It has long been accepted that making it to the Advanced Single-A level of the minor leagues – or High-A, as it is often called – is when and where a minor leaguer first begins to really get recognized within their respective organizations.

In no way is this to slam or minimize the significance of the lower minor league levels, i.e. Low Single-A, the two Rookie League levels, or the two Dominican Summer Leagues, it’s just that kids at the High-A level have usually already had their 20th birthdays and have already, for the most part, grown into their ‘man bodies.’

Add to this the fact that, for the Dodgers, their Advanced Single-A affiliate Rancho Cucamonga Quakes are located exactly 49.5 miles from the offices of Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, general manager Farhan Zaidi, and director of amateur scouting Billy Gasparino at Dodger Stadium, and you begin to realize that what goes on at Rancho is pretty much under the microscope of the Dodgers brass; this in addition to the fact that nearly every rehabbing Dodger does so with the Quakes – both as a matter of geographical convenience but even more so due to the level of competition.

Some of the more notable names to have passed through Rancho en route to the big leagues over the past few years include 2016 National League Rookie of the Year Corey Seager, 2017 NL Rookie of the Year Cody Bellinger, and current rookie right-hander Walker Buehler, who will have made his second major league start by the time the ink from this article dries – metaphorically speaking, of course.

Buehler, whom the Dodgers selected in the first round of the 2016 MLB First-Year-Player Draft out of Vanderbilt University knowing that he would immediately need Tommy John surgery, actually made it from Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes to the lights of Dodger Stadium during the 2017 season; a feat rarely accomplished when you consider that it also included stops at Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City. But here again, the (now) 23-year-old Lexington, Kentucky native had tremendous success at Rancho that did not go unnoticed by the Dodgers higher-ups.

Enter 22-year-old Rylan Bannon, whom the Dodgers selected in the eighth round of the 2017 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Much like the aforementioned Seager, Bellinger and Buehler (among others), Bannon spent little time in the low minors and, in fact, completely bypassed Low Single-A Great Lakes, having begun his professional career with the Ogden Raptors of the short-season Pioneer Rookie League before being assigned to the Quakes out of spring training 2018; a testament to his skill and maturity.

All the 5′-10″ / 180-pound utility infielder has done in his first 22 games with the Quakes is post a slash-line of .256 / .347 / .610 for an OPS of .957. And while these are most certainly not Mike-Trout-type numbers, check this out: In his last nine games, Bannon has homered in seven of them – including one on Friday night against the Lancaster JetHawks at The Hangar in Lancaster – and now has eight on the young season.

With his first inning home run on Friday, Bannon now has eight on the season and is now tied with top catching prospect Connor Wong for the team lead. Seven of those home runs have come in the last nine games.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

“A tip of the hat goes to our scouting department,” said Quakes manager Drew Saylor, when asked about Bannon, Wong and several other sluggers on his team. “I think than when they see these guys as amateurs, they see them in the Dominican or wherever else, they do a very good job of being able to forecast and see what these guys can really turn into. Where maybe you don’t see that on the front end, the vision on the back end is to have these guys have some additional power.

“I think really a lot of credit goes to Billy Gasparino, [vice president of baseball operations] Josh Byrnes, our whole entire Latin-American scouting department,” added Saylor. “I think they’ve done a really really really good job of identifying those guys. And then again the other space, it goes to the players and to the staff because they’re really working well together, they’re buying into the vision of what we have in player development and what we have here in Rancho.

“I think that all parties together really get a chance to coincide with one another and, again, be able to enjoy some of the early fruits of their labor,” said Saylor.

As for Bannon, he recognizes and is impressed with the much higher level of competition at the High-A level over that of the lower minors.

“The pitching is definitely a tick higher,” Bannon said. “You get guys that have good fastballs, good off-speed, they command both sides of the zone, and they can throw all of their pitches for a strike.

“It takes a little bit of time to adjust to the pitching because you see guys that are dotting up their curveballs, they’re dotting up their sliders, change-ups, fastballs. It’s definitely something to adjust to. You can hit all those pitches, it’s just you kind of have to adjust to how pitchers are going to pitch you and how they think they’re going to get outs, and kind of take that into your game plan and go from there.”

On the other side of the ball, the former Xavier Musketeer has been called upon to play several other positions since arriving in Rancho Cucamonga; a challenge that he both embraces and enjoys.

“The past three or four years, third has been my position,” Bannon said. “At [Instructional level] after the season last year and at spring training I started playing a little bit more second base, getting a few innings there. I think I have like maybe four or five games over at second so far, so they told me to expect to play a little bit at second a couple times a week this year, and that’s kind of what I’ve been doing. I’m definitely comfortable at both of them, but yeah, definitely third’s been my home the last couple years.”

Although primarily a third baseman, 22-year-old Rylan Bannon is also getting some playing time at second base … in a Kiké Hernandez kind of way. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As for the team in general, the Quakes took Friday night’s series opener against the Cal League South first-place JetHawks by a score of 14-9 at the notoriously windy Hanger in Lancaster. In doing so, they now have an identical 11-11 record and a share of first place in the division. Worthy of note, however, is that all four South Division teams are within two games of one another and the Quakes have two more games with the powerful JetHawks team.

As the old saying goes: “Minor Leagues, Major fun.”

Play Ball!