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Espinosa's Struggles Bring Chances for Tough Lessons
by Marcia Smith, Orange County Register
July 10, 2007
Danny Espinosa, the talent-soaked shortstop from Long Beach State and
Mater Dei, hopped off the Team USA charter bus Sunday at the Durham
(N.C.) Bulls Athletic Park, headed into the clubhouse and scanned the
lineup on the board. Twice.
His name wasn't on it. Another player, Jordy Mercer, an Oklahoma State
sophomore with a .174 batting average, was written in to start at
shortstop for the finale of the 36th annual USA-Japan Collegiate
Championship Series.
His omission, he knew, wasn't because he deserved a rest. "It was
because I've been struggling, struggling like I've never done before,"
Espinosa said from the ballpark.
Today, Team USA, America's 22-man team of top collegiate players,
leaves for the XV Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, while
the celebrated pros stage the All-Star Game.
One day, Espinosa hopes to make the bigs. Eight of the nine Long Beach
State players who played for the national team before him -- players
such as Angels pitcher Jered Weaver (2003), New York Yankee slugger
Jason Giambi (1991-92) and shortstops Bobby Crosby (2000) and Troy
Tulowitzki (2004) -- reached the majors.
But that "one day" seemed farther away on a Sunday afternoon
when
Espinosa, left off the lineup card and seeing no action for only the
fourth time in the 16 Team USA summer games, felt swallowed by a
miserable 2-for-31 hitting slump.
"It's not in my head," he said. "I just want to get out
of it."
Last season, the reigning Big West Freshman of the Year started all 53
games for the 49ers. He batted .319, with 38 RBIs, had team highs of
13 doubles and seven home runs, and was the slugger for whom
outfielders backpedaled and around whom pitchers pitched.
With Team USA, Espinosa has started in 10 and played in 12 of the 16
games that began with a tour against New England ballclubs and
continued through series against Chinese Taipei and Japan.
His glove hasn't failed him, as he has registered three double plays
and committed just one error in 44 defensive attempts for a .977
fielding percentage.
But his bat has let him down, shackling him with a nearly microscopic
batting average of .065 in 31 plate appearances. In all but one game,
he has been hitless and sent from the plate in frustration by everyone
from the Northeast's Oil Can Boyd All-Stars to Japan.
A week ago, on July 3 in Kannapolis, N.C., Espinosa tallied his only
two hits, both RBI singles and one with the bases loaded in a 5- 1
victory over Chinese Taipei.
After that breakout came more breakdown. His hit total still equals
the number of times he has been hit by a pitch. His strikeouts have
climbed to 11, while his stats for runs scored (three) and RBIs
(three) collect infield dust.
"So I've been going hard in the cages and talking to Coach about
changing my stance," Espinosa said, "Coach" being Long
Beach State
coach and Team USA manager Mike Weathers. "He has helped me get
through this time. He knows what I can do."
Espinosa's voice drips with frustration. Quick, almost impatient stabs
of words try to explain and downplay his puzzling low production with
the 33-inch, 30-ounce lumber that doesn't yield the hits the old
college aluminum did when "you get jammed inside or hit the ball
off
its end."
"And the pitching at this level takes adjustment," he said.
"They
(opposing pitchers) don't really give you anything to hit. They pitch
around you instead of coming after you like they did in college."
Espinosa already has established himself as a college star, earning
All-Big West second-team honors last season. Now he wears the red,
white and blue for the national team and yearns to make more than the
roster.
Espinosa wants to make an impact, which is something he can't do while
watching games from the dugout and nursing the worst batting average
on the team. (Trevor Coleman had a lower BA, having gone 0 for 7,
before being cut after four games.)
Surrounding him in the clubhouse are "a lot of guys who are going
to
go real high in the draft one day," Espinosa said. His 24-hour-a-
day
teammates travel with him on the long bus rides through the Northeast
and south to Alabama, and on the passport-toting flights to Brazil
and, for next month's World Port Tournament, to Rotterdam,
Netherlands.
South Carolina's switch-hitting first baseman Justin Smoak and the
Vanderbilt duo of Ryan Flaherty at second and Pedro Alvarez at third
play alongside Espinosa. They are all batting above .250 and have
started at least 15 of the 16 games. Alvarez boasts a .340 average
with four doubles and two home runs, and Smoak is hitting .293 with a
team-high six doubles and three home runs.
With the Team USA summer tour half over and as many as 23 games left
on the schedule, Espinosa has time to fix his offensive woes. The next
game is Saturday against the Dominican Republic at the Pan Am Games,
the highest level of amateur competition in this non- Olympic year.
He is learning something new here about toughness and perseverance,
lessons you don't get with a steady diet of success. So from the
lowest baseball moment of his young career, Espinosa plans his climb
as soon as he sees his name back in the lineup.
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