Every pennant winner must be endowed both at the plate and in the field.
Ed Walsh, the great White Sox spitball pitcher, in 1908 won forty or practically half of his club’s games, to this day an individual pitching record, but alone he couldn’t offset his own ‘hitless wonders.’ Walter Johnson the swift, with over 400 victories, waited almost twenty years before his clubmates at Washington helped him to a championship. Ty Cobb, baseball genius, helped win pennants early in his career, but from 1909 through 1926, his last year at Detroit, he and his formidable array of hitters failed-they never found the right combination. Lopsided pennant failures are strewn throughout the record books. Good fielding and pitching, without hitting, or vice versa, is like Ben Franklin’s half a pair of scissors-ineffectual. A team equally strong in attack and in defense, well-proportioned as a unit, with, of course, those intangibles, morale, enthusiasm, and direction-that is the story of success in baseball. Both are native Spanish speakers who are fiercely loyal to their families and fond of tattoos.Baseball men agree with the philosopher that perfection-which means a pennant to them-is attainable only through a proper combination of opposites.
Leon, at 28, is two years older but has played only 43 more games in the majors. Leon and Vazquez have an easy partnership. In general, it’s a hard position to fill.” “I’ve always emphasized the defensive side. “You can always come up with an offensive catcher if that is what you want,” he said. It’s a big positive.”ĭombrowski said he leans to defense when selecting a catcher. They’re good at receiving, framing pitches, handling the game plan. “They do the job defensively and have contributed from an offensive perspective. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said finding a reliable catcher is difficult. “Sandy is the brains of the operation,” said Sale, who leaves much of the game-planning duties to Leon and rarely shakes off his pitch selections. Leon’s biggest contribution has been the relationship he quickly forged with Sale, who is 7-2 with a 2.89 ERA. I get more rest and I can stay in better shape with the days off. “It helps me to split the time with Christian. “I just try and make something happen,” Leon said. He has three home runs batting lefthanded. Leon has more power than Vazquez and adds the benefit of being able to switch hit. That’s always good to see young players get into that phase.” “I think Christian has really come into his own by understanding who he is as a player and what makes him perform well. “I think he knows who he is as a hitter: an off-field hitter, a good hit-and-run guy, he’s going to hit behind runners,” the manager said. I don’t have the power to hit 20 home runs, but I can help the team.”įarrell believes Vazquez has succeeded at the plate by understanding better what he is capable of. Among major league catchers with at least 100 plate appearances, Vazquez has the second-highest batting average and fourth-best OPS. 831 OPS, 10 extra-base hits, and 11 RBIs. 197 after 16 starts this year, and Farrell started to give Vazquez more time. 845 OPS, by far the best of his career.īut that season was more of an outlier. Throughout spring training, Farrell said that Leon would be the starter based on his taking over the job in the second half of the 2016 season. They’re never getting too far away from at-bats, but yet they’re not getting overloaded where they feel it on the physical side. “That might take its toll on the offensive side.
“It’s allowed both to stay fresh where you’re not running them out there four or five consecutive days,” Farrell said.
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