Los Angeles Dodgers: Cody Bellinger – Your NL Player of the Week
By Jamaal Artis
Cody Bellinger has made a splash on the Los Angeles Dodgers, that is an understatement. Now, his splash in the past week is being recognized.
Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Cody Bellinger’s hot start was honored as he was named the NL Player of the Week. It was only his second week of his major league career.
If you ask me that’s some superstar talent. Bellinger was honored for hitting 3 home runs, driving in 9 runs, and raised his overall batting average to .357.
For his efforts Bellinger was praised by his manager Dave Roberts:
"“You have a guy who is coming up and playing good baseball,” Roberts said. “With Cody, every time he steps into the batter’s box, you think something really exciting is going to happen.”"
At the beginning of the season, Bellinger was considered the Dodger top young prospect not named Julio Urias. It was expected that he’d spend some lengthy time in Triple-A before being called up to the Dodgers.
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Early season injuries and the ineffective play of Adrian Gonzalez, necessitated a call-up and all Bellinger has done is rake the ball to all parts of the field. Bellinger’s play in part led to Gonzalez being placed on the disabled list for the first time with the Dodgers.
Bellinger said all the right things when given the news of his honor, “I’m just getting good pitches to hit and trying to do the most with it that I can,” Bellinger said. Humility aside Bellinger has displayed great bat speed while expanding the strike zone making it difficult to strike him out.
Bellinger has only struck out 8 times in 46 plate appearances a decent rate for someone facing major league pitching for the first time.
Bellinger’s hot start mirrors the recent hot starts by Dodgers players called up in recent years. Yasiel Puig in 2013, Joc Pederson in 2015, and Corey Seager in 2016.
While Puig and Seager garnered Rookie of the Year accolades (Puig was 2nd and Seager won), Pederson’s batting fell off the face of the Earth hitting 6 home runs and .178 after the all-star break.
It remains to be seen if Bellinger will continue to improve and make an impact like Puig and Seager in their rookie years or will he hit the wall like Pederson.
Next: Are we over-hyping Bellinger?
With the hitting struggles, the Los Angeles Dodgers have experienced this season having Bellinger in the lineup does give the Dodgers more depth, hopefully for them and Dodgers fans Bellinger continues to stay ahead of the game and keeps the team contending.