SAN FRANCISCO -- You don't have to hang around the Rockies for very long to get the feeling that Dexter Fowler is just about to blow up. In a good way.By all accounts, Fowler just needs to meet his offensive potential and get the right publicity, and he could one day be one of those players who attain "face of the game" status.
Before you dismiss that as hyperbole, listen to Todd Helton.
"He's just about the perfect rookie," Helton said of the team's new leadoff hitter and center fielder. "He goes out and plays great ball and he knows his role [in the clubhouse]. He's a level-headed young man. If he wasn't doing this, he could be doing anything in the world."
Or, listen to Rockies' veteran reliever Alan Embree: "I don't think one person can be a face of the game, but he's definitely one of those kids that has a chance to do that. He's a very well-spoken, good-humored kid with talent. What more can you ask for?"
First, there is the talent.
Fowler, 23, is a lanky 6-foot-4, 175 pounds. He wears No. 24 as an ode to one of his idols, Ken Griffey Jr., and it fits. Rated by one source as the No. 15 prospect in all of baseball when the season began, Fowler is the prototypical five-tool player.
"I see a cross between Devon White, Kenny Lofton and a young Andruw Jones," Embree said. "That's pretty good company. He may not have the raw power, but I think he'll grow into the power. You see the tools. He has a chance to be a pretty special player."
Growing up in Atlanta, Fowler was a prep star in baseball and basketball. He had offers to play college basketball at several schools, including Harvard.
Which tells you about what Fowler brings to the table when he's not on the field.
"He's very smart, very intelligent," Helton said. "With all the dirtbags in baseball, it's like he's almost above us. He's got it all. I can't say enough about him."
Fowler is the kind of kid who smiles and greets all strangers with an outstretched hand and "Hello, I'm Dexter Fowler." He walks around the Rockies clubhouse with just the right mix of confidence and humility. He knows when to ask questions, and when to just listen."He's got the right attitude," Embree said. "He's one of those young guys who you have a conversation with and you say 'That kid gets it.'"
Giants outfielder Nate Schierholtz, who played with Fowler on the Olympic team last year, said: "He's just really laid back. Nothing really gets to him... I think he has potential to be a five-tool player. He can hit, run, throw. He plays an awesome center field."
All those tools were on display in high school, but Fowler was passed over early in the draft because he had committed to play baseball at the University of Miami. It would take a big bonus to keep him from going to college.
The Rockies were willing to pay it.
Colorado grabbed him in the 14th round of the 2004 draft and paid him first-round money, $925,000.
Fowler was something of a project after he signed. He was a righty who the Rockies made a switch-hitter, so he could better utilize his speed.
Fowler went up the Rockies ladder, one level per year, and eventually to the 2008 Olympic team.
After the Olympics, he came to the majors last September, but looked like he had a long way to go. He made his major league debut as a pinch-runner, and promptly got picked off. Helton said he looked "confused" and seemed weak at the plate, practically getting the bat knocked out of his hands, especially from the left side.
Fowler developed a split grip -- the kind players used in the '20s -- to help him simply hang on to the bat.
Newly-hired hitting coach Don Baylor saw that on video and made Fowler one of his projects this spring. Baylor gave Fowler a 40-ounce tree trunk of a bat and told him to swing it, to build strength in his hands and wrists. Baylor also tightened up his stance.
"His willingness to learn was great," Baylor said. "Work was no problem for him. He did it with a smile all the time. He's one of the most pleasant surprises of spring training. Once we started talking about it every day, he got better and better."
Fowler made the team, ostensibly as a backup, he worked his way into more and more playing time.
"We moved him in a little slowly, more right-handed than left early," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "Then some left-handed. Then the 3-4-5 guys in the (opposing) rotation instead of the 1s and 2s. He's handled everything we've given him and not just survived but contributed. He's pretty darn good right now."
A scout who has watched Fowler the past few years said he expects some struggles at the plate this year, especially from the left side, but he likes the overall package.
"He's special," the scout said. "He's got some tools. He's a center fielder with power, so you start to think about an Eric Davis type guy. ... When it's all said and done he's going to be a pretty good player, the kind of player who can beat you a lot of different ways, with speed, with his glove, with his bat. He's that multi-tool guy that can use all of them."
"There's no telling where he'll be next year. ... They'll have to make a different league for him"
-- Todd Helton, Rockies first basemanFowler was up to .310 before dipping down to his current .278. He leads the National League with nine stolen bases, including five in one game. He also has two homers. His defense has been just as good as the Rockies expected.
"He's already made some special plays," Hurdle said. "He's a whole different look for our outfield."
Defensively, Fowler is often compared to Devon White, a seven-time Gold Glove center fielder who played for three World Series winners. Fowler prefers Griffey.
"I'm a big Griffey fan," he said. "I met him in spring training and he passed me his phone number. We talk and text. He congratulated me on my first home run. I sure hope [to be like Griffey]. He's had an awesome career."
Of course it's too early to say that Fowler is going to have a career like White, let alone Griffey. The Rockies are just happy to enjoy the show as they wait to see what he can become.
"If he makes as much improvement as he did from last year to this year, there's no telling where he'll be next year," Helton said. "They'll have to make a different league for him."
