Westlake grad making a name for himself in Rockies' organization
By Steve Ames
Jeff Dragicevich, 24, advanced

MOVIN' UP-Jeff Dragicevich finished the season playing for the Tulsa Drillers, a Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

to Double-A ball this season

When the 2006 baseball season began in early April, infielder Jeff Dragicevich anticipated he would be playing shortstop for the Modesto Nuts through Labor Day weekend.

But when Tulsa Drillers shortstop Troy Tulowitzki was placed on the disabled list with a bruise on his left hand on July 31, Dragicevich, whose team was finishing a road trip playing the Lake Elsinore Storm, was on a plane the next day to join the Drillers as they prepped to play a road game against the Springfield Cardinals.

It was a move from the SingleA California League to the Double-A Texas League for the 2000 graduate of Westlake High and 2004 graduate in business administration from UC Berkeley.

"It came as a surprise," he said. "Glenallen Hill (the Nuts' manager) pulled me aside and told me I was flying out on the earliest flight the following day. As a baseball player-as a minor league baseball player-you've got to take these things in stride.

"I grabbed whatever clothes and whatever stuff I had down there on the road with me and shipped that out (to Tulsa). I flew out to Missouri and met them on the road. It's been great," he said.

Dragicevich said the game moves a little faster in Double-A.

"It just stepped up a slight notch in pitching and in the field," he said. "Balls get on you a little quicker. The base runners get down the line a little faster. Everything just moves a little faster. But it's fun to play a better brand of baseball."

Dragicevich is 6-foot2, 200 pounds and bats and throws right-handed. He was born in Thousand Oaks and celebrated his 24th birthday in August.

He was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the18th round (ninth pick, 530 overall) in the 2004 amateur player draft and signed on June 10 before reporting to the Casper Rockies as its starting shortstop.

That season he batted .279 with no home runs and 13 RBI in 51 games, including reaching base in 18 consecutive games during July and August.

In 2005, his first season at the Single-A level with the Asheville Tourists, he batted .281, hit four homers and drove in 44 RBI with 29 doubles in 104 games.

Showing that he's a versatile fielder, Dragicevich played 41 games at third base, 28 at second base, 19 at shortstop, 13 at first base and one in the outfield.

He hit in 16-of-18 games in August to raise his batting average from .268 to .290.

For Modesto this season, his batting average was .275 with three home runs and 33 RBI, including 16 doubles in 244 at-bats while playing in 75 games. At Tulsa during the regular season, he batted .250 with one homer and five RBI in 44 at-bats appearing in 16 games.

"I'd like to do whatever I can to help the team win," Dragicevich said. "It's a great group of guys."

Hill, his manager at Modesto for the majority of this season, is impressed with Dragicevich and said he's a hard-working and dedicated player.

"He carries himself with high professionalism," Hill said. "He's well-liked and respected by his teammates. He has seriousness about the game that distinguishes him. When he comes to the ballpark, it's all about business.

A big part of Dragicevich's development came at Westlake High under then head coach Chuck Barrington, now at Taft High, Josh Eby, now the attendance dean at Newbury Park High, and at Cal under head baseball coach Dave Esquer.

"High school was very crucial in my development as a baseball player," he said. "I was fortunate to play a couple of years (at Westlake). I have a brother, Scott, who is two years older. We played with some great players who came in through that system and we just learned through them- and coaches Barrington and Eby.

"They instilled in me a work ethic. I think that the most important part of my high school years was learning how to prepare for a baseball game and how to practice, do the repetitions and get all that stuff in," Dragicevich said.

His brother Scott played his collegiate baseball at Stanford University and was a 36th-round (ninth pick, 1,076 overall) 2002 draft choice of the Toronto Blue Jays. In his fifth season, he has played for the Medicine Hat Blue Jays, Auburn Doubledays, Charleston Alley Cats, Syracuse Skychiefs and the Dunedin Blue Jays, where he finished this season.

Jeff and Scott Dragicevich are the sons of Chuck and Shirley Dragicevich. Jeff said he talks with Scott frequently on the phone.

"Our schedules are closer now that I'm on the Central Time," he said. "Before, when I was on the West Coast and he was on the East Coast, the time difference was a little tough. We talk as much as possible. We talk a lot about hitting and recently we've been talking about fantasy football."

Hill noted that while Jeff Dragicevich was on the Nuts' roster, he wasn't strictly a shortstop.

"But," Hill said, "he's a guy who showed a lot of versatility in being able to play some third base, second base and some first base. It's something you need to learn how to do when you are an infielder because you never know what role you're going to play when that door to the big leagues swings open at about 500 miles an hour. You have one chance to sneak in there."

Within the Rockie organization, Hill said, Jeff Dragicevich is seen as a hard worker.

"He's not the fastest runner," Hill said. "He's not the quickest runner in his reaction time. I think his baseball awareness is growing and he's learning more and more about the game and the importance of positioning different hitters and different situations. He's in that learning mode right now. He's improved since the beginning of the year to the present day."