The Great Lakes Loons are the Dodgers Low Single-A affiliate in the Midwest League. The team moved to Midland, Michigan in 2007 after completing the 2006 season at the historic Dodgertown complex in Vero Beach, Florida. The Loons are the minor league team that I now follow more closely during the baseball season than any other Dodger affiliate team – thanks to MiLB.com and a time zone only one hour removed from my Atlantic Standard Time Zone.

The Midwest League has two eight-team divisions with the Loons part of the Eastern Division. During the first half of the season the Loons finished with a 34-36 record well back of the first place West Michigan Whitecaps. Although they had a 32-37 record in the second half of league play the Loons needed but one more victory to capture a wildcard playoff berth. In their last eight games they were shut out twice with 2-0 and 1-0 scores. Zachary Bird was the losing pitcher in both games although he struck out 14 in 10 innings while walking only one batter.

Offensively the Loons struggled for most of the season compiling a team batting average of .242, almost dead last in the league. Their OBP was also the second lowest in the league at .313. The missing offense to push them over the top and into a playoff berth most likely came with the lost of their two best offensive performers during the season. Catcher Kyle Farmer received a mid-season promotion to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the California League and second baseman Jesmuel Valentin went to the Philadelphia Phillies as part of a trade for pitcher Roberto Hernandez. It was expected that Jacob Scavuzzo and Justin Chigbogu would help the Loons offensively in 2014. However both struggled at the Class-A level and were demoted to the Rookie League Ogden Raptors for more seasoning. Both are still only twenty years old so look for them to be ready for Class-A ball in 2015.

Although the Dodges have been rather lean in the catching prospects over the past several years, they appear to have a good one in 24-year-old Kyle Farmer. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Farmer was certainly an offensive force before his promotion to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. After 57 games Farmer had 25 runs, 71 hits, 35 RBI with a .357 OBP and a .310 batting average. He was not only leading his team in most offensive categories but was also well up in several categories in league standings at that point in the season. He found the going a bit more difficult in the High-A California League.

With both Farmer and Valentin gone 20-year old Joey Curletta was left to carry much of the offensive load for the Loons. Selected in the sixth round of the 2012 First Year Player Draft out of Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix, Arizona the young right fielder responded as expected. He hit .277 with a team leading 143 hits, sixth best in the league. He also led the team with 68 runs batted in while posting a .333 OBP and stroking seven home runs and 30 doubles. At 6’ 4”, 245 lb he still managed to steal 15 bases. On July 21st Curletta had a six hit game including a home run and a double.

The two main themes for the Loons season seemed to be trading twenty year old players and the total dominance by their bullpen.

To complete trades for the major league club the Dodgers traded the following players from the Loons roster in 2014:
Second baseman Jesmuel Valentin (20) to the Phillies in the Roberto Hernandez trade
Pitcher Victor Arano (19) to the Phillies in the Roberto Hernandez trade
Pitcher Jonathan Martinez (20) to the Cubs in the Darwin Barney trade
Pitcher Greg Harris (20) to the Marlins in the Joel Peralta trade
Pitcher Miguel Sulbaran (20) to the Twins in 2013 in the Drew Butera trade

The young pitching staff did perform very well during the season compiling an ERA of 3.49 which was third best in the league along with a WHIP of 1.27 and leading the league in strikeouts with 1256.

Right-hander Zachary Bird was the only 20-year old starter on the Loons not traded in 2014. At first glance he did not have the type of season that would suggest he should be protected and not traded while other youngsters were traded. His progress has been a bit slow since he was drafted out of Murrah High School in Jackson, Mississippi in the 2012 First Year Player Draft. However, his potential is intriguing and as a ninth round selection he was considered to be a sleeper pick by John Sickels. A hard thrower at 6’4” and 205 pounds command is all that is holding Bird back. In 118.2 innings in 2014 he posted an ERA of 4.25 while striking out 110. In his last 11 starts, excluding one forgettable start, he pitched 51 innings with an ERA of 2.99 while striking out 57. Look for Zachary Bird to move up the Dodgers prospect list in the next two years.

With virtually no run support, 20-year-old Zachary Bird posted a 6-17 record but had an impressive 4.25 ERA with the Loons in 2014. (Photo courtesy of dodgersnation.com)

Jose De Leon was recently profiled on the Ogden Raptors 2014 review. However, I was privileged to be following his games with the Loons in which he made four starts. On August 19th he established a new Loons strikeout record by fanning 14 hitters in six innings of work. He broke the previous Loons record of 12 strikeouts in a game held by three previous Loons pitchers including National League Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw. Just for good measure De Leon struck out 12 Lake County batters in a subsequent August 29th start.

Perhaps the season belonged to the group of nine relievers who pitched 456 innings, gave up 323 hits and 142 walks while striking out 537. Their combined WHIP was just over one per inning at 1.02 and they combined to win 25 of the Loons 66 victories.

As an example of their dominance, on July 19th Loons relievers Ralston Cash, Jacob Rhame and Matt Campbell combined to strike out 14 Kane County batters over five innings in a 4-2 win before 5,918 fans at Dow Diamond. Jacob Rhame at one point in the season went 31 innings over 22 appearances without giving up a run, earned or unearned. Victor Araujo was almost unhittable giving up only 39 hits in 68 innings of work.

The strength of the bullpen was that there were nine relievers, all of whom could pick up the starters and each other at any point in the game. The relievers consistently pitched complete innings rarely leaving men on base for the next one to take the mound. In the month of July Loons relievers faced only 20 inherited runners, most often left on base by starting pitchers, and allowed only two to score.

The dominance of the Loons pen in 2014 is illustrated in the chart below.

To say that the Loons had a good bullpen would be an unfair assessment – they had a GREAT bullpen.