Pedro Baez

The Los Angeles Dodgers have a good track record of being able to convert position players into pitchers in their minor league system. They had great success with current closer Kenly Jansen a former minor league catcher and their current project is converted minor league third baseman Pedro Baez. The Dodgers recognized the fact that these two players had live arms but their hitting was not coming around enough to get them to the major league level. Pedro Baex made Baseball America's Top Thirty prospect list for the Dodgers a couple of years ago but was mired in the low minors until he was converted. After only 88 games as a minor league pitcher, he has been brought up to help in the Dodgers bullpen. He has pitched in 11 games at the major league level and logged 14 2/3 innings with a 1.88 ERA. Not bad for a player that couldn't hit his weight.

The Stats Say It All

Clayton Kershaw's stats speak volumes about the season he has had and an argument could easily be made that he should already be a twenty game winner in spite of missing five weeks of the season. He has only had one bad start this season and he got a little bit of redemption against the Arizona Diamondbacks last night giving up only one unearned run in eight innings pitched while striking out ten. Kershaw leads the majors in wins with 16, has a 1.73 ERA, and an out of this world WHIP for a starting pitcher of 0.84. The Diamondbacks also loaded the bases on Kershaw last night and that was the first time all season long that had happened to him. Of course, the Diamondbacks did not score a run against him. Scott Van Slyke also has an amazing record against Diamondbacks starter Wade Miley. Van Slyke has 8 hits against Miley this year with 5 homeruns including one last night. Van Slyke owns (I always think of the movie Slap Shot "Owwnnnss, Owwnnnss" when I think of that sports phrase) Miley. ott