Rancho Cucamonga outfielder climbs the prospect rankings at Baseball America

Baseball America updated its 2024 top 100 prospects list on Thursday, and outfielder Josue De Paula is now ranked as the Dodgers’ top prospect, making the jump from the “just missed” group ranked between 101-115 before the season to the No. 42 prospect in MLB now.

The blurb on De Paula, who doesn’t turn 19 until May 24, at BA said, “A prodigious hitter with advanced bat-to-ball skills and a discerning eye at the plate, De Paula is just scratching the surface of his potenital in-game power. The Dodgers outfielder is poised to cement himself as one of the game’s top prospects.”

Catcher Dalton Rushing is right behind him at No. 43, up from 50th in the preseason. Andy Pages moved up from 96th to 85th after impressing in both Triple-A and the majors, and catcher Thayron Liranzo went from unranked in the preseason to 92nd now.

The only two games Miguel Vargas has missed so far this season for Triple-A Oklahoma City were April 17-18, when he was in Miami to complete his interview and test with U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services.

Vargas talked with Lisa Johnson for the OKC Baseball Club’s Beyond the Bricks blog about the process, which Vargas’ mother went through last fall:

“(It) was a great week for me,” Vargas said. “I became an American citizen. This was very important for me and my family too to come to this beautiful country.

“I’m super excited to become an American. I worked hard for it.”

The average time of a nine-inning game was two hours, 36 minutes through the ends of April, per Ronald Blum at Associated Press. That’s down a minute from last April, the first year of the pitch clock.

But perhaps most notable is that players are much more used to the clock now, so we see fewer violations. Per Blum, “Clock violations dropped to 0.32 per game from 0.70 through the same number of games last year, and games with no violations increased to 74% from 52%.”

Zach Buchanan at FanGraphs talked to several major league players nearing free agency, and how the expectations have changed in recent years:

“For the first time in a while,” said another, “it’s just not as clear what free agency can present to a player.”

“You feel like you’ve reached this part of your career where it’s a thing to celebrate,” said a pitcher, “and then you start to wonder, ‘Well, what am I going to be celebrating? What is this going to look like?’”