Corey Seager closing in on doubles milestone

Dodgers minor league shortstop Corey Seager has had a fantastic season, excelling at two levels. He has been an extra-base-hit machine all year and is two doubles away from hitting a mark achieved only once by a Los Angeles Dodgers minor leaguer.

Seager has 48 doubles in 111 games this season, including 14 in 31 games since joining Double-A Chattanooga. The only Los Angeles Dodgers minor leaguer with more doubles in a season is Delwyn Young, who hit 54 doubles for Triple-A Las Vegas in 2007.

Young was 25 when he achieved the 50-double milestone. Seager is 20, the third-youngest player in the Southern League.

Seager is one of only six LA Dodgers minor leaguers to hit even 45 doubles in a season, a list that includes current major league outfielder Scott Van Slyke.

Even dipping back into the Brooklyn years, a 50-double season is rare. Max Macon hit 54 doubles for Class-D Hazard (in Kentucky) in 1951, but he was also a 35-year-old veteran with parts of six years major league experience playing in roughly the equivalent of Class-A or possibly rookie league.

Before Macon, the last 50-double season by a Dodgers minor leaguer came in 1940, when Mike Powers hit 60 doubles for Class-D Bowling Green and John Mihalic hit 54 doubles for Class-A1 Nashville. They were aged 34 and 28, respectively.

Record keeping in those early minor league years is sketchy (Walter Celusta likely didn't hit 83 doubles and only 20 singles in 1939 for instance), but it's still safe to say what Seager is doing this year is quite rare.

Seager on Friday was named the 2014 California League MVP, a remarkable achievement since he only played 80 games with Class-A Rancho Cucamonga. But in those 80 games he hit .352/.411/.633 with 34 doubles, 18 home runs and 70 RBI. He has picked up right where he left off with the Lookouts, hitting .336/.361/.504 with 14 doubles, two triples and a home run in 31 games.

He has seven more games left to add to that doubles total.