The Los Angeles Dodgers placed three prospects in the Baseball Prospectus midseason top 50 prospects for the 2017 season, headlined by Walker Buehler at No. 19. Alex Verdugo was ranked 27th and Yadier Alvarez 28th. The publication did not consider Cody Bellinger a prospect for the purpose of their update.
Heading into the 2017 season, Baseball Prospectus ranked Alvarez No. 23 overall, and named Bellinger (26th), Verdugo (66), Yusniel Diaz (90) and Buehler (94) to their top 101.
Buehler is in his first full season since undergoing Tommy John surgery shortly after being selected by the Dodgers in the first round of the 2015 Draft.
He began the year with High-A Rancho Cucamonga and pitched to a 1.10 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 16.1 innings. Opponents batted .143/.226/.232, managing just three extra-base hits (one double, two triples) off Buehler in his five starts with the Quakes.
The right-hander joined Double-A Tulsa in May, where he’s gone 2-2 with a 2.98 ERA in 10 starts. Buehler earned Texas League Pitcher of the Week honors for the period of June 29-July 2, and was among the Drillers named to the Texas League All-Star Game.
In his first experience at the Triple-A level, Verdugo is hitting a blistering .349/.418/.468 with 18 doubles, four triples, three home runs and 42 RBI in 78 games. He recently had a career-best 20-game hitting streak, producing multi-hit performances in 14 of those contests.
Verdugo enters play Friday with a more modest five-game hitting streak, and has a current 30-game streak of reaching base safely. He was named to the Triple-A All-Star Game, along with three of his Oklahoma City teammates.
Alvarez’s drop in the rankings is due to an average showing with the Quakes during the first half of the season. He’s just 2-4 with a 5.37 ERA, 56 strikeouts and 21 walks in 55.1 innings over 13 games (10 starts).
Alvarez has recorded at least five strikeouts in eight of his games. The Dodgers signed the Cuban right-hander to a $16 million bonus in July 2015.
