August 22nd, 2017 at 8:30 am 
by Harold Uhlman The Tulsa Drillers continued their assault on the Texas League Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week awards as right-hander Corey Copping was selected as the Pitcher of Week for the period of August 14 – August 20. He became the eighth Driller during the present campaign to be awarded one of the weekly awards. He follows present teammates Matt Beaty, Erick Mejia, Jose Miguel Fernandez, and Scott Barlow as well as Edwin Rios, Kyle Farmer and Walker Buehler who are currently with the AAA Oklahoma City Dodgers.
Corey Copping
(Photo credit – Jessie Wardarshi)
The 23-year-old Pasadena, California native was selected by the Dodgers in the 31st round of the 2015 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Oklahoma.
Following his introduction to professional baseball with the Ogden Raptors of the rookie level Pioneer League in 2015, Copping was placed on the fast track in 2016 by the Dodgers. He once again started the season with the Raptors but on June 9 he skipped by the Great Lakes Loons of the Midwest League and had a successful season with the High-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the California League.
With the Quakes Copping posted a 2-0 record and 3.72 ERA along with a 1.09 WHIP and 22 strikeouts in 19.1 innings.
The 6’1”/175-pound Copping credits the Driveline program will helping him climb the ladder more quickly in only his second year of professional ball. He said his fastball was clocked between 86 and 88 mph at the end of spring training in 2016 but after 10 weeks of Driveline, he was regularly touching 92 to 94 mph.
He started the 2017 season with the Drillers and to date he has made a league leading 45 appearances, all in relief, while posting a 2.89 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP. Over 62.1 innings he has struck out 58 and walked 28. His batting average against of .187 is also league leading while his 16 saves trail only league leader Trey Wingenter of the San Antonio Missions by one.
Copping earned his Pitcher of the Week honors by having a near-immaculate week. In three appearances, with three saves over 3.2 innings, he allowed only one base runner via a walk and struck out four. In one of his appearances he preserved a two-run lead while in the other two he had only one run with which to work.
His work helped the Drillers go on a six-game winning streak lifting them to within one game of Springfield Cardinals, the second half leaders in North Division of the Texas League. The Drillers have six games remaining with the Cardinals, three at home and closing out regular season play with three games in Springfield.
Corey Copping may well have his most important games in the 2017 season yet to come.
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Do you know the other Dodgers prospects that have gone through the Driveline program? I think Istler and Spitzbarth but assume there have been others.
I asked that question of Matt Devries who serves as the Communications Manager for the Loons and ESPN 100.9-FM.
He advised me that the Driveline participants list is not published or made known by the Dodgers. The only way it is discovered who was part of the program is if an individual makes it known, which is permissible.
One source of speculation for us is to take note of any pitchers who have extended spring training that we would not expect it for. I suspected Angel German – now traded in the Tony Watson trade – was in Driveline before reporting to the Loons. Also guys who get a lot of work and advancement that we would not have anticipated according to their draft position.
thank you for the insight. Another example of Dodgers FO keeping player info proprietary; not complaining as I think it is doing a great job with the team, just different than previous regimes.