Miguel Vargas will take his first swing of spring coaching as we speak. That wouldn’t be that notable, besides that Vargas has already performed in six spring coaching video games and had 11 spring coaching plate appearances. He simply hasn’t swung but. That’s been essential due to a hairline fracture in his proper pinkie he suffered whereas taking groundballs. Vargas is the Dodgers’ fifth-ranked prospect, and with Gavin Lux out for the season and Messieurs Turner and Turner off to Boston and Philadelphia, Los Angeles wants him at second base. The Dodgers need Vargas getting sport reps on the keystone and seeing reside, aggressive pitches. So there he’s, taking part in although he’s not medically cleared to swing the bat in a sport.
Simply seeing pitches is lots essential. You don’t have to swing to trace pitches and work in your timing. Take Kyle Schwarber, whose heroics within the 2016 World Sequence got here after a horrific knee damage value him most of that season. After acing his six-month checkup and being cleared to hit, Schwarber flew out to the Arizona Fall League, the place he might see as many pitches as attainable earlier than the Sequence. He performed in two actual video games and two simulated ones, however the true work occurred within the cage, a lot of it with the bat on his shoulder. Per Tom Verducci, “Schwarber hit or tracked 1,300 pitches in 4 days — many out of a pitching machine that fired major-league high quality breaking pitches, some from two Class A pitchers the Cubs introduced in to pitch to him within the simulated video games and a few from coaches.”
In addition to, you’ll be able to’t simply swing all day anyway. For one, hitting is homicide in your fingers. Zach Crizer and Hannah Keyser famous final yr that the brand new problem for the makers of the most recent hyper-accurate pitching machines is discovering a manner to make use of lighter balls so gamers can really use the machines extra. Additionally, swinging is tiring work. After some time, fatigue causes your swing to interrupt down, and impulsively each swing you are taking reinforces dangerous mechanics as a substitute of excellent ones.
That mentioned, as he’s dug into the field, Vargas hasn’t all the time given the impression that he’s devoting himself absolutely to his pitch monitoring project. The stance he’s been utilizing in spring coaching may be very totally different than the one he used final yr. He appears to be like loads much less athletic and lot extra just like the dummy pitchers typically put within the batters field once they want a reference level:
Nevertheless, by the point the pitcher is able to ship, Vargas is again to his outdated stance, getting deep right into a crouch and utilizing the identical leg kick to trace pitches. Regardless of his resemblance to a chunk of plastic, Vargas began issues off with a substantial amount of success, vindicating Eno Sarris as soon as and for all. Throughout his time in Triple-A and the large leagues, Elvis Peguero had only a 7% stroll price final yr. That didn’t cease him from issuing a stroll in Vargas’ first spring coaching plate look, this although the Brewers had been notified earlier than the sport that he wouldn’t be swinging. Vargas wore a slight smirk as he reached first:
Two days later, Vargas made his second plate look and earned his second stroll. Zero ABs, 1.000 OBP. It helped that pitcher Reiss Knehr bought squeezed a bit on two pitches that actually seemed like they may have been strike three. For only a second, the Dodgers’ broadcast crew began to sound a bit of irritated by the entire farce. “And somebody someplace is saying, ‘Oh, what an excellent eye,’” mentioned Rick Monday. “No, he simply wasn’t gonna swing!”
The Dodgers announcers deserve a good bit of credit score. They’re looking for one thing fascinating to say a few man who actually has a physician’s notice that claims he’s not allowed do something fascinating. They’ve rapidly ran out of baseball references, in order that they’ve turned to soccer, making the identical joke in regards to the Statue of Liberty play in three straight video games.
Vargas lastly struck out in his third plate look. The backwards Ok got here courtesy of Luis García, he of the 26.3% strikeout price. Because it seems, essentially the most enjoyable factor about watching Vargas not swing is that when he strikes out, he tends to peace out in a rush. He does an about-face type pivot and begins backing away from the plate earlier than the umpire makes his name, even when he’s not all that certain the pitch was a strike. Typically he’s out of body completely by the point the catcher throws the ball across the horn. Vargas genuinely appears to be like like he can’t wait to get the hell out of the batter’s field, as if he left half a turkey sandwich within the dugout and he actually desires to complete it earlier than the subsequent inning begins.
Vargas walked 4 occasions in his first six plate appearances, good for a .667 OPS. For these maintaining rating at dwelling, that’s a .667 on-base proportion plus a .000 slugging proportion, and it comes out far above the .455 OPS he posted in his 2022 cup of espresso.
The Dodgers aren’t hiding Vargas’ damage. It’s been the newspapers, and in response to the Dodgers broadcast, Dave Roberts has advised opposing managers that Vargas wouldn’t be swinging. Nevertheless, isn’t stunning that opposing pitchers aren’t utterly updated on a 23-year-old with 47 profession massive league ABs. And absolutely a few of them handled Vargas like some other batter as a result of they should get in reps identical to he does.
Vargas isn’t the primary participant who hasn’t been capable of swing for a medical purpose. In 2016, rookie pitcher Robert Gsellman made 17 plate appearances for the Mets with a torn labrum. He tried to bunt in 14 of them. Sam Miller broke down every plate look, making an attempt to pinpoint when precisely opposing groups realized that Gsellman wasn’t able to swinging. They nearly all the time appeared to not know, or a minimum of to behave as in the event that they didn’t. Individuals are likely to see what they count on to see. Miguel Vargas digs in with batting gloves, a shinguard, an elbow protector and a giant leg kick, and pitchers take him significantly. All the identical, by the point the Dodgers confronted the Rangers on March 1, the non-secret was undoubtedly out.
Cole Ragans and Andrew Heaney saved themselves the exertion and threw largely get-me-over fastballs to Vargas. Sadly for Heaney, he nonetheless couldn’t get them over, and he walked Vargas on 5 pitches. On Thursday, a “Let’s Go Dodgers” chant broke out after Arizona’s Ryne Nelson fell behind 3-1. Nelson missed once more, and Vargas bought to take his base. These two walks had completely nothing to do with Vargas. Typically throwing strikes is simply arduous.
That was Vargas’ final free cross. Sadly, and thru completely no fault of his personal, he has come again to earth in the previous few video games. He has now walked 4 occasions and struck out seven occasions. Nonetheless, his 36.4% stroll price tops his greatest season within the minors by greater than 20 factors, which is nice so long as you don’t take into consideration the 64.6% strikeout price. The Dodger rookie has ascended to a brand new airplane of baseball existence. He appears to be like down on Joey Gallo and laughs, for he alone presides over the realm of the Two True Outcomes.
In his final 5 plate appearances, Vargas noticed nothing however fastballs, normally of the low-effort, right-down-the-middle selection. Essentially the most entertaining strikeout by far got here on Saturday. After lacking together with his first pitch, Zack Greinke gave Vargas all the pieces he had, grunting as he threw a fastball proper down the center to even the rely at 1-1. After which suddenly, Greinke appeared to recollect who he was coping with. He dropped the self-esteem of a supply completely and simply tossed the ball over the plate for strike two, eliciting laughter from the followers. He did the identical factor on his subsequent pitch, however the crazy toss missed inside, so he revved again up and fired a grunting strike three at full velocity (comparatively talking) as the group roared. Greinke nonetheless used PitchCom all the time, simply to ensure that he wouldn’t cross up the catcher together with his 59-mph fastball.
It takes a certain quantity of braveness to do what Miguel Vargas is doing. He’s 23 years outdated, he’s performed 18 video games within the massive leagues, and he’s going up there and principally begging the pitcher to strike him out. It might be spring coaching, and he may need an excellent purpose, however there are nonetheless crowds and TV cameras taking in his each non-move. Perhaps he’s bored up there, or embarrassed. Or possibly he’s centered on each pitch. Upright stance apart, he actually appears to be like like he’s paying consideration. He deploys his leg kick and watches each providing. He takes tender apply cuts between pitches. For causes passing understanding, between balls three and 4 from Andrew Heaney, he introduced the bat as much as his face so he might sniff the barrel.
As we speak, Miguel Vargas will take his first swing of spring coaching, or possibly he’ll simply watch the pitches go by, this time making the selection for himself.
