I can’t speak for all baseball fans out there, but I think I’m quite accurate in saying that most of them are welcoming the return of minor league baseball with open arms. Minor league play is important on so many different levels. Not only is it an economical venue for some folks who may not otherwise be able to attend an MLB game, but it is also critical for the development of younger players.
As crazy as the 2021 season has been so far for the Dodgers, one strange thing is that the fans don’t have much of an idea of what’s happening at the alternate training site. We have already seen a multitude of players recalled to the major league roster, but we never really know which players down there are performing well and which players are not. Being able to track the top veterans and prospects on the farm by their daily performances is certainly going to be enjoyable. It’s something we haven’t been able to do for well over a year now.
As the flagship club of the Los Angeles Dodgers farm, the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers are set to begin their season on Thursday on the road against the Round Rock Express.
As stated by the OKC website, “due to new Triple-A rules to accommodate health and safety protocols as well as the needs of the major league parent club, the roster has been expanded to a maximum of 33 players, although only 28 players will be active per game. Some members of the OKC roster will concurrently serve as part of the official Los Angeles Dodgers Taxi Squad. The OKC Dodgers’ preliminary roster will begin with 30 total players.”
No question, things will be a bit challenging for skipper Travis Barbary in the early portion of the season with the number of frequent flyers there have been lately to the big-league squad. Catcher Keibert Ruiz, for example, figured to see the bulk of the time behind the plate for OKC, but now that he has been recalled, it’s hard to say exactly where he’ll cement himself for the remainder of the season.
The team has announced that 23-year-old righty Josiah Gray will take the mound for the season opener, and there’s no question that he will be the headliner of the rotation for as long as he’s on the farm. In 2019, he was named the organization’s Branch Rickey Minor League Pitcher of the Year. According to some outlets, he’s ranked as the top prospect in the Los Angeles system.
We put together a concise prospect profile of Gray as recently as late last summer.
As indicated on the OKC website, four other players are listed among the organization’s Top 30 prospects per Baseball America or MLB Pipeline: infielder Omar Estevez, outfielders DJ Peters and Zach Reks, and pitcher Edwin Uceta. Both Peters and Uceta have made their respective MLB debuts already this season.
Consequently, 15 players have previous MLB experience and seven appeared in the bigs in 2020 despite the pandemic-shortened season. Those seven players are newly acquired pitcher Phil Bickford, infielder Matt Davidson, pitcher Mike Kickham, pitcher James Pazos, infielder Rangel Ravelo, infielder Elliot Soto, and outfielder Steven Souza Jr.
Reliever Kevin Quackenbush and catcher Tim Federowicz both return after previous stints with the team.
According to the OKC website, there are nine players who are set to appear above Double-A for the first time in their careers—outfielder Drew Avans, pitcher Edward Cuello, catcher Hamlet Marte, pitcher Jordan Martinson, pitcher Ryan Moseley, pitcher Darien Nunez, pitcher Logan Salow, infielder Cristian Santana, pitcher Andrew Schwaab, and pitcher Cyrillo Watson.
First pitch for Thursday’s opener is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. Pacific time.
Sure doesn’t seem like a very exciting roster. Hopefully there will be some surprises. Tulsa seems much more interesting and I’m sure some of those guys will work their way to OKC before long.
https://twitter.com/TulsaDrillers/status/1390072243993071617/photo/1
Yadier Alvarez was on OKC’s roster a few weeks ago, but now it seems as if he dropped down to Double-A. He’s listed on the injured list, though. Maybe that big truck of his is giving him problems.
For whatever reason, I’m really rooting for him to make something of himself. I think he had a shoulder problem last year. If that’s still a problem I don’t see this ending well.
Look at that thing: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/baseball-pro-yadier-alvarez-treats-himself-to-a-beastly-apocalypse-hellfire-6×6-156782.html#agal_3
Hah! He forgot to order power steering and threw out his shoulder making a left turn.
Article was not very accurate though, calling him a DH and outfielder. Obviously confused him with ex-Dodger Yordan Alvarez who only got 2 million to sign instead of 16 million and is only able to afford a 2015 Honda Civic. 🙂
I didn’t even read the story, to be honest. Seeing a picture of that truck again was enough for me.
This team looks drugged.
Deep Dish Pizza.
Muncy appears to have eaten his share of those.
They seem to be working. I’m a deep dish fan myself but as many of them as I have eaten over the years, it has failed to improve my home run production one iota.
Well that sucked. Offense has no clue. Mookie is not looking very Mookieish. Get rid of Jansen and Cleavinger ASAP and someone tell Seager Pederson was walking to second when he threw that ball away.
By my count 3 unearned runs. The team just doesn’t have its head and heart in the game. How long will this go on? Anybody’s guess.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this team needs an in-your-face personality in the dugout/clubhouse and on the field. The three real leaders of the team (JT, Mookie and Kershaw) tend to lead by example and quiet conversation. The team now needs someone to stir the pot and kick them in the ass. I don’t know who that might be and seriously doubt that Andrew will make a trade for someone like that anytime soon, but it would really help. Lacking that, we’ll just have to wait until a turnaround comes naturally, which it will.
I don’t think you can bring a pot stirrer into a Championship clubhouse mid year. These seasoned professional champions would throw his ass in the pot.
I think what this team needs is a healthy Betts and a Corey Seager wake up call. The last 28 days Corey is hitting .202, OPSn .697 and playing shortstop like a converted catcher. Betts’ numbers are similar with a 2 week slash line of .211/.308/.333. This team needs those two guys to start lighting it up. Getting Bellinger back would help. Anyone seen Edwin Rios? Muncy needs to go on whatever diet Turner went on. He looks like Santa Claus when he swings, a bowl full of jelly bouncing above and over his belt.
Its times like this we should be grateful that Andrew has built such a deep farm system that is the envy of major league baseball. This is ” what the team was built for”, and why we ” will win 120+ games”. Oops. Lol
We will absolutely win 120+ games. It’s just going to take us two seasons to do it. 🙂
Lol
Just read at MLB the Dodgers system is ranked behind everybody in the West except Colorado. What we have going for us now is not really our minors, it’s our majors. Hopefully they will recover from whatever spell has been cast upon them and start winning soon. We can and probably still will win 100 and I don’t see anyone else in the NL doing that.