Chad Moriyama Dodgers, Sabermetrics, Scouting
Dominican Summer League Dodgers: Pitchers
Dominican Summer League Dodgers: Hitters
Arizona League Dodgers: Pitchers
Arizona League Dodgers: Hitters
Ogden Raptors: Pitchers
Ogden Raptors: Hitters
Great Lakes Loons: Pitchers
Great Lakes Loons: Hitters
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes: Pitchers
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes: Hitters
Chattanooga Lookouts: Pitchers
Chattanooga Lookouts: Hitters
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Today I continue my off-season recap of the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league affiliates, moving on to the pitchers of the Albuquerque Isotopes.
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I’ll be picking the prospects for the 2012 Prospective Prospect Profiles list from these reviews, so it might be worth reading. Or not.
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Travis Schlichting – RHP – 26
Yes, that’s right boys and girls, there’s one goddamn pitching prospect at AAA for the Dodgers and he had a 7.21 ERA and 5.43 FIP in 2011!
Aren’t you excited? Hell yeah, my nipples are hard.
Anyway, in all seriousness, it wasn’t that bad because the league average was a 5.11 ERA and a 4.50 FIP. That said, he posted about a league average strikeout and walk rate, so there’s nothing to get too excited about here.
His fastball is in the 91-94 range and he has a solid slider, but the thing that has held him back in the past is his command. He doesn’t have a knockout pitch either, but the Dodgers could do worse at organizational relief depth.
You know what bugs me? Agent Ned signed Guerrier for 3 yrs/$11m in the 2010 off-season and DFA’d Cory Wade, who threw 33 innings in Albuquerque at the end of the 2010 season and had a K/BB ratio of 6:1. He ended up with the Yankees for most of the 2011 season at a $450,000 salary and his ERA was around 2.00. Guerrier’s 2011 ERA was just above 4.00. He got lucky with the homers but he walked 3.4/9. Is it any wonder why the Dodgers never seem to have enough money to pay the superstar free agents, and end up getting outbid?
It’s things like overpaying Guerrier instead of keeping Wade, guaranteeing Navarro $1m instead of keeping the better AJ Ellis for $450K, overpaying Mark Ellis and Adam Kennedy instead of trading Hawksworth for DeWitt and letting Sellers and Hairston be your two utility infielders, overpaying MacDougal and signing Coffey instead of promoting Lindblom and Tolleson. And this is all without mentioning the Uribe and Rivera overpayments.
It’s not even about keeping Wade, it’s just the contract that’s ridiculous.
I guess I’ve always compared the two of them is because their styles are so similar and because Ned chose to DFA Wade and sign Guerrier. They both only generate 90 MPH max on their fastballs and they both have decent sliders, but their overall stuff is not great. They’ve both gotten by on plus command. My point was that Wade wasn’t exactly a rookie. He was an inexpensive relief pitcher with postseason experience who would have been a 3rd-year guy if we had re-promoted him to the big club in 2011. Ned got rid of him despite a 6:1 K/BB ratio in Albuquerque that showed he was fully recovered from his surgery.