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B R I A N D O Z I E R

POWER, SPEED AND LEADERSHIP PROPEL BRIAN DOZIER TO THE TOP OF THE TWINS LINEUP.

By Patrick Stumpf

Each time Brian Dozier strides to the batter’s box as the leado! hitter or makes a highlight-reel play in the "eld, he cements his place as the Twins everyday second baseman and a leader in the clubhouse.

The 26-year-old Dozier has taken a liking to his role as the catalyst at the top of the order.

“Gardy came up to me in spring training, telling me I was going to be the leado! guy,” Dozier said. “I was happy to do that. I like that responsibility, and I feel like it "ts my mold pretty well: try to get on base for the guys behind me, steal bases, drive in runs, hit homers, a mixture of all di!erent kinds of things.”

Injuries have limited Ron Gardenhire’s ability to "ll out his lineup cards to the point of asking players to play out of po-sition and forcing the front o#ce to keep Triple-A Rochester on speed dial for healthy reinforcements. The fallout puts added pressure on the able-bodied Twins, Dozier included.

“Obviously we’ve had some injuries,” said Dozier, who was the only Twin who had started every game this season as of mid-May. “There’s really nothing you can do about that, and it’s kind of disappointing to see.

“Losing guys always puts pressure on some of the others. But in the grand scheme of things, I’m very con"dent in the people hitting behind me. You see what [Trevor] Plou!e has been doing, [Chris] Colabello, Kurt Suzuki and Jason [Kubel], those guys have really excelled at driving in runs.”

Dozier hasn’t been too shabby, either. Over the past cal-endar year, he’s hit as many home runs as Colorado’s Carlos Gonzalez, Milwaukee’s Carlos Gomez and Oakland’s Yoe-nis Cespedes. In 2013, he hit the most homers by a Twins second baseman (18), passing Tim Teufel’s 14 in 1984. His six leado! home runs are tied with Zoilo Versalles for "fth all-time in the Twins record books. And he’s displayed a new knack for speed as well. After stealing 14 bags in 147 games in 2013, he trails only Dee Gordon, Eric Young Jr. and Jose Altuve—players whose calling card is speed—for the lead in major league stolen bases.

Dozier’s newfound aggressiveness is partially attributed to being fully healthy; he has recovered from nagging knee injuries he battled through at the end of last season. The other di!erence, he says, is the impact of new Twins bench coach, Paul Molitor.

“Having ‘Molly’ here has revamped my whole approach,” said Dozier. “He’s taken it to the next level for me person-ally, just with the amount of information I receive before each game on starting pitchers, the bullpen, what their tendencies are. It’s allowed me to dissect pitchers to get the best jumps, and steal a bag in certain counts as well.”

Although his batting average is lower than he would like, Dozier’s on-base percentage is more than 50 points higher than it was last season, and only four other play-ers in the majors have drawn more walks. Most impor-tantly, the Twins are driving him in; only Troy Tulowitzki has scored more runs.

“Batting average is probably the most overrated stat in the game of baseball,” said Dozier. “It’s all about having your splits, getting on base, driving people in and scoring runs. It makes for a good day at the ballpark when you’re scoring a lot of runs, and we’ve been doing that so far.”

Dozier’s impact on the Twins clubhouse goes beyond the box score, too. He has taken on a leadership role with younger in"elders Danny Santana and Eduardo Nunez and continues to play sparkling defense. His e!orts have been a big reason why the Twins, who had the toughest sched-ule of any team in baseball through the "rst 40 games, have been successful thus far.

“We’ve gotten o! to a decent start, but that was pretty much demanded from ourselves,” said Dozier. “We needed that for the fan base, for the front o#ce, for each other, for everyone. Winning series and even sweeping teams has been huge. For us to say what we’ve done through the "rst month or so is pretty impressive.”

What Dozier has done individually is equally impres-sive—and warrants his consideration not just as a rising star on the Twins, but throughout all of baseball.

A L L $ S T A R S U M M E R 2 0 1 4 T W I N S M A G A Z I N E 7