M’s rookie shortstop Lopez is fearless

  • By Larry Henry / Herald Columnist
  • Sunday, September 12, 2004 9:00pm
  • Sports

SEATTLE – If you ask young Jose Lopez if he can hit .300 in the major leagues, he’ll come right back at you with an answer as straight and hard as a line drive between the eyes.

Yes.

Confident? From the top of his head to the bottom of his feet.

Bold? That’s what set him apart the first time Mike Goff saw him play.

“He’s one of those kids you see come along every 12 to 15 years,” Goff said. “He’s poised and he has no fear.”

As the coordinator of instruction for the Seattle Mariners’ minor league organization, Goff has seen hundreds of kids try and fail to make it to the big leagues.

Lopez was one he was putting money on to get there. Fast.

“He’s elevated his game at every level to meet the competition,” Goff said. “That’s the thing that jumps out at you like nothing else.”

Three years after Goff first set eyes on him, Lopez has been the M’s starting shortstop for the last six weeks. He’s another of those kids brought up from Tacoma to see if they fit into the club next season.

So far, he and pitcher Bobby Madritsch look like keepers.

Both have shown that one trait so many rookies don’t possess: That fearlessness Goff talked about. That boldness to not let a bad pitch or a fielding error or a poor at-bat discourage them.

Classic example: Boston’s Pokey Reese hits a ground ball to Lopez in the third inning of Sunday’s game at Safeco Field and the shortstop’s throw pulls first baseman Raul Ibanez off the bag for an error.

Fifth inning: Lopez bobbles Bill Mueller’s grounder. Rather than get rattled and try to do things too fast, Lopez calmly picks up the ball and gets Mueller by a step. The kid shortstop had flushed the third-inning miscue from his mind.

Poise. No fear. At the age of 20.

A puppy. That’s how Bret Boone describes him.

“When I was 20, I was a sophomore in college,” the M’s second baseman said. “If you’d put me in a big-league uniform, I wouldn’t have known what to do. It was tough enough when I got up there at 23.”

Called up to the M’s in mid-August of 1992, Boone batted .194 with four home runs and 15 RBI in 33 games. Lopez is batting .239 with four home runs and 14 RBI in 39 games.

He was promoted on July 31. He got the call late the night before. You’re going to the big leagues, Tacoma manager Dan Rohn informed him. You’ve got a 6 a.m. flight to Anaheim.

Lopez got up at 4 and was in the starting lineup at 1:05. In his major league debut, he went 0-for-5.

No big surprise there. What was surprising – to him at least – was that he wasn’t still in Tacoma.

Others knew better.

Boone had seen the kid in spring training, had seen his air of confidence and poise. Only two other players he’s known have carried themselves that way at such a young age: Andruw Jones and Ken Griffey Jr.

“There aren’t too many young players you look at and say, ‘He’s going to have a (big-league) career,’ and say it confidently,” Boone said. “I felt that way about him (Lopez).”

And now that Lopez is here: “To be playing at this level at age 20 is pretty special,” Boone said. “There aren’t too many people who have done that.”

At 171/2, Jose Lopez made his professional debut with the Everett AquaSox and was named the team’s MVP after batting .256.

At spring training the next year, the M’s were deliberating about where to send him. Goff lobbied for San Bernardino in the California League. Others thought Wisconsin of the Midwest League was a better fit. Both are Class A leagues, but California offers better competition.

The Cal League it was.

Was Lopez ready for such a big step up? Indeed he was. He batted .324, led the league in hits (169) and doubles (39), and was the M’s minor league player of the year.

Last year at San Antonio, where he hit .258 with 13 home runs and 69 RBI, he was named to the Texas League postseason All-Star team.

This year – the big leagues.

All this from a kid who didn’t even like baseball until about the age of 9. Soccer was his sport. “Now I don’t like soccer,” the native of Venezuela said after Sunday’s game. “I like baseball.”

And baseball likes him.

They rave about his instincts. How he can swing and miss a certain pitch, then make adjustments and hammer that same pitch the next time it’s thrown.

M’s bullpen coach Orlando Gomez, who first saw Lopez in winter ball two years ago, thinks the kid can be a .300 hitter in the majors. “He’s not intimidated at the plate,” Gomez said.

Former M’s third baseman Mike Blowers also believes Lopez will be a good hitter with some power – 15 to 20 home runs a year.

“He’s zoomed through the minor leagues because he can hit,” Blowers said. “He hasn’t looked overmatched at all.”

Nor will he show it if he is.

After all, the kid has no fear.

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