Dodgers: Josiah Gray Gives Us the Inside Scoop on the USC Campus
Throughout all of the strangeness of the 2020 season, the one thing that has interested me most is the minor leaguers. Every Dodgers fan wants to know what the heck goes on at the USC campus. Luckily, we got Josiah Gray to help give us the inside scoop.
We spoke with the Dodgers number three prospect over the phone last week just to check-in. Gray talked about the USC campus, help from the organization, and so much more. If you’re wondering what the daily life of a player at the alternate site is like, it’s a lot like Spring Training.
Yeah, honestly it’s kind of like Spring Training. We go in every morning, we have to follow all of the COVID protocols that have been set, so we get our temperature taken and whatnot. And then we just prepare for the day, so whether it be if you’re throwing a live BP, you stretch on your own, you do all of that stuff. If you’re throwing it’s just another day of work for you, you warm up, you throw, you workout, you run. And then you kind of just head home, so it’s as much as Spring Training as it can be. And it also has the element of we have games here and there as well.
As it stands, there should only be about 20-25 players at the USC site at any given time. The Dodgers carry a few guys on the taxi squad and have had guys at their Spring Training facilities. Manager Dave Roberts talked about the fact that having a limited number of guys in the player pool made it difficult for those extra guys to actually scrimmage.
But whatever they’re doing on a daily basis, the goal is to be ready to go when called upon. The hope is that the Dodgers will not need to dig too far into their player pool in 2020. But in a year that has already seen teams get hit hard by the virus, being prepared helps.
Dodgers’ Week Ahead
The Dodgers kick off a three-game series against the Padres starting tonight in San Diego. Walker Buehler will get the ball tonight to square off against Chris Paddack in a huge matchup.
Dodgers Week 1+ Recap: Seager’s Back, Roberts Struggles, Joe Kelly Fight Club and More
