If you’re a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, looking at the current starting pitching injuries and the depth chart throughout the organization is borderline scary. Headlining the injury list right now is a quintet of relatively big names in Walker Buehler, Julio Urias, Dustin May, Ryan Pepiot and Michael Grove, a group that could probably represent an entire rotation for a smaller market team.
So far this year, we’ve seen just about every starting arm on the organizational 40-man roster in the majors. Usually, the Dodgers have a handful of starters on the fringe, but that’s certainly not the case this year. Righty Andre Jackson is about the only halfway decent option available at Triple-A Oklahoma City, but he could be activated on any given day to add to his frequent flyer miles, primarily when considering how poorly Gavin Stone has performed.
The crazy thing is that the remaining big guns at OKC are a bunch of 30-something never-has-beens in Matt Andriese, Robbie Erlin and William Cuevas. Andriese and Erlin are tied for the team lead with 10 starts apiece, but both have pitched relatively poorly in the hitter-friendly confines of the Pacific Coast league, compiling 4.81 and 6.89 ERAs, respectively.
About the only thing close resembling a high-quality starter right now in the minors is 25-year-old righty Landon Knack, who has gotten off to one of his best minor league seasons since being drafted by the Dodgers in the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft.
Through his first nine starts of 2023 at Double-A Tulsa, Knack has posted a 1.32 ERA, a 0.80 WHIP with 45 punchouts over 41 innings of work. His last start came last Wednesday against Northwest Arkansas when he threw seven full innings of shutout ball, surrendering just four hits and no walks while striking out six batters.
The 6-foot-2 Knack’s season has been night and day compared to last year, when he compiled a 2-10 record with a 5.01 ERA and a 1.407 WHIP over 17 starts and 64-2/3 innings, all at Tulsa.
After being considered close to MLB ready after the draft, the Tennessee native spent a short time of the 2021 season at High-A Great Lakes before being promoted to Tulsa, a place where he has stagnated. His progress has been hampered by a few hamstring issues — much to the disappointment to the organization. However, his promising start to the 2023 campaign has given management, coaches and fans a glimmer of hope.
One of the things that sets Knack apart from other starting pitching prospects is his decent command. He has a four-pitch arsenal with a four-seam, a slider a change and a curve, although his slider is by far his best out pitch. His fastball typically sits in the 92-95 MPH range, but it topped as high as 98 MPH last season at Tulsa. His curve is still developing despite having one of the best spin rates in the system.
MLB Pipeline currently ranks Knack as the 18th best prospect in the Dodgers’ organization, stating, “He still has one of the higher floors among Dodgers pitching prospects, but his ceiling of a mid-rotation starter is further away than it was a year ago.”
Baseball Prospectus profiles Knack as an “innings-eating, back-of-the-end rotation starter.”
To say at the beginning of the season that Knack had a legit shot to make his MLB debut in 2023 would have been borderline ludicrous. However, if he continues to throw at his current rate throughout the All-Star break and the Los Angeles starting rotation picture worsens as the season progresses, nothing would be surprising.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
Actually all six of the pitchers that have started games at Tulsa have pitched well 5 of 6 have ERAs below 2.00. The highest being Nastrini at 2.83. 4 have WHIPs below 1.00. All 6 have batting averages allowed at .190 or lower. Emmett Sheehan has 76 punch outs in only 44 innings! Kyle Hurt has 50 in only 27 innings! Nick Frasso 40 in 29.2. It’s a big jump from AA but some have done it with success.
Yesterday’s game is on Roberts IMO. He should have pulled Stone earlier given how he also struggled in his other starts. Time to send him back to OKC to get on track and build his confidence back up. He looks healthy but had to locate his pitches better against good MLB hitters.
I’m sure Freddie is blaming himself for not charging that grounder and Taylor and Muncy both must take an arm not the chest area. Jeez.
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Also nice to see Thompson contribute to the offense.
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Pick Knack,
He may get whacked,
But throw the man a bone…
There are no great choices at this point. It’s slow pitch softball until the deadline. 11-10 our guys for a while.
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Agree impressive young arms at Tulsa like Sheehan, Hurt etc. Letting Stone get hammered for so long didn’t do any good. But I get yelled at if I mention Robert’s many poor decisions. I watch Dodger affiliate minors games and Grove pitched well last night @ OKC. As this is the year of the Dodger rookie I would put Thor ( finger) & Muncy ( hamstring) on the IL & bring back Grove, Busch and one or more of the Tulsa pitchers. Bottom line Dodgers still in first place.
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Some interesting young talent at Great Lakes and Cucamonga too.
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The farm looks pretty pathetic ( oh I said that last year) unless you really believe Grove, stone, pepoit, jackson and miller can contribute. 2 month ago they were all triple A depth. But then I thought Stone was the only prospect of the bunch. On the other hand let’s keep bringing them up until something works. Oh. I guess that’s what they are doing. These guys aren’t young, but they can’t be worst than Thor I don’t think. Well actually they have been now that I look.
And I also noticed they are on top of the league again. Go figure.
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You continue to put an age on prospects which was thrown out the window with COVID. Stone has talent he is just off. They will Take him down and reset him. Grove and Pepiot have MLB talent as does Miller. This is the year of the rookie and Kasten is in charge! Busch should help as Muncy is back to batting way below the Mendoza as is Thompson and Barnes. I like Knack and have been impressed with the Tulsa pitchers. Give them a shot can’t suck much worse than Thor or Stone’s last starts. You never know who gets the yips and who performs until u give them a shot! I am hoping they stand pat bring up the rookies and see what they will have for 2024.
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I was highly impressed with Bobby Miller’s debut. Washington at home sets up nicely for another fine outing. Fingers crossed.
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The covid excuse is getting old. Last couple of years the league has been swamped with young young players. Maybe they missed covid. Who knows. I thought Stone was a real prospect and still believe that. Miller not so much. He couldn’t get anyone out in double A or triple A, and pitches great up here. We’ll see tonight. The others are borderline bottom of the rotation pitchers. Double A to mlb is tough but a lot are doing it the past 2 years. Good learning experience.
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I think Stone needs to go back to OKC for more seasoning and also to rebuild his confidence, which must be pretty much shattered at this point.
Right now, we have a need for additional starters. Don’t know how long Miller will stay. I assume it will be anywhere from one more start to the entire season, depending upon how he pitches.
Grove seems ready to come back and I assume he and Stone will trade places in time for Grove to take Stone’s next start (Saturday, I believe).
We’ve been speaking about the great group we have starting at Tulsa: Frasso, Sheehan, Hurt, Ryan, Nastrini and Knack. Of those six, Frasso, Knack and Hurt will need to be protected from the Rule 5 draft this coming winter, so I’m thinking those three would be likely to be tapped before the other three, since it would involve adding them to the 40-man roster.
Even with adding Grove and keeping Syndergaard in the rotation, we still only have 5 guys (assuming Stone to OKC). Urias is still a ways away from returning so this is the time (for all of us who want to see the youngsters) to start the clock on one, two or all three of the guys I mentioned above. See what we’ve got so we know whom we want to protect this winter and/or which guys have good trade value in July.
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Correction: didn’t make myself clear. With 5 starters we don’t need anyone right away but between Grove and Thor and Miller chances are not all three will pitch well. That would be the time to sub one of the Tulsa three for one or more of those guys.
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Fortunately we have 5/6 open spots on our 40 man.
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It’s going to be an interesting off-season. We currently have 10 players on the 60-day IL, so our 40-man roster is actually at 50.
I know that there are a number of guys who could be traded or released but it’s still going to be difficult.
Unless, of course, they give you the task Gordon. I’ve seen your list, and you’ve earmarked 27 players to get rid of. That would certainly solve the problem. 🙂
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Someone told me they might be giving Brett Eibner a workout. For a bullpen spot.
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Just spoke with Brett. Dennis. He says thank you very much for the mention. You are the only living Dodger fan who remembers he even existed. His parents and siblings don’t even remember him.
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I like the idea of giving them a shot and seeing what they’ve got! No need to trade. I would bring up a rookie to play SS if absolutely necessary they have one or two on the 40man roster. It’s the year of the rookie!!!
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I don’t think there is a rookie SS prospect right now better than Rojas. Rojas has plus Defense and has started to hit.
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The way Miller is looking they should keep him. Wow
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He might be here to stay.
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Hey you guys. Keep your thoughts to yourselves. Now you’ve jinxed him. He probably won’t make it out of the first inning on his next start.
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So he would pitch like Thor?
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Watching game today. They should sit Thor down or put him on the IL.This is brutal to watch when u remember his Glory Days. Very hard to believe that one of the pitchers @ Tulsa can’t do better.. wow 5 ER in 5 innings!
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We had a guy in AAA who was considered our number 1 or 2 pitching prospect (so, therefore, better than all the guys at Tulsa). We called him up and in 3 games he did worse than Syndergaard.
It’s possible we could get lucky with one of the Tulsa pitchers, but I don’t think you can say that they would definitely do better.
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