Atlanta Braves Left-Handed Pitcher Dylan Dodd Video Scouting Report
Dylan Dodd is going to make his major league debut on Tuesday, April 4, against the St. Louis Cardinals. I recently took the time to look at a host of Dylan’s video from 2021, 2022, and this spring to put together an idea of what to expect from him as a pitcher. For those who may not recall, I had Dodd as my second-ranked prospect in this offseason’s top 100 Atlanta Braves organizational prospect rankings.
Dylan Martin Dodd was born June 6, 1998, in Elk Grove, Illinois. He was a dominant pitcher for Bismark-Henning High School in Illinois as well as a state champion on his American Legion team.Dodd chose to attend Kankakee Community College in Illinois as a two-way player and had success on both sides of the ball, earning a Gold Glove as a first baseman in his region, winning the NJCAA World Series, and being named to the All-Tournament team for the World Series. At the plate, Dodd hit over .300 for Kankakee while amassing 24 extra-base hits and 80 walks over 115 games. As a pitcher, he threw 91 1/3 innings in his time at Kankakee with 91 strikeouts.
From Kankakee, Dodd moved to Southeast Missouri University, focusing on his pitching only. In two-plus seasons (an extra season granted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020), Dodd pitched 199 1/3 innings with a 4.02 ERA and 1.17 WHIP, posting a 233/46 K/BB ratio.
The Atlanta Braves drafted Dodd in the third round in 2021 and signed him to an underslot $122,500 bonus, with the Braves’ slot for the spot being nearly $605,000.
Dodd was assigned directly to Low-A Augusta and made three appearances in his draft year, pitching 11 innings with a 4.91 ERA and 1.18 WHIP, posting a 14/3 K/BB. He made one appearance in High-A Rome that did not go well, as Dodd allowed eight runs over three innings, though he did strike out six.
Dodd returned to Rome to open 2022, and he performed well for 16 starts, tossing 89 innings of 3.44 ERA and 1.15 WHIP with a 91/17 K/BB ratio. He was then promoted to Double-A Mississippi, where he actually performed even arguably better, posting a 3.11 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, and a 55/13 K/BB. Dodd finished the 2022 campaign with one start in Triple-A Gwinnett where he allowed three runs over 6 2/3 innings, striking out seven and walking one.
Scouting Report
Size/Build
Dodd is listed as 6’2″ and 210 pounds. He may be even lighter than that listed weight as he is long-legged for height and has long arms for a guy at 6’2″.
Delivery
Dodd begins his full delivery with a quick step toward third base before bringing his lead leg just below letter-high. Just before he surges forward to deliver the ball, Dodd leans his torso back onto his back leg slightly.
The lead leg lands straight on to the plate every time with his toe pointed slightly toward the arm side batter’s box. This leads to a touch of “cross-body” throwing, but not severe by any means. As he finishes his delivery, Dodd comes down with a high leg on the backside, but he stays on line to home plate, coming down into defensive position typically a step or two toward third base as he finishes his momentum.
From the stretch, Dodd begins with a bent lead leg and a straight plant leg in front of the rubber. He comes set with his hands and brings his lead leg letter-high while getting a slight bend into the plant leg. His right shoulder remains tucked in until the last possible moment when the lead leg plants and the upper body all comes through in one fluid motion.
Pitches/Grades
Control (60) – Dodd’s consistent delivery leads to an excellent ability to control his pitches. Even when he misses location, it’s not that he misses big, it’s by a small window. Typically, his misses are to the glove side with his breaking ball and change. Currently, he’s still control over command, but the command is still above-average as noted in that he does not miss by much when he does miss his spot.
4-Seam Fastball (55) – The fastball velocity for Dodd has picked up over his time in the Atlanta system, from 90-92 in his draft season to 93-94, touching 95-96 at times in 2022. His most-used of his two fastballs is his 4-seam pitch, which he works very well up and down in the zone. The pitch has a bit of natural ride to it, allowing it to play very well in the upper quadrant of the zone, but he works it best when it sits belt- to chest-high or at the knees.
The fastball is Dodd’s feature pitch, working up to 2/3 of his pitches in games charted for this report. He was able to show control of the pitch well up and down in the strike zone and commanded the pitch well across the plate, especially in the lower half of the zone.
Sinker (50) – Coming in with the same velocity as the 4-seam, Dodd’s sinker isn’t a “bowling ball” style sinker, but it certainly gets plenty of ugly swings due to its similarity to the 4-seam fastball and late downward break. It would appear through video that Dodd still doesn’t have a consistent feel for the sinker, as this is the pitch that he has the most issue with control and especially with command on. He also throws this pitch the least of those charted, ranging from 3% to 11% in the games charted.
Changeup (60) – Playing tremendously well off his 4-seam fastball, this is Dodd’s best pitch in overall quality. He frequently has hitters swinging early, obviously fooled into thinking that they’re getting the heater, but instead it’s a change that comes in 82-84 MPH. He gets some natural downward action at the very tail of the pitch, and he tunnels all of his offerings well, so when he’s locating his sinker well, the change can work off either one of his fastballs.
While it’s not elite in its raw movement, the change is a pitch that Dodd controls and commands extremely well, spotting the pitch to the catcher’s mitt over and over in views to all quadrants of the zone. He utilized the pitch roughly a quarter to a third of the time on a fairly consistent basis.
Slider (50) – Like everything with Dodd, his control really sets up success for the slider. The pitch comes in in the low-80s, and it has some natural cut action to the pitch as well as depth, but it’s not a true “sweeping” slider. In games charted for this viewing, Dodd threw the slider between 12-20% of the time during a game. While it is graded as a 50-quality pitch here, its effectiveness when located and sequenced well plays up notably better.
Against right-handed hitters, Dodd has the most success when he locates the slider inner half of the plate in the lower half of the strike zone as righties tend to recognize the pitch coming down and in and lay off it when it is buried at their toes. However, the pitch can get hit hard in that location without being set up well with the location of other pitches.
With left-handed hitters, Dodd can utilize the slider lower in the zone as the pitch tunnels well with his changeup. He recorded multiple strikeouts of left-handed hitters during views for this report on sliders that finished out of the zone low and away with hitters swinging over the top of the pitch.
MLB Comp
While he has roughly three inches of height on Dodd, 15-year MLB veteran J.A. Happ has a tremendous amount of similarity in his approach and pitch mix to what Dodd does.
Happ featured his 4-seam fastball while also mixing in a sinker, a change, and two breaking balls. He worked around 90 MPH with his fastball, so Dodd has an advantage there, but throughout his career, his most effective pitch was his 4-seam fastball, which he located tremendously well and used more than half of the time.
Future Role
Dodd’s ability to handle innings (he completed five innings in 21 of 26 games and averaged 5.5 innings per start), his overall pitch mix, and his plus control portend a future role in the middle to back of a rotation. As a lefty, his 93-94 MPH fastball will play well, and if there is still more growth there, as he has already added 3-4 MPH to his fastball as a pro, he could potentially be a lock for a mid-rotation spot. Taking the time in Triple-A to get the feel of his sinker to be able to play the two fastballs off of each other well could only add to his effectiveness, but he could be immediately major league ready if needed with what he has shown already.
Benjamin Chase
After 6 years of writing for FanSided on various sites and offering contributions to various other websites, family changes have encouraged me to start this site. I spend a ton of time watching baseball at all levels, but I love watching minor league baseball on milb.tv as I'm hours away from the closest minor league team. This is an effort of all those games I enjoy on a daily basis!
