Not many Major League Baseball players would get overly excited knowing they have to face someone like Chris Sale. But that’s not the case for those in the minor leagues.
When Boston Red Sox prospect Triston Casas found out he’d be taking live batting practice against Sale and Nathan Eovaldi, he “didn’t know whether to smile or to be professional.”
“I saw 20 pitches, I swung at probably 12 or 13,” he told The Athletic’s Chad Jennings. “I didn’t make contact once.
“I’m not sure if (Sale) was just trying to groove the first one. But at first I was like, ‘Man, this doesn’t look too bad,” Casas added. “But then he brought the next one with a little two-seam grip and it almost hit my back hip, and I was like, ‘Oh, OK, now we’re getting somewhere.’ Then he flipped me a slider, and I almost came out of my shoes taking it. Then I swung through another fastball.”
Nick Northcut, a 19-year-old third baseman selected in last year’s draft, tried his luck with Eovaldi.
“(Eovaldi) came right at us,” he said. “The split, I don’t know how guys pick that up. It just comes out of his hand, and it’s literally like it just stops right in front of you and drops straight to the ground. I’d never seen a split-finger like that before. Ever.”
While the duo faced two youngsters with unfamiliarity with the big leagues, they certainly didn’t let that stop them from going hard. And that only leads us to believe Sale and Eovaldi both will be more than ready for their starts when the season kicks off.
