QUITE THE FRIGHT
YANKS GET BIG SCARE AS FRAZIER COLLIDES WITH ANOTHER TOP PROSPECT
TAMPA — Clint Frazier has plenty of bat speed, doesn’t lack for confidence and has a mop of red hair that is better suited for a Simply Red cover band rather than brushing the back of a Yankees uniform.
Sunday, the Yankees watched the linchpin of July’s trade of Andrew Miller to the Indians be far too aggressive on a fly ball to right-center that fortunately didn’t result in Dustin Fowler, another outfield prospect, or Frazier getting hurt.
With Fowler, the center fielder, and Frazier, the right fielder, moving toward the gap Frazier opted to lay out and attempt a diving catch. However, Frazier didn’t hear Fowler calling for the ball until it was too late.
“I heard the call when I was in the air,’’ said Frazier, who Fowler tripped over after the ball glanced off his glove. The near-disaster allowed Jerrick Suiter of the Pirates to reach on a three-base error charged to Fowler after the ball glanced off the side of Frazier’s head while he was facedown in the grass.
The scary scenario took place in a 3-2 Yankees victory at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
A center fielder in the Indians’ system, Frazier knows the middle outfielder takes everything he can get to and it’s up to the corners to make room.
“I have to get out of the way,’’ said Frazier, who believed the cap provided more protection than the unruly hair when it came to the ball glancing off his dome. “He is the center fielder and I can’t knock the ball out of his glove. I am not the center fielder. When the guy calls it I can’t act like I am a center fielder when I am on the corners.’’
With the wind howling in from right field, it was hard to hear an outfielder’s call, but Frazier was guilty of being too aggressive and risking injury to Fowler and himself.
Frazier entered the game in the sixth inning, and later had a chance to record the game’s final out by throwing home in the ninth, but Gary Sanchez didn’t handle the one-hop throw.
“I short-hopped Gary. If I gave him more of a long hop he would have handled it, no problem,’’ said Frazier, who went 1-for-2 and got an abrasion on his right forearm from the misguided dive.
Frazier, 22, came to the Yankees with lefty Justus Sheffield in exchange for Miller, but he was clearly the centerpiece of the deal for the Yankees, who were seduced by Frazier’s bat speed.
Seven days before the deal was finalized, Frazier had been promoted from Double-A Akron to Triple-A Columbus and in five games he batted .238 (5-for-21) without a homer or an RBI and whiffed six times.
The feeling among some evalu- ators was that Frazier wasn’t ready to move up but the Yankees didn’t want to send him back to Double-A so they sent him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre where he batted a disappointing .228 with three homers, seven RBIs and 30 strikeouts.
Fowler, who like Frazier is from Georgia, is 22 and more polished than Frazier. When asked to compare the lefthanded hitting Fowler to former Yankees prospect Ben Gamel, who was dealt to the Mariners last season, scouts gave the nod to Fowler.
In 132 games for Double-A Trenton last season, Fowler batted .281 with 12 homers and 88 RBIs. He is ticketed for SWB this coming season.
Asked what he thought he has shown the major league coaching staff in eight games this spring, Frazier described the full spectrum.
“I have shown them the ability to hit breaking balls, fastballs, be aggressive on the base paths, make errors in the outfield,’’ Frazier said. “I am not done messing up and showing what I can do.’’
What he should be done with is hurling himself in games that don’t count. For his sake and others’.