The fans of Las Vegas 51’s second baseman Joe Thurston see that greatness is not eluding him. "Joey Ballgame", Joe's nickname that has stuck from high school, is intently focused on developing it every time he takes the field.
You hear the buzz about Thurston drifting down from the Dodgers organization. With Grudzelanek gone, Alex Cora moved up to become the Dodgers’ starting second baseman this season.
There are those in the organization who still don’t see Cora that way, and say that his days in the top 2B spot are numbered. Some say that a starting slot in the hallowed infield of Dodger baseball is more of a “when” than an “if” for Thurston.
The call was so close that the Dodgers’ 2003 yearbook listed him as a Dodger, not a member of the 51s, when it went to print.
While he has no problem suiting up as a 51 for the 2003 season, or waiting another year for his shot at the bigs, he wasn’t going to make it easy. “I wanted to make their decision tough,” says Thurston, “I wanted to make them think about it.”
Ultimately, in shaping a talent that has the potential to be the first Rookie of the Year for the Dodgers in many moons, they erred on the side of seasoning, and sent Thurston back to AAA.
On the Major League Media’s Radar
Unlike most talented minor leaguers, Joe comes up on the radar of everyone from Baseball America to ESPN’s Top Ten Prospects.
Peter Gammons, ESPN’ Dean of major league baseball, calls Thurston a “workman second baseman.” While that handle might cause the egos of many other rising stars to chafe a bit, it suits Thurston just fine.
The 5’11”, 175lb. Thurston knows that he is not built as a power hitter. “I liked Ozzie Smith growing up, Bobby Thompson… the smaller-type guys. I knew that I really wasn’t going to be a Jose Canseco [or] Mark McGwire when I grew up. I was always one of the smaller guys.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next Page
