Inside The Dodgers

Dodgers News: Julio Urias' Production All-Season Long Receives High Praise From Pitching Coach

There's a reason why Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias was considered for the NL Cy Young Award

Ryan Menzie

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When you think of some of top pitchers in the MLB, Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias should rise near the top of most lists. The consistency he showed, despite pitching over 50 innings less than NL Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara, helped lead the Dodgers to a franchise record 111 wins.

Urias ended the season with an NL best 2.16 ERA to go along with his third best record in the league of 17-7. Although he wasn't able to come home with the hardware, this didn't stop his pitching coach Mark Prior to give him high praise for the display of talent all season long. 

Prior spoke to the media and didn't hold back his appreciation for Urias all season long. 

“He kind of flew under the radar surprisingly,” Prior said. “He just posts every single day. He goes out and gives us a chance to win ballgames. He goes out and makes 30 starts this year. He limits damage, gets a lot of soft contact. He doesn’t walk a ton of guys.”

Urias play on the field does more for the clubhouse than just wins and losses. 

“I think he really has a calming presence on our staff, but on our team when he takes the mound. And what he did for us all year was pretty special with some guys that went down in Walker [Buehler] and Clayton [Kershaw] missing time. He was a stabilizing force for our bullpen, excuse me, for our pitching staff, and then saved our bullpen on a lot of days, too, just because we needed innings and he would go out there and kind of have that ace mentality and kind of pick up some innings for guys.”

It's unfortunate the work Urias puts in is still not being recognized around the league as it should, but this won't stop Urias from performing at his best. Prior will be the first to tell you Urias deserves any award thrown at him and soon the rest of the league will catch up. 

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Ryan Menzie
RYAN MENZIE

Ryan Menzie | Lead Contributor Ryan is an LA Native who has grown up praising the greatest athletes LA has had to offer. A love for sports ranging between basketball, football, volleyball and golf, a future Sports Management Masters graduate, and being engulfed into organized sports since seven years old, the passion and love for sports never ends for Ryan. If the words he writes don't paint the full picture of his true fandom, he will find more ways than one to tell the story and be more than willing to open up a nice LA sports debate with you. Favorite Player: Mookie Betts Favorite Moment: 2020 World Series. The Lakers won the NBA title and the Dodgers secured the World Series only a couple of months later. During such a rough time with COVID-19 and such a bleak look at how sports has tried to overcome the circumstances, it was a relief to see the night sky lit up for many nights and a makeshift parade in LA when it seemed like we needed it the most.

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