Is Walker Buehler the next great Dodgers pitcher?
The Los Angeles Dodgers have called up one of the best prospects in baseball for Monday night and they need Walker Buehler to be great in short order.
Entering the 2018 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers have massive expectations. They took the World Series champion Houston Astros to seven games last fall and they are loaded on paper this year. One thing that was questionable was the depth of their rotation but they have one of the best pitching prospects in baseball in 23-year old Walker Buehler. They have decided to call him up to start for the Dodgers Monday night and fans want to know just how good he could be.
The pitching for the Dodgers really hasn’t been the issue to this point in the season. Four of the five starters have an ERA under 4.00 and the only one that doesn’t is Rich Hill. Buehler is only coming up because Hill is on the disabled list(shocking information, to be sure). Still, it seems a little difficult to project Hyun-Jin Ryu to continue his dominance and health. Alex Wood is likely to be just above average through the season.
If the Dodgers are going to get back to the World Series, they really need a pitcher to rely on behind Clayton Kershaw. Buehler has the potential to be that player. He’s already shown his potential to be a great person with his Twitter handle.
Buehler has nine-plus innings at the major league level under his belt and the results aren’t very good. The ERA is over 7.00 and the WHIP is over 2.00. Buehler also walked almost a batter an inning and struck out 12. His pure stuff is excellent and his fastball is his calling card, sitting around 96-99 MPH. Even for major league hitters, that’s tough to deal with.
His slider is low-90’s and he throws a curve that’s in the low to mid 80’s range. In his short major league career, the fastball and curve were thrown almost 94 percent of the time. If he’s got common of his pitches, he could be near unhittable. Command as far as walking batters hasn’t been a issue with Buehler in the minors and once he settles into the majors, he should be a very good starting pitcher.
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Even though the Dodgers need offensive help in the short term, they are going to need an impact pitcher later on down the road.
They’re third in the N.L. West and already 4.5 games behind the Diamondbacks. It’s a long season and the Dodgers should be fine. It would make their road a lot easier if Beuhler starts to fulfill his promise in short order.