With much of the attention being given to righty flamethrower Brusdar Graterol as far as newly acquired relief pitchers go, another bullpen arm that could make some noise this spring belongs to southpaw Reymin Guduan.
For those fans not familiar with Guduan, the Dodgers signed him as a minor league free agent last December. Up until that point, the Dominican native had spent his entire career in the Houston Astros system, where he contributed 10 years throwing in the minors and parts of three seasons pitching in the majors.
Guduan, 27, made his Cactus League debut with the Dodgers on Saturday by throwing a perfect sixth inning in the team’s 10-4 victory over division rival San Francisco.
In early August of last year, Guduan was suspended by the Astros for the remainder of the season for violating team policy. He was later activated from the restricted list and designated for assignment in September, eventually clearing waivers to become a free agent. There was never any formal release indicating the reasoning behind the suspension, but some reporters have stated that it was a disciplinary issue revolving around a clubhouse altercation at Triple-A.
In those informal reports, it was suggested that Guduan threw baseball equipment at a teammate after he was egged for not being able to throw a strike. Indeed, if there’s anything that’s hampering the progress of Guduan, it’s his spotty command.
Regardless of the accusations, in a concise scouting report by John Sickels at minorleagueball.com two years ago, the control factor came to the forefront.
“Guduan throws extremely hard for a lefty (normally sitting in the 95-97 MPH range). He’s been clocked as high as 100 in the minors. The fastball has movement and he combines it with an impressive slider. Unfortunately, Guduan’s pitches have so much movement and velocity that he has trouble controlling them. Despite all the hard stuff, he’s had consistent difficulty keeping right-handed batters from hitting him hard, probably due to lack of an effective off-speed pitch. His control has improved from terrible to below average over the last two years and further improvement could make him dominant. That hasn’t happened yet, though. No one will give up on him quickly due to his arm strength.”
Here’s a look at where his fastball and slider have sat velocity-wise during his time in the majors:
The Dodgers are evidence of one of those teams that think there might be something there with regards to talent. Apparently, Los Angeles management liked the 6-foot-4, 205-pounder enough to extend an invitation to the big league side of spring camp.
Lifetime in the minors, Guduan has appeared in 243 games—31 of which were starts—and has thrown an even 382 innings, registering a not-so-impressive 4.64 ERA and a 1.715 WHIP. On top of those numbers, he has tallied career marks of an 11.1 K/9 and a whopping 6.2 BB/9.
If there’s a silver lining to Guduan’s game, it’s the fact that he’s shown he can keep the ball in the yard. He has allowed just 22 homers over his 10 years on the farm, translating to a reasonable 0.52 HR/9. What’s more, he has spent much of that time throwing in the pitcher-friendly confines of the Pacific Coast League.
During his brief time in the bigs, Guduan has made 32 appearances, registering a monstrous 8.03 ERA and a 1.986 WHIP alongside a 9.5 K/9 and a 5.8 BB/9 over 24-2/3 innings.
Obviously, he has no options on his player contract, so in order for him to be promoted to the majors, the Dodgers would need to purchase his contract from Triple-A Oklahoma City or wherever he begins the season.
Nevertheless, if he shows that he’s able to finally harness his control and keep runners off base on the farm, a major league promotion would not be out of the realm of possibility.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
He seems like a real long shot to make the team. LOoks like we will only carry one lefty in bullpen. So far pitching looks pretty strong
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You are forgetting Alexander and Kolarek. Those 2 are pretty much locks to make the roster. Guduan is most likely an insurance policy in the minors.
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A couple of things. Kid pitchers are looking pretty good. Was impressed with the Ferguson kid who got in some trouble and gave up a run, but got himself out of trouble. Pretty impressive stuff. Wood, Jansen, C. Ferguson and White all looked really good also. Not much offense. 3 wild pitches led to a run in the 4th. Peters had a bloop double that drove in 2. Seager got his first hit of the spring. Betts was 0-2. Interesting comments by Friedman during his interview. He was asked if Lux was going to be the everyday 2nd baseman. His answer kind of threw me. He said that they would see. There are other players that have earned an opportunity. To me, that means that Taylor, and Kike are in the mix for a starting job there too. We will see.
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Friedman – I think they just don’t want the fans to think Lux has got 2nd locked down. if he has a bad spring, he’ll probably start at OKC and once untracked he’ll come right back up. If he has a decent to very good spring, I’m sure he’s the opening day starter.
AF could hardly contain himself when talking about Josiah Gray. I’m beginning to think they feel as strongly about him as they do May. He made it sound like he could see some action in LA by the end of the year. He’s come a long way in a hurry for a guy who was a shortstop not all that long ago. Also had some good stuff to say about Graterol.
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Yep. A lot of praise all the way around. Loved how they kidded him about his pullover. And his answer that stress was the cause of his weight loss. Some of those kids stuff was pretty nasty. After striking out 15 times in the opener, they were a lot better today. Only 7 K’s. Switched from watching that to watching the Lakers-Celtics game. Damn entertaining.
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This guy has been around a long time, 10 years, and though his strike rate is very good, his BB rate has been unacceptable – 263 in 382 innings. He’s also got 68 wild pitches, a 4.64 ERA and a 1.75 WHIP. Those are all minor league numbers. His ML numbers are similar for a small sample size. Certainly worth a shot, but it feels like a shot in the dark.
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You know how AF works. He likes those low risk high reward guys. I do not know how many of you have ever seen the movie ” Miracle “. About the USA hockey team that beat Russia and then won the Olympic gold. Excellent movie. Kurt Russell does a great job as Herb Brooks the coach. Brooks died without ever seeing the finished project.
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Yes, I’ve seen how he works. The system is set up to identify and develop potential.
We are favorites to win the Division again, and should do it with relative ease. We are also favorites to win the pennant. I read this morning we are favorites to beat the Yankees, though there isn’t consensus on that yet.
The way I see it it is the keys to the season are keeping everyone sharp and healthy for October. The way to do that is to play as many of the 40 as much as feasible. Keep Kershaw, Buehler and Price’s innings managed. We have an abundance of good starters so that should not be a problem. There are only a few position players that will need to be rested, many will want to play everyday to put up numbers for that next contract so Doc will have that to contend with.
This is a talented and deep team. Should be a fun year.
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Maybe Houston suspended him because he doesn’t cheat.
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