Bollinger: Dozier's Breakthrough

[Twins Daily Admin]

Rhett Bollinger has a profile on Dozier's 2013, starting with when he didn't get a September callup last year:

 

Brian Dozier will always remember the phone conversation he had with Twins general manger Terry Ryan and manager Ron Gardenhire after the 2012 season.

 

Dozier was making the long drive home to Mississippi from Minnesota, and was frustrated about not being one of the club's September callups after being optioned to Triple-A Rochester in mid-August.

 

 

Ryan and Gardenhire understood Dozier's frustrations, and told him what he needed to improve while reassuring him that he was still part of the club's future plans despite his struggles as a rookie.

 

 

He also talks a lot about Dozier's defense and some defensive metrics surrounding it. But what it made me wonder was whether the power Dozier showed, which is really what made him valuable offensively, is a fluke. I don't think he's ever really showed that before in the minors, has he? His game was getting on base...

[diehardtwinsfan]

He was pretty good in AA in 2011, which is why he got to skip AAA in 2012. I don't think he hit as many HRs, but he did have an OPS north of .800.