Breakout year comes easy to Davis, but journey to stardom didn't

[cravnravn]

 

NEW YORK -- There's a calm and ease in everything Chris Davis does.

For a big slugger -- the 27-year-old Orioles first baseman is a hulking 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, and has hit a major league-leading 37 home runs already -- the distance of his homers isn't nearly as memorable as their frequency. Davis sprays baseballs to all fields, sharing souvenirs equally to all sections of the bleachers, and he seems more concerned about getting them over the fence than by how much over they go. According to the ESPN Home Run Tracker, his blasts' average distance is 403.9 feet for a pedestrian ranking of 35th among players with double-digit homers.

"Most of his home runs are just line drives that get out," teammate Adam Jones said, before later acknowledging, "Obviously he hits some moonshots too."

One of Davis' former teammates in Texas -- where he was drafted in the fifth round in 2006 but five years later became the odd man out in a first-base position battle with Mitch Moreland -- noticed an increased comfort level in his swing.

"Watching his highlights, you can totally tell that he's relaxed and just letting it happen," said Phillies starter Cliff Lee, who was with the Rangers for their first World Series run in 2010. "He's not putting anything extra into it. It's just nice and easy, and it's impressive to watch. . . . He and Miguel Cabrera are the two best power hitters in the game, in my opinion."

 

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20130725/chris-davis-orioles-home-runs/#ixzz2a9RcCQP4

 

[cravnravn]

I hope you caught the sit down with Gary Thorne before Tuesdays telecast, it was definitely intense and squashed and beliefs of roids.