Ramón Laureano’s cannon heats A’s

By Manolo Hernández Douen

OAKLAND – Oakland Athletics fans are enjoying every Ramón Laureano throw, as if they are emerging from a dream.

In fact, they are.

Every throw, every great catch, every base hit is a product from the mind and effort of a kid from the land of Merengue, the Dominican Republic, coming to reality in an Athletics uniform for fans to enjoy over and over again.

“Yes, it’s true, he’s just a kid born to play baseball,”, his father Ramón Sr. said. “Ask him, he would tell you, name by name, in perfect order, about the 2004 New York Yankees lineup, memorized by him when he was just a little boy.”

The 24-year old center fielder from Santo Domingo breaks out a huge smile when asked about his childhood.

He became a devoted fan of the famed Tigres del Licey of the Dominican Winter League, attending at least one home game a year since he was about six or seven years old.

He’s proud to say that he even attended a 17-inning game that former big league center fielder Timoniel Pérez won with a bases loaded bunt hit against a drawn-in infield.

“I had played T-Ball since I was a 2-3 years old,” Laureano said. “At 6-7, my godfather, Lionel Senior, started to take me to Tigres del Licey’s home games at the Dominican Republic Winter League.

“He collected baseball cards, lineups, scouting reports. Little by little, on birthdays, Christmas, New Years, he transferred those to me, along with his love for baseball.”

Laureano’s passion for baseball was not limited to the great Dominican Winter League. As soon as he got home, every day from school, he went straight to the television set to watch the Yankees.

He vividly paid attention to every game and imitated how every player stood at the plate. Although Laureano bats and throws righthanded, he recreated every Yankees’ swing, whether they batted righthanded or lefthanded.

“My favorites on that 2004 team were Alex Rodríguez and Derek Jeter,” he said.

Of course, Laureano tried to apply everything to his own style of playing baseball.

“I had a bat and about three baseballs in our backyard,” Laureano said. “When I was ready to play, I woke about at 6:00 a.m., and I promised my dad I was going to hit two home runs in my first game. Instead, I was hit by pitches twice. I even caught one of those pitches with my bare hand.”

Fast forward a few years. Thanks to Laureano’s explanation, we know now how he’s got a perfect grip of the baseball, allowing him to have 14 assists in 66 games from center field, since his major league debut last Aug. 3 against the Detroit Tigers at the Oakland Coliseum.

No other outfielder has had as many as half in that span.

“As a kid, I played the same way, diving to make a good catch or making a throw to stop a runner from getting a possible double,” Laureano said. “In college, I learned a pre-game fielding drill from assistant coach Jeremy Strack at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. He taught all of us to field ground balls from our knees. Those drills helped me a lot. I’m working more at it since last season. As soon as I get the ball into my glove, I’ve got an automatic perfect grip.”

Laureano’s fantastic throws are no longer a surprise for anyone.

And now, the Athletics are enjoying the benefits of what was also a love at first sight situation a few years ago for assistant general manager and director of player personnel Billy Owens.

“For Billy [Owens] it definitely was [love at first sight],” David Forst, the Athletics general manager, said. “I remember the report that he wrote, talking about this guy that has a chance to do everything on the field. We were lucky that at the end of 2017, when [the Houston Astros] had a roster crunch. They came to us because they knew we had interest in the past.

“Ramón first got on our radar around the middle of 2016, going into the trade deadline that year. Owens saw Ramón playing in Double A at the time. We were talking to the Astros about a couple of different players. Did not work out a deal with the Astros then. He was not someone they would discuss in a trade. He had such a great year in 2016. He was off the table at the time.”

Some of the things that Laureano does these days with the Athletics are surprising to many, but the Oakland front office always knew they had a very talented young player in their hands.

“He was a complete player. Even back then in Double A you saw the defense. You saw the arm, what he was capable of doing,” Forst said. “And he was doing everything offensively, hitting for average, hitting for power. You don’t see a lot of guys at Double A and above who had the ability to do everything on the field that Ramón was doing at that time and at a young age.”

Athletics manager Bob Melvin witnessed Laureano’s talent almost as soon as he saw him join the team in spring training for the first time.

“I didn’t know that he’ll be making daily plays like that, but what we saw in kind of an abrupt [due to injury] spring for him [in 2018] was a guy that’s super talented,” the three-time Manager of the Year Award winner said. “He runs well, he throws well, he hits, he hits for power.

“There are not many guys with the full complement of tools like he has. We’re thrilled to death that he’s here with us doing the things he’s doing right now, and I think he’s got an even higher ceiling. He has a chance to be a really good player.”

Of course, Laureano has earned the respect from all of his A’s teammates, including a veteran who plays next to him daily, right fielder Stephen Piscotty.

“He’s a pretty elite talent out there,” the former St Louis Cardinals outfielder said. “Sometimes I’m playing with him I’ve got to give him some space because he’s going to run down balls that I could probably get to. That helps out the entire outfield. I could move over and guard the line a little bit more, knowing Ramón is going to have my back in the gap.

“Obviously, everybody knows about his arm. It’s incredibly strong. It’s incredibly accurate. Put those together, and it’s a deadly combination.”

Featured Image: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images Sport