Under The Radar

The Zach Lee-Christ Taylor trade with the Seattle Mariners on June 19 was one of those innocuous deals that really did not mean much at the time. The Los Angeles Dodgers needed organizational depth in the middle infield and Chris Taylor had made brief appearances with the Seattle Mariners in 2014 and 2015 with three at bats in 2016. He has made appearances at second base, shortstop, and third base. He was a fifth round draft pick by the Seattle Mariners out of the University of Virginia in 2012.

I would not have even noticed the trade if Zach Lee would not have been involved. He was a first round draft pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of McKinney High School in Plano, Texas in 2010. The Dodgers gave him a large signing bonus at the last minute to keep him from attending LSU and competing for the quarterback job for their football team. This trade was the Dodgers throwing in the towel on Zach Lee. This was his third season in AAA and his sixth season in the Dodgers organization. He has had an up-and-down minor league career and only made one career start for the Dodgers in 2015 and Lee could never seem to put his talent together enough to make that jump to the majors.

Chris Taylor was originally sent to the Dodgers AAA affiliate Oklahoma City but only spent three games there as he was called up to replace the injured Enrique Hernandez on the Dodgers roster. Another injury, this time to outfielder Trayce Thompson, put Taylor into the starting lineup at second base against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first game back from the All Star break. Taylor fell a single shy of hitting for the cycle. His two run triple in the fourth inning gave the Dodgers the lead and his sixth inning grand slam put the game away for the Dodgers and it gave Taylor a career high six runs batted in, The grand slam was also his first career homerun and cemented a place for him in Dodgers history as he became only the third player in Dodgers history whose first homerun was a grand slam.

The Evaluations Begin

I would have to believe that Clayton Kershaw and Kenta Maeda are the only two starting pitchers that are guaranteed a spot in the starting rotation. Kazmir was not sharp in his initial outing of the spring and neither was Alex Wood. Zach Lee and Brandon Beachy also looked good in their first outings of the spring but Lee's body of work will be more closely examined than a veteran pitcher's would be and Beachy has had an injury plagued career and has missed the majority of the past two seasons. The Dodgers started the spring with a surplus of starting pitching and they are down to a pool of six unless Jose Deleon or Julio Urias both have such an outstanding spring, the do not give the Dodgers brass any choice but to take them to Los Angeles when the team breaks camp.

....And The Rest Of The Starting Pitchers

Manager Don Mattingly and the Los Angeles Dodgers have had to cobble together the back end of the starting rotation made up of rookies, cast offs, and veterans acquired by trade after Hyun Jin-Ryu and Brandon McCarthy went down early in the season. The Dodgers ran the gamut of pitchers from veteran arms, young arms, and rebuilt arms from the scrap heap to the independent leagues and all walks of the professional baseball community. It seems like everyone had the opportunity to nail down those last two starting spots from Scott Baker and Brandon Beachy to Ian Thomas and Zach Lee.

After Greinke and Kershaw, the oft-injured Brett Anderson has managed to stay healthy and productive this season and hold down the third spot in the rotation. The Dodgers eventually settled on Mat Latos and Alex Wood for their final two starters. Mat Latos gets another opportunity in the rotation, facing the Chicago Cubs tonight and this might be his last opportunity as the Dodgers head into the stretch with a 2 1/2 game lead over the San Francisco Giants in the National League West.

The Dodgers can expand their roster to 40 players on September 1 and if Latos has another bad outing, I look for the Dodgers to insert Mike Bolsinger back into the rotation. He was by far the most successful of the Dodgers open pitching tryouts throughout the balance of the season.

A Major League Debut

I have waited for Zach Lee's major league debut since the day the Dodgers drafted him in the first round in 2010 and signed him away from being the Quarterback at LSU at the last minute. That is one of the things I love about Major League Baseball is that it may take five or six years for a player to develop to where he can even make it to "The Show" to pitch one inning, one at bat, or even spend one day on the roster.

Zach Lee had been called up a couple of weeks to spend one day on the Dodgers roster in case he was needed and immediately sent back down after the game. He was called up for a start against Matt Harvey and the New York Mets and it was not the Hall of Fame beginning that I was hoping for. Lee got touched up to the tune of seven runs in 4 2/3 innings and was tagged with the loss. Lee was probably headed back to Oklahoma City after this game anyway, so hopefully he will use this as a learning experience and know what he has to work on and how to improve his game.

Pitching is an art form. Almost every pitcher in the majors can hit 90 MPH on the radar gun. The minors are filled with hard throwers that will never make it past AA baseball. When you learn how to pitch is when you stand a chance of being a major league pitcher.

Prospects In Oklahoma City

Several of the Los Angeles Dodgers top prospects have made it to AAA Oklahoma City. One of the Dodgers top prospects, starting pitcher and #13 ranked Zach Lee, is off to a strong start with a 4-2 record and a 2.70 ERA with a strikeout to walk ratio of 3 to 1.

Top prospect Corey Seager got the call to Oklahoma City a few weeks ago from AA Tulsa where he got off to a .375 average with 5 homeruns in 80 at bats. At 21 years old, is the second youngest player in the Pacific Coast League. He has played both Third Base and Shortstop at Oklahoma City and he is still feeling his way around batting in the mid .270's with 5 RBI's.

#7 ranked prospect, Second Baseman Darnell Sweeney, provides an element of speed that the Dodgers are missing from this year's team. He has 17 steals in 34 games and can play both the infield and outfield although he is seen as primarily a second baseman.

#8 prospect, Outfielder Scott Schebler has not hit for a high average this season but he does have 6 homeruns and has hit in every league he has been in since being drafted by the Dodgers in the 26th round of 2010. With the Dodgers crowded outfield, he might be a trade possibility at the trade deadline this season.

#11 prospect Austin Barnes was acquired by the Dodgers from the Miami Marlins in the Dee Gordon trade and is one of those rare players that has played both Catcher and Second Base. He is batting in the mid .270's with 3 homeruns and 4 stolen bases and if anything happens to A.J. Ellis or Yasmani Grandal, may get the call at some point this season.

The Ryan Dempster Sweepstakes

The Boston Red Sox are evidently out of the Ryan Dempster Sweepstakes and the Dodgers are back in the running. The Washington Nationals and the Atlanta Braves are also seeking Dempster via trade. The latest internet rumor has the Dodgers offering Outfielder Jerry Sands and two minor league pitchers for Dempster. Former First Rounder Pitcher Zach Lee is probably going to be mentioned in any trade before the deadline and I am begging Ned Colletti to not do it. This is not a baseball card you are trading but a power arm that is only 19 or 20 years old and holding his own at AA Chattanooga. He is one of the top ranked Dodger prospects and that would be to steep a price to pay for less than a half a season and 13 or 14 starts from Ryan Dempster. The Dodgers need bats. I like going after Third Baseman Chase Headley of the San Diego Padres. It is time to cut our losses on the Juan Uribe experiment. For that matter bring up Josh Fields from Albuquerque. I liked him in Spring Training. I know there has to be a price that is paid but I would like to suggest Nathan Eovaldi, Jerry Sands, and Ethan Martin for Dempster. This is also probably why I am not a General Manager.

3 In The Top 100

MLB.com released their top 100 prospects for Major League Baseball in 2012 the other night. The Los Angeles Dodgers placed 3 in the top 100, all of them right-handed pitchers. The Dodgers minor league system is not the system they had in the late 1970's and early '80's when they practically owned the Rookie of the Year Award. They do not really have any major league ready bats in the farm system.

Right-handed pitcher Zach Lee was the top rated Dodger prospect coming in at #46. The Dodgers signed him off the practice field of LSU's football team and the results have been pretty good to this point. He is still a work in progress with his secondary pitches but is a power arm and the potential is definitely there.

Nathan Eovaldi was next and was ranked in the low 70's. He logged some innings with the Dodgers last year and finished with a record of 1-2 but might end up back at Chattanooga to start the season. Consistency has been his biggest issue to this point.

Another Right-handed starting Pitcher Allen Webster came in next at #79. He struggled a little bit at AA Chattanooga last year posting an ERA of 5+ but has an excellent upside. He will probably start the season back at Chattanooga to start the season.