Greg Brock - Jerry Sands

In a lifelong of Dodger memories some of them are etched deeper then others into my neocortex.  While watching Jerry Sands struggle for yet another game since his grand slam, it reminded me of the struggles of another one time hot Dodger prospect after the greatest day of his career.

Twenty eight years ago Greg Brock had huge shoes to fill, but the minor league home run champion seemed more then capable of replacing fan favorite Steve Garvey.  Going into the May 18th game Greg had an OPS over .900 with everything going his way. By the end of the game, Greg had hit two home runs, including a grand slam, and as the ball soared over the right field fence in Montreal Vin Scully was commenting on how Greg Brock had arrived. For one of the few times in Vin Scully's career he was premature in his pronouncement of Brock's arrival.

For the next 209 plate appearances Greg Brock would suffer through the greatest stretch of Castroish hitting he would ever encounter. It was not until Aug 3rd that he would hit rock bottom and start working his way back up the stat chart.

When Jerry Sands collected that grand slam a few weeks ago, many of the same thoughts were being passed about. Seemed just a matter of time before Sands would be ready to take the reins and deliver the offense one would expect from a power hitting left fielder. Yet, just like Brock, Jerry Sands has found the going tough after that grand slam. Hopefully this is just a blip and he'll quickly rectify this slide once he slides into Coors. Greg Brock never had that opportunity. If any place is a slump buster it has to be Coors, so by Monday the chart below should be made meaningless.

Below is a table showing the pre grand slam and post grand slam slumps of these power hitting prospects.