Jazz Chisholm doesn’t essentially know the geometry of all of it, not the angles to take or the windswept house to be lined within the method a veteran centerfielder would. But the previous second baseman understands why he was within the outfield for the Miami Marlins first apply Tuesday morning, chasing fly balls and finding out his new dwelling.
“I went to [manager Skip Schumaker] and I told him if you need a center fielder and we can’t get one … and even if you get one, I feel like I’ll be better anyway,” he mentioned.
When did he final play middle area?
“Never my life.”
He’s smiling as he mentioned that, and you’ll’t assist however return the smile, too. That makes this the most effective place to be on the primary day of spring in a sport the place a lot discuss is about payrolls and tv offers and new guidelines attempting to assist the sport. Like the larger bases. Chisholm has a thought on these.
“Point, Jazz,” he mentioned.
He held up a finger for emphasis, chalking up the purpose within the air. The bases are two inches bigger, which means the house between first and second base simply shrunk 4 inches on his quest for steals.
“A little extra step, thank you,” he mentioned.
A 12 months in the past in spring coaching, he forecast a breakout season for himself and outlined it as a 40 dwelling runs and 40 stolen bases. He made it solely to 14 homers and 12 stolen bases earlier than being sidelined by harm after 60 video games.
No matter. He’s speaking a galaxy farther away this 12 months. He’s talked about 50-50. If you detect a splash of humor amid the bravado, you then’re understanding the interior workings at the same time as he labored extra time on serving to that .143 batting common towards left-handed pitchers. His left-handed brother, a former arm within the Arizona system, threw to him all winter.
“He wasn’t going to take it easy on me,” he mentioned.
There’s no thriller to the Marlins plans or why Chisholm is in middle area. They went out and received infielders who hit for common like second baseman Luis Arraez and third baseman Jean Segura.
The thriller is how they’ll all look in new positions. Arraez enjoying first base final 12 months. Segura has performed solely 9 major-league video games at third base. Shortstop Joey Wendle has by no means been rooted at that place.
And Chisholm in middle area? He shrugs.
“I never played second base until the big leagues,” he mentioned.
All of this isn’t some new-fangled thought of the Marlins’ strategic plan to return baseball to the times when gamers received on base, brought about havoc on the basepaths and had been introduced dwelling by a much bigger bat. It’s extra old school desperation the way in which the Marlins did it.
They had no strategy to look aggressive this 12 months. Derek Jeter’s drafts have nobody left on the roster (and a dwindling quantity inside proprietor Bruce Sherman’s group) That Jeter period’s minor-league system additionally has no hitters within the pipeline, a staggering omission contemplating each workforce has just a few hitting prospects.
For this 12 months’s small-ball plan to work, meaning one-year flops Jorge Soler and Avisail Garcia can’t be two-year flops. If they’re, the Marlins are proper again to the place they had been final season because the worst offense in baseball.
But come on. The first day of spring isn’t for actuality and even payroll sizes. It’s for optimism and hope. It’s for the concept Chisholm gained’t simply make it wholesome by way of his first, full major-league season however win the Gold Glove in middle area like he’s talked about. Again, there’s a riff of enjoyable bravado to him.
Chisholm did spend time consulting or understanding with confirmed outfielders. He ticks by way of the names: Former execs Gary Sheffield and Ken Griffey and Minnesota’s Byron Buxton in addition to now Marlins’ outfield coach Jon Jay and Mr. Marlin, Jeff Conine, who’s again with the workforce as a marketing consultant.
“The advice they told me is try to learn the fundamentals but at the same time you’re not going to be the same guy as everyone else out there,” he mentioned. “You’ve got to bring your own game.”
Chisholm has no drawback doing that. He isn’t for everybody. He wasn’t all the time for former supervisor Don Mattingly, a strong old-school thoughts who pushed Chisholm to have constant work habits. He wasn’t for some teammates final 12 months and a workforce assembly was known as to say so.
But there’s a flash to his type that sounds proper on the primary day of spring. It says something is feasible. His Gold Glove in middle area. The Marlins being aggressive. Anything in any respect.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com