Dodgers Notes from Spring Training: Full-Squad Workout #5

Throughout Spring Training the Dodgers PR department sends out helpful daily notes from Camelback Ranch, and I am happy to pass them along.  See what they've written below.

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(Kershaw, pic via Zachary P. Lucy on twitter)

AN EXTRA DAY: The Dodgers held their fifth full-squad workout of Spring Training today, celebrating Leap Day with team defense work (pop-up priorities) and live batting practice. In team history, the Dodgers have had only one player born on Leap Day, right-hander Ed Appleton, born Feb. 29, 1892. Appleton went 5-12 with a 3.25 ERA in 48 games (13 starts) in two big league seasons with Brooklyn in 1915-16.

FIRE-BALLERS: Kenta Maeda joined young guns Julio Urias, Chris Anderson and Jose De Leon in throwing live BP today, while Clayton Kershaw, Joe Blanton, J.P. Howell, Kenley Jansen, Alex Wood, Carlos Frias, Yimi Garcia, Matt West, Adam Liberatore, Josh Ravin and Ian Thomas all threw regular bullpens.

• Garcia, 25, enters his third big league campaign after an impressive 2015 campaign with the Dodgers, during which he went 3-5 with one save and a 3.34 ERA in 59 games (one start). He was dominant early in the year in the late innings, helping to fill the void while Kenley Jansen was on the DL, and finished the season ranked among the NL’s best relievers in WHIP (0.95, 5th), opponents’ batting average (.199, 16th), opponents’ on-base percentage (.242, 4th), strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.60, 3rd) and strikeouts per nine innings (10.87, 15th).

(Yimi and Dave, pic via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2016)

(Lasorda, pic via Camelback Ranch on twitter)

MAKING THE LEAP: Right-handed pitcher Yaisel Sierra took in the Dodgers’ workout today at Camelback Ranch and is expected to be in uniform shortly following the completion of the immigration process. Sierra, 24, was signed by the Dodgers to a six-year contract last Sunday and pitched five seasons in Cuba’s Serie Nacional with Holguin (2010-14) and Sancti Spiritus (2012), going 16-21 with 25 saves and a 4.23 ERA in 131 games (25 starts). Sierra, who was ranked No. 13 on Baseball America’s Top 20 Cuban prospects list, pitched for the country’s gold-medal winning national team at the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games.

THE OPENING ACT: The Dodgers’ Cactus League opener is just three days away (!) and yesterday, Dodger manager Dave Roberts named three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw the starting pitcher for Thursday’s game against the White Sox, as well as Opening Day 2016 in San Diego. The Opening Day nod will be Kershaw’s sixth consecutive Opening Day start, leaving him one shy of the Dodger franchise record (7), shared by Don Drysdale (1958-61, ’63, ’65, ‘69) and Don Sutton (1972-78). Fernando Valenzuela (1981, 1983-86, ’88) and William “Brickyard” Kennedy (1894-96, 1898-1900) are the only other members of the franchise to tally at least six Opening Day starts. 

• Kershaw has three Opening Day victories, trailing just Drysdale (5) and Sutton (4).

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