In a matter of months, Dexter Fowler has gone from Asheville Tourist in North Carolina to Waikiki BeachBoy. But what he'd eventually like to be is a Colorado Rockie.

After an all-star season with Asheville of the Low-A South Atlantic League and his hot start in Hawaii Winter Baseball, Fowler is showing the potential to make that dream a reality.

"He's just an exciting player," Honolulu Sharks manager Gary Kendall said.

After three weeks of play, Fowler is among the league leaders in batting (.308), RBIs (11), extra-base hits (6) and triples (3). He has made catching fly balls to the wall and gaps look like a breeze. But at just 20 years old and after completing his second pro season, the outfielder has much untapped potential. BeachBoys' manager Lenn Sakata said the 6-foot-4, 173-pound Fowler will get bigger and stronger, which could portend power to go along with his speed. And of course, "the defense is there," Sakata said.

This league just might expedite Fowler's progress to the Rockies.

"He just needs to go out there and play," Kendall said. "As he starts to grow into his body, he's going to get bigger, get stronger. He's a guy who's going to get more and more refined with the more innings he plays."

Fowler is coming off a season in which he batted .296 with 31 doubles, six triples, eight home runs and 92 runs. He also had 43 steals, but was caught 23 times, something he wants to work on in HWB, he said.

As gifted as he is on the field, he has been the same off it.

In high school in Alpharetta, Ga., Fowler drew interest from Ivy League schools to play basketball. But they were trumped by a baseball scholarship to the University of Miami. With an apparent commitment to college, he slipped in the 2004 baseball draft to the 14th round.

"My mom's a school teacher, so of course (my parents) wanted me to go to college," Fowler said. "But they wanted whatever was best for me. I told them I really wanted to play baseball; I promised them I'd go back to school to get my diploma."

The Rockies liked what they saw and offered Fowler $925,000, which correlates to supplemental first-round money. It was enough for him to put college on hold. But he did not use all of that money for himself. He set up two corporations, one of which aids underprivileged student-athletes in getting proper guidance when dealing with agents. It would make sure the students are getting proper advice.

"My parents and I came up with this," Fowler said. "Basically, we need to give back to kids. When I was younger, I had older guys looking out for me. That's basically what I want to do. I guess that's my calling."

Besides helping Fowler on the field, HWB has given him an opportunity to witness a legacy when he visited the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. His grandfather was a Pearl Harbor survivor.

"I definitely got chills when I was walking through there," he said. "You see valor up there. Your whole body gets numb."

HE'S HUMAN

Sharks left-hander Kanehisa Arime (3-0) finally gave up a run Sunday in an 8-1 win against the CaneFires. It was his fifth appearance and fourth start of the season. In 26 1/3 innings, he has allowed one earned run, raising his ERA to 0.34.

At 28, Arime is the oldest in the league. He completed his fifth season of pro ball, his second with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. He had spent the previous three seasons with the then-Kintetsu Buffaloes, who merged with Orix after the 2003 season. Prior to that, he spent five seasons with a corporate league, which is considered amateur. He was drafted by Kintetsu out of that league. He is from Okinawa.

Arime was 2-6 with a 4.47 ERA with the Golden Eagles this past season. He said through an interpreter that his parent club wanted him to experience playing the game in a different environment, as well as develop his changeup by learning from the American coaches and pitchers.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.