Dodgers: Caleb Ferguson Showed Signs of Growth in Sunday’s Loss

The Dodgers were unable to complete a three-game sweep of the Giants on Sunday but despite the loss, there were some positives to take from the game.  One of those was the progress that Caleb Ferguson showed in his MLB third start.

The Dodgers have had to do some things this season they weren’t expecting they would need to do.  Such is life when you lose four of the five starting pitchers in your opening day rotation and even lose a fifth starting pitcher who was showing signs of dominance.  In order to field a five-man rotation, the Dodgers had to call up young left-hander Caleb Ferguson.

Ferguson was showing signs of dominance this season recording a 3-0 record for the Double-A Tulsa Drillers and posting a minuscule 1.38 ERA.  Due to the Dodgers needing to dip into their Triple-A rotation depth, Ferguson was promoted to Triple-A after only eight starts.  In Triple-A with the Oklahoma City Dodgers, Ferguson posted a 2.25 ERA in two starts.

Ferguson was on track to make a big league debut sometime next season at the earliest but the Dodgers never expected to need him this season.  Last season, Caleb spent the entire season with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes and he figured to spend most if not all of this season in Double-A.  Despite making only ten starts above the Single-A level, the Dodgers were forced to promote Ferguson this year and rush him to the bigs.

In his big league debut in Pittsburgh, Caleb Ferguson made a forgettable debut.  After a quick start to his MLB debut, Ferguson appeared to lose his command and ended up walking three batters and not even making it out of the second inning.  In his second big league start Ferguson went four innings allowing two runs and showed some signs of promise but he was still throwing far too many pitches and relying on his fastball too much.

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Yesterday Ferguson made his third career start for the Dodgers and he was much better.  Not only did Caleb make it through five innings, he walked only one batter and appeared to be much more comfortable using his changeup and curveball.  Ferguson struck out six Giants batters and coming into this weekend’s series, the Giants were among the NL’s best in team batting average.

Caleb Ferguson threw first-pitch strikes to thirteen of the nineteen batters that faced Sunday and out of his 84 pitches, 58 of them were strikes.  The two most glaring mistakes that Ferguson made came on his two home runs that were given up to Nick Hundley and Brandon Belt.

On Hundley’s home run, the count was 2-2 and Ferguson left a changeup up on the outside part of the plate.  His location would have been perfect if the pitch was at the knees but he left it up and paid for it.  To Belt, the count was 3-2 and Ferguson tried sneaking a fastball past Belt but left it right over the middle of the plate.  A typical mistake for a young inexperienced pitcher who is used to blowing fastballs past the competition in the lower levels of the minor leagues.

Ferguson is likely to get a fourth big league start next weekend against the Mets and given the direction he is trending, it would not be surprising if he went six quality innings and gave the Dodgers a better chance to win.  While Kershaw’s return will push young Caleb back to Triple-A, he should head back to Triple-A feeling confident that he can make it in the big leagues.

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If Ferguson can learn to command his curveball and changeup in the minors then he figures to have a long successful career in the big leagues.  While he was rushed to the big leagues and is learning on the fly, it’s easy to see that Caleb Ferguson has a bright future ahead with the Dodgers.  While Ferguson’s time isn’t now, once he further develops in the minors, the Dodgers will have another young southpaw to dominate the big leagues.