Allan Dykstra
Chatham 2006 & 2007
First Baseman
Wake Forest
The decade’s best run producer wasn’t Justin Smoak or Evan Longoria or Gordon Beckham. Those guys may have gotten all the headlines, but the guy driving in all the runs? That was Allan Dykstra.
Of course, the big first baseman from Wake Forest spent two summers in Chatham, which paved the way. But he still had to do the driving — and the driving in.
He did a lot of it.
In 82 career games, Dykstra drove in 60 runs. There are plenty of other guys who spent two summers on the Cape and drove in a lot of runs, but no one this decade drove in as many as Dykstra.
After his freshman year at Wake, he immediately became a mainstay in the middle of Chatham’s order. That first summer, he only batted .232, but he still managed seven home runs, and he led the league with 29 RBI.
The next year, Dykstra got off to similar start — not a ton of hits, but a lot of big hits — until he caught fire in the midway point of the season. He ended up as one of the best hitters in a class that was stacked with them. He hit. 308 with five home runs and 31 RBI.
With some big hitters in the league that same year, Dykstra finished third in RBI in 2007. It would have been pretty cool if he had won two RBI titles, but that doesn’t take anything away from the numbers.
If a Chatham run was scoring in 2006 and 2007, there was a good chance Dykstra was knocking it in.
After the Cape
Dykstra was picked by the Padres with the 23rd overall pick in 2008. In 2009, his first full season, he hit .226 with 11 home runs and 60 RBI.
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I watched Dykstra in the Midwest League in 2009. He has a degenerative hip condition which lowered his signing bonus. From what I understand, no one really knows how much the hip condition effects his swing and power.
He did launch one of the longest home runs I’ve seen this season, for what it’s worth.
Also, he had a great final month to get his average up to .226. He was below .200 entering the month of August.
Thanks, Owen. Now that you mention it, I remember hearing about the injury after the draft. Hopefully, it doesn’t hold him back too much and he can carry his good final month into next year.
Allan Dykstra’s hip injury occured when he was 14 years old. It has not affected once in the last 8 years… The Padres merely used that as a negotiation tactic, much the same way they did with Tim Stauffer….. Without Scott Boris as his advisor the Padres where hoping to get a first round pick at 50% discount…..