Blog Kiosk: 6/11/2016 - Dodgers Links - Smeltzer, Montas and Trayce Thompson

Justin Turner came up clutch in the ninth inning of last nights game against the Giants.  He belted a home run to win the game for the Dodgers.  Via Rick Eymer and Chris Haft at MLB.com:

"Just trying to get on base," said Turner, whose fifth homer of the season gave the Dodgers their 12th victory in 18 games. "Sometimes when you simplify things, bigger things happen."

For his part in the victory, Clayton was magnificent.  He went eight innings, walked none, allowed five hits, two runs and struck out thirteen to win his ninth game of the season.

"We got big plays all the way around," Kershaw said. "It was a fun game to play in. You know it's a big game but that shouldn't affect you one way or another. You try to pitch the same no matter what."

Photo above via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2016.  Go here to check out more pics by Jon from yesterdays game.  Below are more links to check:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1957 Roy Campanella hit his 237th career home run as a catcher to set a new NL record.  In 1972 both Willie Davis and Manny Mota would hit inside-the-park home runs against the Pirates at Dodger Stadium.
• Happy Birthday, Mike Davis and Odalis Perez!

Take a Look at the Dodgers Picks at 4 thru 10 - Welcome to the Blue!

On the second day of the 2016 Draft the Dodgers selected eight players between rounds three to ten.  Below is a short synopsis on the players taken from rounds four to ten.  You can check out my report on 3rd Round pick Dustin May here.

It should be noted that two of the players below, to go along with the Dodgers #1 pick Gavin Lux, are shortstops.  This is not to say that the Dodgers are looking to replace the current officeholder at the position, Corey Seager.  Instead, drafting is all about getting the best athletes possible.  Per Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:

“The theory is that looking throughout the history of the draft and how athletes develop and age, when they’re athletic enough to play shortstop, it’s a pretty good recipe — as they age and get older and their skills develop and their bodies go forward or backwards — they can usually play other positions,” Gasparino said. “So many players today who are left fielders or right fielders, third basemen, second basemen, started out as shortstops. If you can start there, it’s a lot easier to transition to other places on the field, and gives you more avenues of versatility that way.”

In other words, this isn’t the NBA. With development such a long, protracted process in baseball — and almost no such thing as a quick fix — the overwhelming tendency is to take the player with the greatest potential, regardless of what the current Major League roster looks like. If the worst-case scenario is the Dodgers have multiple quality shortstops, they’ll live with that.

In Jon's story he also shares some quotes from Billy Gasparino about the eight players taken today, and I've included them in the below writeups.

4th Round Pick

D.J. Peters

DJ Peters is a 6' 5" tall outfielder who played this past season at Western Nevada Community College.  Peters, a 20-year-old outfielder from Glendora, CA, set records for Western Nevada College in batting average (.419) and home runs (16) this season.   The Region 18 Player of the Year posted a .419/.510/.734 slashline and became the first Wildcat to hit above .400 in a season.  You can follow him on twitter here: @8Peters.  Per Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:

“He’s just an uber-talented outfielder with tons of tools and upside, and big power. He came to our workout at Dodger Stadium and was launching balls into the stands and throwing well and running well, just really a physical freak in some ways.”

Below are more stories and reports worth checking out: