As you no doubt know by now Julio Urias is coming to "The Show" tomorrow. On the mound he'll be sporting Los Angeles Dodger Blue in that evenings game against the New York Mets, and I think every Dodger fan in the world will be glued to their television set to witness it. It's the kind of event that will be remembered and spoken about by fans for years to come. Hopefully, he can rise to the occasion and not get bogged down by unrealistic expectations.
Not that you shouldn't expect the world from him.
Urias has been spectacular since he turned pro just three years ago (at the age of 16). In fact, today marks the third anniversary of his first professional game. Here's a quote by Urias after that game with the Loons, per Cary Osborne at Dodger Insider:“With the first couple guys, I was feeling kind of nervous. After that, I was really happy because I was making my debut and things ended up going well for me,” Urias said after the game. “I just wanted to do what (Loons pitching coach Bill Simas) told me. I just wanted to throw strikes and keep the ball down. If you do that, you can pitch in any league.”On his recent play in the PCL for the Oklahoma City Dodgers Dave Cameron at FanGraphs makes note of how dominating he's been there:
Urias, though, is running a 1.10 ERA/2.89 FIP in his first 41 innings in the PCL (a notorious hitters league), and four of the five runs he’s allowed came in one appearance, back on April 16th. He allowed the fifth run in his next outing on April 22nd, a five inning affair where he gave up just two hits, walked one, and struck out eight. He’s pitched in five games since then, and posted the following line.
