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Cool customer: Mazara not fazed by success
- Updated: June 2, 2016
CLEVELAND — The Big Chill has settled in the American League West and the Rangers are in a battle for first place.
The Rangers probably didn’t expect outfielder Nomar Mazara to be in the big leagues this soon, and they certainly didn’t expect him to be so good so soon. But Mazara is here, he is producing numbers worthy of All-Star consideration and he has had an immediate impact on the division.
“This is a guy we saw for the first time in Spring Training, and the next thing you know, he comes around and he’s hitting third for a good offensive club,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. “So you know they think very highly of him. It was limited in what we saw, but if they think that highly of him to put him in the No. 3 hole, he must be a pretty good player.”
Mazara turned 21 on April 28, but he is playing with maturity and composure that manager Jeff Banister said is “off the charts.” Mazara enters Texas’ homestand on Friday night hitting .299 with nine home runs, 24 RBIs and a .471 slugging percentage.
Mazara has established himself as the early favorite to be the first Rangers position player to win the AL Rookie of the Year Award since Mike Hargrove in 1974.
“We’ve seen him in between stages,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “We saw him in the spring, and you saw all the ability. You saw his talent. We saw him early in the season, when he was called up, and you saw him applying some of that. Last series, it looked like he took another leap forward. I think he’s understanding the strike zone. He’s going to be a tough act.”
Scioscia was present in Anaheim on April 10, when Mazara made his Major League debut by going 3-for-4 with a home run off Jered Weaver. Scioscia also witnessed the home run Mazara hit a week ago off of Angels pitcher Hector Santiago, which was projected by Statcast™ to go 491 feet.
Mazara has made an impression with more than his sheer power. He has also shown plate discipline with the ability to work deep in the count, not chase bad …
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