Dodgers pitching prospect Ross Stripling didn’t throw a cut fastball in college at Texas A&M, but it led to plenty of success at Double-A Chattanooga. (Texas A&M photo)
If Ross Stripling appears in a major-league game with the Dodgers this season, the 25-year-old will inevitably draw comparisons to all-time saves leader Mariano Rivera.
But hey, the kid started it when he began describing how he embraced the cut fastball, the pitch that defined Rivera’s 19-year career.
“I throw from such a high arm slot, and these balls have such smaller laces than college balls, they’ll just move on their own,” Stripling said earlier this month at the Dodgers’ winter development camp.
“If I just switch the ball a little bit in my fingers” — he turned the ball 30 degrees from a two-seam fastball grip — “it would cut on its own. I struggled to not cut the ball. I wanted to throw the ball where I wanted. They were like, ‘Maybe you should go with it.’ Then you hear the story that Mariano Rivera learned his cutter that way — not that I’m trying to compare myself to Mariano Rivera — but similar fashion. It was natural, then I just tried to fine-tune.”
Stripling posted a 2.78 earned-run average following his promotion to Double-A Chattanooga. Even more impressive was Stripling’s 4.37 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 94 Double-A innings. Continuing the theme of unfair comparisons, not even Clayton Kershaw‘s K:BB ratio was that high at Double-A.
The 25-year-old’s talent is still raw. He still isn’t on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster, though a roster spot is rarely given to second-year professionals in the off-season since there is no risk of losing them through the Rule 5 draft. Stripling never called his own pitches, and never watched video of his performance, before 2013. He’s also got a four-pitch repertoire that he’s still mastering; he added the cutter last year to a fastball, changeup and curveball that served him well in college.
Stripling was a fifth-round draft pick by the Dodgers out of Texas A&M in 2012. In college, Stripling was teammates with Michael Wacha, the St. Louis Cardinals pitcher who was named MVP of the National League Championship Series after beating the Dodgers twice in the Cardinals’ six-game series victory.
Like Stripling, Wacha had all his pitches called for him from the dugout in college. That didn’t stop him from reaching the majors after only 26 minor-league appearances.
“His fastball is so strong, so demanding, that he can just throw that when he wants,” Stripling said of Wacha. “His changeup is kind of the same way,” Stripling said.
Much of the inertia pushing the Dodgers toward signing Masahiro Tanaka is money. That is to say: They have the money, so why not make a run? A lesser factor, not to be discounted, is the fact that Stephen Fife and Matt Magill were starting games by the end of April.
If the Dodgers don’t land Tanaka, it means that Stripling — along with Fife, Magill, Zach Lee and maybe swingman Seth Rosin — all move up the organizational depth chart. And we might get to see that cutter sooner rather than later.
Some bullet points for a National Hugging Day:
• An interesting development in the final week of Tanaka Watch: He tweeted about his indecision … over a new Twitter avatar.
• ESPN offered this summary of each team’s pitch to Tanaka: “The Yankees and Dodgers offered tradition, the promise of well-funded, winning teams in the world’s largest media markets. The Cubs made the case that Tanaka could be pivotal in the organization’s history, leading a young team that is being built to consistently contend in years to come. The Diamondbacks argued that theirs is a family in which Tanaka will feel comfortable. Other teams have been involved, as well.”
• There’s a Dodgers flavor to the latest induction class to the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
• Dave Stewart, Matt Kemp‘s agent, set a target date of April 1 for the outfielder to be playing games. That won’t be in time for Australia. Stewart told me at one point this winter that Chad Billingsley — another client — thought he might be able to pitch in April. Now he’s saying May.
• No, seriously: Brett Tomko is making a comeback.
• Bobby Abreu‘s comeback is a little closer to reality Tuesday after he signed a minor-league deal with the Phillies.
• From Grantland.com: “On an inning-for-inning basis, Kershaw would rank third among the pitchers in the top 15, behind only Clemens and Walter Johnson.”
• What do 21,000 Pacific Islanders and Clayton Kershaw have in common? FanGraphs.com investigates.
• If Alex Rodriguez ever returns to Major League Baseball, he’ll have a bunch of angry players waiting for him.
• Happy birthday to Josh Wall and Jose Uribe, the late second cousin of Dodgers third baseman Juan.
• If Masahiro Tanaka doesn’t like this mix, I don’t think we’ll be able to get along:
