Dozier's Stock On Rise For Royals

 STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE Hunter Dozier, Northwest Arkansas Naturals third baseman, makes a throw to first against the Tulsa Drillers on June 20 at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale.

STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE Hunter Dozier, Northwest Arkansas Naturals third baseman, makes a throw to first against the Tulsa Drillers on June 20 at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

SPRINGDALE -- The list of Kansas City first-round picks over the past 10 years reads like a Who's Who of recent Royals legacy.

Names such as Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, Luke Hochevar, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Aaron Crow are plying their trade with the big club.

Hunter Dozier, Kansas City's 2013 first-rounder, looks like he's not far behind.

The Naturals third baseman was taken eighth overall in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft in 2013. Barely over a calendar year later, he has leapfrogged many taken in years before him and continues to raise his stock with Northwest Arkansas.

"That was one of my goals, to end up in Double A within my first full season," Dozier said. "It's good to be here. This is the kind of place you want to be with some of the best competition in minor league baseball in Double A."

Dozier made the leap from High A's Wilmington Blue Rocks to the Naturals on June 18. After a couple weeks to adjust, he's been finding a groove. Dozier is batting .270 with a .357 on-base percentage and .432 slugging percentage in his last 10 games.

Manager Vance Wilson likes what he's seen from the Stephen F. Austin product.

"The makeup is the No. 1 thing. It doesn't even matter about the tools. The tools show themselves," Wilson said. "But just an incredible aptitude of learning. You tell him something one time he does it. You don't have to go back to it. Just an incredible all around talent."

Part of that makeup was tested as he moved from shortstop in college to third base as a professional. At 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, he's a bit big to play short and he admitted the transition to the hot corner has been an adjustment. Dozier has committed 15 errors in 86 games combined at both levels this season.

So he knows he has a few things remaining to iron.

"I'm working hard over there, still trying to learn the position," Dozier said. "Getting better at third, but I don't care where I play as long as I get a spot. I'll do whatever."

Dozier credits that hard-working attitude to his father Kelly. In an era where most highly-touted American prospects grew up with a multitude of coaches, playing travel ball and attending powerhouse Division I universities or high schools, Dozier stands out as something different. It was Kelly who taught him the game from childhood more than any coach, he said.

He broke his collarbone in his junior year of high school and most big-time baseball schools shied away from recruiting him. He went from Denton, Texas, to Nacogdoches and Stephen F. Austin, a school that's produced just one major league player in its history: former Cardinals catcher Steven Hill had a total of 13 at-bats with the Cardinals over the 2010 and 2012 seasons. Scouts and pundits were rather surprised when the Royals tabbed Dozier with the No. 8 pick.

They're not as surprised anymore.

"He'll make it," Wilson said. "Not only will he make it, he'll be a big piece of what the Kansas City Royals will do in the future, no question."

Sports on 07/20/2014