Continuing along with our winter prospect profiles, we dip into the surplus of young starting pitchers lurking in the lower levels of the Dodgers‘ farm.
Looking back at the 2018 draft, Los Angeles certainly had its mind on pitching, as the first four selections were all pitchers. J.T. Ginn was the Dodgers’ first selection towards the end of the first round; however, the righty decided to commit to Mississippi State, ultimately handing Los Angeles a compensatory draft choice immediately after the first round in 2019.
Right-hander Michael Grove and lefty John Rooney were selected in the second and third rounds, respectively. Both immediately entered the Dodgers’ top prospect rankings amid their first years in the system.
According to MLB Pipeline, Grove currently sits in the 13th slot while Rooney is ranked 20th.
But there’s another righty, Braydon Fisher, who could conceivably find himself leapfrogging the aforementioned duo at some point, especially if his secondary pitches start to blossom ahead of schedule.
Fisher, the 2018 fourth-round selection out of Cedar Falls High School in Texas, was somewhat of a mystery pick. Despite earning TSWA 6A All-State honors, he wasn’t a regular on the summer showcase circuit as a junior, which made him a bit of an unknown on the national level. Nevertheless, he did emerge at the World Wood Bat Association Championships, where his velocity impressed scouts to the point of making him a Top 150 pick.
He made it to the desert in time to log nine starts for the AZL Dodgers last year, but the coaching staff had the 18-year-old on a short leash, as he never threw more than two innings in a single outing.
He tallied 11 appearances altogether in 2018 (two in relief) compiling a 1-2 record with a 2.05 ERA. He struck out 19 and walked nine batters over an even 22 innings of work.
Fisher’s bread and butter is his heater, by far. He normally sits in the 93 MPH range, but regularly tops out at 96 MPH, which is impressive for a teenager. The two-seam also has a bit of sink and run, giving it the potential to play even bigger as he develops. Furthermore, he throws from more of a three-quarter arm slot, making it difficult for hitters to pick up the ball as it leaves his hand.
According to scouts, his slider is trending upwards, but his changeup is still very raw. Regardless, he’ll have plenty of time to sharpen his offspeed arsenal in the lower levels of the minors.
Here’s a short pre-draft video highlighting Fisher’s mechanics:
The thing about Fisher is that he’s 6-foot-4, but he’s listed at only 180-pounds. As he continues to mature physically and round out his physique, he may end up throwing with less effort, which theoretically could produce even more velocity on his fastball.
As far as 2019 goes, Grove is likely to return to the AZL League to begin the year, but he’ll probably see action for Ogden in the Pioneer League when the short season begins later in the summer.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
Wow! Dennis do you ever take a day off? Love the articles on the young guys!
LikeLike
We try to do one story per day. If you haven’t noticed, Andy covers Mondays and Fridays, while I handle all the other days. Stories like today’s hardly take any time at all—maybe about 30 minutes max.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sink and run means he’s throwing 2 seamers. 93 means he throws them hard. 6’4” 180 and 18 means he has some maturing to do. All good signs. If he can spot the corners with that stuff he should move up quickly. Thanks. I didn’t know this kid but I will keep an eye out for him
LikeLike
Sounds impressive for an 18 year old who hasn’t filled out yet. He can take 4-5 years to work his way through the system and still only be 22-23 when he gets here.
LikeLike
If he gets a grip on his command, I think we’ll be hearing about him a lot more.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not immediately pertinent to this article, (but I’m stoked with the state of the Dodgers farm nonetheless) but I’m sick of the ditribe against ownership and the FO. The financial flexibility Kasten is talking about will be really helpful when/if they want to extend Peterson, Hernandez, Taylor, Turner, Seager, Bellinger, Buehler etc. I’d rather have the last three for the next decade and Urias, Verdugo, Ruiz, Smith, Gonsolin, etc than old Cole Hamels and a $ten figure deal to FA crapshoots. Machado didn’t play his best in LA. No guarantee Harper would be worth the money. Maybe Arenado or Boagarts next year.
LikeLike
Sick of the ditribe? Don’t partake of any more ditribe. And try some lemon ginger tea.
The point about extension is a good one. Most players are hip to not extending early. Guys like a Goldschmidt and Bumgarner left a lot of money on the table. I doubt agents will allow that to happen – unless they get a Votto like contract. We could do that with Seager, but not with some pitchers. Too risky with a guy like Buehler. TJ surgery likely changes the formula. Frankly I doubt Friedman does those loud extensions at all. He won’t with Peterson (sic) and Turner was already extended to 35.
And ftr, Cole Hamels isn’t old. Last year, at age 34, he threw 190 innings. He’s projected 172 innings this year. He makes $20M, $2.5M of that is paid by Philly. Sounds like a bargain to me. And when I was pimping for him, in ‘15, $7M of his $23M was paid by Philly. And by the way, after the trade he pitched 83 innings and put up 1.6 WAR for Texas. That beats the crap out of what Rich Hill did for us after that trade. Hamels is earning his money. I still think if we had him we would have at least 1 championship.
LikeLike
Whit Merrifield just signed a 4 years $16 mil extension with KC. Why on earth would he settle for $4mil per season at age 29? This is supposed to be his biggest contract of his career.
LikeLike
Maybe he was convinced $16 million is enough to live comfortably in Kansas City. It does seem a bit short sighted for that guy’s talent. 5.5 WAR? Dang. He could have really cashed in on that.
LikeLike
He could have easily gotten $80 million on the open market.
LikeLike
Remember these are his arbitration years. Not the same as being a free agent. He might very well have gotten more than 16 mil if he had gone one year at a time, but no way was he going to get anywhere near 80 mil. I guess he figured a bird in the hand…………………
LikeLike
I wonder is Stan Kasten was trying to piss people off with his answers to the media about the payroll or if he is just that smug of a person all the time.
LikeLike
I think it was rude how hundreds of fans were loudly chanting R-E-A-L-M-U-T-O in Kasten’s presence at FanFest over the weekend. No wonder he was a bit complacent in his speech.
LikeLike