June 10th, 2013 at 7:46 am 
by Harold Uhlman Three members of the Great Lakes Loons, the Dodgers Low Single-A level affiliate, have been named to the Mid West All-Star team. Tyler Ogle, Carlos Frias and Jharel Cotton will represent the team, based in Midland, Michigan, in the All-Star game which is scheduled for June 18 in Dayton, Ohio.
Having three members selected as all-stars is a bit surprising, as the Loons are 21-40 and tied for last place in the Eastern Division of the Mid West league a full 21.5 games behind the first place South Bend Silver Hawks. The Loons presently have a modest three game winning streak in which they have scored 29 runs – perhaps an indication the offense is coming alive.
Tyler Ogle
Tyler Ogle has been the Loons most consistent hitter. Ogle has raised his batting average to .284. He has eight home runs, seven doubles and is tied for the league lead in walks. Ogle, who began the season as a catcher, has played the majority of his games as a first baseman and a DH. He walks more than he strikes out and as a result is fourth in the league with a .414 OBP. With three catchers on the Loons roster – the other two being Eric Smith and Jose Capellan – it will be interesting to see what the future holds for Ogle. Ogle was drafted as a catcher by the Dodgers in the ninth round of the 2011 Amateur Draft.
Carlos Frias
Carlos Frias is 4-3 with a 2.56 ERA and a WHIP of 1.25. He has struck out 45 and walked 19. In 63 innings and averaging almost six innings per start, Frias has given up but one home run in his eleven starts. This could be seen as break out year for Frias, 23, but he is a bit old for the league having signed with the Dodgers in 2007 out of the Dominican Republic. Nonetheless, he has been the anchor on the young Loons staff and is worthy of his All-Star selection. He has had two previous short stints with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes so it seems continued success may earn Frias a shot with the Lookouts.
Jharel Cotton
Jharel Cotton, averaging six innings per start, has held opponents to a .200 batting average, with 58 strikeouts and 17 walks in 58 1/3 innings. His ERA is .355 and his WHIP is exceptional at 1.01, fifth best in the league while his strikeout total is sixth best in the Mid West League. Cotton has had seven very good appearances while he struggled with inconsistency in but two of his starts. He was selected by the Dodgers in the 20th round of the 2012 First-Year Player Draft out of East Carolina University. Unfortunately, or better still fortunately, Jharel Cotton will not be playing in the Mid West League All-Star game as he was recently promoted to the AA Chattanooga Lookouts.
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The catcher position in the Dodgers minor league system is mind boggling. Once you get past Federowicz (who will be returning to Triple-A when A.J. Ellis returns) and Matt Wallach, there really is no one with MLB talent. I can only hope that Tyler Ogle and this Kyle Farmer kid that the Dodgers just drafted will develop into true MLB-quality catchers.
RT @Think_BlueLA: New post – Down on the Farm – Three Loons named to Mid West All-Star team – http://t.co/N3RLrr5SRv – #Dodgers @greatlakes…
Do any of these guys have ML potential? Have to admit, I don’t know the names.
That is a hard question to answer as so few drafted players make it to the big leagues.Ogle seems to be a solid and versatile player. The Loons are carrying three catchers. Besides Ogle they have Eric Smith who I thought would hit much better at A ball and Jose Capellan.
Ogle has been playing first base and being used as a DH so all three can get good playing time.
Ogle actually played one game with the Isotopes in 2012 in an emergency situation, going 3 for 3 with a walk.
To be honest, I don’t pay much attention until some success is achieved at AA. I think I read somewhere that one in twenty A League players ever reach the Majors, let alone become difference makers. The Dodgers are in desperate need of difference makers and how do we know any of these guys are what the Dodgers need? We don’t. So we wait.
As one who has never been a “so we wait” kind of person, I disagree.
I spend a lot of time following the MiLB and attend anywhere from 10 to 20 Quakes games every season. I not only do this because I love baseball but because I like to know what’s coming down the pipe; and I know a mere fraction of what Harold knows, as he is our MiLB expert.
Although none of us have any say whatsoever in what ultimately happens on any level of the game, it is always nice to have an educated opinion of these young players and to know which ones to keep an eye out for, which is exactly the purpose of Harold’s (and my) Down on the Farm reports.
If you were to go back and read the many articles archived in our “Down on the Farm” category, you will notice that several of the players that we have profiled have appeared in the majors or are very close to doing so – none more prevalent than Yasiel Puig, who I alone probably wrote close to a dozen articles on when he was in the minors. Granted, a number of these kids are no longer with the Dodger organization (having been traded away), but they were when the articles were written.
I encourage you to do more of what you did (as indicated below) and occasionally check out the Dodger MiLB affiliates, RC – not only will you find it quite interesting and a lot of fun, but you will begin to pick out guys that you really like and follow them. And should they be among the very few who do actually make it to the Bigs, you will actually feel a sense of pride for them.
Very rarely does anyone from A ball make it to the Majors without first going through AA. And that is what I meant by “we wait”. We wait to see how they do against better competition. Guys who succeed at AA can often help the big team. And with the fact we cannot trust any numbers that come out of the PCL, I prefer following the AA team. I’ll trust your evaluation of A players. But I am still going to wait.
I agree with Ron. Baffled at what more Dodger management would want out of a prospect like Ogle. He came in with a All-American pedigree from University of OK and was moved constantly in his 1st real year in the organization because he can hit. In ’13 they send him to Midland with 4 young catchers and to keep in the line-up he volunteered to play 1st, OF, DH, Caught, and even pitched 2 innings one night?
Despite Razor Shines working him like a mule Ogle has managed to hit near .290 with the most extra base hits of any LAD minor league catcher from A-AA. Then when the Lookouts or ‘Topes need a catcher, they go outside the organization. LAD did the same fumble out of bounds with JT Wise, moving him to 1st base 2 yrs after he won the Johnny Bench Award given to the best catcher in college… Then in ’13 they draft a SS hoping to convert him to a backstop. Signed me up as Confused when it comes to the Dodgers and Catching.
What about Grif ??
A work in progress. From what I hear listening to Lookouts games he does a good job of blocking pitches in the dirt. His .207 batting average is a concern in his third year at AA. His average has gone down in each of the last three years with the Lookouts. .275 in 2011, .234 in 2012 and .207 this year.
Guess it’s time to look for a real job !!
Whatever happened to Chigbogu and Curletta? I thought those two were supposed to have some serious thunder in their bats?
They are still teenagers and should make it to the Rookie League Ogden Raptors this year. The Ogden roster hasn’t been set yet.
Just for drill I went back and looked at all the drafts for the last several years. One thing stands out to me…… they pretty much suck as far as adding depth to the organization. Do all ML teams drafts look this vapid, or am I misreading this?
http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/team/draft.jsp?c_id=la&year=2013
The Dodgers have concentrated on pitching and have some good young arma, also some already traded away.
They seem to be working more now on position players with an emphasis on international signings.
Justin Chigbogu(18)is hitting well with the Arizona Dodgers with five homers in eleven games. Joey Curletta(19) is hitting .333 in his last ten games with the Ogden Raptors. Neither will probably not have a place to play on the Dodgers.