One of the surprises in the 2016 Dodgers minor league system has been 24-year old right-hand pitcher Brock Stewart. He was selected by the Dodgers in the sixth round of the 2014 First Year Player Draft out of Illinois State University. He had been drafted by the New York Mets in the 40th round of the 2010 June Draft but chose not to sign at that time.

Stewart began the 2016 season back in the California League after struggling a bit in the hitter friendly California League during the 2015 season This time around after only two starts in which he limited the opposition to five hits in 11 innings he was promoted to the Tulsa Drillers of the AA Texas League. Stewart made his debut with the Drillers at home on April 18 against the San Antonio Missions pitching five scoreless innings on three hits while striking out eight and walking two.

Brock Stewart
(Image courtesy of – milb.com)

On June 10th Stewart was promoted to the AAA Oklahoma City Dodgers. At the time of his promotion from the AA Drillers he had made nine starts over 56.1 innings with a league leading ERA of 1.07 and WHIP of 0.83. He ranked second with 62 strikeouts behind only Jake Junis of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals who recorded 70 strikeouts in 68.2 innings. Stewart had a K/BB ratio of 6.2.

Stewart made his AAA debut with the Oklahoma City Dodgers on Monday, June 13th against the Omaha Storm Chasers at home at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

Alex Freedman – the voice of the OKC Dodgers – described Stewart’s pitching strategy as “filling up the strike zone”. He further described his change up as “very good” with his slider lagging behind his other two pitches.

A MLB scout in a conversation with Freedman indicated that Brock Stewart has both a fastball and change up that are at least MLB average.

Stewart started off the game with two scoreless innings which included two strikeouts and three ground outs. After retiring the first two batters in the third innings via a strikeout and a ground out catcher Parker Morin reached base on a squibbler off the end of his bat to third base. Shortstop Irving Falu then touched Stewart for the first home run he has given up this year with a shot to right field.

That home run cut the Dodgers lead in half as the Oklahoma squad had chased Omaha starter Miguel Almonte in the first inning with four runs on five hits. The Dodgers responded with another run in the bottom of the third inning pushing their lead to three runs.

The first Storm Chaser hitter in the fourth inning lined a double to right field. Stewart proceeded to strand him at second base striking out the next two hitters and retiring former major leaguer Travis Snider on a pop up to shortstop Charlie Culberson.

In the top of the sixth inning Stewart fell behind left fielder Brett Elbner 3-0 and paid the price by giving up his second home run of the game and the season. Following two strikeouts in the sixth he ran out of gas. He fell behind the next two hitters 2-0 and wound up surrendering a base hit and issuing a walk. Reliever Logan Bawcom came on to put out the fire by inducing a routine fly ball to right field and preserving the Dodgers 5-3 lead.

On the evening Brock Stewart went 5.2 innings giving up three runs on five hits while walking one and striking out seven. He threw 88 pitches, 66 of them strikes. It was only the second time this season that Stewart has given up more than two runs.

In the bottom of the sixth inning the Dodgers tacked on another run following three walks and a steal of home by center fielder Corey Brown pushing the Dodgers lead to 6-3. One of those walks was issued by old friend Joe Beimel who pitched with the Dodgers from the 2006 through 2008 seasons.

Logan Bawcom stayed on for the seventh inning and ended the inning with a double play following a one out walk. Right-hander Lisalverto Bonilla followed with a scoreless eighth inning.

In the bottom of the eighth inning the Dodgers – with some help from the Storm Chasers – salted the game away with three more runs on three hits, a walk and two Omaha errors.

Zack Walters, O’Koyea Dickson and Rob Segedin all had two hits for the Dodgers.

Right-hander Matt West finished off the ninth inning giving the Dodgers a 9-3 win over the Storm Chasers and Brock Stewart his first win at the AAA level.