Arm & Hammer : Mondesi’s Throws Get a Lot of the Attention, but He Also Does Damage With His Bat

He’s built like a minivan with the power of a Mack truck. Just ask Delino DeShields, who had the unfortunate experience of colliding with Raul Mondesi one night. It knocked DeShields cold.

Mondesi’s arm is rated by scouts as one of the top three in the National League, and for confirmation of that, ask first baseman Eric Karros, who practices self-preservation by keeping an eye on right field. “If I’m not looking all the time, I’m liable to get a ball in the back of my head,” Karros says.

Mondesi stops at nothing in his quest to throw a runner out, especially if it’s at first base, a feat he accomplished in spring training. He leads NL outfielders with 12 assists, though his reputation took a while to spread.

“I don’t know why they keep running on me,” Mondesi said about a month into the season, “they know I’m going to throw them out.”

When he hits the ball, Mondesi simply keeps running, often turning singles into doubles and, on occasion, doubles into triples. His .336 batting average, .574 slugging percentage, 16 doubles, five triples, 75 hits, 22 multi-hit games and 30 extra-base hits rank him among the top seven in the league.

He prefers playing video games to giving interviews, partly because he is not comfortable with his English, but he is starting to get used to the attention, and that’s fortunate. Because if Mondesi, 23, keeps this up, he will be the Dodgers’ third consecutive NL rookie of the year.

“I don’t feel any pressure,” Mondesi said. “A

lot of people are talking about it, but I just go and play hard and see what happens.”

For three years, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda has raved about the virtues of the young player from the Dominican Republic, calling him a five-point player--”He can run, hit, hit with power, field and throw,” Lasorda said.

But there were many who questioned Mondesi’s dedication, believing that he was too flighty, too moody, too stubborn and too inconsistent to be an impact player.

“I’ve had to kick him in the shins and slap him in the face,” said Ralph Avila, Dodger vice president, who has been instrumental in the discovery and development of many of the team’s Dominican players.

“He’s not an easy guy, he’s tough. He was too aggressive on the field, and off the field he was the same, chasing too many girls, staying out too late. I have to give him credit, he doesn’t drink, smoke or fool with drugs, but he liked to be that macho type; we Latin players are all this way. When we get some recognition from the fans, we get pumped up.”

Avila was so concerned about Mondesi’s off-the-field activities that a couple of winters ago, he had him tailed for two months. “Everywhere I went, there were these same guys,” Mondesi said, smiling. “I realized later what he had done.”

When Avila received the report, he was relieved to find that even though Mondesi was partying, he wasn’t abusing any substances.

“He would play in the game, then go out every night until 3 or 4 in the morning,” Avila said. “I would tell him that he could not keep up that pace, that even though he was 18 and as strong as a mule, he would destroy his body. He would listen, then five minutes later he was at it again. So I sat him down in front of Tommy (Lasorda) and said, ‘This is your last chance. You have to shape up.’ I knew he wasn’t drinking, but what if he gets in a fight in a bar? I told him he was being selfish, that he wasn’t thinking of his family.”

Marriage seems to have calmed Mondesi down somewhat. He and his wife, Ada, have an 18-month-old son, Raul Jr.

He has even cut down on his eating. Former Dodger Pedro Martinez delights in a story about Mondesi eating 22 pieces of pizza one night while they were both in the minor leagues. Mondesi explained that he was hungry. “I still like to eat, but not that much,” he said.

Mondesi started working harder, playing harder and smiling more. He was able to put behind a much-publicized incident that occurred during the 1992 season when he pouted after outfielder Tom Goodwin got the call to Los Angeles instead of him, and he reacted by purposely missing an Albuquerque Dukes game. He was immediately demoted to double-A San Antonio.

“He called me after the Dukes’ plane left and knew he’d made a mistake,” Avila said. “He was scared.”

Shortly after the demotion, Mondesi injured his wrist, which required surgery. Then he hurt his left knee and underwent more surgery but still managed to record 14 assists in only 53 games.

He started the 1993 season at Albuquerque, then made his major league debut in July, one of two stints with the Dodgers last season. By October, though, the Dodgers still weren’t sure whether Mondesi, a center fielder, was ready to replace Brett Butler, so they picked up Butler’s option for 1994.

It was during the Caribbean World Series that Mondesi convinced the Dodgers of his readiness, earning most-valuable-player honors while playing in front of Executive Vice President Fred Claire.

In the spring, Mondesi hit about 150 curveballs after every exhibition game. He was one of the last Dodgers out of the clubhouse, just ahead of Lasorda, who had thrown the curveballs, and the clubhouse attendants, who had to wait until they were finished. But Lasorda had told Mondesi during the winter that he had a good chance to become a starter, and Mondesi was ready.

Scouts have long contended that Mondesi’s swing has too many holes in it and that he isn’t patient enough at the plate. Lasorda still reminds him every day not to swing at bad pitches, and those swings are diminishing. Mondesi is batting .377 during a current 13-game hitting streak, with six multi-hit games, including three home runs and 10 runs batted in. He had a 14-game streak earlier this season. In his last 29 games, he has raised his average 44 points from .292.

“When he hits strikes, he hits the ball as hard as Mike Piazza,” said Reggie Smith, the Dodgers’ hitting instructor. “The more at-bats he gets, the more confident he gets. He is progressing faster than I thought he would.”

Like most of the Dodgers, Mondesi started the season in an offensive slump, and it was coach Manny Mota who persuaded him not to worry about it, simply to play his game.

“I was nervous about the year, and he told me to just go play hard every day,” Mondesi said. “I won’t rest until I play 10 years in the major leagues.”

One of seven children, Mondesi is the only member of his family who is athletic. “Since he was a little kid, I knew he was going to be good in the major leagues someday--he had natural talent,” said Mondesi’s brother, Francisco. “We were poor growing up and we all worked, but Raul just went to school and played baseball. Things are much better for everyone now with Raul in the majors.”

The first day Avila saw Mondesi hit, he couldn’t sign him fast enough, paying him a bonus of $2,000. “He was 15 and with raw tools as green as the grass,” Avila said. “But he hit balls (at the Dominican Academy) over the bank in left-center field about 385 to 400 feet. He ran the 60 yards in 7.1 seconds and had better-than-average arm strength. I signed him immediately.”

Mondesi was skinny then, weighing about 150 pounds. Now, he has has bulked up to 210 pounds on his 5-foot-11 frame.

Al LaMacchia, a scout for 38 years and a vice president of the Toronto Blue Jays, compares Mondesi to the Montreal Expos’ Larry Walker and the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark Whiten.

“He and Larry Walker are the two best right fielders in the game today,” LaMacchia said. “Mondesi’s arm is a little stronger, but Walker may have a quicker release. Whiten has a great arm, but he takes a little longer to get rid of the ball. I don’t know if there have been three right fielders of this caliber before in the same league, playing at the same time.”

LaMacchia remembers a Dodger spring game against the New York Yankees when Daryl Boston singled to right field and, as he made the turn toward second, was thrown out by Mondesi on a perfect one-hop strike to first base. During that game, Mondesi also saved a run when he charged a single and threw out a runner at the plate. “I also saw him charge a ball and make a perfect throw to second base to get the runner,” LaMacchia said. “It was a Roberto Clemente type of play.”

The comparisons to Clemente come more often now. Mota, who played with Clemente, said Clemente believed he could throw anybody out, and so does Mondesi.

In a recent game, after Mondesi made an exceptional backhanded catch on the run, he was puzzled at the fuss being made about it. “You think that was a great catch?” Mondesi said. “I have made much better catches than that. They will come.”