For some reason, Frank Robinson never quite “got” Ryan Church. Nothing against Frank as a manager in Washington; his two years at the helm didn’t produce post-season appearances, but I can’t imagine many fans had those expectations to begin with. Frank saw Ryan as a young man with appreciable talent, but as a player who lacked the focus and intensity required to achieve everyday big league status.
For those of us old enough to remember, the relationship between Robinson and Church seemed like déjà vu. More than 35 years ago, the relationship between another legendary player and Washington skipper — Ted Williams — and promising young left-handed hitter — Mike Epstein — was quite similar. As active players, Williams and Robinson could dominate a game with their skills with the bat. As managers, they sometimes lacked patience with players they felt possessed similar skills.
In Epstein’s case, the former minor league player-of-the-year frustrated Ted with his inability to recognize a pitch as either a curve or a slider. In truth, Mike couldn’t read the spin on a pitch because of poor eyesight. He’d wear glasses off the field, but never in uniform. His eyesight wouldn’t get any better, and his career was relatively short.
Ryan Church isn’t as big physically as Epstein was — Mike weighed about 230 pounds in his prime while Church is about 40 pounds lighter — though he’s more adept defensively and shows a greater patience at the plate.
Ryan Church forces the opposing pitcher to work much harder. He typically sees a lot of pitches during each plate appearance. Saturday night against the Mets is a good example: New York pitchers issued 6 bases on balls, 4 of which were to Church. He’s walked 15 times heading into last night’s game in San Diego, pushing his on-base percentage to nearly .400. Church will likely never achieve Eddie Yost status — the Senator’s former “Walking Man” tallied more than 1,600 career walks, including 8 seasons of 123 or more — but patience is no less a virtue for an offense that struggles to score runs.
As the game has evolved, OBP has a far greater significance, and the concept of OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) is regarded by many as a truer snapshot of a hitter’s ability than batting average. Church’s ability to hit more than just singles have given him a career OPS greater than .800. For whatever reason, his obvious skills didn’t resonate with Frank Robinson, but Manny Acta has had no similar reluctance to put him in the everyday lineup.
It’s no secret that Church was available in the offseason, and likely still is, particularly on a club like the Nationals who don’t figure to field a legitimate contender until 2010. He won’t be eligible for free agency until then, which makes him a more attractive trade target for a first division club, and also gives the organization more than enough time to decide if he’s a long-term piece of the plan.
At 28, Church likely won’t hit his prime for another year or so. At present, there’s little reason to doubt his summertime zip code won’t continue to start with a “2” when he finally gets there.
Phil Wood appears Saturdays at 11 a.m. on MASN and weekly on Comcast SportsNet’s WPL.
