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Dodgers minor league camp: Diego Cartaya, Bobby Miller, other top prospects shine

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Will Rhymes doesn’t keep in anyone place too lengthy.

As a substitute, the Dodgers director of participant improvement strikes concerning the membership’s Camelback Ranch complicated every afternoon, from bullpen classes within the 10-mound throwing space, to defensive drills on a stand-alone infield, to hitting workouts within the open-air batting cage, and naturally stay recreation motion on three fields adjoining to at least one one other.

Coming into this 12 months’s minor league camp, he knew there’d be expertise. Even amid their main league success, the Dodgers’ farm system has hardly suffered, thought-about by most publications to nonetheless be probably the greatest within the sport.

However after a pair weeks, even Rhymes has been impressed by what he’s watching each day — reinforcing his conviction within the promise of the membership’s future.

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“The extent of play is extraordinarily excessive on either side of the ball,” he stated Sunday. “It’s nearly stunning, at this level of the 12 months, the place so most of the guys are at. It’s actually prime quality.”

This previous week, reporters have been allowed to look at camp. Listed below are 5 observations concerning the group’s younger expertise:

Cartaya creating at, and behind, the plate

In between rounds of stay batting apply on Saturday, Diego Cartaya was absorbing data.

For a number of minutes, the 20-year-old catcher chatted with Andy Burns, an eight-year minor-league veteran with MLB expertise, for a number of minutes about his method on the plate. Then, Cartaya conversed with a Dodgers staffer earlier than stepping again into the field.

It was a snapshot of the way in which Cartaya is continuous to develop this spring, one other small second for the Dodgers’ top-ranked prospect to soak up some knowledge forward of what may very well be a pivotal season in his improvement.

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“I attempt to study and see what their thought course of is,” Cartaya stated. “See if it really works for me.”

Cartaya has put his uncooked expertise on show, too. In his subsequent at-bat within the stay BP, he smashed a towering house run towards seven-year big-leaguer Robbie Erlin. “Wow,” one Dodger coach stated because the ball sailed out to left area, the place a parking zone beckoned simply past the wall. “That’s off a automotive!”

In an intrasquad scrimmage the subsequent day, Cartaya smoked a 107 mph line drive the opposite manner that skipped previous the appropriate fielder and went all the way in which to the wall.

“You don’t typically see a right-field get burned that shortly on a ball,” Rhymes stated. “He has continued to impress.”

Along with his swing, Cartaya stated he’s additionally focusing proper now on his game-calling and defensive duties behind the plate, making it some extent of emphasis this season after being restricted to 31 video games in 2021 due to again and hamstring accidents.

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“It’s actually thrilling when somebody naturally has that potential on either side of the ball,” Rhymes added. “We’ll see over the subsequent few years whether or not he’s capable of proceed that progress, however as of now he’s on a terrific monitor.”

Pepiot, Miller flash on the mound

It didn’t matter to a few the Dodgers’ prime pitching prospects that, throughout an exhibition recreation towards a barnstorming impartial group this week, the competitors was nowhere close to what they’ll see within the minors this season.

Extremely touted prospects Ryan Pepiot and Bobby Miller threw their greatest stuff anyway.

Dodgers pitching prospects Ryan Pepiot, left, and Bobby Miller in 2021

(Jennifer Stewart/MLB Photographs by way of AP)

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Miller, the membership’s No. 4 total prospect in keeping with MLB Pipeline, averaged 100 mph along with his fastball throughout his outing. It was the most recent camp spotlight for the 2020 first-round choose, who Rhymes stated has been one of the vital improved gamers at camp to date.

“He appears to be [setting personal records] along with his velo each time he goes on the market,” Rhymes stated.

Pepiot, the group’s No. 2 prospect, was additionally spectacular, putting out 5 batters as he continued to sharpen an arsenal that features a trademark changeup and a creating slider — one Pepiot now throws with the identical grip as Dodgers big-league reliever Blake Treinen.

“Picked it up within the offseason,” Pepiot stated. “It’s come a good distance.”

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Busch targeted on protection

Second baseman Michael Busch is barely two years faraway from being a first-round draft choose, however the Dodgers’ No. 3 ranked prospect already talks with the single-minded focus of a big-leaguer.

In the identical recreation towards the impartial group, the 2019 first-round choose blasted a protracted house run to proper. Requested a day later concerning the blast, nonetheless, he softly smiled and deflected.

“All of them depend the identical,” he stated.

As a substitute, it was his defensive enhancements that Busch was as keen to debate as the rest. After taking part in primarily at first base all through his faculty profession, he transitioned to second throughout his first full minor-league season final 12 months, constructing foundations on the place he’s aiming to construct upon this 12 months.

“He’s all the time been a terrific hitter,” Rhymes stated of Busch, who batted .267 with 20 house runs in Class AA final 12 months. “Defensively, he simply appears an increasing number of snug. You’d suppose he’s performed second base his complete life.”

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Cuban sluggers shining

The fashion of their video games are totally different, however Andy Pages and Miguel Vargas have adopted related improvement paths of their professional careers.

Each of the Cuban prospects have been signed by the Dodgers in 2017. Each got here again from the canceled 2020 season with robust performances final 12 months. And so they discover themselves aspect by aspect within the Dodgers’ prospect rankings, with Pages ranked fifth and Vargas sixth.

Pages is the extra pure slugger, a 6-foot-1, 212-pound outfielder who belted 31 house runs in Class Excessive A final season, and who has sprayed the ball across the park throughout camp video games this week.

“Often when guys are that huge, there’s size and slower actions,” Rhymes stated. “However he has distinctive management of his physique and his palms.”

Vargas, a 3rd baseman who may play at first and second, developed extra pop final 12 months, pulling the ball with energy extra often throughout a 21 house run marketing campaign that earned him the membership’s minor league participant of the 12 months honors.

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“It was an natural development of a younger hitter who may use the other area successfully, management trajectories that manner,” Rhymes stated. “He appears actually good. He’s obtained an opportunity to be a reasonably particular participant.”

Creating extra pitching depth

One of many Dodgers’ organizational strengths lately has been their depth of pitching expertise. This spring, that effort has continued.

Proper-handers Landon Knack, Clayton Beeter and Hyun-il Choi are all trying to construct off robust 2021 campaigns. Knack and Beeter are each top-10 ranked prospects within the farm system, whereas Choi is the Dodgers’ reigning minor league pitcher of the 12 months.

Maddux Bruns is in camp for the primary time after being taken within the first spherical of final 12 months’s draft. Whereas the left-hander can get his fastball into the upper-90s, he stated his present focus is on creating extra constant management.

There are additionally a pair new pitchers with previous MLB expertise in Jon Duplantier and Carson Fulmer, who have been each snagged by the Dodgers in December’s minor league Rule 5 draft.

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Duplantier, 27, is a former third spherical choose who has pitched in components of two seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Fulmer, 28, was a school teammate of Walker Buehler’s at Vanderbilt and was drafted eighth total by the Chicago White Sox in 2015. He has struggled in six major-league seasons, posting a 6.41 profession ERA, however struck an optimistic tone whereas talking with reporters this week.

“It’s been a breath of contemporary air,” he stated. “I’ve heard so many good issues about this group. I’m simply completely happy to be right here now.”

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U.S. gymnastics trials: Frederick Richard flips his way to Paris in all-around triumph

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U.S. gymnastics trials: Frederick Richard flips his way to Paris in all-around triumph

The man the internet knows as “Frederick Flips” will be flipping all the way to Paris.

Frederick Richard won the all-around at the U.S. Olympic trials on Saturday at Target Center with a two-day all-around score of 170.500 to earn his first Olympic berth. The 20-year-old rising junior at Michigan will lead a U.S. men’s team that’s ready to end a streak of three consecutive fifth-place Olympic finishes.

“Very realistic expectation is podium medals,” Richard said. “I don’t know which — bronze, silver or gold — which one it will be, but I know there will be one and we’ll do whatever it takes to get there.”

Richard, the reigning world all-around bronze medalist who also runs popular Instagram and TikTok pages with behind-the-scenes gymnastics content, already knows what it’s like to end a streak. He helped the United States to a bronze medal at the 2023 world championships, the team’s first world medal since 2014. Richard’s world champion teammates Paul Juda and Asher Hong will join him on the Olympic team in Paris along with second-place all-around finisher Brody Malone and pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik.

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The selection process, which mostly relies on a complex algorithm that computes scores from two-day competitions at U.S. championships and Olympic trials, was designed to maximize the team’s score in Olympic competition, where four athletes compete with three scores counting in the qualification round and three compete and all count during the team final. The math-heavy approach opened the door for Nedoroscik, who competed in just a single event.

The pommel horse specialist totaled 29.300 across the two days, which was second during the trials following Patrick Hoopes’ 29.450. But Nedoroscik had crunched the numbers from U.S. championships, where he led Hoopes by 0.775, and calculated that if he made a mistake, Hoopes would need a 15.100 to tie his three-score average. Hoopes finished with a 15.000 on Saturday.

“I knew going up for that dismount, I was just like please get this dismount, just please stick this landing,” Nedoroscik said. “I almost didn’t. And then in my head I was like, I think I made it.”

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Nedorocik’s consistency might have been key to earning his coveted Olympic position over Khoi Young, the reigning world silver medalist on pommel horse. Young was named a traveling alternate, along with Shane Wiskus, who finished third in the all-around backed by a sold-out hometown crowd that cheered on the Spring Park, Minn., native.

Young needed to battle back from a 12th-place all-around finish after the first day. But the bigger problem was that the 21-year-old Stanford star scored just a lowly 11.650 on his signature event on Thursday. He redeemed himself Saturday with a 14.250 on the event, but still trailed behind Nedoroscik.

Malone, who missed the competition in 2023 while recovering from a career-threatening knee injury, shook off a fall on high bar in the opening event Saturday. He finished just two-tenths behind Richard, highlighted by a second stuck vault in as many days of competition that solidified his second Olympic berth.

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Hong’s only major misstep came on pommel horse, where one of his legs appeared to clip the horse during a flare element, sending him crashing to the mat. He slipped from second place in the all-around standings to fifth entering the final event. But the Stanford star left the selection committee with a final exclamation point to consider going into the meeting room by sticking his dismount on rings in the last rotation. His 14.700 was the highest score on the event across both days of competition.

The 20-year-old’s high-flying vault and huge difficulty on rings and floor symbolize a recent trend in U.S. men’s gymnastics to push for bigger skills to compete with world powers Japan and China. The strategy is working faster than expected, men’s high performance director Brett McClure said. He believed initially that the bold strategy wouldn’t truly take off until the 2028 Olympics. But a world bronze medal last year has the Americans on track for an early arrival in Paris.

“It’s doable,” Ruda said of ending the Olympic medal streak. “This team is the best team possible. … It’s been done, we broke the drought once and we’ve got so many returners that are going to have the exact same mindset.”

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Caitlin Clark lauds childhood idol Diana Taurasi ahead of first WNBA matchup: 'One of the greatest players'

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Caitlin Clark lauds childhood idol Diana Taurasi ahead of first WNBA matchup: 'One of the greatest players'

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Diana Taurasi is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in WNBA history. Meanwhile, rookie Caitlin Clark has helped bring an unprecedented amount of attention to women’s basketball.

Clark and the Indiana Fever will faceoff with Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday. The game will mark Clark’s first opportunity to compete against Taurasi in the WNBA.

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Clark was asked about her feelings leading up to the highly anticipated matchup with a player she grew up idolizing. 

Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever warms up before the game /ah at Wintrust Arena on June 23, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Quinn Harris/Getty Images)

“It’s incredible,” Clark told reporters on Saturday about Taurasi’s two-decade run in the league. “I don’t think people realize how hard that is to do.”

WNBA COMMISSIONER SCOFFS AT NOTION CAITLIN CLARK IS BEING TARGETED BY WNBA PLAYERS

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Clark also said taking the court for a game against a player of Taurasi’s caliber was “a dream come true. You get to live out your dream while playing against the best.”

Diana Taurasi vs Aces

Diana Taurasi #3 of the Phoenix Mercury looks on during the game against the Las Vegas Aces on May 14, 2024 at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. (David Becker/NBAE via Getty Images)

Clark went on to describe Taurasi as one of the WNBA’s all-time greats. “Obviously, she’s one of the greatest players our game has ever seen, the greatest scorer our game has ever seen,” Clark said.

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Despite Clark’s latest praise, a budding rivalry between the two high-profile players could be on the horizon.

When Taurasi was asked to share her thoughts on facing Clark for the first time, she delivered a brief response. “Yeah, it’ll be fun,” she said.

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In April, Taurasi was asked about what incoming WNBA rookies could expect. She proceeded to suggest that a rude awakening was in store.

“Look, SVP, reality is coming,” Taurasi told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt during an appearance on SportsCenter on April 6. “There’s levels to this thing. And that’s just life. We all went through it. You see it on the NBA side, and you’re going to see it on this side. You look superhuman playing against 18-year-olds, but you’re going to (be playing against) some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time.” 

Caitlin Clark dribbles

Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever looks on during the game against the Seattle Storm on June 27, 2024 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington.  (Mollie Handkins/NBAE via Getty Images)

While the comments were about the rookie class as a whole, some believed the remarks were a direct jab at Clark, who dominated at the college basketball level.

Nevertheless, Taurasi and Clark also share some similarities. Taurasi is the WNBA’s career scoring leader, while no one scored more points at the NCAA Division I level than Clark. Both point guards are also strong 3-point shooters.

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Taurasi is one of three players on the Mercury’s roster who will represent the US in Paris next month for the Olympics, joining Brittney Griner and guard Kahleah Copper. Team USA will be competing for a record eight consecutive Olympic gold medal.

The 2024 Olympic roster notably does not include any players who recently rose from the collegiate ranks. Clark’s exclusion from the roster sparked considerable debate. Her teammate and the league’s reigning rookie of the year, Aliyah Boston was also left off the roster.

The Fever and Mercury tipoff at 3:00 p.m. EST on June 30.

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Dodgers overcome Tyler Glasnow's struggles with 11th-inning scoring spree vs. Giants

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Dodgers overcome Tyler Glasnow's struggles with 11th-inning scoring spree vs. Giants

Saturday was a planned “bullpen game” for the San Francisco Giants, whose rotation sports just two healthy established starters in Logan Webb and Jordan Hicks and has five pitchers — Blake Snell, Kyle Harrison, Keaton Winn, Robbie Ray and Alex Cobb — on the injured list.

It turned into an impromptu bullpen game for Dodgers, which was both surprising and disappointing considering they had ace Tyler Glasnow, who was 8-5 with a 2.88 ERA and a National League-leading 135 strikeouts and had thrown five innings or more in each of his first 16 starts, on the mound.

Glasnow was rocked for five runs and seven hits in an abbreviated three-inning start, leaving Dodgers relievers to cover the final six innings.

Not only was the bullpen up to the task, it worked overtime and got contributions from every arm, with eight pitchers combining to limit the Giants to one earned run over the final eight innings of a wild 14-7, 11-inning victory in front of a crowd of 39,663 at Oracle Park.

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“It was all hands on deck, really,” veteran right-hander Daniel Hudson said after the grueling 3-hour, 45-minute game. “We had to go get that one once we tied it up and took the lead [in the fourth inning]. We were all just focused on getting to the next guy.”

The Dodgers blew the game open with a seven-run rally in the 11th, but they wouldn’t have gotten there if Hudson hadn’t escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the 10th.

The Dodgers had scored in the 10th off 6-foot-11 right-hander Sean Hjelle when Jason Heyward grounded out to first base, advancing automatic runner Chris Taylor to third, and Miguel Rojas blooped an RBI single to shallow right-center for a 7-6 lead.

Hudson, who gave up a two-run homer to Matt Chapman in Friday night’s loss, got Nick Ahmed to ground out to shortstop to open the bottom of the 10th, with automatic runner Brett Wisely holding at second, but pinch-hitter David Villar ripped an RBI double off the left-field wall to tie the score 7-7.

LaMonte Wade Jr. was intentionally walked, and Heliot Ramos dribbled a grounder to third for an infield single — the Dodgers thought the ball hit Ramos’ foot and should have been ruled foul but were out of replay challenges — to load the bases with one out. The Dodgers brought Taylor in from center field for a five-man infield.

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“I don’t,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, when asked if he could remember the last time he employed a five-man infield. “It has been that long. It’s not a strategy I love to pull out of my hat, but it just seemed like the right time given the situation.”

Will Smith hits a two-run double in the 11th inning during the Dodgers’ win over the Giants on Saturday.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

Hudson then escaped the jam by striking out Patrick Bailey with a nasty 88-mph slider and, with Taylor back in the outfield, getting Matt Chapman to pop out to catcher Will Smith, sending the game to the 11th.

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“That guy has done everything in this game,” closer Evan Phillips said of Hudson, who was on the mound when the Washington Nationals clinched their World Series title in 2019. “There’s just nobody better to handle that, no one we trust more in those situations, and I don’t think anyone batted an eye when he got out of it.”

The Dodgers, who scored seven runs in the ninth inning for an 11-9 come-from-behind win at Colorado on June 18, then broke out the heavy lumber in the top of the 11th.

Shohei Ohtani, who hit his NL-leading 26th home run to straight-away center field in the third, giving him nine homers in 12 games, was intentionally walked to open the inning, and Smith drove a two-run double to left-center field for a 9-7 lead.

Freddie Freeman followed with a bloop double to left to score Smith for a 10-7 lead. Teoscar Hernández blooped a single to right, moving Freeman to third, and Taylor grounded an RBI single to right for an 11-7 lead. Heyward roped a two-run triple into the right-field corner to make it 13-7, and Rojas hit a sacrifice fly to left to make it 14-7.

The seven runs in the 11th were the most by the Dodgers in an extra inning since they moved to Los Angeles in 1958, and, according to MLB researcher Sarah Langs, the seven-run win was baseball’s second-largest extra-inning win since 1901, behind the Milwaukee Braves’ 12-4, 11-inning win over the Brooklyn Dodgers on Aug. 29, 1954.

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“We needed every bit of that,” Roberts said of the seven-run outburst. “We were down to our last arm, and I was thinking about having Miggy Ro pitch that last inning. That’s kind of where we were at. Exhausting all of our arms feels a lot better when you win.”

Rojas, who also hit RBI singles in the second and fourth innings, was ready and willing to take the mound.

“I was telling Mark [Prior, Dodgers pitching coach] to give me the ball,” Rojas said. “I’ve been waiting to pitch this year, to be honest with you. We’ve been up by nine runs, but I think we need to be up by 10 to pitch in a game that we’re winning.”

Rojas might not have fared much worse than Glasnow, who limited opponents to a .179 average in his first 16 starts, the third-best mark in the league, but was tagged for seven hits in 14 at-bats on Saturday. The Giants batted around in the third, an inning in which Glasnow threw 37 pitches after throwing only 24 pitches in the first two innings.

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The inning began with Glasnow’s walk to No. 9 hitter Ahmed and Jorge Soler’s RBI double to right field. Soler tried to advance on Wade’s grounder to shortstop but was thrown out at third by Rojas.

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow walks to the dugout after the third inning Saturday against the Giants.

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow walks to the dugout after the third inning Saturday.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

But Ramos singled to center, Bailey hit an RBI single to right, and Dodgers third baseman Cavan Biggio couldn’t get the ball out of his glove after charging Chapman’s chopper, a play that was generously ruled an RBI infield single.

Michael Conforto walked to load the bases, and Luis Matos grounded into a run-scoring fielder’s choice for a 5-2 lead before Wisely flied to left to end the four-run inning.

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“The feel [for my pitches] was completely lost today from my warmups to the game,” Glasnow said. “It was just one of those days where I had no command of anything. … From pitch one, I’d think my release point was at one place, and it’s at another place. It was just kind of all over the place today.”

How does Glasnow cope with such an impediment?

“I didn’t today,” he said. “I think it’s more about just trying to eliminate thought and just go out there and compete. A lot of stuff got away from me, and I’m just glad the team could come back and win the game.”

The Dodgers answered San Francisco’s four-run third with four runs of their own in the top of the fourth, batting around against relievers Spencer Howard and Randy Rodriguez, a rally that Andy Pages sparked with a one-out walk.

Heyward singled to right, advancing Pages to third, and Rojas grounded an RBI infield single to the shortstop hole. Lux followed with an RBI single to right. Biggio popped out on a bunt attempt, but Ohtani walked to load the bases. Smith beat out a slow roller for an RBI single, and Freeman walked with the bases loaded for a 6-5 lead.

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San Francisco evened the score in the bottom of the fifth when Chapman hit a one-out single off right-hander Yohan Ramírez, Conforto walked against left-hander Alex Vesia, and Wisely, who won Friday night’s game with a walk-off two-run homer in the ninth, hit an RBI single to center for a 6-6 tie.

“That was a long one, a tough one, because of everything that happened, but the team effort was remarkable,” Rojas said. “I feel like that’s the team that we have. We’re always going to fight, and we’re always going to be in games.”

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