A few things.
- Last year Mangini played almost the entire second half with a Level-2 quad strain. Level 2 means that the muscle was almost ripped from the bone. "Strain" is a misnomer because what the injury was is a tear of the muscle tissue. I don't know how he did it, but I've talked so some people close to Mangini that state that he is one of the toughest SOB's around.
- Mangini was drafted just about solely on his performance in 2006 in the Cap Cod League where he won the Thurman Munson Batting Title and landed a spot on the CCBBL All-Star team as the starting third baseman. Keep in mind that the Cap Cod League is a wooden bat league.
- In his first year of college, Mangini's natural swing was nearly demolished by coaches who thought that they knew better. It has taken all this time and the help of a few batting coaches in the M's system to straighten him out. Most notably was Phil Plantier down in West Tenn.
- While still in HS Mangini worked with local NC baseball legend Clay Council. Council has worked with just about every kid coming out of the Tar Heel State who has gone on to MLB. During the off-season of 2009/2010, Mangini reconnected with Council, who helped him get his swing back to what it once was.
The results are obvious. I went over all of this over at my site in one of my "Hitting Evolution" pieces.
Ya, I know my Mangini lore :)
Lonnie
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