Dodgers Organization All-Star Extras
By Josh Jackson/MiLB.com
MiLB.com’s Dodgers Organization All-Stars story reveals a system in very good shape, so it’s no surprise LA’s Minor League coaching staff had much more to say about some of the club’s top prospects than we could fit in our story.
Read additional comments from Drew Saylor, Ryan Garko and Bill Haselman below.
On Cody Bellinger
“I think [Dodgers player development staff] had talked to Cody about [cutting down on strikeouts and walking more] after he finished last year in the Cal League. All the credit goes to Cody. He’s a really coachable guy, really easy to coach because he’s such a great athlete. It’s easy for him to make an adjustment.”
— Ryan Garko, Double-A Tulsa manager
“He has huge power and he was able to cut down his strikeouts. Even the second half last year, he did that. It’s one of those things that with maturity and age, and the levels he’s moving up, you add that all up and he’s got the skills to keep improving. He’s improving with every at-bat. He was so young when he started and he’s moved through the system so quick, you’ve just had to be patient with him. And now it’s paying off.”
— Bill Haselman, Triple-A Oklahoma City manager
On Willie Calhoun
“You look at the age and the lack of at-bats he had before joining the Dodgers — he just had year at [the University of Arizona] and a year of junior college — and that he came right to Double-A … it’s incredible
“There’s work to do [on his defense at second base]. If he keeps improving at the same rate from where he started when I saw him in instructs when I first got hired [last fall], he’ll be fine. Year over year, if he continues to improve the same way he did from last September or October to this August, he’s going to be fine. There’s always going to be challenges, but the good thing is, he understands that and he’s committed to putting in the work every day.”
— Garko
On Edwin Rios
“He’s a little older guy because he was coming out of college in the Draft, and it was a real pleasure to have him. It was a good opportunity for him, and he earned it and then some. That’s the reason he only stayed a little bit. It was great having him, to see a guy with that type of pop.
“One thing he worked on a lot with our coaching staff was synching up his swing, to make sure he was on time to hit the fastball. After he did that and started hitting balls out of the ballpark, guys started pitching around him. He and our staff got him prepared to shrink his zone a little more, take his walks more so there weren’t going to be a ton of chases, and he really took to it. The guy came into our family, and in such a short time [went] from a new guy to a big part of our family.”
— Drew Saylor, Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga manager
On Tim Locastro
“[His defense] came on pretty well as the season went on. At the beginning, he was still trying to find his arm slot a little bit. Our staff, especially [coach] Rafael Ozuna, really worked with on being able to throw out of different slots. [Ozuna] really took him under his wing and hugged him with both arms.
“[Rafael Ozuna] talked to him about being really athletic and knowing you don’t have to do everything ‘mechanically’ correct to make some plays. He tries to be mechanically perfect, [because] he’s such a cerebral guy, and as the season went on, we saw him let go of that a little bit, especially at shortstop. There’s no time to sit there and try to be perfect. It was beautiful to see it happen, to see him gain confidence with each throw.”
— Saylor
On Andrew Toles
“He can hit. He can just flat-out hit. He gives you really productive at-bats. It didn’t surprise me one bit because watching him, you can just see the way he can play. He’s the kind of player, every time he goes up the plate, you have confidence he’s going to get a hit.”
— Haselman
On Johan Mieses
“Knowing he doesn’t have to swing his butt off to have that happen, he’s learning to control his swing a little more, and that’s going to cut down on [his strikeouts]. His power rate is going to stay strong. I don’t know if 28 [home runs] is a mark he can hit year in and year out, but I definitely see plus power there. He’s God-given strong. If he was from the Midwest, I’d say he’s country strong.
“The arm is definitely a solid plus tool — on certain days it’s plus -plus. The thing I enjoyed seeing is his fearlessness. He played the outfield aggressively, ferociously. When the ball was hit to him, you knew he was going to make a tremendous effort. He showed no fear of the wall.
“It was awesome to see. He played his heart out for his teammates and for family. You could put him out there knowing he’s going to give you good reads, get good jumps with great spatial awareness. It was really special. He could do that at three positions, and eventually it got to where when we were playing teams we knew were going to want to pull the ball, in the last month to three weeks of the season, we had him predominantly in left field because of that. That shows the confidence we had in him as a staff — we thought that was the best option we had defensively.”
— Saylor
On Kyle Garlick
“Kyle’s like Willie in that just drafted last year and he got to Double-A in the first couple months of his first full season. It was adjusting to much better pitching than in the Cal League, and the Texas League is small, so they find your holes much faster. You play the same three teams again and again and again. Kyle grew up a lot that first few weeks here. He kind of got kicked in the teeth by older, more mature pitchers, and he learned from it.
“His biggest improvement was to learn to hit the right-handed breaking ball so much better. He made the adjustment to lay off of it when it’s out of the zone. He can hit any fastball. Closers, anybody with velocity, Kyle would just hit homers and doubles off all of the best pitchers out of the bullpen … Nobody could get a fastball by him.”
“We talked to [Calhoun and Garlick] a lot about approach and being a more mature hitter.”
— Garko
On Joe Broussard
“Joe was great. He was one of our most consistent, probably the most consistent guy we had out of the bullpen. It’s a real fastball. There were a lot of good hitters who couldn’t hit fastball. He’s got a presence to him.
“He played at LSU and he’s been around baseball. As a manager, there was no situation where you felt you couldn’t bring Joe in and have him know what was going on.”
— Garko
