The Los Angeles Dodgers are constantly in the trade rumor news these days thanks in no small part to the big league team carrying four decent outfielders and their Triple-A club featuring one of the better outfield prospects still in the minor leagues. Joc Pederson has had a heck of a week, joining the 20/20 club on Wednesday, then clubbing a go ahead grand slam on Thursday.
Pederson now has 21 home runs on the year and stole his 25th bag on the season Wednesday, all while hitting .323, slugging .589, and reaching base at a .450 clip in the Pacific Coast League. There is a lot of talk about the Dodgers trading for a front line starter, and many of those talks include rumors of Pederson being part of the trade, but he is making it really hard for the Dodgers to part with him.
Another highly touted outfield prospect from the NL West, Rymer Liriano, has been promoted to Triple-A. He has shown the power potential this season with Double-A San Antonio, but there are still questions about his arm after missing 2013 with Tommy John Surgery. His two best tools have always been a power bat and a power arm, and the arm doesn’t seem to be fully back still, but his 14 home runs and had a magnificent debut for El Paso. In his first game in Triple-A, Liriano went 3-4 with a walk, two doubles, three RBIs, and scored all four times he reached base.
On the mound, complete games are quickly becoming a thing of the past, and are even rarer in minor league baseball, but nobody told Justin Germano that. While he has really struggled in just over five big league innings this year, he has thrown three complete games for the Round Rock Express this season. The latest came on Thursday, when Germano allowed just three hits and a single run over the full nine innings, to earn just his fourth win of the season.