2013 top Dodgers prospects: #8 discussion

Paco Rodriguez won the #7 TBLA prospect vote by the narrowest of margins, beating out both Onelkis Garcia and Garrett Gould by a single vote. The time the lefty spent in the big leagues in 2012 must have put him over the top as he's already had success against major league players.

Given how close the vote is I've decided not to add any new names for round #8, but will definitely do so in the following rounds so continue to suggest who you want to see. As always, discuss in here and vote in this post.

Here are the candidates for the TBLA #8 prospect:

Chris Withrow - RHP (23.5 years old) - 2012 was Withrow's 4th stint in AA, and while he continued to show great pure stuff, his control again caused problems as he issued too many walks. After an injured pectoral muscle caused Withrow to miss most of June, the Dodgers moved him to the bullpen upon his return to action and the move seemed to pay off in the short term as he had a 3.28 ERA as a reliever with a .188 batting average against. It's uncertain what his long term role will be, and while he's obviously more valuable in the rotation, his mid 90's fastball, plus curveball, slider, and changeup would also play great as a reliever as long as he can limit his walks. Withrow is on the 40 man roster if healthy could be in the Dodgers 2013 plans.

Onelkis Garica - LHP (23.25 years old) - The Dodgers 2012 3rd round pick has had an interesting path to professional baseball, but in his limited time so far with the Dodgers he's shown why he initially was asking for big money. He only has 4 professional appearances to his credit so far, including one in the Southern League playoffs and two in the AFL, but so far he's only allowed 1 run and has racked up quite a few K's. Thanks to an interview with Chad Moriyama last week, we learned that Garcia possesses a "four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, sinker, a curve, which he uses a lot, and his change-up is developing. He says he doesn’t use it a lot but it’s coming along." In his pre-draft report from Baseball America, however, they suggested that his low 90's fastball and hard curveball are his only quality pitches, and that a lack of a true 3rd pitch might force him to the bullpen.

Alex Castellanos - OF/2B (26.25 years old) - Castle is another prospect who has already spent time in LA, and while he hit his first major league home run on the final day of the 2012 regular season, he didn't have success in limited big league playing time. In the minor leagues, however, Castellanos tore the cover off the ball and led the Isotopes with his 1.010 OPS. Because the Dodgers were trying to find a spot for his bat in the big leagues the organization used Alex and both 2nd and 3rd base while in AAA where he held his own defensively, but so far he's only played outfield in the big leagues. He's also currently playing in the outfield in the Venezuelan Winter League where he's hitting .306.

Garrett Gould - RHP (21.25 years old) - Gould found out how tough the California League is on pitchers after a rough 2012 season saw him end the year with a 5.75 ERA. Even still he led the Quakes with 123 K's in what was a bit of an odd season as he started the year with 40 K's in 22.1 April innings, then punched out just 13 batters in 28.2 frames in May before evening out over the next few months. Recent scouting reports say his velocity was down a bit in 2012, which was an issue that also plagued him back in 2010. However his curveball continues to be top notch and his changeup is improving.

Please use this post as the discussion thread, and cast your actual vote in this prospect voting post. For those of you who don't remember from last year, having the voting in a separate post makes it easier for me to count up the results.