Short hops, quick pops and backhand stops:

• Mike Redmond, veteran catcher and clubhouse sage, tells Cleveland teammate Shin-Soo Choo this all the time: “Hey, now that I dont play in Minnesota with Joe Mauer, youre my favorite player!”

Shin-Soo Choos powerful arm is one of the best in baseball. (Getty Images) Its always good for a laugh, something the Indians have needed during their frustrating start (Cleveland is hitting just .233 with runners in scoring position, .215 with RISP and two out, and they rank 28th in the majors with just 74 runs scored). But at the same time, the extraordinarily humble Choo maybe doesnt recognize how much truth is wrapped in Redmonds razzing.

“Im not even close to Mauer,” Choo says. “Hes the best hitter in the major leagues. Im not even close.

“But its good to hear.”

No one is suggesting that Mauer, with his one AL MVP award, two Gold Gloves and three batting titles, doesnt set the standard. But given Choos five-tool game and emerging br to have multiple favorite players.

“Hes a franchise-type player, man,” says Redmond, who has seen a few of them in his 13 seasons with Florida, Minnesota and, now, Cleveland. “I know when I played against him I thought he was a tough out, and to see him improve last year. And this year, to build off what he accomplished last year.

“I totally expect him to continue to be one of the best players in this league for a long time. Hes that good.”

Choo, 27, in 2009 was the only AL player to hit .300 with 20 or more homers and 20 or more steals. This year, hes hit safely in 14 of his past 16 games, ranks eighth in the AL with a .338 batting average and second with a .452 on-base percentage.

“Guy looks like hes hitting a two-iron in batting practice,” Indians first-year manager Manny Acta says. “I had heard about him, but hes much better than I anticipated.”

There also is no better arm in the game. Choos one-hop rope to the plate Tuesday night to nail the Angels Hideki Matsui was a thing of beauty.

“Arms like that are disappearing in the game,” Acta says. “And it helps over the course of the season when third-base coaches stop runners.”

Given Choos burgeoning offensive numbers, his biggest task is to work on the games nuances.

“We have talked to him about the fact that 90 percent of the time when outfielders think they can throw a guy out, they cant,” Acta base running, defense, when to run, when not to run, when to be aggressive, when not to be aggressive. Thats it for him.”

• One thing still hanging over Choo is the requirement in South Korea for men to serve a two-year hitch in the military before theyre 30. The clock is ticking on Choo, who turns 28 July 13. He respec but the Indians do not seem worried. Two ways around it: One, if Choo takes United States citizenship, as many expect him to do. A second way is if he plays for the South Korean National Team and it wins a gold medal in this winters Asian Games. Thats not foolproof, but South Korea has released some men from military commitments in the past for winning the gold.

• Most depressed team in the majors has to be Tampa Bay. The Rays are the only team in the majors playing better than .700 ball (16-5 on Thursday), yet they drew a season-low 10,691 for Wednesday nights game against Oakland.

• Memo to all players, coaches and managers who claim they “never read the paper” or read things online: Information is power. For proof, see Pittsburgh catcher Ryan Doumit, who obliterated the Brewers and closer Trevor Hoffman with a game-deciding grand slam Tuesday and then sent Wednesdays game into extra innings when he smashed a second homer in two days against Hoffman. The deal was, Hoffman has not been throwing his trademark changeup as often this year, and it became a big issue after the grand slam. So? “I saw in the paper that thats what he wanted to work on,” Doumit said. “So I just looked for one of those.”

• Until Doumit stepped up against Hoffman and the Pirates finally won two in Milwaukee this week, Pittsburgh had lost 22 in a row at Miller Park and, overall, had been outscored 53-4 in four games against the Brewers this season. Or, as Tom Haudricourt wrote for the , “The Brewers seem so comfortable against the Pittsburgh Pirates, you almost expect to see them reclining on La-Z-Boys in the dugout, wearing smoking jackets and slippers, martinis in hand.”

• As for the Pirates 22-game losing streak in Milwaukee, no team had lost that many games in a row in one place since the St. Louis Browns (who became the Baltimore Orioles) lost 27 in a row at Cleveland from 1952-54.

• In the aftermath of the Yankees triple play in Oakland last week, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox was remembering the Yank a 1-5-3 special, with Cox at third base and Mickey Mantle at first. “I had a laser arm, I know, but how could a guy not get back to first after the throw went to third?” quipped Cox.

• Did you see the Yankees Mark Teixeira mow down Angels catcher Bobby Wilson last Friday night in Anaheim, a blow that sent Wilson straight to the disabled list with a concussion and a strained left ankle? Yeah, Wilsons father saw it, too. Plenty. “My dad called and said, Can you call ESPN and tell them to stop showing it already? Ive seen it enough,” Wilson says.

• Shame on Kansas City fans for booing Seattles Mike Sweeney this week. Yes, there are countless reasons for Royals fans to be angry and frustrated, but Sweeney, a class guy who did all he could for the Royals when he was there, is not one of them.

• Two reasons you cant blame Royals fans for booing most everything else: The bullpen is so bad the Royals actually have a record this year when theyre statistic presented in Joe Posnanskis blog, ace Zack Greinke has made 46 starts and has a 2.11 ERA since Aug. 16, 2008. Kansas Citys record in those 46 starts? 22-24.

Posted on April 30th, 2010 by admin
Filed under: MLB baseball news