Thursday, July 28, 2005

What is that man wearing?




Here he is folks. Jeff Clement. The future of the Mariners. I compare him to Mike Piazza, but left-handed, without a mustache, not peddling shampoo-conditioner hybrids, and not a total tool.

But more importantly, this is the first uniform the poor kid had to wear in professional baseball.

2 comments:

  1. Just to chime in on the "how long does it take a catcher to reach the bigs:

    The 90s gave us two of the best catchers of all time in Piazza and Pudge. The "next" one is supposed to be Victor Martinez, but he hasn't fared so well this year.

    I thought I'd look at the ages of the top catchers when they got to the bigs:

    Piazza was the ROY in 1993 at the age of 25. He came up in 92 though, so we'll say 24. He was an amazing hitter, but his defense held him back a little.

    Ivan Rodriguez won his first Gold Glove in 1992 at the age of 20. He actually came up in 91 at 19. Wow.

    Sandy Alomar hit .326 in 132 games in 1990 at the age of 23-24. He was up in 88 at 21 as well. He was a big prospect too. It's pretty amazing that he is still playing catcher at nearly 40.

    As far as it being a fast track to the majors, I'd say that's definitely true if you're as talented as those guys. But, it's probably the most important defensive position and the hardest to master. Catcher is like shortstop in that if you are exceptional defensively, you will move up even faster like Pudge. If Clement is in the same league as those guys, we may see him real soon.




    Here is the link if you want to look at more:
    http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/playerindex/POS_C

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:40 PM

    ..recall Varitek--never made it to the big club with the M's after we drafted him out of Ga Tech--now look at him fo rht Bosox

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