by Scoonie "U-turn" Singleton

Friday, July 31, 2009

Many of the facets of the young man known as Pat Holman can be defined as a sum of their parts.  Some are obvious, like his hitting (from both sides of the plate), his body (left and right sides, or front and back) or his taste in rap music (East Coast and West Coast).  Some are less so, like his dance style (half swing, half unrestrained Jared Dobney).  One of the most vexing divisions of this young man is his batting output – a career .325 hitter coming into this season, Holman is hitting a robust .251 this year.  "It's most vexing," said Duluth GM Joel Dobney in a recent interview.  "He works as hard as anyone out there; it's just not coming for him right now."

Adding to the indecipherable nature of this conundrum are Holman's L/R splits.  Coming into the year, Pat had posted lines of .357/.425/.546 and .340/.414/.462 against right-handed pitchers and .158/.220/.184 and .287/.326/.411 versus southpaws.  This year, his lines have flip-flopped, and Holman is currently batting .241/.332/.357 against righties and .300/.338/.433 when the opposing boxman is a left-hander.  "I can't explain it," says Pat, "I don't feel like I've done anything that different than I have in the past few years in terms of prep for games.  I still watch what I eat, go to church when I can, study the Bible when I get a moment, take extra hacks in the cages…  it's just frustrating."

Holman's stolen base total has also fallen – from 5 to 0 – but frankly, nobody cares.

Holman's teammates, especially the pitching staff, are quick to jump to the young catcher's defense.  "It's not just hitting that we ask Pat to do," says veteran pitcher Kirby Gibson.  "The dude spends hours poring over scouting reports to be ready to call the game.  He's really improving in all facets of the defensive game.  He's only 21, you know; the only reason this year feels at all disappointing is because he set the bar so high as a 19-year-old."

Gibson is referring to the 2007 season, when Holman posted an OPS of .875 as a teen.  "We liked that production out of Pat, but you have to understand where it came from," explains Dobney.  "He was unknown and unscouted, and he was splitting time at catcher and DH.  He didn't have the pressure or the focus on him that he does now.  Remember, we traded a pretty good player after that year to get Pat some extra ABs."

While it remains to be seen if extra ABs at an age when most people are thinking about beer and skipping class will hurt Holman's long term development, Duluth has taken a few steps to protect their youngest star this year.  Holman has been moved down in the lineup from 4^th to 7^th, and he will get more days off to rest his body.  "We'd be very happy to see Pat able to post an OPS in the .800 range year in and year out," says Dobney.  "He knows he can do it, we know he can do it; it's just a question of getting out there and bouncing back from a bad run.  He's going to be fine."