Time to Take Notice of this Guy

I had started a series of posts re: June is Busting Out All Over. June is still busting out but all of a sudden more difficult to follow. For whatever reason, the game logs and splits for minor league players are no longer available at MiLB.com . One day they were there, the next day gone. I have written to Jeff Lantz, Senior Director of Communications for Minor League Baseball, inquiring about what has happened. At the same time, the splits were also missing on Baseball-Reference.

Jeff Lantz quickly replied: “I actually noticed that the other day when looking up something as well. Let me check with the website team and see if they have an answer for that one. Stay tuned.”

And a few minutes later: “They are aware of the bug and have engineers on it now. Hopefully they find a solution shortly!”

So, we might be able to get back into action. In the meantime I will post a bit about another player I have been following that is inexplicably not on the Dodgers Top 30 prospect list. He is on AC’s list and has been since he was drafted.

The inexplicable part is that he was selected by the Dodgers in Round No. 4 (131 overall) of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft. The other part is that he has been somewhat a model of consistency since he was drafted. Perhaps the consistency is not high enough to warrant more attention but it looks pretty good from here.

The 22-year-old 3B/1B player, currently with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes but looking to move up, will play the entire season as a 22-year-old.  The unknown player is Brandon Lewis who currently leads the Quakes in hits (46), runs (34), 2B (14), HR (9), and is second in RBI (32). He is two runs batted behind 20-year-old second baseman Yorbit Vivas. His slash line is .293/.392/.567 with an OPS of .959 leads all of his teammates, except one.  His percentage stats are behind young phenom Diego Cartaya who has played 17 games with the Quakes. Lewis has played 41 of the Quakes 42 games which also leads the team in games played.

One of the connections that Lewis has to AC is that he graduated from the same high school as all three of AC’s children. That is, from Bishop Alemany  in Mission Hills, Southern California.

During his career at Bishop Alemany High, Lewis was a two-time all-league selection and hit .366 as a senior.

It was not really a surprise that he was not drafted out of high school in 2016 although he was a good hitter. The strike against him was conditioning, perhaps more accurately, a lack of conditioning.  Plus it was not clear he had any place to play on the field.

He went on to Pierce College, twice earning all-conference honors while hitting above .400 in his freshman and sophomore seasons combined.

Pierce College Head Coach Bill Picketts said that he’s known Lewis since he was 14 years old and that his son played baseball with Lewis at Alemany High School. Pickings saw a firsthand transformation in Lewis over six years.

Picketts revealed that, in high school, Lewis was a big kid and weighed about 50 pounds heavier than he did at Pierce College. The 6’2” right-handed hitter now weighs 225 pounds.

Coach Pickett’s assessment of Lewis includes the following.

He said Lewis is a good leader and knows how to have fun as well as work hard.

“Not only can he can hit, but he has a ton of power, and has a good feel for the game. Lewis understands the way the game is supposed to be played,”  Picketts said.

He assessed Lewis’ strongest point as the ability to work and not give up.

“His all-around game is basically his strength, he can do anything,” Picketts said.

It wasn’t until Lewis transferred to the University of California, Irvine as a junior, where he hit .315 with 14 home runs and 54 RBIs in 2019, that he caused heads to turn. Dodger heads must have turned the most as they scooped up Lewis in the fourth round of the 2019 draft.

He made his professional debut with the AZL Dodgers on June 17, 2019 and after 12 games he moved on to the Ogden Raptors where he hit 12 home runs in 32 games. That  was followed with a brief stint with the great Lakes Loons for 12 games at the end of the season. In his inaugural pro season he slashed .297/.365/.534 over three levels along with 13 home runs and 46 runs batted in.

Then along came the lost season of 2020.  Lewis was naturally concerned about the lost of development time but didn’t dwell on it. He felt  confident he would be able to make up lost ground whenever minor league baseball returned, but also because the 2020 shortened draft would force every club to focus more on players already in their systems.

“I think the playing field will be evened out once everything comes back,” he said.

He felt fortunate that he still had signing-bonus money to lean on (Bonus -$375,500) and that he played for a Dodgers organization that had paid its minor leaguers stipends through August.

It seems you can go back again. Lewis did a lot of visiting with former teammates and coaches during the 2020 non-season.

“It was cool,” he said, going back and seeing former coaches and teammates. “We caught up a little bit. A lot of guys I played with are also trying to stay in shape, so we get together and get everyone regrouped and catch up with each other.”

He’s found other ways to challenge himself too with at-home workouts crafted by the Dodgers’ strength staff as well as a newfound infatuation with golf. He’s purchased a set of used Taylor Made irons and made nightly treks to a nearby driving range. Lewis admits he was not great at driving the golf ball but was/is determined to master the game. However, he is pretty good at driving baseballs.

Prospects 1500 posted this in January re: Brandon Lewis.

“Aside from perhaps DJ Peters, Brandon Lewis has the most power in the Dodgers’ system. Drafted in the 4th round of the 2019 MLB Draft, Lewis socked 13 bombs in only 219 AB’s and through three levels in his very first taste of professional baseball.

The year prior to that, while still playing for UC Irvine, Lewis hit a whopping 14 HR’s — which at first doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize that he played his home games in the cavernous Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark where it’s 335′ down both lines, 405′ to dead center, and (here’s the kicker) a 12′ high fence.”

In his last three games, Lewis has had seven hits including three home runs and eight runs batted in. I look forward to watching him drive baseballs at Dow Diamond in Midland in the not-too-distant future.

It is thought that he will in due course transition to first base. He has played third base for 30 games with the Quakes this year along with nine appearances at first base and two as a designated hitter.