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Article by Todd Jones on Cabrera and Willis

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Marlins All-Star

Marlins

Posted
Posted

:thumbup

 

You could name a nice list of players under the age of 25, and I have the privilege of playing with two of the best--Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis.

 

Cabrera is a force to be reckoned with. In my opinion, he is a hybrid between Manny Ramirez and Albert Pujols. He has opposite-field power like those two, but he doesn't yet have Pujols' plate discipline. Cabrera is as quick as a cat inside, and you can't pitch him away because he can naturally extend his arms to cover out there. He might not be as good defensively as Pujols, but he might be better than Manny in left field.

 

In his second full big-league season, Cabrera already is on the shortlist of players you don't let beat you, right alongside the boppers who get paid tons of money to drive in runs. As you get older in this game, you recognize when you don't match up well with a guy. You pitch around that hitter and force the next guy to beat you. You avoid guys like Pujols, Manny, Vladimir Guerrero, Todd Helton and Barry Bonds. The only thing Cabrera doesn't have that those guys do is a track record. That will come with time.

 

Dontrelle came into the league with a bang. His infectious smile and funky delivery set him apart. He was an All-Star his rookie year and helped the Marlins win the World Series to boot. But what I've learned from being around him is that there's substance to his style. We've all seen guys come in and have a great rookie year, then fizzle. What separates Dontrelle is his attitude. He doesn't seem to be satisfied. I see him throw his bullpen sessions, and he's as competitive on the side as he is in the game. He challenges himself to hit the target and gets upset and won't stop until he's satisfied with his day's work. I've seen the pitching coach take the ball from him and tell him he's done, and Dontrelle still wants to throw.

 

During games, he feels batters can't hit him with a boat oar. He works hard on pounding righthanders inside and then mixing up the soft stuff away. He also is working on a B.P. fastball away to get hitters off his fastball. In other words, he's learning to pitch. He has good stuff and an idea of what to do with it.

 

If you can figure out all that stuff before you're 25, you might be headed to another list--the Hall of Fame list.

 

Todd Jones is a reliever for the Marlins. E-mail him at [email protected]

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Marlins All-Star

Marlins

Posted
  • Author
Posted

he aint better than Manny in LF

780087[/snapback]

He said he might be better than Manny in LF...

 

And Manny has the green monster behind him. So anything that goes over his head he just backs away from the wall and plays it off the wall. I think it's easier to play LF in Boston than here.

 

Cabs isn't a GREAT OF, but he's good enough. He does the job.

 

:thumbup

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Marlins All-Star

Marlins

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Posted

We should get the DH and have Cabs do that..

780095[/snapback]

Lowell at DH. Cabrera at 3rd.

780114[/snapback]

Lowell is a much better defensive 3b than Cabrera. Letting Cabrera play 3b when you could have Lowell play 3b would make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

 

It's nice to see you're atleast attempting to make smart posts though.

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Marlins All-Star

Marlins

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Oh, wow, expect some "nice" replies to that post....

780128[/snapback]

:mischief

 

I don't give a s***.

 

He has no life to constantly be rebuking someone on a message board in which he has no clue who they are.

 

He needs more things to fill out his day.

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UMFan4Life7 Marlin

UMFan4Life7

Posted
Posted

Oh, wow, expect some "nice" replies to that post....

780128[/snapback]

:mischief

 

I don't give a s***.

 

He has no life to constantly be rebuking someone on a message board in which he has no clue who they are.

 

He needs more things to fill out his day.

780134[/snapback]

:mischief

 

As much as I agree with you, I just had to make sure you know that you will get some kind of crap back... :thumbup

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Marlins All-Star

Marlins

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Oh, wow, expect some "nice" replies to that post....

780128[/snapback]

:mischief

 

I don't give a s***.

 

He has no life to constantly be rebuking someone on a message board in which he has no clue who they are.

 

He needs more things to fill out his day.

780134[/snapback]

:mischief

 

As much as I agree with you, I just had to make sure you know that you will get some kind of crap back... :thumbup

780137[/snapback]

Yeah, don't worry, I am quite aware of that. He's never quoted any of my posts and not said "You're an idiot." He always gives me crap back, but he's a f***in loser that g-d put on this world just so there could be different levels of intelligence...etc.

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Ramp World Champion

Ramp

Posted
Posted

he aint better than Manny in LF

780087[/snapback]

He said he might be better than Manny in LF...

 

And Manny has the green monster behind him. So anything that goes over his head he just backs away from the wall and plays it off the wall. I think it's easier to play LF in Boston than here.

 

Cabs isn't a GREAT OF, but he's good enough. He does the job.

 

:thumbup

780091[/snapback]

Cabs has the Teal Tower behind him

 

Manny is underrated in LF....

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Marlins All-Star

Marlins

Posted
  • Author
Posted

he aint better than Manny in LF

780087[/snapback]

He said he might be better than Manny in LF...

 

And Manny has the green monster behind him. So anything that goes over his head he just backs away from the wall and plays it off the wall. I think it's easier to play LF in Boston than here.

 

Cabs isn't a GREAT OF, but he's good enough. He does the job.

 

:thumbup

780091[/snapback]

Cabs has the Teal Tower behind him

 

Manny is underrated in LF....

780180[/snapback]

The green monster is much bigger and is all over LF, while the teal tower isn't so big and doesn't extend all over the LF wall.

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Shaq-Man All-Star

Shaq-Man

Posted
Posted

He has no life to constantly be rebuking someone on a message board in which he has no clue who they are.

780134[/snapback]

You are calling other people on this board stupid?

 

Learn English, you lunkhead.

 

Feel free to look that one up in your thesaurus.

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strandedx02 Jumbo Shrimp

strandedx02

Posted
Posted

he aint better than Manny in LF

780087[/snapback]

He said he might be better than Manny in LF...

 

And Manny has the green monster behind him. So anything that goes over his head he just backs away from the wall and plays it off the wall. I think it's easier to play LF in Boston than here.

 

Cabs isn't a GREAT OF, but he's good enough. He does the job.

 

:thumbup

780091[/snapback]

 

I watch a lot of NESN being up here and I gotta say, it's not as easy to play the ball off the Monster as you might think. A lot of guys struggle out there in Fenway and that's the one thing Manny actually does pretty well, read the bounces coming off the wall. Cabs doesn't screw up as many easy plays as Manny does though. He also doesn't wear wristbands with his teammate's number on them. :thumbup

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