – #4 in BB with 17, # 8 in SB with 8
In the not so grand stats, 4 of the top 11 strikeout leaders were Quakes.
While the offense has not been the most prolific, the pitchers have carved out a nice niche in the California League.
Five starters for the Quakes are qualified, with 4 in the top 10 of ERA leaders and 5 top 14:
- Sean Linan – 0.87 (#3)
- Jholbran Herder – 2.55 (#7)
- Christian Zazueta – 2.60 (#8)
- Samuel Sanchez – 3.18 (#10)
- Aidan Foeller – 4.15 (#14)
The top two strikeout leaders in the California League are Quakes:
- Sean Linan – 40 in 20.2 IP (#1)
- Aidan Foeller – 35 in 17.1 IP (#2)
4 of the top 11 walk leaders are Quakes:
- Sean Linan – 4 (#3)
- Samuel Sanchez – 4 (#3)
- Christian Zazueta – 8 (#6)
- Jholbran Herder – 7 (#11)
Linan has an otherworldly K/BB ratio of 10/1 (40/4). And as good as that is, it is not as good as a pair of Taiwanese and Japanese pitchers.
- Wei-En Lin (A’s) – 27 K, 0 BB
- Tzu-Chen Sha (A’s) – 26 K, 2 BB
Justin Tabeling has a very good K/BB ratio with 13 K and just 1 BB.
Quakes reliever Alex Makarewich has 18 strikeouts in just 9.2 innings.
Sean Linan leads the California League in BAA with .116.
Two other top ten BAA leaders:
- Jholbran Herder – .203 (#6)
- Christian Zazueta – .224 (#10)
Two Quakes were top ten in WHIP:
- Jholbran Herder – 1.19 (#7)
- Christian Zazueta – 1.21 (#9)
Team Stats:
RC with a nice staff.
They needed that win. Looks bad losing a 5 run lead like that. Banda had nothing on the pitch that was hit for the Grand Slam. Pages slowed a little but named co-player of the week in the NL. The other guy was Eugenio Suarez who slugged 4 homers in a game. Last player to do that? JD Martinez against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium a few years ago when he was with Arizona.
A win is a win but at this rate the Dodgers are running their bullpen right into the ground in the first two montsh of the season.
Would rather see Bobby Miller geting c alled up to make that start tonight. Another bullpen game in 8 days plus pen had to go 8 innings on Sunday and 4.2 more yesterday. Not sustainable.
With Miller you at least have a shot at 4-5 bulk innings. The alterantive is multiple innings for Davis, Garcis, Dreyer to cover 9 innings.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just for fun:
SS–Betts
DH–Ohtani
2B–Edman
1B–Freeman
RF–Teoscar
C–Smith
3B–Muncy
CF–Pages
LF–Conforto
Time to promote Hope and Sirota.
A year ago, no young Dodger got more hype than De Paula. He seems to have faded a bit. Still think the Dodgers should train him for 1B. He might be ready when Freddie retires.
Those RC pitchers are an intriguing bunch, especially Linan and Zazueta.
Will the outfielder from Taiwan join the Quakes soon? Some interesting buzz about him.
Who is wearing Confarto’s uniform, dude looks completely lost and useless
There’s always a player in the system I kinda forget about when I’m thinking about the roster. Right now I think the pitcher I forget about is Frasso and the positional player is Kim.
I wonder who is closest to being called up: Rushing, Freeland, Outman or Kim?
I still think there’s a chance Kim turns into a strong defensive 2b with a decent average and some stolen bases. I don’t expect much power and I’m not sure about the OBP.
Then there’s Ruiz, who was cleared added as a project and not a quick fix.
Should we trade for Vaughn Grissom?
Kershaw pitching for OKC tonight against El Paso.
Just noticed that former Cy winner Sandy Alcantara is listed as the Marlins’ starter today….
Miami is expected to deal him.
If he looks fully recovered, should the pitching-rich but injury-prone Dodgers try to get him?
Haha De Paula pimped a HR trot so hard the catcher said some shit. JDP shook his head like, “Nah, not listening.”
https://x.com/Bnicklaus7/status/1917375748161298861
As I write this, the Dodgers are in the middle of their 30th game of the season.
Teo now has 29 RBIs in 29.5 games…
Edman has 22.
Good read on Sauer: