With a combined .250 batting average and no home runs for the left field position in the first sixteen games of the season, the Los Angeles Dodgers dipped into their minor league system to add some offense. Enter Jerry Sands, who in just his third professional season had started the year hitting .400 with five home runs at AAA Albuquerque.
Sands has had a meteoric rise as a prospect after hitting 35 home runs (and stealing 18 stolen bases) in a combined 2010 season at A Great Lakes and AA Chattanooga. Sand was then sent to the Arizona Fall League where he continued to impress and also had the advantage of playing for soon to be Dodger manager Don Mattingly.
The strong showing there amongst some of the brightest prospects in the minor leagues caused me to push him up in my early 2011 Top NL Prospect list at Mastersball.com. At that point he was ranked 64th, but Sands continued to gain more notice with a strong spring training and in fact in many National League keeper leagues with minor league drafts had moved into the first round of minor league reserves.
In his first major league at bat on Monday evening, Sands had an RBI double off Atlanta pitch Tim Hudson. The first of many I suspect. Sands played both outfield and first base in his two minor league seasons and thus in addition to adding some punch for the Dodgers in left field, he may be given the opportunity to spell the slumping James Loney at first base, especially against tough LHP.
He should already be rostered in NL keeper leagues but should now be added in NL redraft leagues as well as deep mixed league formats as well.
While we can’t tell how unforeseen injuries will affect major league rosters, but on several message boards where Sands promotion led to the question of who the next hot minor league hitter to be promoted to the majors will be, my answer is Brett Lawrie of the Toronto Blue Jays, now playing third base for the AAA Las Vegas 51s and hitting .426 with one home run and seven RBI in his first eleven games.
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