看板MLB
Orioles’ Manny Machado quietly enters debate over MLB’s best young player
BALTIMORE — There is a strip of baseline dirt,perhaps two feet wide,that sits
exposed between the pair of tarps protecting the infield grass during batting
practice at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.That dirt is Manny Machado's pregame
sweet spot.As he takes dozens of grounders at third base under the late
afternoon sun,some three hours before game time,he lobs the ball back,just so,
to the fungo-wielding coach who is hitting to him.
If Machado's toss is too short,hitting the forward tarp,the ball deadens and
bounces three or four times,requiring the coach to stoop to pick it up.Throw it
too long and it hits the rear tarp,skips and short-hops the coach's bare hand.
Only when Machado's long lob has the perfect height and distance and lands on
that strip of dirt,a microscopic target from a distance of some 100 feet,does
the ball take a single healthy bounce and land gently in the coach's hand.
One recent afternoon,Machado,the Baltimore Orioles'third base sensation,hit his
target roughly nine out of every 10 times,kicking angrily at the dirt in front
of him near third base any time he missed.
"If he has a bad day and I wind up having to stoop over four or five times to
pick it up,he actually comes up an apologizes,"said the man with the fungo bat,
Orioles third base coach Bobby Dickerson.
These are the things the Orioles love about Machado,the 20-year-old phenom who
rescued their 2012 season following his heavily hyped August call-up,and who is
looking to do even more — and lift the Orioles even higher — in 2013.
Sure, the Orioles love all the obvious,flashy things about Machado,too — the
Brooksian diving stops at third base,the game-winning home runs,the major
league-leading 21 doubles through Saturday.But with no less fervor,the Orioles
also love Machado's subtle charms:His attention to detail,his veteran's
demeanor,his aversion to making headlines,his bunting acumen,his preternatural
baseball aptitude.
Marveled Dan Duquette,the Orioles'vice president of baseball operations,:"This
guy was born to play baseball."
Shining through subtlety
That exhilarating feeling that slowly arose and overtook Baltimore last
summer — that the Orioles were back as a proud franchise,with real hope and a
real future — has a face now:a baby face,with big ears,a close-cropped haircut
and a love-this-game smile.It belongs to Machado,the Miami native who,just
three years out of high school,is batting second and playing third for a team
(currently third in the American League East)with real playoff aspirations.
Remember that ubiquitous debate of winter — which young player would you
rather have,Bryce Harper or Mike Trout? These days,smart folks debate it three
ways:Harper,Trout or Machado? Indeed,through the first 100 games of their
careers(a milestone Machado passed this weekend),Machado has a higher batting
average and on-base-plus-slugging percentage than Harper and more RBI than
either Harper or Trout.
Still,it is somehow fitting that despite all Machado's spectacular defense and
gaudy stats — including a 2.9 WAR(or wins above replacement,a catch-all
sabermetric stat that measures a player's overall value to his team) that led
all AL position players through Saturdays games — his signature play to this
point as an Oriole was something much more subtle.
Charging a soft roller in the ninth inning of a tie game against Tampa Bay last
September,Machado faked a throw to first,then pivoted suddenly towards the
third base,where pinch runner Rich Thompson,running on contact from second base
,had bitten on the fake and overran third.Thompson was quickly tagged out in a
rundown for the third out,and in the next half-inning,Machado led off with a
single and scored the winning run in a critical victory on the Orioles'path to
the AL wild-card playoff berth.
That type of awareness and execution was something many veterans aren't capable
of.But what made it even more remarkable was the fact Machado,by that time,had
been playing third base for only about five weeks.Drafted with the third
overall pick in 2010(two spots after Harper),Machado had been a shortstop his
entire life — until last August,when the Orioles,who had already locked up
veteran shortstop J.J. Hardy to a long-term deal,decided in the throes of a
pennant race that they could no longer abide the leaky defense of Wilson
Betemit at third base.
The process of transitioning Machado from shortstop to third base is a story
unto itself.The Orioles'brain trust,Duquette and Manager Buck Showalter,started
the process some two months before the call-up,sending director of player
development Brian Graham to Class AA Bowie with orders to start having Machado
take grounders at third.To keep it out of the media,they would meet in the
early afternoon when the stadium was empty,and to keep Machado from getting
alarmed,they had a couple of other middle infielders take grounders alongside
him under the guise of merely being prepared for emergency duty.
"I called Buck after the second day [of watching Machado work out at third base
] and told him, 'There's no question in mind he can play third base in the big
leagues,'ꠠGraham recalled."The only learning process was figuring out the
angles and hops,and knowing how to position yourself.”
From Machado's perspective,the learning process was much less complicated than
that."Just slide over and play the game,"he said."I mean,what do you have to do
in this game?This game is pretty simple.You gotta get outs.You gotta make runs.
Defense?You gotta catch the ball,get the out...Third base is the same thing.You
have to catch the ball and make the out."
Living up to comparisons
Machado played all of two minor league games at third base before the Orioles
made their big move,calling him up to the big leagues last Aug. 9.One of the
first calls he got was from the Nationals'Harper,his former teammate on the
under-18 Team USA squad in 2009."Congrats,"Harper told him,according to Machado
."You've earned your shot.Now go out there and play your game."
Machado had a single and a triple in his debut,then a pair of homers in his
second game.Starting the day of Machado's debut,the Orioles went 33-18 down the
stretch,the second-best record in baseball over that span,and made the playoffs
for the first time in 15 years.
Because he is from Miami and has a large frame for a natural shortstop,Machado
is frequently compared by talent evaluators to Alex Rodriguez — who happens to
be a mentor to him,having worked with Machado in Miami in past offseasons.But
in Baltimore,the comparisons,with growing frequency,are to another big-framed
shortstop who broke into the majors as the Orioles'third baseman before being
moved back to shortstop midway through his rookie year:Cal Ripken Jr.
"He reminds me of how I think Cal would have been if he had played third base
his entire career,"said Jim Palmer,the Hall of Fame pitcher and current Orioles
broadcaster who was nearing the end of his playing career when Ripken broke in.
Machado simply shrugs off the comparisons:"I'm Manny.I'm not A-Rod.I'm going to
play the game the way Manny plays and be myself."His defense is already Gold
Glove-caliber — some advanced defensive metrics,such as those compiled at
Fangraphs.com,rate him as the best defensive third baseman in the game so far
this season,by a wide margin — and his bat has come along sooner than expected
.
Machado's long-term positional projection is a bit of a sensitive subject.The
company line is that he remains the Orioles'shortstop of the future,but with
Hardy — a first-time Gold Glove winner in 2012 — under contract through 2014,
that future is still a ways off in the distance.And besides,some in the
organization felt all along that Machado's larger frame would be a better fit
at third.
Asked last week about Machado's long-term future,Duquette,perhaps fittingly,
reaches back to the franchise's glory days for his answer,quoting the late Hall
of Fame manager Earl Weaver — the same man who moved Ripken back to shortstop
in 1982,altering the course of baseball history:
"Like Earl said,'Sign all them shortstops,and then we'll worry about where to
play them when they get to the big leagues,'ꠠDuquette said.
In Baltimore, you don't go around quoting Earl Weaver or invoking the Iron Man
casually.But when it comes to Manny Machado,such nods to the richest parts of
the franchise's history seem entirely justified.
http://tinyurl.com/pxpv5vb
他會是金鶯未來的看板嗎?
三壘守的有模有樣
SEASON:2013
G AB R H TB 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
49 214 34 71 110 21 2 5 28 10 0 31 4 2 .327 .357 .514 .871
目前是2B王 22支領先紅襪的Napoli(18)4支
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◆ From: 112.105.52.193
※ 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)※ 文章網址: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/MLB/M.1369596055.A.183.html
推 Kingofpen:以他的年紀只有強而已，目前又怒尻兩安，能回游擊就好了 05/27 03:24
推 abc0922001:21支2B...而且才二十歲 05/27 03:24
推 benrun:如果他維持這樣到球季結束 有機會角逐新人王? 05/27 06:46
推 robinkidd:去年18X打數 已經過了標準 05/27 07:36
→ robinkidd:191打數 已經過了標準 05/27 07:37
推 decorum:游擊砲比較值錢 05/27 09:07
推 jet113102:金鶯救世主MK-II 05/27 09:10
推 shamuro:昨天才把我MVP裡面的抹茶道從4星改到5星 05/27 09:14
推 taker627:金鳥救世主好多 05/27 10:01
推 lotywin:當初的3B洞終於填起來了 多SS就隨緣吧 05/27 10:12
→ lotywin:金鳥現在就等SP回穩了 1、2號太不穩要走遠要加強阿 05/27 10:12
→ ccwu59:金鳥現在...closer先回穩再說吧... 05/27 10:23
推 jet113102:想偷問一下，他有可能靠防守把Hardy擠去3B嗎? 05/27 10:54
→ jet113102: 更正 2B 05/27 10:55
推 decorum:問題是他回守游擊 表現會更好嗎？東西若沒壞，就別修理了 05/27 11:11
推 poplc:他的守備比較讓人印象深刻 今年至少十次以上的超級美技 05/27 11:16
→ searoar:顯然英文寫啥也沒人在意 何苦貼這麼長呢 05/27 11:23
推 bgp915117:Hardy也是守備超強的啊 05/27 12:00
推 Uncontinue:英文我看不懂啊... 05/27 13:39
推 zilkle:天之驕子啊 守備超強 05/27 15:37
→ s4340392:金不是才剛跟Hardy續約 他要回游擊目前不太可能吧 05/27 15:39
→ s4340392:金鳥 05/27 15:39
推 wahaha5678:模板是A-Rod~ 05/27 19:23
推 panjanhon:如果真的模板是A-Rod 金鳥要快點簽長約留人了 05/27 19:50
推 stk11:滿高大的 要是再壯一點可能更威 05/27 20:12
→ Sparksfly:http://tinyurl.com/oshg7zz 05/27 20:14
→ q224222:Machado小聯盟3年只守2場3B而已..沒想到現在守備這麼不錯 05/27 21:37
推 maxspeed150:能把SS守好的通常3B也不會有問題 05/27 22:00
→ azurbbb:Hardy的約其實只到明年而已 還是會有變數 05/27 22:07
推 s4340392:模板是A-Rod？那這樣往後還滿值得期待的 05/28 01:49
推 krizzard:A-ROD在他今年的年紀敲了36發HR 鳩竟馬掐多能有幾隻呢? 05/28 06:31