TAMPA, Fla. -- The baseball soared toward the fence in deep center, and even from his seat in a tiny minor-league ballpark in Ohio, Joe Bick knew right away that only something spectacular would prevent an extra-base hit. Bick's new client, the speedy kid playing center field, knew this too. He gave chase anyway.
To the agent's amazement, the center fielder closed enough to give himself a chance. Still, with only 5 feet between his speeding body and the base of the fence, a decision had to be made: Dive head first at full speed, ensuring that he would smash into the wall, with the promise of little else. Or concede.
But Brett Gardner's speed and fearlessness wouldn't allow it.
"Caught the ball, but damn near broke his neck," said Bick, recalling the first time he saw Gardner play live, during his first season as a pro in the New York Penn-League. "I suggested to him after the game that he might want to use that speed a little smarter, or else he might kill himself."
If speed and defense and intangibles were the only skills for which he would be judged, Gardner would already have been named the Yankees' undisputed starting center fielder. If all that mattered were impossible catches and stolen bases and dogged determination, he would have likely been spared the stress of competing this spring for the job with a similarly talented teammate in Melky Cabrera.
But to stick, Gardner must prove he can hit major-league pitching.
"I'll be the first one to admit that the first time I came up last year, I struggled," said Gardner, who hit .228 with an equally frightening .299 on-base percentage in 42 games last season. "I didn't do well, I didn't swing the bat well. I was inconsistent. I didn't do my job."
Gardner, a Yankees third-round pick in 2005, earned his first opportunity to answer questions about his bat when the Yankees called him from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on June 30. He left such a poor initial impression that it was easy to wonder if it would be his last.
"When Brett came up the first time, he found himself in a dream situation," Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said. "He wanted to play in the big leagues for such a long time. He finally made it, got called up, and was still feeling for himself."
As a minor-leaguer, Gardner earned acclaim for his selectivity at the plate. But that patience morphed into a tendency to be too passive. Pitchers took notice, and as Gardner waited, they peppered the strike zone. Constantly finding himself behind in counts, Gardner was hitting .153 on July 26, when the Yankees optioned him back to Triple A.
But Gardner, 25, used the demotion as motivation. He had long grown accustomed to meeting such challenges. In high school, Gardner was so raw that the College of Charleston would take him only as a walk-on. He went undrafted after his junior year, and was optimistically projected to go in the lower rounds a year later. But teams started to take notice during the latter half of his final season.
"Within a couple of years he turned into something far greater than we could imagine," said John Pawlowski, now the baseball coach at Auburn University. "He turned out to be a heck of a player for us, that's for sure."
That drive was evident last season when Gardner earned his second chance.
Recalled on Aug. 15, he finished the year hitting .294 down the stretch. Long attributed some of Gardner's success to a slight change in his stance made by Scranton/Wilkes-Barre hitting coach Butch Wynegar, who had Gardner lower his hands.
With the Yankees, Long continued working on Gardner's mechanics. Among other adjustments, Long eliminated the stride from Gardner's swing, which helped him react to the ball quicker.
In the offseason, Gardner built on the advice. He stuck with a hitting routine at a baseball complex near his home in Charleston, S.C. Twice, he watched video footage from last season of every one of his 127 major-league at-bats. The film review only reinforced the things he needed to improve most -- keeping his head in place, staying down through the swing, locking his eyes on the ball deeper into the hitting zone.
The results have shown thus far. After hitting just three home runs last season, Gardner hit his third in Grapefruit League play Monday, against the Toronto Blue Jays. His two hits against the Jays raised his average to .381 in eight spring training games.
"I'm seeing the ball well and my timing's pretty good right now, just trying to take advantage of good pitches to hit," Gardner said.
The difference, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, is in Gardner's sharpened mechanics. But Girardi cautions that a starting job can't be won this early in spring, though if Gardner keeps hitting this way, he may evolve into the leadoff hitter that some scouts have projected for years.
"He's an everyday player who could learn to be a good leadoff guy because he can fly," said a longtime talent evaluator, who requested anonymity because he isn't authorized to speak publicly about players in other organizations.
The scout said he likes Gardner more than most of his scouting colleagues. Given time, he believes Gardner could steal 40 bases a year. But in qualifying his praise, the scout repeats the question that separates Gardner from a coveted spot in the Yankees' everyday lineup.
"It's just a matter of how his bat will play," he said.
To the agent's amazement, the center fielder closed enough to give himself a chance. Still, with only 5 feet between his speeding body and the base of the fence, a decision had to be made: Dive head first at full speed, ensuring that he would smash into the wall, with the promise of little else. Or concede.
But Brett Gardner's speed and fearlessness wouldn't allow it.
"Caught the ball, but damn near broke his neck," said Bick, recalling the first time he saw Gardner play live, during his first season as a pro in the New York Penn-League. "I suggested to him after the game that he might want to use that speed a little smarter, or else he might kill himself."
If speed and defense and intangibles were the only skills for which he would be judged, Gardner would already have been named the Yankees' undisputed starting center fielder. If all that mattered were impossible catches and stolen bases and dogged determination, he would have likely been spared the stress of competing this spring for the job with a similarly talented teammate in Melky Cabrera.
But to stick, Gardner must prove he can hit major-league pitching.
"I'll be the first one to admit that the first time I came up last year, I struggled," said Gardner, who hit .228 with an equally frightening .299 on-base percentage in 42 games last season. "I didn't do well, I didn't swing the bat well. I was inconsistent. I didn't do my job."
Gardner, a Yankees third-round pick in 2005, earned his first opportunity to answer questions about his bat when the Yankees called him from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on June 30. He left such a poor initial impression that it was easy to wonder if it would be his last.
"When Brett came up the first time, he found himself in a dream situation," Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said. "He wanted to play in the big leagues for such a long time. He finally made it, got called up, and was still feeling for himself."
As a minor-leaguer, Gardner earned acclaim for his selectivity at the plate. But that patience morphed into a tendency to be too passive. Pitchers took notice, and as Gardner waited, they peppered the strike zone. Constantly finding himself behind in counts, Gardner was hitting .153 on July 26, when the Yankees optioned him back to Triple A.
But Gardner, 25, used the demotion as motivation. He had long grown accustomed to meeting such challenges. In high school, Gardner was so raw that the College of Charleston would take him only as a walk-on. He went undrafted after his junior year, and was optimistically projected to go in the lower rounds a year later. But teams started to take notice during the latter half of his final season.
"Within a couple of years he turned into something far greater than we could imagine," said John Pawlowski, now the baseball coach at Auburn University. "He turned out to be a heck of a player for us, that's for sure."
That drive was evident last season when Gardner earned his second chance.
Recalled on Aug. 15, he finished the year hitting .294 down the stretch. Long attributed some of Gardner's success to a slight change in his stance made by Scranton/Wilkes-Barre hitting coach Butch Wynegar, who had Gardner lower his hands.
With the Yankees, Long continued working on Gardner's mechanics. Among other adjustments, Long eliminated the stride from Gardner's swing, which helped him react to the ball quicker.
In the offseason, Gardner built on the advice. He stuck with a hitting routine at a baseball complex near his home in Charleston, S.C. Twice, he watched video footage from last season of every one of his 127 major-league at-bats. The film review only reinforced the things he needed to improve most -- keeping his head in place, staying down through the swing, locking his eyes on the ball deeper into the hitting zone.
The results have shown thus far. After hitting just three home runs last season, Gardner hit his third in Grapefruit League play Monday, against the Toronto Blue Jays. His two hits against the Jays raised his average to .381 in eight spring training games.
"I'm seeing the ball well and my timing's pretty good right now, just trying to take advantage of good pitches to hit," Gardner said.
The difference, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, is in Gardner's sharpened mechanics. But Girardi cautions that a starting job can't be won this early in spring, though if Gardner keeps hitting this way, he may evolve into the leadoff hitter that some scouts have projected for years.
"He's an everyday player who could learn to be a good leadoff guy because he can fly," said a longtime talent evaluator, who requested anonymity because he isn't authorized to speak publicly about players in other organizations.
The scout said he likes Gardner more than most of his scouting colleagues. Given time, he believes Gardner could steal 40 bases a year. But in qualifying his praise, the scout repeats the question that separates Gardner from a coveted spot in the Yankees' everyday lineup.
"It's just a matter of how his bat will play," he said.
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