June 11th, 2016 at 6:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka With most of the baseball world focusing on the 2016 MLB First-Year Player Draft currently underway in Secaucus, New Jersey and nearly every Dodger fan engrossed in the extremely crucial Dodgers-Giants series taking place at AT&T Park in San Francisco this weekend, it’s easy to understand how and why the Dodgers Double-A affiliate Tulsa Drillers might get overlooked right now. But for those who are paying attention to what’s going on some 1,450 miles east of Dodger Stadium, they very well may be getting a sneak preview of what the Dodgers future starting rotation may soon look like – at least part of it that is.
Flying under the radar of most Dodger fans is 22-year-old right-hander Chase De Jong, who on Friday night pitched the Drillers to a 3-1 victory over the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (Royals) before a sold out ONEOK Field. In doing so, the Long Beach, California native picked up his sixth win of the season while allowing no runs and only two hits with one walk and four strikeouts in his 6.2 innings of work.
De Jong leads the Drillers with his 66.2 innings pitched this season. He was also a non-roster invitee to the Dodgers major league camp this past spring. (Photo credit – Rich Crimi)
But as the good ones always seem to do, De Jong credits his teammates for the Drillers success instead of taking it himself – even if warranted.
“This is the most competitive team I’ve ever been a part of,” said De Jong after Friday night’s win. “We don’t roll over, we don’t give away at-bats and we are going to go out there and throw strikes as a staff.”
That staff includes 23-year-old right-hander Trevor Oaks (7-1, 2.34 ERA), 24-year-old right-hander Brock Stewart (5-3, 1.07 ERA), 23-year-old right-hander Scott Barlow (3-2, 2.38 ERA) and De Jong (6-4, 2.57 ERA). These four alone have a combined 202 strikeouts while issuing only 53 walks and have the Drillers sitting in first place in the highly-competitive Texas League North Division with a 1.5-game lead over the Springfield Cardinals (Cardinals) with only 10 games remaining in the first half.
But De Jong readily admits that if the team’s first-half MVP award were to be handed out today, it wouldn’t go to himself or to any other Drillers pitcher for that matter.
“I’d pick a guy like Drew Maggi,” De Jong said without hesitation. “With his clutch defense and his ability to grind out at-bats and steal some bases he keeps the team in games. He’s the kind of guy you want on your team. You need [guys like] Drew Maggi to be successful as a unit.”
De Jong considers Drillers infielder Drew Maggi the team’s first-half MVP.
(Photo credit – Rich Crimi)
Maggi, a 27-year-old utility infielder, leads the team with his .319 batting average, his very impressive .409 on-base percentage and his hefty .854 OPS. And though the Phoenix, Arizona native has slugged only two home runs thus far this season, his two triples tie him for the team lead with catcher Kyle Farmer. Maggi also has six stolen six bases – second only to speedster Andrew Toles’ 12.
Of the Drillers 10 remaining first-half games, eight are on the road and six are against the second place Springfield Cardinals. Needless to say, they will have to continue to play exceptionally well to guarantee themselves a playoff berth in the Texas League North Division Championship Series to be held in September.
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Stewart promoted to AAA in last couple of days; Sborz on his way to AA?
I believe Sborz could be on his way (and should be), but this tansaction was a promotion of Stewart and a re-assignment of Jeremy Kehrt from OKC. I do like to see the younger prospects get pushed.
Ron and Harold, you guys are doing a fantastic job reporting the Dodgers minor leaguers.Seeing these reports on all the “up and comers” in the ranks really make enduring this Dodgers season a much more palatable venture; it gives me hope that the next few years will be remarkable.
…but I’ve not written off this year just yet. We can only hope the trade deadline doesn’t deplete the farm of too many of these kids.
I could not agree more with CruzinBlue about the reports and overall great coverage on the minor league teams. I am a huge fan of minor league baseball, especially the Dodgers, and this is a great site for all of that information.
I have been following Tulsa all year after the year the Quakes had last year. Chase De Jong, Trevor Oaks, Scott Barlow, and Brock Stewart all spent a fair amount time at Rancho last year. That coupled with the position player prospects, Bellinger, Verdugo, Scavuzzo, and Calhoun (for 20 games), was a recipe for California League Champs. This year, those guys are all at Tulsa, with Stewart just promoted to OKC. The oldest of that group is Stewart at 24. The Drillers got off to a rough start, but have really been playing some great baseball as of late (16-2 last 18 games). I have caught a few of their games on TV, and they are fun to watch.
The one concern with De Jong is the number of HRs given up; 9. Oaks (1), Barlow (2), and Stewart (0), have been much better against the long ball.