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Los Angeles Dodgers Call Up Cody Bellinger, Scouting Report

By Benjamin Chase

Apr 25, 2017; San Francisco, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Cody Bellinger (35) catches the ball against the San Francisco Giants during the sixth inning at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 25, 2017; San Francisco, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Cody Bellinger (35) catches the ball against the San Francisco Giants during the sixth inning at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports /
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Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports /

Los Angeles Dodgers prospect Cody Bellinger got the call up to the majors and made his debut Tuesday night. What should we expect?

Player Profile

The Los Angeles Dodgers selected Cody Bellinger in the fourth round of the 2013 draft out of high school in Arizona. Bellinger has baseball roots, with father Clay Bellinger being a member of two World Series champion Yankee teams at the end of the 1990s and beginning of the 2000s.

A high make up guy, Bellinger was projectable when he was drafted at 6’4″ and just 180 pounds. He had a solid arm off the mound as well, and some thought he could be an outfielder or first baseman.

The Dodgers focused his minor league time at first base, as he played first base entirely in his 2013 debut in the Arizona Rookie League, where he hit .210/.340/.358 with a 15.9 percent walk rate and 23.59 percent strikeout rate.

He opened with the advanced rookie league team in Ogden in 2014 and fought through an injury, but put up big numbers, hitting .312/.352/.474 on the season with three home runs, six triples and eight stolen bases along with a 6.44 percent walk rate and 17.17 percent strikeout rate.

Bellinger showed enough in 2014 to jump all the way to high-A, and he put up monster numbers in the California League with Rancho Cucamonga, hitting .264/.336/.538 with 33 doubles, 30 home runs and 10 stolen bases. The biggest concern in Bellinger’s stat line was his 150 strikeouts in 544 plate appearances, leading to a 27.57 percent strikeout rate against a 9.56 percent walk rate.

Bellinger made his first list after that big season, but only on the Baseball America prospect list, ranking #54 overall.

He went about proving himself worthy of national attention in the 2016 season, spending most of the season with AA Tulsa before a three-game finish with AAA Oklahoma City and a tour through the Arizona Fall League.

On the regular season, he combined to hit .271/.365/.507 with 26 home runs and eight stolen bases, and the biggest improvement was his 60/94 BB/K rate over 477 plate appearances for a 12.58 percent walk rate and a 19.71 percent strikeout rate.

His time in the Arizona Fall League was quite impressive as well, as he slashed .314/.424/.557 with three home runs over 85 plate appearances with a 16.47 percent walk rate and 21.18 percent strikeout rate.

His big season in the high minors and AFL led to his ranking skyrocketing. Baseball America had Bellinger #7 overall, MLB Pipeline had him #13 and Baseball Prospectus had him #26.

I had Bellinger ranked #23 overall in my preseason top 125 list, and if there’s one player in the top 50 I would have bumped higher after receiving more reports ahead of spring training (my list came out the first week of January, and most national lists came out a month or more later.

Bellinger certainly has lived up to that high ranking thus far in AAA, hitting .343/.429/.627 with four doubles, five home runs and seven stolen bases in 77 plate appearances along with a 11.69 percent walk rate and 28.57 percent strikeout rate to earn his call up.

Next: Bellinger's scouting report

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