Ryan Noda Making Early Noise at Triple-A Oklahoma City

There’s no query that Ryan Noda is likely one of the major causes Triple-A Oklahoma Metropolis at the moment sits atop the Pacific Coast League East division with a 7-4 document.

Coming into Sunday’s recreation towards El Paso, the lefty-hitting Noda is slashing a extremely spectacular .371/.500/.743 (13-for-35) with 4 homers and 9 RBI. For these horrible at math, that calculates to a ridiculous 1.243 OPS.

What’s much more spectacular is that the Illinois native is main the group with eight walks and is tied for the group lead with 10 runs scored.

Final 12 months was a breakout season for the 6-foot-3, 217-pounder within the energy division, as he led your complete Texas League with 29 bombs enjoying solely for Double-A Tulsa.

Noda, who simply turned 26 two weeks in the past, ended up hitting simply .250 final 12 months, however his eye on the plate accounted for a whopping 74 walks, elevating his OBP to a hefty .383. Coupled with a decent .521 slugging share, his last OPS for 2021 was .904 to guide your complete Driller group.

For many who don’t bear in mind, Noda was acquired by the Dodgers because the second participant to be named later within the 2021 commerce that despatched swingman Ross Stripling to the Blue Jays. The primary PTBNL within the deal was righty pitcher Kendall Williams.

Noda can capably deal with first base and each nook outfield spots. Nonetheless, he’s most likely a bit decrease on the totem pole than gamers like Zach McKinstry and James Outman since he’s not but on the 40-man roster. To this point this season, the previous 2017 fifteenth spherical draft select of the College of Cincinnati has performed 4 video games at first base, 4 video games in left discipline, one in proper discipline and one at designated hitter.

Noda has a good glove and a barely above-average outfield arm, together with misleading mobility and vary.

He swiped a career-high 14 bases for the Excessive-A Dunedin Blue Jays in 2019.

The early knock on Noda was his excessive variety of strikeouts, however as his walks have skyrocketed lately, his strikeout numbers have begun to dwindle. After tallying a career-high 135 strikeouts in 2019, he logged 127 in 2021 over a couple of dozen extra at-bats.

Noda was a non-roster invitee to the big-league aspect of spring coaching for the Dodgers this 12 months and went 2-for-9 with a double and a runs scored over six Cactus League appearances.

Like many lefty energy hitters, his splits are a bit lopsided, as he hit .213 towards southpaws final season and .263 towards righty pitching.

However, when contemplating his energy show final 12 months and his early sizzling begin this season, he’s positively value keeping track of. Understanding that the big-league membership used an insane 15 completely different outfielders final 12 months, something can occur.

At 26, it might be a make-or-break 12 months so far as getting his MLB clock began goes.