51s’ Cooper doesn’t mind excelling in shadows

According to Baseball America and mlb.com, 51s first baseman David Cooper isn't one of the Toronto Blue Jays' top 20 prospects.

In fact, in the wake of last season -- when Cooper won the Pacific Coast League batting title with a .364 average and led the minors with a .439 on-base percentage -- Baseball America inexplicably dropped him a spot in their rankings, from No. 21 to No. 22.

But Cooper, who last year hit 51 doubles to become one of only five PCL players in the past 50 seasons to hit at least 50, said he doesn't feel slighted.

"When you're at Triple A, it's kind of irrelevant," the low-key left-hander said. "They're going to call up whoever's going to help the big league team that night. At the lower levels that may matter more."

Likewise, Las Vegas hitting coach Chad Mottola said he doesn't put much stock in outside evaluations, pointing out unsung players such as Eric Thames -- who opened last season with the 51s before earning a starting spot in Toronto.

"He wasn't a top prospect, either. To me, that means nothing," he said. "The Blue Jays recognize a guy like Cooper after what he did last year. He went up in September and was able to show them what he could do, and he had a great spring training."

Mottola is more concerned with Cooper not putting added pressure on himself to repeat last year's feats -- when he also led the PCL in hits (170) and had a team-leading 96 RBIs in 120 games en route to earning the Mayor's Trophy, the 51s' Most Valuable Player award as voted on by the fans.

"Another hard thing in this game is when you've had that success, you want to hurry up and do it again," Mottola said. "But you can't hurry up and hit .370 again. Just be yourself, and the numbers will be there at the end of the year."

Naturally, Cooper wants to match or exceed last season's numbers, and he's already off and running. The former first-round draft pick out of California went 4-for-10 in his first two games with a double and three RBIs, including one on a two-out, 10th-inning, game-winning single Friday.

The 25-year-old went 1-for-3 with an RBI single Saturday in the 51s' 10-8 loss to Sacramento at Cashman Field.

Cooper also is striving to improve other facets of his game, most notably base running, which hasn't been his strong suit.

"Once you get labeled kind of a base clogger, it's kind of a tough one to shake," he said. "That's kind of what I'm fighting right now. I'm trying to take the extra base and make sure I'm scoring from second on hits and things like that."

While Mottola said Cooper has vastly improved his base running and defense, the main thing he probably needs to develop is patience. The Blue Jays could bounce him between the majors and minors as often as they'd like over the next three seasons.

"Sometimes the business end of the game gets in the way, and that's where he's at more than (needing to) come here and work on something," Mottola said. "There's three option (years), and a lot of (teams) use all three of them and have a lot of depth.

"I don't think he needs to do anything different."

Cooper made his major league debut last season, batting .211 with two homers and 12 RBIs in 27 games over two stints for Toronto. He hit only .121 after his initial call-up on April 29 but batted .289 in September.

"I kind of got away from my routine the first time I went up, but I was able to get back to it when I went up the second time, and I had a little more success," he said.

After getting married in the offseason, Cooper continued to excel in spring training, hitting .275 with 11 RBIs, which was good for fourth best on the Blue Jays.

"I definitely showed up to camp thinking I'm competing for a spot," he said. "It didn't work out that way, but just because you're not on the Opening Day roster doesn't mean you won't be there."

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.