Elcaballo Article....

[Elcaballo45]

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb...t=.jsp&c_id=cha

 

Hey.... an Elcaballo article !!

 

“I just happened to be in the right spot at the right time,” added Lee with a wry smile, crediting a newfound patient approach at the plate, where he doesn’t give away at-bats, for his run-producing success.

 

 

Lol, when isnt the man smiling...

 

GO SOX + #45!

[southsider2k5]

Also a good Carlos write up in today's Trib.

 

When Frank Thomas pounds his fist into his palm for emphasis, as he did one recent afternoon, the resulting smack can be heard throughout the White Sox's clubhouse.

 

Carlos Lee heard it from across the room, which could have been Thomas' intention.

 

"He's one of those guys you have to keep pushing, pushing, pushing," Thomas said, pounding, pounding, pounding. "Don't let him slide. If you don't push him to work, he'll slide back."

 

Thomas' sense of urgency may seem unwarranted considering the teammate he has befriended and, in a sense, mentored for the last four years is among the top hitters in the American League since the All-Star break.

 

But Thomas also recognizes a good thing when he sees one, and though Lee's performance may be one of many reasons the Sox find themselves just one-half game behind Minnesota in the American League Central, the left fielder's coming of age could not have come at a better time.

 

"He has developed into a real good, solid major-league player," White Sox manager Jerry Manuel said. "And in years to come, he's going to have to be considered not only as MVP of the team but as an All-Star candidate and an MVP of the league as well. He has put up some good numbers quietly."

 

After a relatively slow start to the season emblematic of his erratic first three years in the big leagues, Lee has been the Sox's most productive second-half hitter, raising his batting average to .294 and establishing career highs with 30 home runs and 104 RBIs. He also has a penchant for delivering the big hit; his two-run homer and RBI double drove the Sox to Sunday's 7-2 victory over the Red Sox.

 

"He has been getting better every year, but this has been a breakout year for him," Thomas said. "Who knows what his upside is? The key is, he has been very consistent and he's not going backward."

 

After hitting a home run on your first major-league at-bat, which Lee did in May 1999, it's tough not to go backward.

 

Lee is an RBI machine whom Manuel likened to Tony Perez during an outstanding 2000 sophomore season in which he batted .301 with 24 home runs and 92 RBIs. But 2001 was a struggle—Lee was still adjusting to his move to left field, and lingering thumb and leg injuries hindered his hitting.

 

In 2002, he may have hit his low point as a slump that began in the second half of 2001 carried through the season's early weeks. But he broke out with a game-winning grand slam and a three-run homer against the Cubs in June and wound up hitting .264 with 26 homers and 80 RBIs.

 

His name came up in trade talks over the winter as the Sox considered paring down their surplus of right-handed hitters, but a team executive said the Sox were wary of dealing Lee and watching him have a breakout year for some other club. In hindsight …

 

"Sometimes it just takes a while to figure things out," Lee said.

 

A gifted hitter growing up in Panama, Lee was 17 when Sox player personnel director Duane Shaffer first cast his eyes on a kid the club recently had signed to a $25,000 bonus, an uncommonly high figure for a Latin player not subject to baseball's amateur draft.

 

"I had gone to Venezuela to our camp there and saw Carlos. He was real pudgy, with a lot of what I consider to be baby fat," Shaffer said. "I was giving these guys a speech about how hard we expected them to work to get to the big leagues and I looked at him and said, 'What position do you play?'"

 

Lee responded that he played third base, and Shaffer motioned him to step in front of the team.

 

"I don't want to say I embarrassed him, but I guess I tried to embarrass him a little bit because I wanted to get a point across," Shaffer said. "I asked him, 'Do you watch baseball on TV here?' He said, 'Yeah.' And I said, 'How many third basemen have you ever seen who looked like you?'

 

"To his credit—and this is how I knew he was going to be a big-league player—he came to spring training four months later 35 pounds lighter. He understood after being told what he needed to do."

 

Sox scout Miguel Ibarra, who signed Lee, wasn't dissuaded after scouts from the Dodgers and Yankees disparaged him.

 

"They were saying, 'Yeah, he's fat and he's only going to get fatter. He likes to eat,'" Ibarra recalled. "But in scouting, sometimes you have to gamble. I thought we had to take a chance because Carlos could hit and he could run."

 

And he can teach. Lee has taken over tutelage of his 21-year-old brother, also named Carlos, a catcher in the Sox's minor-league system, "Carlos is smart," his brother said. "He teaches me hitting in Panama because we don't have a hitting coach. He teaches me all I know."

 

Though a handful of Panamanians have reached the big leagues, including Rod Carew and Manny Sanguillen, Lee idolized Jose Canseco, who was born in Cuba.

 

"He said, 'When I'm big, I want to be like Canseco,' always Canseco," the younger Lee said. "When he first came to Chicago, he told us, 'I can't believe I'm on the same team with Canseco.'"

 

Lee's father worked for the telephone company in Panama and was an outstanding softball player. His mother, Ibarra recalls, just wanted to make sure her son finished high school and was cared for properly.

 

"They had a bad impression of 17-, 18-year-old kids going to the United States to play baseball," Lee said. "But they were very supportive, and if that's what I wanted to do, they wanted me to do it."

 

Lee recalls his first days in the U.S. as "sad, just finding myself in a room by myself. But when I was at the ballpark, everything was fine."

 

Fine, but not perfect. The tag lingered that Lee was out of shape and lazy.

 

"He came with a label that if he had the chance to run through the rocks or lay on the pillow, he'd choose the pillow," Manuel said. "But he has done everything he could to change that image."

 

A well-muscled 6 feet 2 inches, Lee came to spring training this year down 10 pounds to 238, per Manuel's instructions. He says he has made an effort to become the type of player in whom teammates and fans can take pride.

 

"Sometimes on the bases I would jog it out and I heard a lot of comments," Lee said. "But now I run out every ball hard. It makes me feel better giving my full effort, and I think it has helped me in left field too. …

 

"Many think I'm still slow. I'd rather let them think I'm slow. That's good."

 

Good enough that he has a team-leading 18 steals. And while he's not yet a Gold Glove outfielder, he's no longer a liability in left, a position he literally learned to play in the majors.

 

But it is at the plate where Lee has distinguished himself, sharing the burden of carrying the team with Thomas, Magglio Ordonez, Carl Everett and Paul Konerko.

 

"He's one of those guys who after I watched for 200-300 at-bats, I knew he was a potential 30-home run, 100-RBI guy and he should hit .300," Thomas said.

 

Thomas stays on Lee, urging him to be more patient at the plate. "I've always been the hardest on him because I know what kind of potential he has. He's working hard now, and that's why he's having success."

 

Sox hitting coach Greg Walker has had less than a full season with Lee, but is convinced he is All-Star material.

 

"He's a great clutch hitter, he has gotten better at being a two-strike hitter and he's using the whole field better," Walker said.

 

Walker's most vivid memory of Lee is the student breaking the teacher's arm in a hitting drill.

 

"I told him to hit the ball hard up the middle, and that's what he did," Walker said. "He was doing exactly what he was supposed to do."

[Elcaballo45]

Thanks for the article....

 

Although, i think that may have been the longest quote box i've ever seen