On the occasion of Grant Holmes’ 25th birthday today, here’s a quick and dirty rundown of the past 11 drafts by the Dodgers.
By Jon Weisman
In this video clip, Vin Scully talks about how new Dodger outfielder Will Venable is using an actual old glove of Dave Roberts from 2005, seen above.
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Here are some more notes and news from the past week …
By Jon Weisman
As the Dodgers completed the first 10 rounds of the 2016 MLB draft, some fans scratched their heads over the selection of three shortstops, considering that the team has a 22-year-old future All-Star at the position.
But in discussing the Dodgers’ selections today, director of amateur scouting Billy Gasparino explained the thinking — and no, it’s not that the Dodgers have forgotten about Corey Seager.
“The theory is that looking throughout the history of the draft and how athletes develop and age, when they’re athletic enough to play shortstop, it’s a pretty good recipe — as they age and get older and their skills develop and their bodies go forward or backwards — they can usually play other positions,” Gasparino said. “So many players today who are left fielders or right fielders, third basemen, second basemen, started out as shortstops. If you can start there, it’s a lot easier to transition to other places on the field, and gives you more avenues of versatility that way.”
In other words, this isn’t the NBA. With development such a long, protracted process in baseball — and almost no such thing as a quick fix — the overwhelming tendency is to take the player with the greatest potential, regardless of what the current Major League roster looks like. If the worst-case scenario is the Dodgers have multiple quality shortstops, they’ll live with that.
Gasparino also said that the drafting of several players from smaller four-year or community colleges illustrates an attempt to find value within a draft landscape where so few rocks go unturned.
“The depth of the draft is a priority and something we preach,” he said, “so in many ways it leads you to go look for those players, and you kind of think you have value there, whereas (for example) the junior center fielder from the University of Georgia has been well seen.”
Though players at different levels — or even at the same level but from different regions — obviously don’t face the same level of competition, the Dodgers are confident in their ability to translate performance.
“That’s why we have the tool grades, and you just look at the physical tools,” Gasparino said. “And I think our analytical staff does a very good job of analyzing the numbers and trying to correlate different levels of competition with a lot of different factors. And just our scouts’ experience: We have a lot of experience on the staff, and they seem to have a very good knack of trying to cipher through that stuff and figure out who the better players are.”
Gasparino said that advanced scouting stats such as exit velocity and spin rate have migrated to the Division I colleges and high-school summer showcases, further enhancing their ability to evaluate.
And with that, here are quick thoughts from Gasparino on each of the Dodgers’ draft picks today:
By Jon Weisman
Left-handed pitcher Devin Smeltzer was the Dodgers’ fifth-round selection in the 2016 MLB draft.
The 6-foot-2, 170-pounder from Voorhees, New Jersey was previously drafted by the Padres in the 33rd round in 2014. A former top-100 prospect of Baseball America, he instead attended Florida Gulf Coast University, before transfering to San Jacinto College in Texas to accelerate his path to the pros, according to Dana Caldwell of the Naples Daily News.
He had a 1.18 ERA and 12.6 strikeouts per nine innings with SJC this year, finishing his season with a 20-strikeout two-hitter, in which he threw 140 pitches.
This figures to be the final 2016 draft pick we’ll do an individual post on. We’ll round up the rest of the Day 2 selections later today — in the meantime, follow the action at MLB.com’s Draft Tracker.
With their fourth-round pick and the 131st taken overall in the MLB draft, the Dodgers selected their second 6-foot-6 player in a row: 20-year-old right-handed outfielder D.J. Peters, from Glendora High School by way of Western Nevada Community College.
Peters had a .519 on-base percentage and .734 slugging percentage in 2016 for the Wildcats, with 31 extra-base hits and 34 walks compared with 33 strikeouts. For context, his .419 batting average and 16 home runs in 2016 set school records. (He also had a 1.35 ERA in 6 2/3 innings)
As this Western Nevada story notes, Peters was taken in the 36th round twice before, by the Texas Rangers last year and by the Cubs after his senior year at Glendora.
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By Jon Weisman
Kicking off their selections in today’s second day of the MLB Draft, the Dodgers used their third-round pick (101st overall) on right-handed pitcher Dustin May from Northwest High School in Justin, Texas.
https://twitter.com/d_maydabeast/status/741334334817243136
May, who turns 19 in September, checks in at 6-foot-6, 180 pounds. Here’s the MLB.com scouting report on him:
By Jon Weisman
With three picks before the second round of Thursday’s 2016 MLB draft, the Dodgers are sitting pretty.
And on top of that, their top pick from 2015, Walker Buehler — who had Tommy John surgery in August before appearing in a professional game — is on course to make this year’s haul even stronger.
“Walker Buehler’s going to be ready to throw next year — he’s almost like a pick this year,” Gasparino said. “We feel good about his recovery, his rehab and where he’s at in the process.”
By Jon Weisman
On June 6, 2006, the Dodgers made their best single front-office decision of this century and long before it.
#Dodgers prepare for tonight's game in D.C. pic.twitter.com/d5PLtUn6Jo
— Jon SooHoo (@JonSooHooPics) July 17, 2015
By Jon Weisman
Hours before they started the second half of their season in Washington, the Dodgers met the deadline for singing players from the 2015 amateur draft by locking up first-round draft choice Walker Buehler, sixth-rounder Edwin Rios and 30th-rounder Logan Crouse.
Buehler’s signing came amid some media reports today that he had an elbow issue.
“We’re not going to comment on anything medically related to Walker,” Dodger general manager Farhan Zaidi said. “We’re obviously excited to have him on board. He finished the college season strong, obviously pitched in the College World Series.”
Rios, who had a .421 on-base percentage and .591 slugging percentage with 18 home runs in 61 games for Florida International in his junior season this year, was the only corner infielder in the first 10 rounds of Dodger draft selections. Negotiations went down to the wire.
“We went really pitching heavy,” Zaidi said, “so being able to get a college bat with some polish and hopefully the ability to hit in the middle of the lineup is exciting. It took a little bit of time to hammer out the deal, so the lost development time is unfortunate, but we’re obviously excited to have him now. We’ll start him out in Arizona and hopefully move out to one of the other clubs shortly thereafter.”
By Jon Weisman
Two of the top arms from the College World Series who were drafted by the Dodgers last month — Virginia right-handed pitcher Josh Sborz and Vanderbilt lefty Philip Pfeifer — have inked their deals with the team.
Sborz was named Most Valuable Player of the CWS after he threw 13 shutout innings there, part of a season-ending 27-inning scoreless streak that lowered his 2015 ERA to 1.60.
Pfeifer allowed three runs (all unearned) in 12 innings at the CWS on 12 hits and four walks, while striking out 13.
The Dodgers have signed 32 of their 42 draft picks.
By Jon Weisman
The College World Series has been a showcase for 2015 Dodger draftees Walker Buehler, Philip Pfeifer and Josh Sborz.
Sborz, a Virginia right-hander who has alternated between starting and relief in his three years there, pitched four shutout innings to close out a 5-4 victory Saturday over Florida, lifting the Cavaliers into the CWS championship round. Sborz has a streak of 23 consecutive scoreless innings, including nine in the CWS.
Josh Sborz’s nine shutout innings in College World Series:
In the best-of-three CWS championship series beginning Monday, Virgina will play Vanderbilt, which features Buehler and Pfeifer in its starting rotation. Buehler allowed one run in 6 2/3 innings (89 pitches) Friday against Texas Christian, striking out eight, in pitching the Commodores to the final round.
That came three days after Pfeifer’s seven shutout innings (111 pitches) with seven strikeouts in a 1-0 Vandy victory over TCU. Pfeifer is scheduled to start Tuesday’s Game 2 on six days’ rest, with Buehler possibly taking Game 3 on four days’ rest if necessary Wednesday.
Back on the mound after Tommy John surgery, Dodger pitching prospect Ross Stripling made his first official start since August 2013, pitching four shutout innings for Single-A Great Lakes on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Stripling allowed a single and two walks, while striking out four. Across two levels in 2013, Stripling had a 2.82 ERA, 117 strikeouts and a 1.14 WHIP in 127 2/3 innings in 2013.
Stripling began throwing in January, he told Dodger Insider, nine months after his operation.
* * *
The Dodgers announced the following signings from the 2015 draft:
In addition, the club signed third baseman Nicholas Sell, the NCAA Division II most outstanding player, and pitcher Wes Heslabeck as non-drafted free agents.
By Jon Weisman
After taking right-handed college pitchers with six of their first nine picks, the Dodgers didn’t drift very far from that focus as the 2015 MLB Draft concluded today.
Although the Dodgers drafted five catchers between rounds 12-21, the franchise still ended up using 22 of their 42 picks overall on northpaws — 17 of them from college. (See the round-by-round list here.)
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By Jon Weisman
Here’s a link to MLB’s 2015 Draft Tracker of the Dodgers’ selections. Today brings rounds 3-10, and you can either follow along at MLB or see your updates as they come here at Dodger Insider.
The third round begins at 10 a.m., with the Dodgers making the 26th pick of that round and 101st overall.
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By Jon Weisman
Using the competitive balance draft pick (74th overall) they acquired from Baltimore in the Ryan Webb deal, the Dodgers selected 6-foot-3 college right-handed pitcher Josh Sborz from Virginia.
Here’s the MLB.com snapshot:
Sborz, whose brother Jay spent eight seasons in pro ball, pitched in relief as a freshman at Virginia before moving into the rotation as a sophomore. He returned to the bullpen in 2015, serving as the Cavaliers’ closer and thriving in the role. Sborz’s arm strength is what defines him as a prospect. He’s shown a fastball that he can crank up to 98 mph on occasion, though it usually sits in the 93-95 mph range, with some sink. He has a slider that should be at least Major League average and while he doesn’t need a changeup much in short relief, he will show occasional feel for the pitch. Scouts aren’t in love with his funky arm action, but the stuff is hard to be denied. Sborz didn’t pitch badly as a sophomore starter, and it’s possible a team taking him early could decide to send him out in a rotation. But he more than likely profiles as a hard-throwing short reliever at the Major League level.
And Baseball America …
The younger brother of one-time major leaguer and second-round pick Jay Sborz, Josh has the potential to be the second in his family to reach the big leagues. The younger Sborz has bounced back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen for Virginia, and scouts have had ample time to evaluate him in both places. Sborz has a less than conventional delivery, with a stab in the back followed by a deep finish out front that makes his stuff difficult to square up. His fastball works mostly at 90-94 mph, but can reach 95 and the pitch features late life, which allows Sborz to generate poor contact. His best offspeed pitch is his slider, which plays as an above-average pitch because of how late it breaks, but the pitch lacks the shape and depth of the standard swing-and-miss slider. Sborz tends to struggle with fastball command, sometimes elevating the offering and running into trouble. Even so, many scouts believe Sborz has the stuff, as well as the body, to make it as a back-of-the-rotation starter.
The MLB draft resumes beginning with the third round Tuesday morning.
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What happens when three old friends in crisis fall into an unexpected love triangle? In The Catch, Maya, Henry and Daniel embark upon an emotional journey that forces them to confront unresolved pain, present-day traumas and powerful desires, leading them to question the very meaning of love and fulfillment. The Catch tells a tale of ordinary people seeking the extraordinary – or, if that’s asking too much, some damn peace of mind.
Catch ‘The Catch,’ the new novel by Jon Weisman!
November 1, 2023
A new beginning with the Dodgers
August 31, 2023
Fernando Valenzuela: Ranking the games that defined the legend
August 7, 2023
Interview: Ken Gurnick
on Ron Cey and writing
about the Dodgers
June 25, 2023
Interview: Ron Cey talks about the experiences that led to his new memoir, Penguin Power
June 22, 2023
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1991-2013
Dodgers at home: 1,028-812 (.558695)
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Note: I got so busy working for the Dodgers that in 2014, I stopped keeping track, much to my regret.
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