Dodgers: Top Three Pitchers to Keep an Eye on This Weekend

There is no one player I have hyped up more this offseason than Stetson Allie and I have no plans of stopping anytime soon.

Allie has the potential to be a force to be reckoned with. At 6’2 and 230 pounds, Allie’s frame is built for velocity, working his height and weight downhill to get great leverage on a triple-digit fastball that he has been throwing since high school.

Allie’s biggest problem is control. Last year, he walked 31 batters in 42 innings pitched. That total hiked up his walks per nine innings rate to an unacceptable 6.6 batters and that will have to calm down before he can even dream of debuting in the big leagues.

Allie excites me because of his story, something I’ve written about a few times so I’ll leave a link to it here.

In short, the 27-year-old righty was drafted as a highly touted pitcher who boasted 100 mile per hour heat as a high school pitcher. Selected in the second round by the Pirates, Allie and his former club had no intention of moving the then top-100 prospect off the mound.

But, disastrous start after disastrous start, the Pirates had enough and opted to move Allie to an infielder-outfielder role where he was not horrible but again, nothing special. Allie left the Pirates, signing with the Dodgers prior to the 2017 season as a batter.

He was fine.

The Dodgers then opted to move Allie back to the mound for the first time in five years and while the results weren’t amazing, he showed amazing potential.

Allie’s potential gives the number one spot on the who to watch list in my opinion. Saturday will be his first test.

In this list of three players, I wanted to pick a combination of pitchers who will definitely have an impact on the major league team in 2019 and pitchers that have the potential to have an impact. Tony Gonsolin is the perfect mix of both.

A ninth-round selection in  2016, Tony Gonsolin was a college closer with a fastball that could sneak up to about 93 miles per hour. The Dodgers saw something in him as a starter and, after drafting him, the club moved Gonsolin back to the rotation and he has not disappointed.

Gonsolin’s fastball sits in the upper 90’s now averaging about 96 on the heater but it has been clocked as hard as 101 miles per hour.

His extreme velocity for a starter paired with some of the best breaking pitches in the Dodgers farm system has made Gonsolin the best strikeout player on the farm with the exception of relief pitcher Marshall Kasowski. In 2018, Gonsolin tied Clayton Kershaw for the lead in organizational strikeouts at 155.

The punchout totals and the overwhelming dominance last year landed Gonsolin the Dodgers’ minor league pitcher of the year award for 2018.

Gonsolin’s future is incredibly bright whether or not he makes his debut in 2019. The reason he gets a spot on my list is his velocity could vault him into the major league bullpen at some point in the season where he could serve as an innings eater or a late-inning arm.

Gonsolin will probably have a shot at starting the season in Triple-A depending on how well he pitches this spring. His opportunity to prove himself will be on Sunday at Camelback Ranch against the Angels.

My third and final player was a toss-up. On one hand, I could have easily gone with Dustin May, who pitches on Sunday, on the other, Brock Stewart, another Sunday arm, was an option.

I ultimately went with Stewart for a few reasons.

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First, May is a top prospect for the Dodgers. Whether he has a horrible spring or a great one, his status in the Dodgers system will go more or less unchanged because everyone and their grandmother know how good he is and how much potential he has. I don’t need to reiterate it for a one-game weekend series.

Second, May’s impact on the 2019 major league season figures to be minute if anything at all. He is not on the roster and the Dodgers don’t typically like to add guys to the 40-man before they are either a) ready to do that or b) the team is incredibly desperate.

Third, Brock Stewart finds himself in a rare and interesting situation. He has a fourth option year, something that few players come by and the reason is due entirely to service time. Over the last few seasons, Stewart has racked up the frequent flyer miles, practically spending the majority of his major league career on an airplane.

With a good spring, the Dodgers may be inclined to put Stewart on the opening day roster so they don’t have to burn that fourth and final option.

To do that, Stewart will need to impress in every outing and that starts this Sunday against the Angels.

Stewart is scheduled to follow Hyun-Jin Ryu in the contest and it will be his first chance to prove that he deserves a major league roster spot. With his potential, I’m sure he can do it but over the last few years, there has been a discrepancy between what Stewart can do versus what he has done. This spring, both will need to be positive.

The outlook for the Dodgers is bright. They are in a division that they should win soundly for the seventh straight season and their farm system is loaded with talented players. Some of them will make their 2019 debuts this weekend and, even without the stars playing, it is well worth keeping an eye on.