6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

Bryan Smith dishes it out on the worst defensive minor league teams out there. Angels, Dodgers, are you listening?

10. Great Lakes Loons, Midwest League, Dodgers (Low-A)
Team ERA: 4.56
Team DER: .623
Team FIP: 3.84
Notable Pitching Prospects: Clayton Kershaw, James Adkins, Josh Wall, Steven Johnson

While the Loons' 4.56 team ERA will be the lowest figure in this group, they were still last, by a hefty margin, in the Midwest League with an ERA 80 points lower than the league average. It was a disastrous entry into the league, though the Dodgers foray into the Midwest did provide the league with its top prospect, Clayton Kershaw. That Kershaw was able to put up a 2.77 ERA in 20 starts while pitching with one of the minors’ worst defenses behind him reflects his talent. Expect Wall and Johnson to show tangible improvements next season, Wall especially (he drew an honorable mention in my previous article about players Clay Davenport’s minor league translations like more than public perception). Johnson has already looked better in his appearances in the Hawaii Winter League, posting a 3.00 ERA in four starts.

This also doesn't mean good things as far as the defensive futures for a pair of highly-regarded prospects, third baseman Josh Bell and second baseman Preston Mattingly. The quality Bell’s offensive season (.289/.354/.470) was masked by the pitching-friendly Midwest League, but at third base he certainly didn’t do his fellow Loons any favors. Mattingly, a former first-round pick, was a disaster at the plate (.210/.251/.297) and in the field, and his future prospects look more doubtful than ever.

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6. Salt Lake Bees, Pacific Coast League, Angels (Triple-A)
Team ERA: 5.03
Team DER: .620
Team FIP: 4.47
Notable Pitchers: Joe Saunders, Jason Bulger, Ervin Santana

At the major league level, Joe Saunders was essentially the same pitcher in 2006 and 2007. His ERA+ was within six percent between the two seasons, and his strikeout rates were also not too dissimilar. While the peripherals suggest modest change, he was league average in both campaigns. At the Triple-A level during these two seasons, Saunders seemed a totally different pitcher. In 2006, he had a 2.67 ERA in 20 starts, thanks to a 7.8 H/9 ratio. In 2007 with Salt Lake, despite sporting improved walk and strikeout ratios, Saunders’ ERA almost doubled (5.11). The difference makes Saunders the poster child of this exercise. It should come as no surprise that Saunders was better in Los Angeles than Salt Lake, as the Angels turned batted balls into outs seven percent more often than the Bees in 2007. While Jason Bulger’s season in Triple-A looked mediocre—besides his 13.8 K/9—the Angels should be confident that Bulger could contribute in their major league bullpen effectively next April.

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4. Las Vegas 51s, Pacific Coast League, Dodgers (Triple-A)
Team ERA: 5.40
Team DER: .617
Team FIP: 4.62
Notable Pitching Prospects: Hong-Chih Kuo, Jon Meloan

To find the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate near the bottom of this list is surprising given the highly-acclaimed defensive prospects that logged significant playing time with the team: Matt Kemp, James Loney, Chin-Lung Hu, and Andy LaRoche. Setting aside possible environmental effects (here and at Salt Lake), we can probably assume it was the rest of the 51s defense that plagued the team, including veterans like Wilson Valdez and Marshall McDougall. The group of pitchers affected by the defense were largely non-prospects, or borderline guys like D.J. Houlton and Rick Bauer. The latter performance of that latter pair make me think a team could do worse than filling out a pitching staff with those guys, and Meloan’s dominance at the level promises for a big 2008. A lesson the Dodgers could learn: when filling a team with largely minor league veterans, picking up a few solid defenders rather than a hitter like McDougall might be the best thing to help inspire some confidence in your young pitchers.

The Dodgers were the only parent club with two minor league affiliates on this list. But the worst team — by far — was the High Desert Mavericks, the Cal League affiliate of the Mariners. Their team DER was an astonishing .589, a "historic" level of incompetence arrived at in one of the worst hitter's parks in the minors.

Labels: angels, dodgers, minors