For many of us who follow the Dodgers minor league players there have been some surprises during the current season. Some of the young players have met our expectations, some are still unexpectedly spinning their wheels looking to take-off for the 2018 season and yet others have unexpectedly caught our attention.
One of the surprises, although perhaps not to the Dodgers front office, is Tulsa third baseman Connor Joe who was selected 39th overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2014 First-Year Player draft. At that time he was listed No. 100 by Baseball America.
Joe was born in San Diego and graduated from Poway High School in his hometown of Poway. Other graduates of Poway High that we might recognize are Tony Gwynn Jr. and Phil Plantier.
During his senior high school year he was selected as his team MVP, awarded the silver bat and was named a first-team all-star.
Upon graduation from high school Joe headed to the University of San Diego. It was not only close to home for him but had a baseball program that attracted him. He had also been recruited by the University of Arizona and Stanford.
Joe was a third baseman until he got to USD but had to be more flexible in his positioning as third base for the Toreros was owned by Kris Bryant. That is the same Kris Bryant who was selected as the 2016 National League MVP.
However, Joe was to make his own mark at the college level. During his junior year at San Diego he hit .367 with nine homers and a conference-leading 51 runs batted in. He started a pattern of getting to first base via the walk as during his three years of college ball he walked 79 times and struck out 84 times helping him post a .423 OBP. Joe was named the West Coast Conference player of the year as a junior.
Larry Broadway, the Director of Minor League Operations for the Pirates, was not concerned with where Joe played and in his words was, “… betting on the bat.”
Connor Joe sat out his first year as a professional after injuring his right heal when it got stuck in the outfield at Jamestown. The 6’ 0”/ 205-pound right-handed hitter rehabbed until the 2015 season. He used his time to get healthy, learn a lot about himself physically and mentally and learned about the Pirates organization.
At the A-level during the 2015 season Joe hit just .245 with one home run and 20 runs batted in. He did walk 50 times
He moved up to the High-A Bradenton Marauders in 2016 and had a more promising season hitting .277 with a .351 OBP. His expected power had not yet arrived as he hit but five home runs in 107 games. He did drive in 52 runs.
At age-24 Joe moved up to the AA Altoona Curve of the Eastern League to begin the 2017 season. Then on August 5, 2017 he got the call but not the call he might have expected as the trade deadline had passed. He recalls it well..
“It was Larry Broadway, the farm director,’’ Joe said. “Not every day a minor-leaguer hears from the farm director .’’
Broadway informed Joe, now a first baseman, that he had been traded to the Atlanta Braves for major league infielder Sean Rodriguez.
“The whole thing was a little stressful,’’ said Joe, who was hitting .240 with five home runs and 30 RBIs at the time of the trade. “That’s the business side of baseball and the first lesson is I can only control what I can control.”
Initially quite upset by the news, with the help of his family Joe was able to find a positive side to the trade..
“My mind went into a fog,’’ Joe said of that August trade, per Terry Monahan of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Being traded straight up for a big leaguer made me feel a little better.”
Joe played out the rest of 2017 season with the AA Mississippi Braves of the Southern League where he hit but .135 over 20 games.
His tenure with the Braves lasted just more than a month when he was again traded, this time to the Dodgers for international bonus pool space.
Skip ahead to April 6, 2018 for a game with the AA Tulsa Drillers in Frisco to meet the RoughRiders. Joe, now approaching 26, had two hits in four at bats, one of them a home run.
As the season progressed he has continued to hit and currently leads the league with a .643 slugging percentage, and an OPS of 1.095. His .453 OBP ranks second in the league while his 24 walks are third and his .330 batting average is sixth best. On the season he has posted 13 multiple hit games. He has hit eight home runs in 31 games so the bat that the aforementioned Larry Broadway was looking for may just have ended up in Dodger Blue.
He has played 24 games at third base and seven at first base as a Driller.
Connor Joe most likely will get another call, this time to move up to the OKC Dodgers before too long and at most following the Texas League All-Star game on June 26 which is to be held in Midland, Texas.
Mark Timmons on Monday’s Game
- This loss was on Utley, not Baez. Utley looked his age last night… also in the 9th. There were 2 or 3 plays Forsythe makes that he didn’t.
- That said, they have to score more. Great outing by Striker Buehler.
- Horrible call on Kemp at 1B – he never twitched a muscle towards 2B! Horrible!
- Max Muncy looked like a solution at 1B, at least a LH solution.
- I’m pretty sure the Dodgers will lose more games – Just take each series. That’s the key.
- Had a nice talk and a beer with Bobby last night! Great guy! Smart guy! In many ways – he knows of what I speak! 😉
Discussion (38)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Bum – we just gotta make sure Rhianna doesn’t show up at the Ravine. Kemp’s achilles.
We’re on the move. 9th worst record in baseball but just 4.5 games out of 1st place. Kershaw back soon, JT back in the line-up, CT3 hitting the ball well. Muncy doesn’t look like he knows how to short hop a throw at 1B.
Lets keep it going.
“Mom was giving me a hard time. She said when I was young and would dive for a ball, I would glide. Now I plop and stick. This time I made sure, I looked at the Jumbotron to see if I was gliding.” — Kemp, on utilizing defensive tips from his mother on a diving catch of Story’s second-inning liner
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I’ve always liked Kemp.
Good win, and needed. Stewart has regressed, why does his velocity now sit at 90 to 91 instead of 92 to 95? Even in relief this year I think he maxed out at 93 or 94 instead of 97 like last year, hurt or tired? How about Santana next Tuesday against Philly instead of Stewart, he lines up?
I hope I am wrong about Fields, he has actually good the last few outings not set up good but much better. Still feel we need a late inning reliever sooner rather then later, I thought Ariel Hernadez might have been that guy but as usual I was likely wrong about a player.
Good win in the end.
Hope this gets CT going.
Although Stewart was hit pretty had tonight, his curve ball looked pretty good. His curve ball was his third pitch that he had to develop.
AZ lost again. Let’s get this and be 4.5 out
Cody would have scooped that ball
And the Dodgers leave the bases loaded and let Bettis off of the hook.
Stewart not answer tonight. I thought he was a strikethrower.
I will be there for dinner but can’t do the game. I’m at the Ravine watching the Rockies hit everything hard. Stewart is lucky
Mark – R U still going to Rancho??
Golly he using a Trump card.
If I were a Twitter in’ Chief Fan, how could I love my Blue with all those players of color!?!?
And god damn (really) Dave at the helm.
I still say he is not a starter. I hope I am wrong tonight
Is it just me or does Brock Stewart look like he’s constipated every time he throws a baseball?
This is going on 4 years now where you and a few other fan you know starts to whine and sniffle when Petey warms up and I’ll be damned iy we’ve been to the playoffs how many years and the WS last year.
Some people would whine and snivel if they were hung with a new rope. I’m thinking we’re going to the playoffs again hopefully with a shot at the WS again, even with God damn Dave and hopefully not Petey.
Absolutely a collective effort in that loss last night. And yes, even if you were planning on starting Chase at 2nd… you have to bring in Logan as a late inning defensive replacement at the end of a close game (or anyone else that can cover more ground, has a stronger am, etc.)
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And you’re right… this loss was ultimately not on Baez. It’s on the god damn manager that brings him into a close game in the first place. This is going on four years now where me and every other Dodger fan I know starts to feel that sinking feeling when he starts warming up.
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If Baez was pitching in New York, Boston, or Philadelphia… he would have been run out of town 2 years ago.
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Dave for some unknown reason seems to have a soft spot for Petey and keeps giving him chance after chance after chance to fail.
Does anyone know if Stewart, who is starting tonight, has developed a third pitch? Also Solano should get a crack at 2nd base. He surely has earned the right. The Dodgers just might catch lightning in a bottle again.
Saw that Verdugo is playing CF in AAA. I’m assuming the front office has him playing there so he can take over for Bellinger and allow him to go back to first base.
If this is an option who would you take off the 25 man roster? Before last nights game, I was thinking Utley could be the odd man out.
Buehler, Cannot imagine getting any better performance from 23 year old rookie. The guy looks like a physics major or something, but obviously he’s tough as nails. And talented as hell. As for the rest of the team, hopefully they show up tonight.
Yeah, the Dodgers have turned their season around. That’s what we were told yesterday. They had won 4 in a row but were still 6 under .500 and had lost 10 of 11 before the 4 wins. What we need to see is consistency in all phases of the game.
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But they lost again. A game that they shouldn’t have lost give the great job that Buehler did.
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How bad was it? Let me count the ways:
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1 – the offense couldn’t score against a guy with an ERA over 5.00. They can’t win if they can’t score unless the pitching staff has Koufax and Drysdale both throwing 300+ innings.
2 – no way Baez should have walked a guy hitting .120 in the 8th inning. You can’t give up baserunners in those circumstances. Baez has a well documented inability to pitch in high leverage situations. Bad on Baez, bad on Roberts for bringing Baez in when he did.
3 – Utley couldn’t make the play when he needed to.
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So the offense was bad, the bullpen was vulnerable, and the defense couldn’t get it done. A microcosm of the Dodgers’ season so far. I posted this from the Washington Post on May 18:
“Key point? “But at this point, there is not a facet of the game where the Dodgers can be said to excel. Their offense entered Thursday ranked 21st in the majors in on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.705) and tied for 24th in homers (39). The bullpen had a 4.54 ERA and was tied for first in the majors with 10 blown saves and 24 homers allowed. And in defensive efficiency — the rate at which a defense turns batted balls into outs — the Dodgers rank 27th, a remarkable drop-off after they ranked second in MLB in 2017.”
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The more things change the more they stay the same.
Great meeting u as well, Mark. Always fun chatting about Dodger baseball. Hopefully we get you a W tonight
The run on Baez was unearned but I still was feeling dread as soon as I saw him warming up. Can’t walk a guy there and it was batter interference on the throw by Grandal. Can’t make those errors in a close game or any game. The hottest two hitters last week were Puig and Muncy in that order and Puig sits?! Doc is managing like he just can’t help himself from constant juggling. If all he has for the 8th and 9th are Baez and Hudson then we need better set up guys and fast! Make it so please. Buehler pitched well enough to win, the bats should be ashamed. Rockies moved into 1st place with the win and Snakes loss. Marquez is a totally different pitcher away from Coors Field.
I agree on Chase and also felt Logan makes those plays.