Dodgers Roundup: Pages' major work, Tanner with 2 strikes, Shohei's simplification, pitch-clock powered steals, prospects, more - Dodgers Digest

Pages completed daily drills to refine his standing as a top defensive center fielder. He emphasized that improvement comes from working on the different areas he struggled with every day. The Dodgers had outfield problems for years, and Pages’ emergence addressed a major question mark. Scott described a recurring issue with leaving pitches in the heart of the plate after getting two strikes, which caused significant damage. Scott’s struggles included missing spots and allowing the ball over the middle instead of out of the zone, leading to opponents not missing and to a 4.74 ERA with 11 home runs. Prior noted that Scott threw many strikes at the wrong times, and the club worked with him on mental cues to avoid missing in hittable locations.

""I could sit here in hindsight and say, 'Oh yeah, I did,' but no," Ebel said Sunday morning, after the two completed their daily drills to refine Pages' standing as one of the game's preeminent defensive center fielders. "I mean, the guy's worked extremely hard.""

""We're working on all the different things I've struggled with, trying to improve those every day," Pages said in Spanish. "It's the only way to get better.""

""I'd get the two strikes, and I'd leave the ball in the heart of the plate, and it was causing a lot of damage," Scott said.The Dodgers knew this and stressed the point to Scott last season. Scott knew this, too, but the struggles were already deep. When he did miss his spots, the ball wound up over the middle instead of out of the zone, where he might have been able to induce a swing-and-miss. Opposing hitters didn't miss, and Scott got crushed to the tune of a 4.74 ERA while serving up 11 home runs."

""Last year was weird because he came in and he was throwing a ton of strikes," Prior said. "Problem is, he was throwing strikes at the wrong times." Mark Prior clarified that it wasn't the Dodgers' idea to make him do that, lol. Prior said Scott's uptick in strike-throwing, especially late in counts, was not the Dodgers' idea. Some of it, Prior said, is "the volatility of a pitcher." The club worked with him to make some tweaks to Scott's mental cues, trying to ensure that in the times when he inevitably missed, he didn't miss in spots where opponents could slug."

Read at Dodgers Digest