Former Hawk Schebler tearing it up in high-A

CEDAR RAPIDS - Baseball players are superstitious creatures by nature. Check to see how many pitchers jump over the infield chalk on their way back to the dugout after an inning, for instance.

So imagine how perturbed Los Angeles Dodgers minor-league outfielder Scott Schebler was when he got a phone call from home recently, informing him about the specifics of a hitting streak he had going. Oh, that's some bad mojo right there.

"My mom told me at 12 games," the former Cedar Rapids Prairie prep laughed. "I'm like 'Mom, really?' My dad told me not to worry about it."

Deb Schebler got taken off the hook by her son, who successfully hit in another seven games before his 19-game streak was finally snapped. Don't tell him, but he's got another one going: eight consecutive games for high-Class A Rancho Cucamonga going into Friday.

That's at least one hit in 27 of his last 28 games. That's getting it done.

"First of all, coming into this league this year, I knew how much of a hitter's league it was," said Schebler, 22, who was signed by the Dodgers in 2010 as a 26th-round draft pick out of Des Moines Area Community College. "I mean, there are some ballparks in this league that are pretty ridiculous. You take BP (batting practice) and get jammed and the ball still goes over the fence.

"I think, at first, I let the pressure of that get to me. It was like 'Well, I've got to hit here because everyone else does.'"

Schebler hit .260 in 137 games last season for Great Lakes of the Midwest League, an acceptable number for a pitcher's league. His batting average for Rancho sat at a pedestrian .267 through May, but the guy has hit a ton in the last month and a half.

His batting average was .341 in 22 games in June and is at .413 in July. Ten of his 19 hits this month have been for extra bases, including five home runs.

He leads the California League in triples (10), slugging percentage (.622) and OPS (on base plus slugging/.990) and is near the top of the leaderboard in average (.311) and homers (17).

"I have to a lot of credit to our hitting coach here, Johnny Washington," Schebler said. "He's just been great. He's not trying to change everything. He told me 'What I need is for you to be comfortable at the plate. I'm going to work with you and not work on you.' I think that's been huge for me."

A left-handed hitter but right-handed thrower, Schebler has played mostly left field this season after playing right field last season for Great Lakes. He said he has felt increasingly more comfortable as a professional player, which also has been important in accumulating the numbers he has thus far in 2013.

He knows he can play. By now, the Dodgers have to know that, too.

"I would hope so, but you never know," he said. "I'm not as intimidated as I was when I first signed. I can say that."

The next stop in the Dodgers' farm system is Double-A Jacksonville. It'll be interesting to see if Schebler gets a shot there at some point this season or if he'll begin there next season.

No doubt it's a changed organization since he signed, with Los Angeles changing ownership and shelling out huge coin to sign top-of-the-market free-agent players at the major-league level.

"At first, everyone was saying 'Ah, nothing is going to change. Nothing is going to change,'" Schebler said. "We're not going to turn into the Yankees or anything. Then they picked up Hanley Ramirez, and you started to wonder. Now you see what they've done, and it's kind of funny."

Here is video of Schebler hitting a walk-off grand slam in late June against Lancaster: