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The best player in the best baseball team is designed to be underrated.
Alex Bogaerts remembers the first time he's seen Mookie Betts. It was the end of summer 2011 in South Carolina, and Bogaerts was an 18-year-old shortstop player for the Low-A Greenville Drive – a confident child who had signed as an agent free amateur in 2009 and who was two years old from a world series. title with the Boston Red Sox. Also on the pitch in Greenville that day was Betts, a recent high school graduate who had been caught in the fifth round of the MLB draft this summer and was in town for a practice session with his teammates. other hopes of Red Sox.
Mookie Betts was the star on Thursday night in the Bronx, scoring four hits and five RBIs as the Boston Red Sox clinched their third straight title in AL East, the longest series in franchise history. .
A quartet of young stars help the Red Sox romp in the record books of their rookie rookie. Coming soon: October.
Here's the long and the short – from Eddie Gaedel and Wee Willie Keeler to the Big Unit and the Big Train – from the players' place in the career victories superior to the replacement.
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From a distance, Bogaerts studied Betts – all 5 feet 9 inches, 165 pounds of him. "It was shortSaid Bogaerts now, he watched Betts doing field exercises, a little bit. I did not think much about him. I was not impressed, "recalls the Red Sox shortstop. Bogaerts was so indifferent that day that he can not remember if he stayed there watching Betts practice batting.
Seven years later, as his team headed for the AHL title, Bogaerts was in the Kansas City clubhouse and measured his teammate on the other side of the room. He admits that he should have been more open to the small player than he saw in South Carolina. "I might have seen it," Bogaerts said. the heOf course, the immense talent of number 50, the 25-year-old All-Star (and 180-pound), three times, leads Boston to his most impressive regular season; one of the shortest players of the game has turned into one of the most important offensive weapons of this generation.
Bogaerts makes a gesture towards Betts and laughs. "We all see it now."
Mookie's mother, Diana Benedict, was a passenger of her high school softball team who loved the game so much that her grandfather built a ball field on her Kentucky farm. When Mookie showed interest in playing baseball, Diana wanted things to be well done, so she decided to coach her boy. For Mookie, even at age 6, doing things well meant fighting hard and leaving everything on the ground. But as she prepared for her coach's first game on the field, all Diana could think of was Little Mookie, leaving her pants on the ground. "My baby was so skinny," she recalls, "even if he was eating all the time".
She had bought him extra-small baseball pants, but even those were too big. A belt has packed the fabric too much. Diana went back to the store looking for something that could solve the problem. She finally found Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles suspenders, which matched the Ninja Turtles glove that she had already bought for Mookie. On match day, she broke the suspenders on her son's pants, pulled the turtles on the arms of Little Mookie's pipe cleaner and prayed. "He was wearing these suspenders on the on the outside "He was not thinking about the results of the first game of Little Mookie, except one: the pants did not move." "Mookie's mother says.
Despite his size, he was a star in this team and every time after. While the stacked Red Sox are winning the most victories in franchise history in 118 years – with men like Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez and Chris Sale – Betts is the engine of the team, his true north, guiding the team to the playoffs. "He can hit, he can hit for power, he can run, he scores points, he pushes them," said Andrew Benintendi. "How many teams have a complete weapon like Mookie?"
"I think we're looking at a possible Hall of Famer," says Bogaerts. "Mookie was probably our best player here. [Ortiz] is gone, it's our guy. "
Yet, how many times in the last five seasons – in this 100-mph thrower era, three real achievements and each bat beat on the anticipation of the bat flash on the ball, the trajectory and distance – Has anyone looked at Betts and asked: How can he put those numbers with this body?
"Mookie's size does not matter," Benintendi says. "It all depends on how you use what you have."
It is impossible to overestimate the role of Betts in this Boston team. Until Thursday, he had posted the biggest offensive war (10.2) and the second highest offensive war (8.0) in baseball, behind Mike Trout. He played his 30th home race in Boston's win against the Yankees on Thursday, and 30 flights are on the horizon. He has the highest batting average in the major league. An MVP reward is a real possibility.
It's not that statistical self-reflection is a priority for Betts, who insists that he does not look at his numbers, that he is more interested in the 2-2 cursor of the opponents than what It is Tuesday night in Baltimore. He has spent his whole life being the little guy, so asking questions about his size does not interest him either. "Wherever I go, there will be guys bigger and stronger than me," he says. "But that does not mean that they can overtake me or that they're better than I. If you're good, it'll show, I'm not the size of Trout or Bryce Harper." gave the ability and I have to work to let it show. "
If the Red Sox make their fourth title in 15 years, they will do it with Betts at the top of the most powerful baseball training. Some of the smaller shoulders of the game now carry its highest expectations.
Call it a revolution, this little Big Bang. It's now the era of the little guy, when those punchy galoots and their 36-inch pant legs are thrown to the sidewalk. In baseball, 5-9 is the new 6-4.
Consider: The ranking of wins over the replacement is filled with men who might have difficulty reaching the top shelf of the grocery store's alley. While players like 6-7 Aaron Judge and 6-6 Giancarlo Stanton of the New York Yankees have had the most hype during the pre-season, it's Jose Ramirez of Betts and Cleveland, the first player since 2012 to enter the 30/30 baseball club. – who broke stereotypes and circuits all summer.
Since the era of expansion began in 1961, only eight times, a player of 5-9 or less has achieved an OPS + of 155 or better in a season. Two of these seasons belong to Altuve. Two others belong to Betts and 5-9 Ramirez. Regarding WAR over the past two seasons, the trio has three of the top four positions among the position players. "Baseball has become a sport where size does not matter anymore," says Benintendi, who is between 5 and 10. "The era of the big man, or no matter how you want to call it, seems to be gone, it's good for little players like us. "
Sitting in front of his office before a game this summer, Red Sox manager Alex Cora takes stock of the shortest men in his club and league. A total of 1,368 players appeared in a match this season until Wednesday. Only 42 are 5-9 or less. Including Betts, Boston has employed five of them this season and regularly starts one of the smaller fields in the major league, with Betts, Benintendi and 5-10 Jackie Bradley Jr. Then there is Altuve and Ramirez.
Did these guys – and players like Ozzie Albies, the Braves 5-8 All-Star rookie, who had 22 homers at the end of Thursday – break the stigma of the guys? Cora, a relatively imposing six-foot airman in her day, laughs. "Maybe now the big ones are breaking the mold," he says.
With their success, Betts, Ramirez and Altuve are already setting new standards in the analysis and development of short players. "Scouting is so much based on past experience and benchmarks, and we've had only small, hard-hitting players to compare short and amateur players," says Mike Gange, a White Sox scout. from Chicago. His team will choose Nick Madrigal, 5-7 of the Oregon State, with the fourth overall pick in the MLB in June. Madrigal, who would win the 2018 College World Series with the Beavers, is the shortest first round pick in the history of the major league. "Altuve, Betts and Ramirez have increased the sample size for us," says Gange. "More than ever in this game, we can really evaluate a player outside of his appearance."
However, it will take time to overcome the prejudices of the past. Three years ago, Gange – who is 5-6 years old – coached a West Coast League summer club and battled the Madrigal team. When Gange saw the underdimensioned teenager climb for the first time in the plate, he instinctively settled in his fields. Madrigal shot a double over the head of the left field player. Thinking it was a stroke of luck, Gange did the same thing at the next Madrigal fight. "Nick put that one in the center left gap," says Gange. "And that's all because I've been caught in a stereotype."
But Why Do some of the smaller players produce some of the most colossal offensive results?
"The simplest explanation is that the little ones build their bodies during the off season, as they've never done before," said Matt Lisle, a coach at the University of Missouri. who works with Daniel Descalso, a 5-10 player. Home runs over the past two seasons with the Diamondbacks, which equals its combined total of the previous seven years. "Altuve and the others are not weak guys," says Lisle. "You see Betts, and he balances with intent.When these guys decide to go after the ball, they want to do some damage."
And may not overlook the greatest variable for an athlete in any sport: innate ability. Alan Nathan, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Illinois, has been studying hitters for decades and says the success of bat-on-ball has nothing to do with size (or lack thereof) of a player. "So many things are above the neck," he says.
Unsurprisingly, players of any stature who see the ball in the best way, who can handle spin and motion properly, have the most success. "In a brief moment when the ball hits them, they dig into their memory bank," Nathan said. "What similar balls have been made on thousands of terrains? Does the spin look like something they've already seen?"
Synapses are triggered, muscles are reported. Nathan says, "And height plays no part in all that."
Sitting in the dugout one hour before a game this summer, Red Sox coach Tim Hyers is marveling at the evolution of the Betts game this season. "You have guys who just want to be in the majors, and you have guys who want to be great players," said Hyers. "Then there's Mookie, Mookie does not want to be great, he wants to be the best."
Betts was an All-Star, finished sixth in the AL MVP vote, won his second gold glove and has recorded 6.4 more wins than his replacement in 2017. But his batting average of .264 has been the worst of his career. the previous season and his power in the opposite field was almost nonexistent. "It certainly did not look like the same mookie," says Hyers.
Hyers, who joined the Cora team after his former manager, John Farrell, was fired last October, worked with Betts for years as coordinator of the Red Sox minor league strikes. At the time, Hyers marveled at Betts's eye-hand coordination and hitting area, his ability to understand how to get to the basics and not hit. "From the moment you saw Mookie, it was obvious that he was going to become a machine based," Hyers said.
During the spring training, he showed Betts videos from his 2017 to the bat. Betts had suffered several injuries – his thumb, knee, and wrist – that Hyers thought he had undermined the fielder's power and changed his striking mechanics. In particular, Betts's bat in his strike zone was too close to the ground on contact, an angle that did not meet the ball on an even plane. The swing made it particularly difficult to shoot bullets with power or to punish the steps on the outer half of the plate for training in the opposite field. "Mookie was too direct and on the field," said Hyers. "He was putting a lot of good balls in the ground, I wanted him to reach the tip of the balloon and make it fly in the air because it was there that he was going to be the most effective."
Hyers also urged Betts to be more aggressive, explaining that his patient approach and his propensity for early strikes had made it too easy for teams to decode. The pitchers, Hyers told Betts, had pitched him about 200 sliders in 2017 compared to 2016 – hard-to-reconcile terrain.
"We had to move Mookie in a passive way, because it made him less dangerous as the bat went on," said Cora, who was coach of Houston last year and studied the Betts report. "You could go ahead and spread a little bit, then he'd be out of a bat, he'd put the ball in play, but he was not going to kill you.
"We had to tell him this year:" From a point of view, you must have the intention. "
Betts took his tutelage to heart. "My job in this training is to pitch the bat, and I had to trust that when I put the bat on the ball, good things would happen," said Betts. "We worked on it in the spring and then I brought it to the game." I drove with it and saw results. passed quickly. "
In April, while Boston was at the top of the East Asian rankings, Betts beat 344 / .439 / .733. Perhaps the most impressive is the power that he has generated at every swing. Betts' exit speed jumped from 3.8 mph to 92.2 this year. His OPS has soared, with launch angles of his bat. Its number of "cannon balls" – that is, perfect contact – has more than doubled compared to last year. Although he constantly shoots bullets and shows his power, he has also increased his efficiency on the outer half of the plate. In his previous four seasons with the Red Sox, Betts had only two circuits in reverse. This season, he already has three.
The improvement was dizzying. One of the best baseball players has become even more lethal in the plate. "Mookie has learned a new mentality, but I do not think it's a new baseball player we're seeing now," said Cora. "It has been in him all the time, Mookie will say that it can still be much better."
Releasing Mookie for him to become Mookie has increased his abilities and allowed him to see his own statistical possibilities, beyond the mere fact of being at the top of the range. "I think I've changed," says Betts. "It's one of those things that I just have to respect."
An at-bat since the start of the season sums up exactly why Betts 2.0 is so dangerous. Boston was 2-1 against the The Toronto Blue Jays, July 12 at Fenway Park, when Betts went to the fourth inning with two outs and loaded bases.
Then the left-handed Blue Jays J.A. Happ beat a fast first-rate ball inside. It was above the inner half of the plate, a perfect pitch on which Betts could measure himself and show his newly discovered aggression. Instead, he let it pass in front of him for the first time, a throwback to Mookie's version 1.0. "I do not think Mookie sees it as well," said Dennis Eckersley, surprised, of his perch in the NESN television booth. Happ threw a ball in the next throw, then came back with a 1-1 quick ball that sent Betts on the board as he missed and missed. Mookie's Magic had he finally missed? Happ rubbed the ball and looked toward the plate like a medieval executioner preparing to lift the ax.
The fourth throw was a jam. Betts barely had time to deal with it by throwing a bomb into a hellish territory beyond first base. Toronto's first player, Justin Smoak, anticipated the ball and ran to the stands, extended his glove … and saw the ball bounce off the leather. Betts had a second life, but he seemed overwhelmed. With two strikes, he repelled the next throw of Happ, a fast-paced high-chest ball. He adjusted the red plastic baseball collar that a young fan had given him in the spring. Happ waited, then pulled back rubber. The crowd hue. Betts took a chop with his bat, settled himself in the batter's box, then mocked the pitcher, the left corner of his arched upper lip. You could almost hear the growl.
Happ's next offer, a 88 mph shift, was missing, perfectly placed – exactly the kind of pitch that would have ended this bat ten months ago. Instead, Betts hit his bat, had just enough wood to bounce the ball between his legs. He then made a mistake on the next throw, another change from 1 to 2 at the same place.
As Happ caught a new ball, sweat shone on his face. His 10th throw was a slider, his first bat. He bounced back inside. Once again, Betts arranged the necklace. Everyone in Fenway could feel it, the weight of the moment, the importance of what they witnessed. It was more of a bat. It was a test that Betts had to go through. At 2-2, Happ throws another fastball, this time and inside. Betts checked his swing; he dropped the ball from the catcher's glove.
Happ bounced on a 55-foot change from the midfield of his catcher with the 12th throw, pushing the entire count. The southpaw had challenged every part of the Betts area. He had gone to the fastball, the gearshift, the slider. He was running out of gas.
"Here we are," said Eckersley. "It's time to party here."
The Betts bat has ended seven minutes and fourteen seconds after starting. Last season – perhaps any other season of Mookie Betts' career – it would have ended in ball four, a first step, a touching RBI. But Betts did not look at this one. He loaded his hands, lifted his left front leg and started his swing. It was compact and powerful, a skeleton of wood that took less than two tenths of a second from start to finish. He fired a fast 95 mph shot that was low and inland to the left field, at a perfect 28 degree angle. It reached a speed of 108.3 mph, soared on the Green Monster, Fenway and Lansdowne Street.
For a brief moment, Betts lost his head. He flipped the bat and shouted. The coolest and quietest man on the field – the player built to disappear into a clubhouse – suddenly charged toward the first goal, flexed and rushed with delirium. Rounding the first, he hit his chest and shouted at the Red Sox's canoe. He crossed the marble and raised his arms, then jumped once, twice, before being swallowed up by pounds in his forearms and at his peak.
Back in the dugout, Betts – who would later be called the most satisfying during his career in the major league – made his way from one end to the other, through a mass of men and more. bigger and stronger. At this moment it has become clearer than at any other time of the season: Mookie Betts could be a little man, but he is built for great moments.
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