Blue Sparks 7/7 - 7/13

Previous Blue Sparks

Prospect Notes:

According to Diamond Leung we signed our 11th round pick Nathan Eovaldi . He was considered a hard sign so this adds another hard throwing prep kid to our ranks.

Jason Schmidt continues to struggle  in his rehab starts for Vegas. Jason Johnson looks like a better bet then Schmidt does and that isn't a good bet at all.

Canuck reported hearing some talk that pitchers do not like to pitch to Lucas May because of his defensive shortcomings. This is hearsay at this point, but I thought I'd pass it along. I have heard from scouts that May's defensive game needs a lot of work but that is expected of a guy who is only in his 2nd season as a catcher.

Blue Sparks:

Vegas(AAA)

Schmidt is getting rocked but Jason Johnson is doing his part to make sure the Dodgers don't forget about him as he keeps trying to make it back to the big leagues. Jon Meloan is really sucking for Vegas and I'm wondering if it isn't time to give up the starter experiment. If Saito goes down we will need a setup man and as of now the only thing the experiment has done is drop Meloan's trade value. Some of you were hoping that Greg Miller had turned the corner but alas his July has been of the putrid variety. As you can see I have no good news to report of regarding Vegas. Oh wait, did I forget to mention the bang up job Mark Sweeney is doing? While Lindsey and Tiffee continue to assault PCL pitching, Sweeney is hitting .250, so guess which one will be getting the call next week?

Jackonsville Suns(AA)

Things got much brighter for the Suns when Clayton Kershaw was sent down to learn how to win. Evidently he just needs to start pitching in the 2nd inning. Putting together his best outing of the year Clayton was able to garner his 1st victory in 2008. Ivan DeJesus spent Sunday playing 2nd base in the futures game where he acquitted himself very well by getting on base 3 times in 4 plate appearances. Little known 23 year old infielder  Adolfo Gonzalez was on fire this week. He collected 14 hits in 22 at bats including 4 hits twice. To bad only two of the 14 hits were XBH. For good measure he also pitched in a game last Monday, in a losing effort. It was not the first time he had pitched in an emergency this year. Jamie Hoffman hit two home runs on Sunday and Thursday doubling his home run total from 4 to 8 over a span of 4 days. The 23 year old Hoffman is someone who might be a late bloomer because of his late start playing baseball, as he was more of a hockey player as a kid.

Inland Empire(High A)

Finally, 2005 2nd round pick Josh Wall shows some life with what may have been his best professional game.  The 21 year old has never lived upto the promise of that high draft pick and is one of the Logan White picks that looked more like a Zach Hammes trajectory rather then the Logan White success stories. James Adkins had two great games back to back  under his belt when he took the mound on July 10th and when it was over he had given up EIGHT runs in one inning.

Great Lake Loons(Low A)

Andrew Lambo hit in every game last week and found his average sitting at .295 when he was done. His OPS for July is now sitting at .948 which is his high water mark for the season. 24 year old Given Kutz pitched his best game of the year on July 12th when he pitching 8 innings of one run ball.  He was a relief pitcher for the Inland team but was demoted to the Loons so that he could pitch in the rotation. Since being in the rotation he has 41 k's to only 6 walks in 54 innings. Former 2006 1st round pick, 21-year-old Bryan Morris pitched 6 innings for the 1st time since 4/27. He struck out a season high 8 batters and might be finding his stride after sitting out last year due ot TJ surgery.

Ogden Raptors:

Hmm, 21 year old 2008 fifth round pick Jon Michael Redding has some interesting numbers. He has only started two games and in both of those games he's only gone 3 innings each but he has 10 k's, zero walks, zero runs, and only one hit. Alot was made of the early success of Kyle Russel and while he has an OPS over 1.000, the fact is, he has struck out 24 times in 75 at bats against rookie league pitching. He is also now 0-13, hard to for me to care about the power if he can't make better contact against this level of pitching. The man is 22 years old.  Not to be outdone the other behemoth on the team Clay Calfee has 32 k's in 83 at bats. Kyle Orr goes them one better with 35 k's in 80 at bats and can't even hit when he does make contact. I know the idea is to get one Adam Dunn out of these guys, but right now they all look like LH Billy Ashley's.

GCL Dodgers:

Unlike the big boys to the North, 20 year old Chris Jacobs is not striking out at the same pace while putting up decent power numbers. Though he did strike out 5 times in his last nine at bats so maybe it is just a matter of time before he catches up to them. 20-Year-Old Gorman Erickson is atop the leader board for the GCL Dodgers in OPS but does not have enough plate appearances to qualify for the leader board for the league.