Mays Giving Tips To Rowand

[love_that_reefer]

When Aaron Rowand took a seat at Willie Mays' table in the Giants' clubhouse last week, something important was happening. For all the talk of Rowand's prolonged hitting slump during his first season with the Giants, his fielding troubles might have been more crucial. Rowand did not always get great jumps on balls and overthrew cutoff men far more than a seven-year major-leaguer should. Mays had some answers. He told Rowand to close the gap between his fingers when he grips the ball and throw more on a downward slope, as a pitcher does. Mays also said Rowand needs to crouch more as the pitch is thrown, allowing for a more catlike step toward long flyballs. Rowand is a great talker. In this conversation, he was a great listener.

I hope Rowand can take what he heard and apply it on the field. I was shocked at how many times Rowand could not hit a cut off man last year but hopefully a HOFer can help him out. I said when Rowand was signed that he would have to move to LF in a couple of years and that looks to be more and more plausible. Rowand needs to do a better job in CF and at the plate. I attribute a lot of Rowands failures at the plate to lack of protection and having to hit behind such a slow runner in Bengie Molina. I expect more of the same at the plate because if the season started today, Rowand would most likely be hitting 6th behind Molina and Sandoval who are both heavy footed. Rowand would also have little protection in the lineup further hurting his power numbers. Hopefully Mays will stay on Rowand about his defense all season because the Giants are going to need great defense up the middle and Renteria is going to hurt that a tad.

[NYgiantsfan5689]

Wow. Talk about a huge benefit to playing CF with the Giants. This could attract future players to sign as well. I know it's definitely one of the huge draws of playing for the Yankees.

Good for Rowand. He's one of my favorite players in baseball, and hopefully this will help him bounce back this year