Two Major One Minor 050614

Here is my fifth Two Major One Minor segment of 2014. This is my fourth year of doing this series where I feature two Major League players and one minor league player each week. This week I am featuring Brian Dozier, Dee Gordon and Mookie Betts.

Dozier is the Twins second baseman and he is having a break out year in his third MLB season. This season he is hitting .240/.367/.446 with 8 HR, 12 RBI, 31 R, 11 SB in 30 games. His steals and runs currently lead the American League. He gave a glimpse of that speed\power combo last season with 18 HR and 14 SB in 147 games. The Twins drafted him in the eighth round in 2009 out of Southern Mississippi after he missed the second half of his senior season with a broken collar bone. The four year starting shortstop was in the midst of his best season before the injury hitting .391/.488/.587 with 4 HR, 39 RBI, 44 R, 6 SB in 37 games. Dozier is just entering his prime as he will be 27 on May 15.

Gordon is another second baseman who is having a break out year in the National League for the Dodgers. The speed had always been there as he swiped 24 bases over 56 games in 2011 and 32 bases in 87 games in 2012. Yet his position at short was always uncertain especially after Hanley Ramirez joined the team in 2012. Making the team out of spring training at second base has been a bosot for both Gordon and the Dodgers. This season he is hitting .342/.375/.442 with 1 HR, 10 RBI, 17 R, 19 SB in 30 games. He is currently leading the NL in steals. The Dodgers originally drafted him in the fourth round in 2008. Gordon turned 26 on April 22. 

Betts is a second baseman who is knocking the cover off the ball and terrorizing the base paths in the Eastern League as he plays for Double A Portland of the Red Sox. He is picking up where up where he left off last season as the Red Sox Minor League Player of the Year and is hitting .412/.469/.623 with 4 HR, 16 RBI, 35 R, 14 SB in 27 games. It will be surprising is he doesn't move up to the next level in the second half of the season. He was originally drafted by the Red Sox in the fifth round in 2011. Betts will be 22 on October 7th.