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Jack Dreyer

I am a fanatical LA Dodgers fan (since 1980) and consume as much Dodgers content as I can. I hadn’t heard of Jack Dreyer prior to the Dodgers protecting him as their Rule 5 pick. Then I heard he played at Iowa and got even more excited. He’s getting a lot of buzz (that’s saying a lot for a team with 4 MVPs on their roster) from
Dodgers media and fans alike. He’s being called the Dodgers “Bullpen Secret Weapon”. His Induced Vertical Break (nerd baseball stat) is apparently among the best in baseball, hence generating a lot of swing and miss. He had 11 strikeouts in 7 innings pitched this Spring. If he can keep throwing like he has been he’s going to stick around on this roster awhile.
 
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I am a fanatical LA Dodgers fan (since 1980) and consume as much Dodgers content as I can. I hadn’t heard of Jack Dreyer prior to the Dodgers protecting him as their Rule 5 pick. Then I heard he played at Iowa and got even more excited. He’s getting a lot of buzz (that’s saying a lot for a team with 4 MVPs on their roster) from
Dodgers media and fans alike. He’s being called the Dodgers “Bullpen Secret Weapon”. His Induced Vertical Break (nerd baseball stat) is apparently among the best in baseball, hence generating a lot of swing and miss. He had 11 strikeouts in 7 innings pitched this Spring. If he can keep throwing like he has been he’s going to stick around on this roster awhile.

I have never heard of "induced vertical break."

How in the world did he not lead Iowa to an @EvilMonkeyInTheCloset NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!?? ;)
 
I have never heard of "induced vertical break."

How in the world did he not lead Iowa to an @EvilMonkeyInTheCloset NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!?? ;)
Apparently it makes his fastball difficult to pick up as the spin rate makes it rise. The hitters identify the fastball out of the pitchers hand, but it breaks late vertically up in the zone inducing a high volume of swing and miss. Alex Vesia also of the Dodgers had the best IVB in the league last year and Dryer’s is similar to his. Very fun team to watch (especially if you’re a Dodger fan).
 
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I’m not sure if you are a saber-metrics guy or not but the xBA and xERA are the expected Batting average against and the expected ERA. Those metrics try to eliminate luck (good fielding, poor base running etc) and just focus on the pitchers stuff and how it projects to get hitters out in relation to all the other pitchers stuff in the league. The fact that opponents have the worst batting average against in baseball and is in the top 2% in the league in preventing runs is insane. In a bullpen loaded with talent, he’s exceeding all expectations .

I hadn’t heard of Jack prior to this season. In the pre-season I listened to a Dodgers podcast where a non-Dodger pitching expert came on and raved about the potential of Dreyer. The Dodgers chose to protect him in the rule 5 draft and elected to place him on the 40-man roster prior to Spring Training. The expert predicted that they likely have unlocked something and see him as a weapon. This was back in late February to early March. Gotta keep him healthy.
 
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Jack entered last night's game in the Top of 5th with ONE OUT & LA leading 5-2.
--he walked the 1st batter he faced
--the next batter struck out swinging
--the next batter struck out swinging to end the inning.

Top of 6th:
--1st batter grounded out to pitcher
--the next batter struck out swinging
--the next batter struck out swinging to end the inning.

Top of 7th: LA brought in a new pitcher.
 
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I’m not sure if you are a saber-metrics guy or not but the xBA and xERA are the expected Batting average against and the expected ERA. Those metrics try to eliminate luck (good fielding, poor base running etc) and just focus on the pitchers stuff and how it projects to get hitters out in relation to all the other pitchers stuff in the league. The fact that opponents have the worst batting average against in baseball and is in the top 2% in the league in preventing runs is insane. In a bullpen loaded with talent, he’s exceeding all expectations .

I hadn’t heard of Jack prior to this season. In the pre-season I listened to a Dodgers podcast where a non-Dodger pitching expert came on and raved about the potential of Dreyer. The Dodgers chose to protect him in the rule 5 draft and elected to place him on the 40-man roster prior to Spring Training. The expert predicted that they likely have unlocked something and see him as a weapon. This was back in late February to early March. Gotta keep him healthy.

Great, fun post!

Yeah, I don't get into the really advanced stats. I kinda focus on ERA, WHIP, and in this case, blown saves (he has none, of course).

I hope he can keep this up; with opponents scouting Jack and watching film, will they figure him out? Hope not! ;)

It's pretty cool that Jack is a Johnson, Iowa native and played for the Hawks. He just turned 26 years old so hopefully he has around 10 more years of this ;)
 
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In LA's 4-3 loss tonight at Texas, Jack came into the game in the bottom of the 7th, with LA leading 3-2. He needed just 12 pitches to get 3 outs.

LA brought in a different pitcher in the bottom of the 8th.

Texas' Adolis García hit a two-run homer off former Texas closer Kirby Yates in the 9th inning, lifting the Rangers to the 4-3 walk off victory.

Jack's ERA dropped to .69 (nice)

 
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He keeps endearing himself to management and climbing up the proverbial trust tree. His has certainly separated himself from the role of left handed specialist and is viewed as a high leverage reliever. The established big name relievers blew a 3-run lead last night and they lost in 10 innings to the Cubs. Jack didn’t get in the game. Lefty reliever Alex Vesia gave up a 2-run home run in the 8th and lefty closer Tanner Scott gave up a game tying home run in the 9th to force extras.

I think we see Jack get some of those late game duties in the near future.
 
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Chicago beats LA , 7-6.

Jack (2-1) came into the game in the 5th inning with LA up 5-3. He pitched the entire inning, faced 8 batters, threw 30 pitches (14 strikes, 16 balls), gave up 2 hits, 3 walks, 0 strike outs and 4 earned runs. He got the loss. His ERA is now 3.07.

Some of the tweets related to his one inning of work:







GpQ7C5EWQAAzNUC



GpQ7DXHWkAAYA9_
 
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Why did he only go 1 1/3 innings? Hurt?

Not injured. Apparently that was the plan.

@so cal hawkfan can fill in the details, but this appeared to be a bullpen game. Note that THREE (Snell, Glasnow, Kershaw) of the Dodgers' FIVE (Yamamoto & Ohtani are the other two) starting pitchers are currently on the injured list.

For this game, on Monday May 5th, the Dodgers used 7 pitchers in their 7-4 win at Miami.
1.1.....Dreyer
4.0...Casparius
0.2...Vesia
1.0....Phillips
0.1....Gomez
0.2...Scott
1.0.....Yates
..................................................
9.0 Total Innings Pitched
==================


 
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Not injured. Apparently that was the plan.

@so cal hawkfan can fill in the details, but this appeared to be a bullpen game. Note that THREE (Snell, Glasnow, Kershaw) of the Dodgers' FIVE (Yamamoto & Ohtani are the other two) starting pitchers are currently on the injured list.

For this game, on Monday May 5th, the Dodgers used 7 pitchers in their 7-4 win at Miami.
1.1.....Dreyer
4.0...Casparius
0.2...Vesia
1.0....Phillips
0.1....Gomez
0.2...Scott
1.0.....Yates
..................................................
9.0 Total Innings Pitched
==================


Mostly correct. The Dodgers opening day rotation was Yamamoto, Sasaki, Snell, Glasnow and May. The Dodgers planned to have a 6-man rotation when Tony Gonsolin came off the IL, but Glasnow and Snell went down. They’ve been running a bullpen game once a week since then. Dreyer has done a bit of everything being an opener, high leverage guy, lefty specialist, bulk inning guy etc. He’s a stud.
 
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