While most Dodger fans primarily focus on… well… the Dodgers, there is a very strong group of loyal Dodger fans who also follow the team’s Advanced Single-A affiliate Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, and with good cause – Rancho Cucamonga is relatively close to Dodger Stadium and, even more so, the Quakes are a really good team. So good, in fact, that they are the defending California League Champions and are currently in first place in the Cal League South Division one-quarter of the way through the 2016 season.

Although there are many good players and pitchers on the Quakes roster and there seems to be a different hero every night, there is one guy who isn’t just good, he’s very good; we’re talking good enough that his promotion to the Double-A Tulsa Drillers isn’t just probably, it’s imminent – perhaps within the next week or two.

That player is 24-year-old outfielder and occasional first baseman Kyle Garlick, who we profiled here on ThinkBlueLA last June and who blazed his way through the Arizona Rookie League Dodgers, the Pioneer Rookie League Ogden Raptors, the Low Single-A Great Lakes Loons and landed in Rancho Cucamonga – all of this between June 20, 2015 and August 14, 2015. That’s a grand total of 56 days, not months or even years.

The ironic and even storybook tale about Garlick is that he was selected by the Dodgers on the third day of the 2015 MLB First-Year Player Draft in the 28th round out of Cal Poly Pomona. I mean, when’s the last time you heard of a 28th-rounder jumping four minor league levels in less than two months?

Garlick has appeared in 29 of the Quakes 31 games thus far this season, posting a triple-slash of .336 / .402 / .630 for an outstanding OPS of 1.032. He leads the team in games played (29), at-bats (119), runs (28), hits (40), home runs (8) [the next nearest guy has 3], RBIs (25), total bases (75), walks (12), slugging percentage (.630) and OPS (1.032).

Garlick’s days at Rancho Cucamonga are probably number – but in a very good way.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As for the Cal League, Garlick ranks first in runs scored, second in RBIs, third in home runs, third in total bases, third in SLG, fourth in hits, seventh in doubles (9), ninth in OBP and 10th in batting average.

“I’ve just been doing what I’ve been doing all season long, just trying to get a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it,” Garlick said.

Of course Garlick’s success and value to the team hasn’t gone unnoticed by Quakes manager Drew Saylor, who had high praise for the nearby La Habra, California native.

“He’s been doing a really good job,” Saylor said. “I think that [Quakes hitting coach] Jay Gibbons and him have a really good relationship, they’ve had a lot of really good conversations. The thing is, he’s going out there competing. I feel that he’s taking good swings, he’s staying in the zone he’s going to do some damage in and he’s a lot of fun to watch right now.”

After a well-deserved off day on Monday, the Quakes open a brief three-game homestand at LoanMart Field against the Lancaster Jethawks (Astros) beginning on Tuesday night. They then head back out on the road for four games against the Inland Empire 66ers (Angels) in San Bernardino and three against the Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres) at The Diamond. That being said, if you want to be see Kyle Garlick in action, you might want to make plans to visit Rancho or San Bernardo or Lake Elsinore within the next week.

Like I said, imminent.