A name you’ll hear about in the majors in the next few years will be Dexter Fowler of the Colorado Rockies. Baseball America’s 92nd best prospect and ranked as the Rockies’ third best, he is currently with the Tulsa Drillers of the AA Texas League.
Currently batting .302, what makes this outfielder so intriguing is that he did not take up switch hitting after he became a professional. If you’ve only played the game as high as Little League you still know hard that is to accomplish. He is hitting .417 against lefties as a natural righty and .274 against righthanders.
I was lucky enough to see him in high school and you could tell back then he was special. Not that I’m saying my eye is superior to yours in seeing talent. Instead, I’m saying that he was so physically superior to his peers that he stood out to the casual observer. He bat speed was clearly faster, arm strength superior and quicker overall than anyone on the field. This included several mlb draftees and D1 signees at the time.
From Milton High in Alpharetta, Georgia, to be that much better against the level of competition he was playing against is saying something. And this is not contrary to an earlier post of mine about placing too much emphasis on tools instead of baseball success. He had the baseball skills not just tools. And that is my idea of a prospect.
It reminds me of when I was lucky enough to see Andruw Jones in low A ball. He was clearly the best player on the field in the same way Fowler was the best.
An aside about Andruw. It is kind of sad to see his skills deteriorate at such a young age. Though I’ve seen enough of him in person to know it first hand, Jayson Stark outlines his fall eloquently in his book, The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History” .
Though I think calling him the most overrated of all time is a bit harsh, it is clearly true of the last four years. Seeing his speed at the age of 18 and then knowing what excess weight has done to him now, it makes one want to play “what if”.
Folks, I think he could have been the best ever. Not just for a few years, but the best ever. He had that kind of talent.
I rambled on about Andruw and here I was talking about Fowler. I have a feeling that Fowler, having been recruited to play basketball in the Ivy League as well as by Miami for baseball, is smart enough to take care of his talents.
Tags: baseball, hitting, Dexter, Fowler, switch, Colorado, Rockies, Tulsa, Drillers, Milton, Alpharetta, Andruw, Jones, Jayson, Stark, The Stark Truth, underrated, overrated
