Davis’ time arrives with Indians

For Chris Davis, it wasn’t a question of whether he would be drafted by a major league baseball team.

Rather, it depended on if Davis felt ready for the professional level.

Already drafted by – but not signing with – the New York Yankees out of high school and the Los Angeles Angels last year, Davis was expecting to be drafted again this year.

“I didn’t really feel like I was ready as a person or as a baseball player,” Davis said about not signing. “There were some areas I could have gotten better on.”

The Texas native played at Navarro College after high school.

Davis was at a friend’s house watching this year’s draft on the Internet when he got the call from the Texas Rangers, the Spokane Indians’ parent club. The 20-year-old was drafted in the fifth round as a first baseman, and this time he signed.

“This time I prayed a lot about it and it was something I really felt in my heart,” he said. “I felt right about it, so I decided to sign and haven’t looked back since.”

Davis said that every kid in Texas wants to play for the Rangers.

“It’s always been a dream and it still seems like a dream to me sometimes,” Davis said. “Who wouldn’t want to do what they love every day?”

After the Rangers told him he would start his career with the Indians, Davis called his former Navarro teammate, Brett Zamzow, who has pitched with the Indians the last two summers.

Davis had heard nothing but good news about Spokane before arriving. But when he left 100-degree weather in Texas dressed in a polo shirt and shorts, he touched down in Spokane in early June and it was pouring rain and about 60 degrees.

“I’m freezing and dragging all my luggage in the rain and the guy who picks us up is like, ‘It never rains here,’ ” he said.

Other than his first day, Davis has grown fond of Spokane’s scenery and mountains.

Zamzow wasn’t the only familiar person Davis recognized because Spokane’s Jeremiah Harr also played at Navarro. Harr recently moved up to Spokane from the Arizona Rookie League.

Davis also knew Steve Marquardt from playing against him in the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League last summer.

Davis started playing baseball when he was about 4 years old. He said he would throw any kind of ball he could find in the backyard with his dad.

When it came time to teach hitting, his dad told him to stand as if he were right-handed, because he throws with his right. Davis said he would miss all day, however, and when his dad figured out he hits with his left, he didn’t want to mess with his natural swing.

More than a decade later, Davis has taken his natural swing to the Northwest League and posted some high offensive numbers, including a 19-game hitting streak that ended Aug. 4.

The Rangers recognized Davis’ offense and selected him as their minor league player of the month for July.

But the cleanup hitter said he tries to stay away from the statistics as much as he can.

“I know when I’m struggling and I know when I’m not,” he said, “I don’t need numbers to tell me that.”

But it wasn’t so easy in the beginning of the season, when he was batting seventh or eighth because of a hitting slump.

“When he came in, there was a lot of movement which he didn’t need to do in his swing,” Spokane manager Mike Micucci said. “He really kind of rotated his upper body and tried to generate power through a real long swing.

“He doesn’t need to do it because he’s so big and strong. We needed to quiet that down a little bit and he did a good job with that.”

From Davis’ perspective, he thought he was thinking too much in the box.

“I think I was trying to be a little bit too mechanically perfect,” he said. “Instead of just working on it, I was really trying to think my way out of the slump.”

For help, Davis turned to his mentor – his dad, who usually stays up to listen to the game, even with the 2-hour time difference.

The advice has helped, as evidenced by Davis’ league-leading 13 home runs.