Everyone is human.
Everyone.
One of the biggest things that happens in Pro baseball is Roster watching. Before every series at the first part of the season players check the rosters of opposing players to see if there's anyone noteworthy playing for the other teams.
One roster had roughly $20 million in bonus money in their starting 9, a ton of them coming from major universities where players had seen them on TV for years. We are well aware of who is playing for the other team, and if someone is considered a big prospect players will pay attention to see what all the buzz is about.
Often, the players that once seemed invincible are underwhelming during the week and don't really do anything too impressive while other people who you haven't really heard of steal the show.
Having this information isn't always a good thing.
Last year, a young drafted pitcher was pitching in one of his first outings, and we were playing against a shortstop that was/is ranked as the top prospect in his organization and a top 20 player in all of minor league baseball. Translation: He's really good.
The pitcher had grown up in the same state as this player, and had heard all about him through Highschool.
He was going to face him third today in the lineup, and he already was well aware that he was there and his adrenaline was already going.
The at bat comes, and the pitcher is nervous. Doesn't want to go right at the hitter because of how good he is, so he tries to be perfect. In doing this, he throws 3 straight balls and falls behind 3-0. He now has no choice but to throw the ball over the plate, in an attempt to not walk him.
So he comes set, and throws a fastball down the middle.
And the top prospect fouls it off, strike one.
The pitcher does this exact thing again, right down the middle. The perfect pitch to hit.
Foul Ball, strike two.
The seemingly untouchable prospect missed two perfect pitches.
Third pitch is a slider, a good pitch and one that results in the same thing as the pitches before. Foul ball.
Then the pitcher throws another fastball, this time off the plate.
The prospect takes it, ball four. Walk.
The inning ends, and the pitcher comes in and sits down. Relieved that the hitter didn’t crush any of those pitches.
“I got so lucky there.” he says.
“Did you?” I replied. “You had him beat whenever you threw the ball over the plate, you were better than him. You just gave him a 3-0 head start.”
He was so focused on someone he put on a pedestal that he failed to realize he was the better player during that at bat.
The opposing player is really good, and deserves all the praise and accolades.
But, nevertheless. He is human.
He missed 2 of the easiest pitches this HS draftee threw him.
So what if the pitcher wasn't psyched out before the at bat ever began?
Maybe he is in a 1-2 count, something every single pitcher wants to be in.
You never know
Here’s another:
We played a Catcher that was taken in the top 10 picks out of a major university that was Top 10 all his years there and played multiple primetime games. HIs defense was immaculate, but he wasn't hitting like he all the hype said he would. In fact, he wasn’t even a top 3-4 hitter on his team, and we had multiple other players we paid much more attention when pitching to.
Fast forward a year, he's hitting .300 in the show and playing great defense on a playoff contender.
So…. What is the lesson here?
I think it's a very important one to learn, and something that people within professional baseball generally agree on but can oftentimes lead to immense amounts of frustration from outsiders or people on the wrong side of things.
And its this:
No one is above the game.
Baseball is absurdly hard, and no one is immune to getting beaten down by the game every once in a while.
I have seen the same pitcher throw a 7 inning shutout in the Major Leagues and then go to the Minor Leagues for a rehab assignment and not make it out of the 3rd inning having given up 7 runs and multiple off of homeruns.
The game is tough, and there will absolutely be stretches where you don't really do anything impressive.
I know my teammates and I talk about it all the time but there will be stretches where you are not sure if you'll ever get a hit again (you will). There will be times where you think everything you throw in the zone will be crushed (it wont).
You just have to keep going.
Back to the main point:
Everyone is human. Your favorite player has had a season, or a stretch in which they were incredibly mediocre, and most of them have had stretches where they are simply not good at all.
Last year in College Baseball there was a hitter who broke every homerun record in the modern BBCOR era, he was one of the most feared players in college and was an absolute menace to pitchers for the entire season. When the season was over, he was drafted high and paid a large bonus for his talents.
He went to A ball, where the team I was on played him and everyone was ready to see him play in person.
We had an incident where we ran out of pitchers because of scheduling and we were forced to throw a position player.
The position player struck him out swinging
On a 75 mph fastball.
Human.
We faced a pitcher from a top 3 school in the country, a perennial CWS championship team. In college he was untouchable.
We scored 7 runs on him in less than 3 innings, including roughly 5 home runs.
I would also like to take a second to address the “SEC is like AA” thoughts.
It isn't.
But anyway
Good luck
John