Nick Tropeano

[Frank Selders]

Nick Tropeand has been optioned to SLC. Tough place to get your game together.

[Blarg]

He would not get any experience otherwise. No reason to drop him to AA which is a pitchers circuit. Better he face hitters Park conditions with 4A talent to sharpen his skills.

[Second Base]

Should be very interesting to see what happens with the AAA staff.  Heaney and Tropeano will be in AAA, along with Rucinski and Alvarez at some point.  All four may log a start at some point this season, but that AAA environment can destroy a pitcher's confidence. 

[disarcina]

SLC rotation will include Tropeano and Heaney

[wopphil]

Good move. I'd rather Tropeano go to Salt Lake than Heaney (I understand he will be going as well) if for no other reason than to obtain an extra year of club control.

[NorCal Halo]

Erik Bennett has a golden opportunity!

[disarcina]

I think Alvarez gets the spot start on April 14 and potentially a second start if that one goes well.........he may be able to cancel his trip to SLC with good performances.

[Inside Pitch]

Fletcher pointed out that SLC will be using a humidor on their baseballs -- the Dodgers AAA team in New Mexico will be also.   Guys like Trop and potentially Heaney will have it a bit easier than pitchers did in the past.

[disarcina]

the humidor in those places also provides (arguably) a better atmosphere for analyzing how they'll do at the next level.

 

these pitchers get knocked around at high altitude places and have high ERA and terrible stats/ pitching lines and those stats don't really assist the front office (and others) much is assessing a player's progress.

 

same thing with hitters, they have these great stats and then literally come down to earth when they hit the bigs and all the HRs turn into fly ball outs.

 

Dodgers had that problem for years -- a bunch of Triple -A sluggers at Albuquerque who never quite matched their minor league stats/potential in the bigs -- Paul Konerko spent three years at Albuquerque and was Triple - A player of the year back to back or something and his success never translated in LA -- they moved him to Cincinnati and then to the ChiSox where he become a fan favorite, near icon and hit 400 plus HRs there.  Another one was Mike Marshall (the 1B guy not the pitcher) and others.

 

humidor down at those places, a good idea IMO.

[Docwaukee]

The altitude doesn't just make the balls fly a longer distance, but it makes pitches move less.  In fact, pitches at high altitude like SLC move only about 80% of those at sea level.  

 

*see Matt Shoemaker's splitter.  

[nando714]

Didnt the dodgers move their AAA affiliate to oklahoma city? And double a to Tulsa?

Edited March 31, 2015 by nando714

[Inside Pitch]

Didnt the dodgers move their AAA affiliate to oklahoma city? And double a to Tulsa?

 

I believe so, I don't really keep track of the affiliation shuffle other than the Angels during the off-season, but regardless of who they are affiliated with, the Isotopes have a humidor to try to offset the issues there..  They first tried it there in 2013 I believe.