Prior to each year’s All-Star Game, Major League Baseball holds its annual Home Run Derby. In fact, this past season the popular event featured an all-new format that was a huge hit (no pun intended) among the participants and fans alike. But even with its new format, the contestants still hit balls that were served up to them by a pitcher of their choosing and all were 60-MPH-ish straight flat fastballs, or “cookies” as they are often called.

But on Saturday evening, the Arizona Fall League – MLB’s premiere off-season league that showcases baseball’s top prospects – held an entirely different kind of hitting contest. It’s called the Bowman Hitting Challenge and it features one top prospect from each of the 30 MLB teams. Participants try to accumulate points by hitting specific targets placed strategically around the field and, of course, they also try to hit home runs. In the final round contestants attempt to hit home runs off of a batting tee.

Sounds easy, right?

Think again. In the three-year history of the popular event, it has never been done – not once.

But as luck would have it, Dodgers outfield prospect and Rancho Cucamonga Quakes star Jacob Scavuzzo just so happened to hit one of the on-field targets during that final batting tee round and in doing so edged out Miami Marlins outfield prospect Austin Dean for the win.

“That money ball, everybody’s trying to be the guy that hits the home run because it hasn’t been done before,” Scavuzzo told MLB.com’s Spencer Fordin after his winning tee shot. “I luckily hit it off the end a little bit and it wound up hitting the cat (target), and that wound up sealing the deal for me. I’m pretty happy with the way that worked out.”

Scavuzzo was selected by the Dodgers in the 21st round of the 2012 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Villa Park High School in Orange, CA. And although the 21-year-old Southern California native began the 2015 season with the Dodgers Low Single-A Great Lakes Loons, he was promoted to the Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes on June 25 and was an integral part of their playoff run that ended with the Quakes winning the prestigious California League Championship in a three-game sweep of the San Jose Giants this past September. Scavuzzo hit .308 with 13 home runs and 49 RBIs in his 61 games with the Quakes.

Scavuzzo’s seventh-inning two-run home run in Game-1 of the Cal League Championship Series proved to be the crushing blown to the San Jose Giants, from which they never recovered.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In his first game with the Glendale Desert Dogs (out of three played thus far), Scavuzzo went 3 for 4 (.750) with a run scored. He is joined on the team with Dodgers prospects Kyle Farmer, Brandon Trinkwon, Brandon Dixon and pitchers Ralston Cash, Jharel Cotton, Rob Rogers and Matt West. The manager of the Desert Dogs is none other that Quakes manager Bill Haselman, who was selected for that prestigious position before the Quakes won the Cal League Championship.

“It’s an honor, it’s really nice,” said Haselman upon learning of his AFL managerial selection. “I think it’s great that other organizations and stuff thought enough of me to do that. I’m excited to do it, I think it’s great.”

As for his Bowman Hitting Challenge win, Scavuzzo credits his many years of hitting balls off a tee as a youngster for his success.

“It’s not impossible, but it’s challenging,” Scavuzzo said. “You have a lot of adrenaline and you’re trying to get really big and swing as hard as you can and hit it over the fence. You have to remember the fundamentals of baseball. You grow up hitting off a tee. You just have to relate to that and be yourself.”

Scavuzzo, who will be 22 years old on January 15, will most likely begin the 2016 season back at Rancho Cucamonga but will undoubtedly see action at Double-A Tulsa before season’s end – probably sometime around the All-Star break. That being said and depending on the (many) anticipated off-season moves by the Dodgers this winter, he could very well start the 2016 campaign with the Tulsa Drillers.

Dodgers fan who are still suffering from their team’s early exit from the postseason (again) or who are already going through baseball withdrawals are encouraged to make the six-hour drive over to Phoenix to catch the exciting action of the Arizona Fall League, which runs through Thursday, November 16. The AFL’s popular Fall Stars Game will be held on Saturday, November 7 and the AFL Championship Game on Saturday, November 21.

For more information on the Arizona Fall League, check out their website.