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After Olympics, Fowler to resume quick ascent of Rockies organization

By Jack Etkin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 12, 2008 at 2:06 p.m.

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Switch-hitting center fielder Dexter Fowler enjoyed a breakout season with Double-A Tulsa, batting .337 with nine homers, 61 RBI and 20 stolen bases before joining Team USA in late July.

Photo by AP Photo/M. Spencer Green

Switch-hitting center fielder Dexter Fowler enjoyed a breakout season with Double-A Tulsa, batting .337 with nine homers, 61 RBI and 20 stolen bases before joining Team USA in late July.

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The Rockies happily would have settled for less this year from center fielder Dexter Fowler. Had he simply held his own at Double-A Tulsa, progressing steadily on the developmental path instead of making a full-throttle ascent toward the big leagues, well, that would have been just fine.

After all, Fowler's 2007 season at high Single-A Modesto ended after 65 games and 245 at-bats in mid-June when he broke his right hand. He never had hit .300 in his three previous professional seasons. And this year, Fowler was making the challenging move up to Double-A, where many players are left behind.

Fowler seems destined to join the Rockies soon after he returns from the Olympics, where Team USA begins play Wednesday against South Korea.

When he left Tulsa in late July to join Team USA, the switch-hitting Fowler was batting .337 with nine homers, 61 RBI and 20 stolen bases. He had a .430 on-base percentage and .514 slugging percentage.

Better yet, his June and July were stratospheric - Fowler batted .388 in those months - thanks to a slight stance adjustment assistant Bill Geivett suggested.

Asked whether Fowler's performance this season was unanticipated by the Rockies organization, Geivett said, "I think so. . . . He doesn't have as good a bat control as he probably will when he really has his true strength that he's going to have. I think he's very close to that. He's much stronger and quicker with the bat now, and I think that's what's really helped him take off."

Setting the bar high

Fowler didn't enter the season aiming for any particular statistical objectives because specific numbers can be limiting. His sights were set on something broader, something larger and something he had heard over and over while growing up.

"I try to set my goals and expectations as high as I can," Fowler said. "Like my dad says for his company - 'Exceeding Expectations' is his patented trademark."

That would be on the Web site of Facility Supply Group, a Roswell, Ga., firm that supplies janitorial supplies and services and office products that is owned by John Fowler.

Long before he trademarked the phrase, Fowler and his wife, Trudy, who teaches physical education in kindergarten through fifth grade in the Marietta, Ga., school system, had made "exceeding expectations" a watchword for themselves, Dexter and their other son, Wesley, who will be 25 next month and has a marketing position with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"As a family," John Fowler said, "that's what we live by with regard to life, goal setting and ensuring that we're being a good steward of the talents that God's given us."

In Dexter Fowler's case, those talents are abundant. They include a lanky frame - he's 6-foot-5 and, at 183 pounds, still is growing into his body - speed that will become an enormous asset on the bases and already is in the outfield, a magnetic smile and an endearing nature and the ability to successfully become a switch hitter relatively late.

Fowler, a natural right-handed hitter, didn't begin hitting left-handed until he went to the Rockies instructional league program in fall 2004 and didn't take it into a professional game until 2005 at Rookie Casper.

"He's one of those guys, I don't know how to say it other than he's just fun to be around," said Rockies special assistant Walt Weiss, who visited Tulsa last month. "He's got an electric personality and he's an electric player. He really is. People use 'special' all the time, but he's got an aura about him.

"And for a kid who's only been switch hitting for, what? - I think this is his fourth year - it's not easy to do that, especially since most of his at-bats are coming from his unnatural side. He's come leaps and bounds, especially offensively. He's always had the defensive skills at the top of the chart."

Desire to learn

Fowler hit .293 in April and .287 in May. Geivett went to Tulsa and suggested Fowler, who hits with an open stance, move his back foot closer to home plate. He did and batted .373 in June and .407 in July.

"His back foot was quite a ways away from the plate," Tulsa hitting coach Dave Hajek said. "And from an open stance, he would then dive to the strike zone to get close enough to make contact, which got him in a tough position to hit - kind of closed up too much. He was getting beat (on pitches) in and was not having real good success hitting it hard away."

Fowler's inquisitiveness and desire to learn helped him incorporate Geivett's suggestions. Tulsa manager Stu Cole, sitting in his office near an entrance to the Drillers clubhouse, said Fowler "walks through that door every single day with a smile on his face. No matter what kind of day he had, when he leaves through the door, he has a smile on his face."

But leaving is not just a matter of a cheery Fowler sweeping past his manager. Cole said what he has "really found most intriguing" about Fowler is his daily habit before leaving of asking whether Cole has any comments about his performance and Fowler posing questions to Cole about things he did in that night's game.

Cole said the only other players he managed who made a habit of asking questions after every game were first baseman Ryan Shealy, who now is in the Kansas City organization, and outfielder Joe Gaetti, now in Oakland's organization.

In Fowler's case, touching base with Cole nightly merely is an extension of some parental teaching. John Fowler said he and his wife told their sons, after taking a test or receiving their report card or searching for extra credit, "Go to your teacher and say, 'How did I do? Is there anything else I can do to improve my performance?' "

Making it look easy

Where Fowler needs the most improvement is baserunning and base stealing. Cole said Fowler, as he gains experience, will be better at visualizing a play happening and, hence, preparing and anticipating just what to do.

He's 20-for-27 in stolen-base attempts, but Cole said, "There's a lot of times when he gets on base, he's just kind of relying on pure speed."

To be sure, Fowler has plenty of that, which enables him to cover ground with loping strides, making plays look ridiculously easy that really aren't. None of Fowler's coaches or managers in the Rockies system has questioned his desire or work ethic, but because of his athleticism, Fowler has been told he can make it look like he's showboating, which is a nice problem to have.

"It's a blessing, but some people look at it as showboating," Fowler said. "But at the same time, I'm definitely not trying to do that."

Cole said he recently told Fowler before a game, " 'Look, man, your catches are starting to get a little low.' And he knew what I was talking about."

That was Cole's way of telling Fowler to get his glove up to, if nothing else, keep from exhibiting bad body language. In reality, Fowler's ability to make things look almost too easy in center field is a tremendous advantage.

Weiss played in Atlanta when center fielder Andruw Jones was a young player there and said people grumbled that Jones didn't care as much as he should. Weiss didn't see it that way - with Jones more than a decade ago, or with Fowler now.

"People say he's on cruise control or you don't see a certain intensity that you might want to see and, sometimes, when you're evaluating a young player, people will evaluate that as a negative," Weiss said.

"But I think, when you get to the big-league level and you're in the grind up here and you're having to go out every night and compete against the best in the world, when you've got that type of makeup where you can slow the game down, people like to say certain players like that play without a pulse - that's a huge plus up here."

Comments

  • August 12, 2008

    4:16 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    1somelikeithot writes:

    Looking forward to seeing him up in the bigs when he returns from the Olympics. He is a very exciting player to watch.

  • August 12, 2008

    4:21 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    arvada_mark writes:

    Good..now win a gold medal & come play for us. I've heard a lot about this kid's talent, and it's refreshing to find out he's a family guy...close with his parents. He sounds like a good seed. I just wonder how long until the Brothers Monfort will refuse to pay market price for him...and who's the next young stud to fill his shoes. Dexter, it will be nice cheering for you over the next couple of years, or at least until you get really good & need to get paid for it. More building from within...is next year the year?