OKC Comets 6 – Salt Lake City Bees (LAA) 3
Other than the 2 solo HRs Tony Gonsolin surrendered, he reached 5.0 innings and 79 pitches (51 strikes). Overall in his 5.0 IP, Gonsolin allowed 2 runs, 4 hits, 2 BB, and 3K.
OKC jumped out to a 6-0 lead. In the first inning, Alex Freeland hit a one out double, and scored on a 2-out Michael Chavis single.
In the 4th, Ryan Ward led off with a HR (3). James Outman followed with a double (6). A walk and catcher’s interference loaded the bases. Alex Freeland singled home a pair for a 4-0 lead.
In the 5th, Outman opened with a single and scored on Hunter Feduccia’s triple (1). Hunter scored on Esteury Ruiz’s single for the final two Comets’ runs.
With one out in the 5th, Gonsolin gave up the first of his 2 surrendered solo HRs. The second HR led off the 6th inning, and Gonsolin was removed for Logan Boyer. Matt Sauer finished the final 3.0 innings. A HBP and 2 singles gave the Bees run back in the 8th. Sauer did record his first save.
- Alex Freeland – 2-5, 1 run, 2 RBI, double (PCL leading #12)
- Michael Chavis – 3-5, 1 RBI
- Ryan Ward – 2-5, 1 run, 1 RBI, HR (3)
- James Outman – 2-5, 2 runs, double (6)
- Hunter Feduccia – 1-4, 1 BB, 2 runs, 1 RBI, triple (1)
Box Score
Tulsa Drillers 7 – NW Arkansas (KC) 2
Drillers’ pitching was outstanding except for back to back HR’s leading off the 2nd. Chris Campos allowed the two HRs in his 5.2 IP. He surrendered 4 hits, 1 BB, to go with 7 K.
3 relievers combined to pitch 3.1 scoreless IP. Combined they allowed 3 hits, 2 BB, and 4 K.
The Drillers got a run back in the 3rd. Aaron Bracho doubled (2), and scored on Taylor Young’s single. The Drillers took the lead for good in the 4th. Damon Keith hit his 5th double and scored ahead of José Ramos’ 2-run HR (5).
In the 6th, a John Rhodes double (4) was followed by a BB and HBP. Bracho singled one run in. Bases still loaded, Young is HBP to score 1 and Sean McLain’s infield single scored another.
Aaron Bracho concluded the scoring with his 3rd HR.
- Aaron Bracho – 3-4, 2 runs, 2 RBI, double (2), HR (3)
- José Ramos – 1-2, 2 BB, 2 runs, 2 RBI, HR (5)
- Doubles – Damon Keith (5), John Rhodes (4), Chris Newell (3)
Box Score
Lake County Captains (Cleveland) 4 – Great Lakes Loons 0
The Great Lakes Loons offense was blanked for the first time this year ending a season-best four-game winning streak, in a 4-0 loss to the Lake County Captains.
Lake County scored three runs in the bottom of the first off Loons starter Eriq Swan. Jose Devers delivered a leadoff double followed by three hits with two outs. Alfonsin Rosario slugged a 2-run HR on a 2-2 pitch.
Esteban Gonzalez added an RBI single, driving in a runner placed in scoring position after an error for first inning’s 3rd run.
Jaison Chourio, Brewers Jackson Chourio’s brother, crushed his first High-A homer in the 3rd
From the second to the fifth, it was the lone blemish for RHP Eriq Swan. Swan struck out three.
Jordan Thompson had two of the Loons three hits, a double in the fourth, and a single in the ninth. He was left on second both times.
22-year-old RHP, Roque Gutierrez, worked four scoreless innings and punched out five Captains. Gutierrez pitched four scoreless in his Loons debut on April 10th. Last week he pitched in Double-A earning a win for the Tulsa Drillers and was transferred back to Great Lakes this week.
Kendall George walked twice, his third multi-walk game. The 20-year-old has walked 15 times in 16 games.
Box Score
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 12 – Inland Empire 66ers (LAA) 3
The Quakes scored 9 runs in the final two innings to break open a game they led 3-2 after 7 innings.
23 year old Aidan Foeller pitched a respectable 5.0 innings, allowing 2 runs, only 1 hit, but 4 BB and a HBP. He also registered a very respectable 12 strikeouts. His 1st inning was emblematic of his game. He walked the first three batters in the inning, and then hit the next batter for one run in, bases loaded, nobody out. No problem, he struck out the next three batters.
A walk led to his second run allowed in the 4th. A BB then a double (only hit allowed) gave Inland Empire another run.
RC tied the game the first time in the 2nd on three straight singles by Jaron Elkins, Jose Meza, and Eduardo Guerrero. Victor Rodriguez hit his 1st HR of the season in the 5th to tie the game again.
The Quakes took their 1st lead in the 7th when Eduardo Guerrero drew a BB and scored on Victor Rodriguez’s double (2).
The Quakes broke it open in the 8th. The first 6 batters reached 1st. Eduardo Quintero opened with a BB and went to 3rd on a Mike Sirota single. Samuel Munoz followed with a double to score Quintero. Sirota scored on a WP and Munoz moved up to third. Jaron Elkins drew a BB. Jose Meza singled to plate Munoz. Two ground outs drive Elkins home.
In the 9th, Kellon Lindsey opened the 9th with a single. Quintero reached on a HBP. Lindsey and Quintero pulled off a double steal. Sirota drew a BB to load the bases. Munoz and Elkins each drew a BB to score 2. Meza hit a SF to score 3rd of the inning. Guerrero singled to score Munoz, and with runners on 1st and 3rd, two more BB allow the 5th run of the inning to score.
- Jose Meza – 2-4, 2 RBI, SF
- Eduardo Guerrero – 2-4, 1 BB, 1 run, 2 RBI
- Victor Rodriguez – 2-5, 1 run, 2 RBI, double (2), HR (1)
- Jaron Elkins – 1-3, 2 BB, 3 runs, 1 RBI
- Kellon Lindsey – 1-4, 2 BB, 1 run, 1 RBI
- Samuel Munoz – 1-4, 1 BB, 2 runs, 2 RBI, double (4)
Box Score
I have to apologize for just the MiLB Game Summaries. Bear has a couple of Remember (Former Player) posts, and I have not yet been able to complete a couple that I have been working on. Let’s just say that life gets in the way sometimes.
Not worried about Snell, at least not yet. I feel the Dodgers want to be ultra-cautious with his injury now. Muncy, however, is worrisome.
I have no clue as to the future of Dodger pitching with all the injury laden staff, both new and old. Yamamoto seems to be the only one of our starters that seems healthy enough to last a season and quite possibly be our Ace. Roki isn’t even a starter yet in my book. He is auditioning. None of our homegrown talent has exhibited any longevity and Snell and Glasnow have their own issues that hold them back. Is Shohei going to be our saviour on the mound this season? It would certainly be historic and very much needed with our depleted, de-gassed, group of wobbly pitchers.
Amongst this conservative group of posters, I keep hearing words like patience, and time limits to allow for a better assessment of players. My patience has been tested for the past 3 years and we won a WS in spite of wobbly pitchers and bottom of the order hitters who should be home in bed. The saviours were perennial sluggers, the same one we have on board now with the addition of Edman. The problem is we keep losing due to defense, poor pitching, and a lack of hitting from the same old suspects. For me, somebody has to replace Muncy and Pages. If we bring Freeland in to 3B and Kim to 2B, sending Edman to CF, Pages replaced with Ruiz in LF, we get faster, better defense, and we finally take a chance with our farm boys who are just waiting for an opportunity to show what they’ve got. We’ve seen what we’ve got with our bottom dwellers. The occasional HR is not that important. We need bat to ballers to keep this game flowing. Base stealers to bring excitement and instill fear in our opponents. We need to take chances, which this FO seems loathe to want to take. They’d rather take a chance on a vet or a rehabbing pitcher. This needs to change, my friends.
Not sure about anyone else but this season hasn’t really seemed to get going or perhaps flowing yet.
A trip to Japan and a 2 game start on everyone else has meant a number of days off early in the season (there’s another tonight) and it’s all felt a bit weird.
Key pieces, Mookie, Freddie, Shohei and Will have all missed time, and again it’s only my observation, but it feels like the Bullpen is already being asked to do a lot of work.
I think we will see an upturn in form once we settle down into the season proper, with more games and the opportunity to get some consistency.
Apparently there are still rumors of a Louis Robert trade. I hope that doesn’t happen. Many here have mentioned how easy it would be to just bring up Kim to play 2b and move Edman to cf. Signing Robert would.hinder that. While I think we have a great front office I also have to admit they keep blocking players.
Does not get any easier for LA this weekend. Skenes will most likely start on Friday. He is 2-2 with a sub 3 ERA. He has only allowed 1 homer. LA is going to have to string together hits to beat him. Pittsburgh as a team is 10-15. Andrew Heaney has an ERA of 1.72 and is 2-1. He most likely will also get a start. Their other three starters are not as good. Heller and Falter both have ERA’s above 4. Pirates as a team hitting just .222. They have hit just 18 homers. Cruz leads the team with 6.
For all the members of the Luis Robert Jr. Fan Club, you might notice that he is currently hitting .145 / .517 with a 36% K-rate. I can’t see how that’s an improvement over what we already have.
But I know it’s early.
Well until late May all we can do is ride the storm out and hope for the best.
News from Internet:
Jay Jaffe had a chat:
Mr. Burrito: I’m not whining, I swear. I get that any Dodgers problems, this year, are first-world issues. But I’m getting worried about Muncy and Pages increasingly looks like a 4th outfielder. Do they need another bat? And, if so, should it be Luis Robert Jr.
Jay Jaffe: I’ve been a little skeptical about Pages given his contact issues, and boy howdy have those resurfaced. He may very well be a 4th outfielder.Not sure yet what’s going on with Muncy but we’ve seen him go through funks before and he always seems to find his way out. Maybe the other Max Muncy is stealing his mojo.
Robert has been so bad for the past year-plus, I wouldn’t touch him with a 40-foot pole
md: What are your thoughts on the (mostly unhinged fan) scuttlebutt of trying to get Muncy outta there for Arenado?Friedman has kind of been on record saying he doesn’t like big midseason trades like that, right?
Jay Jaffe: I’m pretty lukewarm on Arenado at this stage, at least in terms of giving up significant talent for him. By all evidence he’s a league-average bat with a glove that’s still above average but no longer elite. That’s useful but not somebody I wanna pay $25–30M per year for
Allison: Is Luis Robert overrated or just mentally done on a terrible team?
Jay Jaffe: That’s a very good question. I wouldn’t discount the effect of being surrounded by a miserable situation but… even if that’s the case it doesn’t speak well of the player because there are plenty who can block that out and still perform well. What I do think is more likely is that White Sox are so behind the times that he’s not getting the proper intel for how he’s being pitched and how to adjust.
Per Geoff Pontes:
3B Jake Gelof hasn’t played this year he’s on the IL, with a bad right wrist tendon.
Josh Norris at Baseball America takes a look at Sean Linan’s new change ($$$$)
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/dodgers-rhp-sean-linan-riding-high-spin-changeup-to-huge-k-whiff-numbers/
“On April 18, three pitchers finished their outings with 20 swings and misses. The first was Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Dodgers phenom who two years ago signed the biggest contract of any pitcher in history. The second was Phillies ace Zack Wheeler, a two-time runner-up for the Cy Young award.
The third? That would be Sean Linan, a 20-year-old Dodgers righthander who signed out of Colombia in 2022…””
per Dodgers Daily:
Still in swing school, James Outman had 2 hits last night for AAA OKC & has hits in 7 games in a row. He hit his 6th double of 2024 & has raised his Batting Average 46 points since April 11th.
He played some pretty rangy D out in Center Field in a VERY rangy ballpark in Salt Lake, so that part of his game has stayed intact on the ++ side of things.
Hopefully, he can continue to take step-by-step in creating swing mechanisms that create consistency in contact.
Ben Clemens Had a Chat
Ryan: Tatis is playing out of his mind right now. When he’s right is he the best overall player in baseball outside of Ohtani?
Ben Clemens: Gotta have Judge ahead of him, I think. Not that Tatis isn’t great, I’m a huge fan… but Judge has been the best-performing baseball player for years now. Ohtani might have more raw talent but c’mon, these hitting numbers, absurd
Robbie Boyfred: Nolan Arenado and Lara Nootbar for a package built around Bobby Miller and Andy Pages. Who says no?
Ben Clemens: oh man, getting the SoCal kids back to SoCal. I think the Dodgers would probably say no, depending on how Arenado’s contract gets handled, but I could see the Cardinals being unwilling to move Nootbaar given that he’s one of their best few players and they want to compete again soon. I think the value is at least in the ballpark of right, and probably I’d prefer the Miller/Pages side in a vacuum, so it’d just be about the contract and whether St. Louis is okay trading away more outfielders with huge potential. Their previous outfielder trades have gone mostly badly
Baseball America’s Geoff Pontes on Jakob Wright ($$$)
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/could-jakob-wright-be-the-dodgers-next-sleeper-pitching-prospect/#:~:text=It's%20still%20extremely%20early%2C%20but,by%20the%20reigning%20world%20champions.&text=Definitely%20some%20work%20to%20do,the%20ball%20comes%20out%20great.
“This new version of Wright is in stark contrast to his amateur career, when he mostly worked off a cut-fastball and the aforementioned slurvy breaking ball. Now, Wright is showing more power and a collection of pitches that all move in different directions. His new sinker, in particular, looks like it could be a welcomed addition to his arsenal. He threw it seven times in his first start, and it showed the ability to create sink and armside run with good velocity. ”
Per Morosi:
The Dodgers have played 25 games this season.
They’ve yet to have a pitcher start on “standard” rest, which is 4 days.
They are the only MLB team for whom that is true.
Dan Szymborski Had a Chat
Guest Are the Dodgers mediocre? A run differential of a barely over 500 team and a lot of their wins came against cellar dwellers like the Braves and Rockies.
Dan Szymborski No. I think people were too crazy about them — they didn’t have an over/under of 105 or something crazy — but they’re still an excellent team
Lord Thunder What’s longer odds … Luis Robert Jr. staying healthy enough to play in 120 games this season or hitting .250?
Dan Szymborski .250, just eyeballing it, I think he has to hit .like .270 now to finish at .250 And he’s played in 22/24 games, so he only needs to play 98 of 138, which is more liely I think
5 whole innings….wow , he did it!
Congrats Catman.
I’m not sure the Dodgers can improve their offense by bringing up Outman and Freeland, but they can certainly improve their defense and do it with at least the current level of offense.
SS Betts
1B Freeman
DH Ohtani
RF Hernandez
2B Edman
C Smith
3B Freeland
CF Outman
LF Pages
Bench: Barnes, Muncy, Conforto, Kike’
I kept Kike’ over Rojas because he can play both infield and outfield and because Rojas might have trade value. The Orioles probably need his presence.
I kept Kike’ over Taylor because he supposedly has been inspirational in the clubhouse, and I think his defense is better.
I kept Muncy because fans still like him, and he may be insurance for both first and third base.
Watching the Red Sox attempt a 9th inning rally off the M’s excellent reliever Andres Munoz right now.
One out for Trevor Story, who has looked excellent this season so far.
The much-maligned Tristan Casas is up next.
MLB Pipeline just did a review of the AAA Statcast leaders for some of their top 100 prospects. The Dodgers did have someone make the list.
Alex Freeland: 63.9 percent hard-hit rate
It certainly appears that Freeland is MLB ready. His defense is already MLB ready. I acknowledge that for the Dodgers this is not an imminent promotion.
Others identified:
Roman Anthony (Boston CF): 31.9 percent barrel rate (barrel per batted-ball event)
Harry Ford (Seattle Catcher): 10.2 percent chase rate
Bubba Chandler (Pittsburgh RHSP): Four-seam fastball metrics
Caden Dana (LAA RHSP): 56.0 percent slider whiff rate
Owen Caissie (Cubs OF): .611 xSLG
I think the Dodgers might have a long reliever in OKC not part of the chosen group. We all know about Justin Wrobleski, Landon Knack, and Nick Frasso, but tonight OKC is sending out RHP Justin Jarvis to start for the Comets. He has pitched well so far this year.
Jared Karros will try to get back on track with his 4th start for Tulsa.
Patrick Copen will get his 4th start for Great Lakes.
Sean Paul Linan to get his 3rd start (and 4th game) for RC. Linan is absolutely dominating at low A. How long before he gets moved to Great Lakes? Could he reach AA by the end of the year at 20 years old?
Could be some good pitching to follow tonight.