MINNEAPOLIS - Chiseled into a limestone wall on the Legends Club level of Target Field is the number 573, eight feet high, representing the career home run total of the Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew.
'I found out early in life I could hit a baseball farther than most players,' Killebrew said, as depicted on an adjoining wall, 'and that's what I tried to do.'
Kris Bryant and Joey Gallo have a combined total of zero home runs in the major leagues. But they lead the minors in homers this season, with 31 apiece, and represent an increasingly rare specimen in baseball: the born power hitter.
'It's crazy because I don't understand it, either,' Gallo, a Class AA third baseman for the Texas Rangers, said before the All-Star Futures Game on Sunday. 'I see big, strong guys - I'm strong but I'm not a big, huge bodybuilder - and when I see those guys and they don't drive the ball, it's like, 'How?'
'I'm tall and I get leverage, but ever since I was a little kid, 8 years old, I've always been able to hit the ball out of the park. Kind of like Bryant, even when he was little.'
Gallo and Bryant grew up in Las Vegas. Bryant, 22, is two years older than Gallo, who faced him once as a pitcher in high school. Bryant held him to a single, Gallo said, which qualified as a success.
Bryant attended the University of San Diego and as a junior hit 31 home runs, an absurd figure with the less lively bats in the college game. The Chicago Cubs drafted him second over all last June, and he is a critical figure in their rebuilding. Also a third baseman, he is hitting .322 in Class AAA.
Gallo signed out of high school with the Rangers, who chose him 39th over all in 2012. Like Bryant, he strikes out prodigiously, reflecting a trend across baseball. But his power, if it translates to the majors, will energize a game with declining home run totals.
'He can hit the ball anywhere on the bat and it can go over the fence, and when you're swinging a wood bat, that's pretty impressive,' Bryant said. 'If you throw him a strike, he's going to make you pay pretty bad.'
The two put on a breathtaking display in batting practice on Sunday. Gallo, a left-handed hitter with an uppercut, launched balls onto distant pavilions and far reaches of the upper deck; one homer cracked the windshield of a Chevy Silverado on display beyond the bleachers.
In his first round of practice, Bryant concentrated more on hitting liners the opposite way. Then, in Round 2, he unleashed a rocket into the seats above the center-field batter's eye. He once hit a ball more than 500 feet - through the fog and over a light tower in college - though that story cannot be verified.
'No video feed,' Bryant conceded. 'Of course, it's like a myth now.'
Prospect hype is one of the byproducts of the information age; armed with statistics, scouting reports and video, fans can dream on the seemingly boundless potential of players who have never failed in the majors.
Of course, they have never succeeded, either, and the road to the real All-Star Game is usually harder than it seems. Bryant and Gallo both struck out twice on Sunday, but the payoff for the big swings came in the sixth, when Gallo crunched a 419-foot, two-run homer to right that made the difference in a 3-2 United States victory over the World team.
Both hitters are 6 feet 5 inches, big for their position, and Bryant could shift off third base eventually, depending on how the Cubs shuffle their talented shortstops: Starlin Castro in the majors, Javier Baez in Class AAA and the newly acquired Addison Russell in Class AA. Gallo caused a stir recently by playing a game at first base but said the Rangers wanted him to focus on third. Their incumbent, the All-Star Adrian Beltre, is 35.
Bryant, whose father was drafted by the Red Sox, grew up rooting for Boston and now plays with a favorite slugger, Manny Ramirez, a player-coach for the Iowa Cubs. He said Ramirez, a repeat drug offender, gets a bad rap and was actually a role model.
'He hit all types of pitches out of the yard - watching him now and how he practices, I can kind of see why,' Bryant said. 'He's always hitting off that curveball machine, working on getting those hanging curveballs. I think that's a big part of hitting homers. You've got to be ready for those pitchers' mistakes.'
Gallo has his own tutor from baseball's steroid era - Jason Giambi, who has reinvented himself as a widely respected future manager. A decade ago, Gallo's father, Tony, worked as a pitching instructor at a baseball facility Giambi owned, and they stayed in touch.
'When I was 10 years old, I was scared to even say a word to him,' Gallo said, but last year he asked Giambi if they could hit together in the off-season. Giambi, now on the disabled list with the Cleveland Indians, eagerly agreed.
'I worked out with him five times a week for three months,' Gallo said. 'We talked about everything you could talk about - family, outside of baseball. He really helped me with that aspect as well, the things he's been through. He was really good mentoring me on the mental side.'
Home runs ruled the game in the prime of Giambi and Ramirez. For many reasons, that era seems unlikely to return soon. If Bryant and Gallo keep hitting like this, at least there will still be a few bashers roaming the majors for years to come.
'This game is changing,' Bryant said, 'and I just feel blessed to have the type of power that I do.'
from Google News http://#
via IFTTT
0 Response to "Young Sluggers Could Revitalize a Waning Breed"
Posting Komentar