“They each throw with nice arm velocity, and there’s no sense of ‘I’m going to attempt to place this pitch,’” Stottlemyre stated. “They’ve saved energy at the forefront, so that they maximize their motion and their end to the pitch. They’re particular.”
The pitches, sure, but in addition the individuals. When Stottlemyre’s father Mel Sr., the longtime pitcher and coach, died of a number of myeloma in January 2019, Alcantara and López each known as to console him. Stottlemyre, who had only recently joined the Marlins, has since helped each pitchers via their private trials.
“Sharing what that looks like, having the ability to have that encourage and provides function and that means to every part you do — we’ve all three spent quite a lot of time speaking about that,” stated Stottlemyre, who’s 58. “It damage me, too, watching them, as a result of I solely know the way I dealt with my dad’s demise. And to be younger? I acquired to stay with my dad for nearly all of my life, and to expertise all the nice occasions. That acquired taken away from them.”
Stottlemyre acknowledges his father’s affect in the means he speaks together with his pitchers. He invests time in constructing relationships, incomes their affection — the pitchers put on T-shirts calling themselves “Stott’s Tots” — and belief. He has opened up about his youthful brother, Jason, who died of leukemia in 1981, and stated he has by no means been as shut to 2 pitchers as he’s to Alcantara and López.
“I see him not solely as a pitching coach,” López stated, “but in addition as a father determine and an awesome function mannequin.”
López’s father inspired him to pursue a professional profession with the Seattle Mariners at 16 years outdated, when he had one other heady possibility: medical college at La Universidad del Zulia, his mother and father’ alma mater. López had graduated from highschool at age 15 — mastering 4 languages alongside the means — and his mom’s facet of the household cautioned that the baseball world might be very unsure. Danny reasoned that medical college might all the time be a backup plan for baseball, however not the different means round. That logic received out, although López has struggled at occasions with the burdens of excessive achievement.
