Cubs prospect Jeff Samardzija beat out Dodgers prospect Clayton Kershaw for the win Thursday night. Samardzija allowed four hits and a walk while striking out five in seven scoreless innings, leading his Tennessee Smokies to a 2-0 win over Kershaw’s Jacksonville Suns. Kershawpitched well but allowed two runs on seven hits in five innings. He struck out a season-high eight, including Samardzija twice.
“He got me a couple times,” Samardzija laughed. “It was good to get a chance to see him throw from the batter’s box. He’s got some pop on his fastball.”
Despite the 2 earned runs, Kershaw’s eight K performance is encouraging and he definitely has a chance to make it to the Majors this year.
Dodgers rookie Blake DeWitt started at 3rd today, batting 8th. The team has not acquired another third baseman to fill in for the injured Nomar Garciaparra and Andy LaRoche, so DeWitt has become the default option.
Hiroki Kuroda and Clayton Kershaw each pitched 4 innings and struck out 6, Kershaw giving up the only hit between them, in an 8-0 rout of the Red Sox on Sunday. Kuroda stands as the Dodgers’ 4th starter, and it’s only a matter of time before Kershaw is up with the big league club.
Dodgers pitching phenom Clayton Kershaw has done everything possible to prove that he is a major league caliber pitcher this spring. On Tuesday he threw 3 scoreless innings against the Brewers’ starting lineup, striking out 6, including a guy by the name of Prince Fielder. However, the Dodgers are being cautious with the 20-year-old and will have him start the year in Double-A Jacksonville, and will likely bring him up to the big league club later in the season. Manager Joe Torre likes what he sees, but says he wants Kershaw to fine-tune his pitches while not taxing his arm so he can be fresh for the summer. Until then, it looks like Esteban Loaiza or Chan Ho Park will occupy the 5th starter spot.
From the sound of things, Gammons thinks Clayton Kershaw is certain to be a factor for the Dodgers this year. Their main concern is limiting his inning early so he finishes in the 150-160 IP range.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland thinks Detroit’s first pick in the 2007 Draft, Rick Porcello, will be with the big league club some time this season.
Gammons also notes that players like Porcello, the Yankees Austin Jackson, Andrew Brackman, and Ian Kennedy, the Red Sox Lars Anderson, Ryan Kalish, Anthony Rizzo, David Mailman, and Will Middlebrooks, will have a serious impact on this year’s draft. Of course these players are all now top prospects who were drafted way above slot in later rounds.
Picking player comparables is always tricky business, but Gammons thinks the best comparable he’s heard for Yankees SP Ian Kennedy is the Blue Jays SP Shaun Marcum.
Andy LaRochehad surgery on his right thumb and is expected to be out for 8 to 10 weeks. The third baseman injured the thumb when a pickoff throw ricocheted of a runner and hit him in the hand. Not great news for a Dodgers infield that is already down a starter (Jeff Kent, although his injury is considered minor) and struggling to find healthy replacements.
Nate Schierholtz hit a two-out, two-run homer in the 7th to pull the Giants ahead of the A’s on Friday. Although Schierholtz has made excellent progress in San Francisco organization, Rick Eymer of MLB.com writes that the 24-year-old might find himself the low man on the outfield totem pole. Barring a trade of some kind that frees up a spot, the Giants are likely to use Schierholtz last minor league option and have him start the year at Triple-A Fresno.
In other Giants news, four players were sent down to Minor League camp: Clay Timpner (who hit .301 at Triple-A Fresno last season), outfielder John Bowker, and pitchers Osiris Matos and Kevin Pichardo.
The competition is heating up for the fifth spot in the Oakland A’s rotation. Greg Smith, acquired from the Diamondbacks in the Dan Haren trade, has had a great spring, including Tuesday’s four inning outing: 2 hits, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts, and no earned runs. Also in the running are Dana Eveland (also acquired in the Haren deal), Lenny DiNardo, Gio Gonzalez (acquired from the White Sox in the Nick Swisher trade), and Kirk Sarloos. Further complicating the starting pitching situation for the A’s is the injured Chad Gaudin, who is likely start the season on the DL. Thus, there would be two vacancies in the rotation, at least for a while.
One of our readers requested that we post this video of Dodgers prospect Clayton Kershaw against the Red Sox on Sunday. Watch as he freezes Sean Casey with an amazing curve ball for the strike-out, to the delight of announcer Vin Scully. You can see why the 19-year old is being strongly considered for the rotation. Check it out:
The Rockies have two vacant spots in their starting rotation and left hander Frankie Morales is pitching like he wants to fill one of them. Morales threw 3 innings Wednesday, allowing 1 earned run and walking 2 in a respectable outing against a solid White Sox lineup, and went 4 innings on Sunday giving up 1 run, 3 hits, and a walk against the Giants. He felt good about his command and feels like his secondary pitches (changeup and curve) are rounding into form. Catcher Yorvit Torrealba and Manager Clint Hurdle are please with the 22-year-old’s development, although he has a tendency to get a little energetic when he’s ahead in the count. The extra effort he exerts to finish hitters off tends to elevate his pitches in the zone, something Morales has been working on with veteran Torrealba. One would expect that a few more starts will help him temper his two-strike exuberance.
Clay Buchholz has been working to correct his mechanics, specifically straightening out the arch in his back on delivery. Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell seems to think that this, and maybe some first inning jitters, are causing him to leave pitches up in the zone. Whatever the reason, in his last two outings, Sunday and Friday, the young right-hander has been knocked around for 7 total runs, including home runs on consecutive pitches to the Twins’ Justin Morneau and Craig Monroe. Still, the kid has stupendous stuff, and that is likely to get him through a period where he finds out how mistake pitches are punished by major league hitters. If he doesn’t start the season in the Red Sox rotation, it won’t be long before earns his spot.
Sometimes you just have to put conservative attitudes aside and look at what’s right in front of you. 19-year-old Clayton Kershaw has all the makings of a future star: high 90s heat, a power curve, and a changeup that he really only needs to use 4 or 5 times a game… and he’s left-handed. Dodgers catcher Russell Martin’s praise begins to answer questions about the risks of turning the kid loose in the big leagues sooner than later. If his mechanics are so sound and his delivery is so relaxed, there doesn’t appear to be much of an injury risk. Combine that with his pitch arsenal, and there’s not a whole lot of downside. In his first appearance with the big league ST camp yesterday Kershaw faced three players, and he retired all three of them. Ken Gurnick of MLB.com says it’s a three way race for the 5th spot in the Dodgers’ rotation, with Esteban Loiaza as the clear front-runner.
Evan Longoria has lived up to the hype this spring, impressing everyone with not only his bat but his stellar glove work as well. Gammons notes that scouts believe Longoria could go for 30 HR in his rookie season if he’s allowed to play all of it. But as Gammons notes, there is still speculation that the Rays might delay his call-up to avoid super-two status. For fantasy sake, we all hope they just let him play.
A few people in Dodgers camp think that phenom Clayton Kershaw should be with the major league team now. Russell Martin was quoted saying that Kershaw is going to help the Dodgers this year, in line with a similar quote by Joe Torre a couple weeks ago. That the Dodgers are even discussing bringing Kershaw up so early (remember he’s only 19) is testament to his uncanny skill. There was word today that the Dodgers have decided to keep Kershaw at the big league camp through the rest of spring training, but Joe Torre said there is almost zero chance he makes the big league rotation.
Gammons also notes that Dodgers coach Larry Bowa is very impressed with SS prospect Chin-Lung Hu. His quote was “He can really play defense.” Don’t look for Hu at SS in Los Angeles as long as Furcal is healthy. But Furcal’s contract expires after this season, so the Dodgers would love for Hu to be ready to take over at short next year.
Check out this gem of a quote Gammons pulled up from one of the Scouts in Arizona this spring: “The best young pitcher I’ve seen in two years out here is Oakland’s Henry Rodriguez. He throws 98 with a devastating breaking ball.” Gammons notes that Rodriguez will not start the season with Oakland, but given these comments and the abundance of opportunity for young players in Oakland this year, it could only be a matter of time before we see this 21-year-old with the big club. That’s pretty interesting stuff, considering Rodriguez isn’t on many people’s radar as a top prospect. He is the #8 prospect in the A’s system according to BaseballAmerica.
Horrible news for the Dodgers and fantasy sleeper seekers today: 3B Andy LaRoche will miss at least 2 months with a torn ligament in his right thumb, according to ESPN. In a strange series of events, first Nomar Garciaparra went down in the 4th inning after being hit by a pitch. LaRoche entered the game for Nomar as a pinch runner, and only a half-inning later injured his thumb on a pick off attempt to third. Apparently the ball deflected off of the runner rushing back to the bag, and hit LaRoche on his throwing hand. LaRoche will have surgery on his finger in the next day or two, and is expected to miss 8-10 weeks. Clearly this means Nomar will be starting the season at 3B, and LaRoche will now be in a position where he’ll have to steal the job when he gets back. LaRoche’s draft day value just took a huge plunge.
Great day for the Dodgers’ prospects today. In a heated competition for 3B with Nomar, Andy LaRoche stepped things up today. He hit a solo home run in the 2nd inning. He finished 2-4 on the day, and is now batting .385 this spring.
In the same game, top prospect Clayton Kershaw saw his first action with mixed results. He allowed a HR to Luis Jimenez and loaded the bases on two cheap hits and a HBP. But he then buckled down and proceeded to strike out the side. No surprise with the stuff he has. He probably won’t be up this year, but when he does look out. Future ace on any staff.
Rookie import Hideki Kuroda pitched two scoreless innings today as well. He has impressed everyone in the Dodger camp with his pitching and especially his toughness, according to this great piece on Kuroda by Ken Rosenthal.
David Price’s scheduled start was canceled today, but it wasn’t because of his shoulder. It was because of bad weather. We’ll definitely have to watch his start on Saturday to see how he responds to the shoulder that was bothering him.
Astros backstop prospect J.R. Towles went a long way today towards putting a nail in the coffin on the starting job. He hit a bomb, two doubles, and had 4 RBI on the day. Definitely a sleeper at the shallow C position in fantasy drafts this year.
