Giants’ Bart puts focus on learning
Before anyone suggests Joey Bart isn’t ready for the big leagues based on his limited sample size, let’s remember the early days of Buster Posey’s career.
Posey hit .118 in September 2009, and his first start was a challenge with freaky Tim Lincecum starting and 6foot10 Randy Johnson finishing. The 22yearold catcher wasn’t fully polished at the time, and issues surfaced over the years working with Lincecum.
So, yeah, Bart isn’t the first highly touted catcher to experience growing pains.
“I’m here to learn. I have a lot of stuff to work on in my game,” Bart said. “I take every day as a learning day, 100%. That’s what I like about the game. I love learning. I love trying to get better and figuring things out.”
The Giants finished their homestand Thursday by being swept in a doubleheader by the Dodgers, and the threegame series did not go well for Bart, who went 0for10 with seven strikeouts, his average dropping to .182, and was a defensive liability in Tuesday’s opener.
Management understood the transition wouldn’t be smooth for Bart, which is why the team kept saying he needed more development at the alternate site in Sacramento.
Despite the struggles, the Giants plan to continue playing Bart regularly and let him continue to learn his craft at the bigleague level.
“He’s an inexperienced, young player who is going to
take lumps along the way,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “He’s also going to have a lot of successes, and he’s going to be really good for a long time.
“In the interim, though, there are going to be some ups and downs. We’re going to be patient with him. We’re going to talk to him about how he can get better and look to develop him at every turn, both so he can help us win as quickly as possible and we get the most out of Joey and Joey gets the most out of himself long term.”
Bart was called up Aug. 20 and hit doubles in his first three games, and the Giants won his first five as part of a sevengame winning streak. But he mightily struggled against Dodgers pitchers, who kept him offbalance and had him swinging at pitches out of the zone.
Threetime Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw toyed with Bart, striking him out in both of their duels, needing only six pitches.
In the first meeting, Bart swung at a curve in the dirt for strike two and a slider way inside for strike three. Next time, Bart again swung at a curve below the zone for strike two and then watched a curve sail by on the outside corner for strike three.
With Kershaw gone, Bart struck out to end the game and K’d in his first atbat in the doubleheader nightcap.
“The league is going to make quick adjustments to Joey, and Joey is always going to need to adjust back,” Kapler said. “He’s going to have his bumps and bruises. He’s going to go through stretches of 15, 20 atbats that don’t look great. He’s going to struggle behind the plate.”
Bart is dealing with it. Sometimes he looks frustrated, sometimes overwhelmed. But sometimes he looks in total control as if he were a bigleaguer for years.
He knows hitting will come and go and that he’ll get on hot and cold streaks, but his priority is consistently excelling behind the plate with his pitch calling, framing and throwing. And, of course, leading.
“You have to be there defensively every night,” Bart said. “That’s my main focus, defense. Just trying to keep people from scoring and having our guys have their best stuff and feel confident throwing to me.”
Bart’s roughest defensive game, by far, was Tuesday when he struggled to get on the same page with Johnny Cueto, who repeatedly had to step off the rubber because of communication issues with the signs.
Like Lincecum, Cueto isn’t easy to catch — given his hesitations, shimmies and quick pitches. Former manager Bruce Bochy often used a catcher other than Posey for Lincecum, whose extreme breaking pitches in the dirt would fool batters but present a nightmare for the guy behind the plate trying to scoop everything.
Let it be said that in most of Lincecum’s finest hours, including his dominance in the 2010 and 2012 postseasons, along with one of his two nohitters, he threw to Posey.
Kapler said he won’t hesitate to use Bart to catch Cueto despite Cueto’s comfort throwing to backup Chadwick Tromp. In Bart’s defense, it was a tough overall game to catch because the Giants used 10 pitchers, from the crafty Cueto to hardthrowing Sam Coonrod, who hit 101 mph, to submarine pitcher Tyler Rogers, the closest thing to a fastpitch softball pitcher.
Bart dropped balls, got crossed up on pitches and struggled with secondary signs, especially with runners on second trained to relay to batters what’s coming. But he was grateful the Giants won in 11 innings because, he said, winning supersedes everything.
“You can’t always appreciate your best games because that’s not always going to happen,” Bart said, “but sometimes you can appreciate the one like I had (Tuesday). Things are kind of evident. OK, I could do better with this, do better with that.”
Bart is taking a different route than Posey, who had the luxury of veteran Bengie Molina as a tutor and the experience of returning to the minors to open the 2010 season. Of course, it didn’t take long for Posey to emerge as a superstar who became a sixtime AllStar and common denominator to three World Series titles.
There were encouraging signs Thursday as the Dodgers were completing their doubleheader sweep. Bart worked a walk in the final inning, resisting swinging at the final two pitches that were just outside. Plus, starter Kevin Gausman commended him for “a couple of changeups he stole for strikes.”
Through it all, Bart is thrilled with the opportunity and eager to showcase all parts of his game.
“I love competing, trying to get better,” he said. “That’s really what drives me every day, figuring out a way to get better.”