Dodgers: Who is Off to a Strong Start in the Minor Leagues?
The Dodgers entered the 2018 season with a minor league system that is filled with great depth. While they may not have the most top 100 prospects, they are loaded with a ton of potential major leaguers.
Week one of the minor league season has come and gone for the Dodgers minor league affiliates. While the Dodgers are off to a slow start, most of their minor league teams are off to better starts with the exception of the Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes who are 2-5 in the first week of the season. The Tulsa Drillers went 3-3 and the Oklahoma City Dodgers went 5-1 as they are expected to be one of the best teams in minor league baseball this season.
While the Dodgers have a ton of quality players in their farm system, there are certain hitters and pitchers that stood out in week one of the minor league season. Granted it has only been a week so averages and other statistics are off the charts right now, but it is still worth keeping an eye on which players in the minors kicked off their season with a bang. The team of the week for the first week is easily the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers who mashed teams offensively with their quality players who did not make the Dodgers opening day roster. Here are the hitters and pitchers of the week for week one.
Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers
The OKC Dodgers had a weird schedule to begin their season just as the major league Dodgers did due to inclement weather. On the very first day of the minor league season, the OKC Dodgers played a doubleheader to get their games in before a snowstorm hit. The best game of the season for them so far was on Wednesday as they pounded Round Rock 19-1. That game was started by Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw has to be jealous of that kind of run support.
Hitter of the week:
While Andrew Toles had a strong week, the hitter of the week for Triple-A is Travis Taijeron. The So Cal native who went to Cal Poly Pomona hit .500 with a ridiculous .632 OBP and a 1.417 OPS. This included a streak on Tuesday and Wednesday where Taijeron recorded a hit in five straight at-bats. Really there were 4-5 different guys on the OKC Dodgers who could’ve been the hitter of the week but for week one, Taijeron gets the nod.
Pitcher of the week:
The battle for the pitcher of the week came down to Manny Banuelos who pitched a gem Thursday night and Walker Buehler. While Banuelos edges out Buehler in ERA by a hair, Buehler gets the selection for player of the week by virtue of his impressive strikeout to walk ratio. Buehler only walked one batter in each of his two starts and has struck out 11 hitters in his nine innings of work. It won’t be long til Buehler gets the call to the Dodgers so the fans in OKC better enjoy him while they can.
Double-A Tulsa Drillers
The Drillers are fresh of a walk-off walk win against the Frisco RoughRiders on Thursday night. The Drillers went 4-3 the first week of the season and unlike the OKC and LA Dodgers, their schedule was as smooth as it gets the first week of the season. They played every day except for Wednesday which was a scheduled day off.
Hitter of the week:
The best hitter for the Drillers in week one was shortstop Angelo Mora who is twenty-five years old and from the Dominican Republic. Mora hit an impressive .450 with a .900 slugging percentage. Mora led the Drillers with five RBI’s and he also added a home run. DJ Peters led the Drillers with two home runs but those were solo shots and his only RBI’s until his game-winning RBI walk last night.
Pitcher of the week:
There was a good amount of quality pitching at Tulsa this week but the pitcher of the week for the first week is Justin DeFratus. After being out of baseball for a couple years, DeFratus was signed by the Dodgers and followed up his solid spring with a solid first start. In his lone start of week one, Justin threw six shutout innings allowing only three hits and one walk. Honorable mention to Dennis Santana who posted a 2.79 ERA in his first two starts.
Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes
The Quakes took the path of their parent club the Dodgers and had a slow first week of the season going 2-6. The Quakes have many returning players this season like Omar Estevez and Ibandel Isabel. They also feature two former first-round picks in Gavin Lux and Jeren Kendall. There are a lot of quality players on the Quakes so they should end up having a good season when it’s all played out.
Hitter of the week:
The hitter of the week in week one of the Quakes season was last year’s third-round pick, Connor Wong. All Wong did was hit two home runs in the first week of the season and drive in four runs. The one knock on his week was that Wong struck out ten times entering Thursday night’s game. Wong is supposed to be in the mold of Austin Barnes, a versatile catcher who hits for a good average so that was a bit surprising to see.
Pitcher of the week:
Given it is only one week into the season, it is a bit hard to narrow down the pitcher of the week. Ths week has co-winners as Ryan Moseley and Jordan Sheffield take home the award. Both starters threw five innings of one-run ball and each struck out five batters. The only difference was Moseley allowed one more hit than Sheffield as Sheffield allowed only three hits. Sheffield is another Dodger draft pick out of Vanderbilt who hopes to re-join Walker Buehler in the Dodgers rotation one day.