Tagged: Grant Holmes
Dodgers acquire Josh Reddick, Rich Hill
Josh Reddick (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Rich Hill (Otto Greule Jr./Getty Images)
By Jon Weisman
With less than three hours remaining in the 2016 non-waiver trade deadline, the Dodgers have made their first move. It might not be their only one.
The Dodgers have acquired left-handed hitting outfielder Josh Reddick and left-handed pitcher Rich Hill, in exchange for minor-league right-handers Jharel Cotton, Grant Holmes and Frankie Montas.
The 29-year-old Reddick has a career-high .368 on-base percentage and 124 OPS+ this year in 272 plate appearances for Oakland. (He missed five weeks after fracturing his left thumb on a slide May 19.) His 121 weighted runs created is 12th among MLB right fielders.
Against right-handed pitching, Reddick has a .955 OPS this season.
Hill has had an unusual career. At age 36, in his 12th Major League season, he has only 576 big-league innings to his name. He actually is on the disabled list right now, dating back to July 20, because of a blister issue. He also missed pitching in June because of a left groin strain.
However, when healthy in 2016, he has dominated, throwing 76 innings in 14 starts with a 2.25 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
Six Dodgers in Baseball America Top 100 update
Cody Bellinger (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
Despite this year’s promotions of Corey Seager and Julio Urias and the debut of American rookie Kenta Maeda, Baseball America included six Dodgers in its Midseason Top 100 Prospects update.
Cody Bellinger (24), Jose De Leon (25), Alex Verdugo (44), Grant Holmes (60), Frankie Montas (82) and Willie Calhoun (98) were the Dodgers listed.
By comparison, the season-opening 2016 Baseball America 100 had Seager (1), Urías (4), De Leon (23), Maeda (50), Bellinger (54), Holmes (72) and Verdugo (100).
The new list does not include anyone taken in the 2016 draft or signed internationally this month.
Dodgers don’t just have millennials, they have young and talented millennials
By Cary Osborne
Baseball America released its annual report on the youngest players in each league on Opening Day and it showed not just how much talent the Dodgers have, but how much young talent they have. From the Low-A ball to the Majors, the Dodgers have a player who ranks in the top three of youngest players in their respective league and in three leagues they have the absolute youngest player.
Who’s where? Starting points for 2016 minor leaguers
Julio Urias is knocking on the door, or at least pushing on the fence. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Cary Osborne
You could have made the argument at many points during the 2015 season that the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers were the 31st Major league team. And you can start the 2016 season saying the same thing.
The Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate begins the season with 17 players with Major League experience on its roster, including six relief pitchers. That’s just one interesting storyline with rosters set the day before Thursday’s Minor League Opening Day. So let’s go team by team.
Seven Dodger prospects in ESPN’s top 100
By Jon Weisman
ESPN prospect analyst Keith Law ranked the Dodger farm system second in MLB, thanks in no small part to the appearance of seven prospects in his top 100 list that was released today.
As has been their custom, Corey Seager and Julio Urias landed in Law’s top five, with Seager claiming the top spot previously held by Minnesota’s Byron Buxton. They are the only Dodgers in Law’s top 50. However, there are five in the next half-hundred: Alex Verdugo (51), Jose De Leon (60), Grant Holmes (71), Yusniel Diaz (79), the Cuban emigré whose signing hasn’t been officially announced by the Dodgers, and Cody Bellinger (92).
MLB chooses Seager as baseball’s top prospect
By Cary Osborne
Corey Seager has unseated Byron Buxton as baseball’s top prospect.
MLB Pipeline ranks the Dodger shortstop at No. 1. The announcement was made on MLB Network on its Top 50 Prospects show Friday night.
Buxton was Pipeline’s No. 1 prospect in 2014 and 2015. Prior to that, Texas’ Jurickson Profar was the top guy in 2013 and Tampa Bay’s Matt Moore topped the list in 2012.
MLB.com’s prospect and draft branch also released its entire top 100 Prospects list, and five Dodger minor leaguers made it.
Left-hander Julio Urias jumped from last year’s No. 8 to 4.
Right-hander Jose De Leon, who wasn’t on the list in 2015, ranked 24th. Dodgers 2014 first-rounder and 19-year-old righty Grant Holmes jumped 33 spots to 62. Hard-throwing Frankie Montas, who was the 91st-ranked prospect last year in the Chicago White Sox organization, slotted in at 95 this year.
Over the last 10 days, Pipeline has ranked the top prospects at every position and two Dodgers who didn’t make the top 100 still were rated as top 10 players at their position in the minors — Cody Bellinger was the No. 6 first baseman and Micah Johnson was the No. 7 second baseman.
Baseball Prospectus also had Seager as its top prospect in its list of 101 players.
Urias ranked sixth with BP, followed by De Leon at 28, Holmes at 40, 19-year-old Cuban right-hander Yadier Alvarez and ranked 78th and 19-year-old Cuban outfielder Yusniel Diaz was 91st.
New and familiar faces on Baseball America’s top 10 Dodger prospects for ’16
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
Baseball America’s annual ranking of Dodger prospects actually comes early this year — the 2015 rankings were published 10 months ago — and comes with five names that weren’t on the preseason 2015 list.
Joc Pederson graduated from prospect status, but Corey Seager remains a rookie despite his impressive September debut, allowing the Dodger infielder a second consecutive year in the No. 1 slot. Julio Urias moves up a spot accordingly to No. 2, while right-hadner Jose De Leon leapfrogs into the No. 3 spot.
The top newcomer on this year’s list is infielder Jose Peraza, acquired from Atlanta in the big July 30 deal. “Peraza lacks a high ceiling,” Baseball America’s Ben Badler writes, “but his bat-to-ball skills and wheels should make him a steady player in the middle of the diamond.” In the list of best tools in the Dodger minor leagues, Peraza is called the organization’s top athlete.
Making the biggest leap internally is first baseman-outfielder Cody Bellinger, who skipped Great Lakes after hitting three homers with Rookie League Ogden in 2014 and hit 30 for High-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2015. The 20-year-old is also labeled the best power hitter in the system.
“Bellinger used to gear his swing for line drives, but he made a mechanical adjustment in 2015 to put his body in a better position to create torque,” Badler wrote in his analysis. “Toward the end of 2015, he began to study heat maps to understand his own strengths and weaknesses, and he condensed his trigger slightly.”
Urias heads Texas League class, De Leon close behind
By Cary Osborne
The Dodger organization had a strong showing this week in Baseball America’s 2015 Top 20 Prospects List for the Texas League.
Let the debate begin: Minor league player and pitcher of the year candidates
Jose De Leon (Tulsa Drillers)
By Cary Osborne
This week, MLB Pipeline named Corey Seager and Jose De Leon the Dodgers’ Prospects of the Year. Those are good places to start with the discussion as to who will be the Dodgers’ Branch Rickey Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year recipients.
Player of the Year appears to be a three-horse race. De Leon might have even more competition for Pitcher of the Year.
Seager shared the POY with Joc Pederson last year. If he were to win it again, he would join Billy Ashley (1993, 1994), Paul Konerko (1996, 1997), and Pederson (2012, 2014) as winners in consecutive seasons.
Chad Billingsley (2004, 2005) and James McDonald (2007, 2008) did it on the pitchers’ side. Julio Urias won the award last year. He’s a candidate again. Nothing is set in stone, but all of these players could be in the mix:
Dodger minor league report No. 22: Even with Lee and Urias, Triple-A Dodgers up against the wall
By Cary Osborne
The team with the best record in the Pacific Coast League during the regular season is on the ropes. Even with Zach Lee on the mound in Game 1 of the PCL American Conference Finals and Julio Urias starting Game 2, the Oklahoma City Dodgers are down 2-0 in the best-of-five series to Texas Triple-A affiliate the Round Rock Express.
Dodger Insider 
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