How Dodgers minor leaguers fared at the alternate training site

In a normal year, we’d have a better idea how prospects progressed thanks to minor league games and the various reports and results therein. But this year with no minor league season, we were left with only a trimmed-down group of prospects at alternate training sites.

There were mostly simulated games and various other training exercises at these sites, including for the Dodgers at USC. Jim Callis at MLB.com provided some insight into the group of Dodgers prospects in his overview of their “season.”

Callis mentions 2019 first-round pick Kody Hoese as the Dodgers’ best hitter at the alternate site, which matches Gavin Lux’s observation back in September when he said, “Kody Hoese can really, really, really hit. I felt like every day he was hitting the ball off the wall or shooting a double the other way.”

Keibert Ruiz was named the top position player prospect by Callis, and Josiah Gray both the top pitching prospect and top overall Dodgers prospect. He talked to farm director Will Rhymes about Gray:

“It was more of the same with JoJo,” Rhymes said. “He still has an electric fastball and a ton of confidence in it. He took the opportunity to work on rounding out his arsenal a little bit: curveball, slider and changeup.

“He’s so competitive that getting him away game competition and trying to win helped him round out his pitches. We saw improvement in the characteristics of his slider and curveball and wanting to use all of his pitches. His slider remains his main secondary pitch.”

Links

• A preview of the Dodgers-Padres NLDS, from Jay Jaffe at FanGraphs.
• The weirdness of 2020 might prove advantageous to Clayton Kershaw flipping his postseason narrative, writes Jared Diamond at the Wall Street Journal.
• David Price was a guest on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM on Monday, and said this about his teammates: “That was hands down the most talent I had ever been around in a clubhouse in Spring Training.”
• The Supreme Court on Monday denied MLB’s attempt to dismiss a class action lawsuit on behalf of minor leaguers, clearing the way for the attempt to improve minor league pay to be heard in court. Jeff Passan at ESPN has more.
• Rob Mains at Baseball Prospectus applied Bill James’ old “World Series Prediction System” to this year’s playoffs. The Dodgers in this system are favored to win both the NLDS and NLCS.