CLEVELAND — As it turns out, Nolan Schanuel began to answer the skeptics only after he stopped trying.
The Angels rookie first baseman made a splash in the majors last season, even though he’d been drafted less than two months before his big league debut. Critics, however, often pointed out that Schanuel hadn’t shown the power that a first baseman normally has.
Although Schanuel said publicly that he wasn’t worried about that, he now admits that he changed his approach at the start of the season.
“I was pulling off the ball, trying to hit homers,” Schanuel said this weekend. “A giraffe is not going to eat meat. You can’t take it out of its natural habitat. I need to stick to what I know and what I do best, and that’s singles up the middle, opposite field approach. And if they hang me one and I’m a little early, I get it. That’s the biggest difference from my first 40 at-bats to these last 40 at-bats.”
Schanuel hit .093 with a .422 OPS in his first 54 plate appearances. He hit one homer in the Angels fourth game, so that may have encouraged him to keep trying to pull the ball over the fence.
Schanuel said Angels hitting coaches Johnny Washington and Tim Laker implored him every day to get back to his normal approach, and a couple weeks ago he apparently got the message.
Over Schanuel’s last 57 plate appearances, since April 17, he’s hit .365 with a .911 OPS. He’s even hit two homers, but they have come because of what the pitcher gave him more than what he was trying to do.
“I kind of got ahead of myself earlier in the year trying to do something that I’m not used to doing,” Schanuel said.
Manager Ron Washington agreed Schanuel now has the proper mindset as he goes to the plate.
“It’s nice to see that he’s settled down,” Washington said. “I just hope he can keep it going through the rest of the year.”
Washington moved Schanuel back into the leadoff spot after Mike Trout was hurt. Schanuel showed his value in that spot by…
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