Port St. Lucy – Eric Chavez has been a fan of great batsman for a long time.
From his own play day he tried to emulate Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Bond.
More recently, his eyes were drawn to another left-handed swinger, Juan Soto.
And earlier this spring, seeing Soto's pre-workout routine gave him a “goose bump,” the Mets hit coach saw him play in the game and found him more impressed on the past three weeks.
“It's great to see it from afar,” Chavez said of Soto's ability on the plate. “The closer he gets to you, the more you go, the more it's different.”
Even during Grapefruitreug matches, Soto applies the same disciplined patient approach in the regular season.
A year ago, he surprised the Yankees and did the same thing at Mets Camp.
Chavez was very impressed with what he saw from Soto. He could only think of one other batter to compare him, and not Griffey Jr.
“I think Bond was close to the perfect batsman I've ever seen, and Soto is right there on his heel,” Chavez said. “It's pretty special. I'm hoping to see what he'll be like when he gets here, but it's not the same. It's as good as I've ever seen. I'm happy he's on our side.”
As Carlos Mendoza said, “It's a show.”
“When he comes to the plate, you can see the difference between the stadium and our dugout,” Mendoza said. There's not even a pitch. ”
Watching Soto every day, his peculiarity doesn't come only from his powers and his ability to ride the base.
That's how he takes the pitch, looks at the gloves and is rarely fooled.
The approach begins before he enters the box.
“His level of thinking about what a pitcher will do is kind of thing,” Chavez said. He spoke to his face [Kodai] Senga once knew what to do with the next pitch. Sometimes, if a guy has 50 at-bats against a guy, they may have a good idea of what a pitcher is doing. Soto can do that after hitting one or two times. It's the next level. ”
And Chavez knows when it's going on.
“Sometimes, a guy throws the pitch, Soto lets go and you see him laughing,” Chavez said. And I'm pretty sure if he doesn't do it on the next pitch, he'll get him. ”
Chavez and Mendoza believe that at least some of Soto's traits can be rubbed down on his teammates.
“He can influence everyone else with the lineup,” Chavez said. You can just look at him, watch his practice and take things. ”
“The guys are drawn to him,” Mendoza said. “Just being around him, talking about hitting, everyone is going to pick things up and make it better.”
Still, as Chavez said, “There is only one Juan Soto in the world.”
“We can do what we can,” Chavez said. But there is something you can do. You may not be able to do what he can, but Soto can definitely help good batsmen like Francisco Alvarez and Jesse Turniker become the best version of himself. You just have to pay attention. ”
