TOP DODGERSBaseball America’s top 10 prospects in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization for 2011:Dee Gordon SSZach Lee RHPRubby de la Rosa RHPChris Withrow RHPAllen Webster RHPJerry Sands OF/1BScott Elbert LHPKenley Jansen RHPEthan Martin RHPTrayvon Robinson OF
Reigning Los Angeles Dodgers minor league player of the year Jerry Sands is expected to start the upcoming season with the Chattanooga Lookouts.
Yet if his performance in big-league camp is any indication, Sands may not be at the Class AA level for long.
The 6-foot-4, 225-pound outfielder continued his rapid ascent within the organization by hitting a team-leading .364 with two home runs and five RBIs in 16 spring-training games before getting reassigned to minor league camp Thursday night. Sands is coming off a 2010 season in which he hit a combined .301 with 35 homers and 18 steals with Great Lakes of the Class A Midwest League and the Lookouts.
“He had a really good fall league, and now he’s had a really good major league camp,” Dodgers player development director De Jon Watson said. “This is a really sound baseball player with a really good approach, and he understands who he is as a young man. The way he has carried himself is what we expected internally.