This season has seen quite the rash of injuries to the Dodgers‘ pitching staff. Rich Hill, Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Kenta Maeda are all currently on the DL, leading to some of the Dodgers’ young arms being pressed into service sooner than they were anticipating. Walker Buehler has already made quite a few starts. Dennis Santana was brought up for his debut last weekend in Colorado. Now it appears that the next arm on his way is that of Caleb Ferguson.
Taken in the 38th round of the 2014 draft, the lefty had Tommy John surgery that same year. He didn’t really start pitching until last season, where he ranked first with a 2.87 ERA, second in opponent average with .246, and third in strikeouts with 140 in High Class-A. He has risen quickly through the ranks of the Dodgers farm system, helped by added velocity to his fastball, which sits in the lower 90’s, topping out about 95 mph. He throws a curveball in the upper 70’s which could become a lethal weapon the more he refines the location of it.
Ferguson debuted in Triple-A Oklahoma City in May 26th, striking out 10 batters and allowing three hits in five innings. He started again last Friday, although he was not quite as sharp. He went three innings, striking out two, but walking four. He allowed two earned runs on three hits, and had an error that lead to another run. That bad outing could quite possible be attributed to the uncertainty of when his next start was going to be, messing up his routine.
“I think you saw the real Caleb the first game,” OKC pitching coach Bill Simas told Jacob Unruh of NewsOK on Friday. “This game we moved him around a little bit and he wasn’t comfortable. You’ll see the real guy again.”
Hopefully for Dodger fans, they will see that Caleb when he gets his first chance at the majors, presumably on Wednesday. Whether they start him, or start a reliever first like they did with Santana remains to be seen. One thing is for sure this season, when it comes to Dodger pitching, the future is now.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
We seem to be working our way very rapidly through the farm system, looking for starting pitchers. I’ll be interested to see who we pick with our first pick in the draft today. He might wind up starting at Dodger Stadium next week.
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That was pretty funny Jeff, but it’s scary how thin our pitching is getting. Give the FO credit, they are giving the prospects a chance to show what they’ve got, before they make some kind of a trade. I wonder who might even be available?
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Not much, I’m afraid. Only starter that might still perk my interest at this point is Fulmer and that’s only because he still has some untapped potential left in that young arm of his that’s waiting to come out. Archer’s name also keeps being thrown around of late, but he’s not much better than any of the young arms the Dodgers already have knocking on the door to the bigs this year. In the end, I wouldn’t be surprised if the front office goes after a proven veteran arm with a “manageable” contract like a Doug Fister for instance.
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Can’t wait to see how Ferguson does in his official Dodger debut on Wednesday. Hopefully, they’ll have a well-rested arm ready to piggyback at the first sign of real trouble for the rook just in case. I’ve been tuning in to many of Caleb’s starts down on the farm this year and the one thing that continues to jump out at me regarding him is how extremely tough he is mentally whenever he gets himself in a jam. Even in his last outing at OKC in which he wasn’t sharp at all (bet he wishes he had fielded his position better on that one play that led to the unearned run scoring, lol), he did not let the opposing team take the lead in his final inning of work in that game. Signs of a potential big-game pitcher in the making, folks!
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