Clement's Batspeed
Good patter around the 'net about Clement's batspeed, and about his getting jobbed a few times in Cheney last year. Which is true. Clement's eye ratio would have been 1.5, not 1.2, with major league umping.
PCL umps really can be weird, amigos. You remember Eric Gregg in the Braves-Yankees World Series? Overhead camera showing the ball 18-24 inches outside, in the LH batter's box, and Gregg enthusiastically ringing guys out of there on strike three? You'll see about one call like that per half inning, if you go to Cheney. Sometimes two or three Greggs in a half inning. Sometimes none.
The funny thing is, Clement did slug .680 last year. :- ) How badly could he have been hurt by the umps? Well, granted, with good umping he'd probably have had 50 walks and 35 K's, rather than 45/39 (IIRC).
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On the batspeed: trust me on this one, kiddies. Don't trust me on all of them. Don't trust me on most of them. Don't even trust me on the average call. But do trust me on this one.
1) Assuming that the criticism is about his launch-quickness, not his throughspeed (which leaves the ball 400 feet away and is above question) ...
2) Any of you 'net rats can judge that for yourselves.
Just (A) watch when Jeff Clement decides to pull the trigger on a 94 fastball that is not in a pitcher's count (let's say, a 1-1 pitch). CAN he get on top of it and pull it or take it up the middle? Is he CAPABLE when he's not fooled?
Can he do that AS WELL AS, say, Adrian Beltre can? (Almost all major leaguers get beaten by mid-90's fastballs sometimes.)
I'm not talking about cheating -- the "timing" of the fastball that leaves you looking like a yutz on any changeup. Clement doesn't get caught looking real stupid on offspeed -- because he's not cheating.
As Billy1 noted at SportSp... er, Mariner Central, what happens is that young hitters are getting fooled, and it's easy to take that hesitation as a lack of physical gifts.
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And (B) watch when he's looking offspeed and adjusts to a fastball. (You can tell because there is no weight transfer; it's an arm swing, and he'll visibly look unprepared.) Can he put a 90 fastball in play crisply the other way, SOMETIMES, when surprised by a fastball's quickness? That's REFLEX.
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Go check the vids. They're on the M's site.
I never heard such a thing, as Jeff blinkin' Clement having a slow bat. Adrian Beltre, maybe. But not Clement. Yeah, the kid hit 445-foot home runs as a 17-year-old because he has no natural gift for swinging a bat.
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What happens is, some catchers fit the mold that scouts are looking for -- like Adam Moore -- and then they can't do anything wrong. Other catchers look funky to the scouts, and then you are going to see some skepticism.
Good luck finding anybody who thinks Jeff Clement is going to be much of a major league player :- )
Cheers,
Dr D