The 2021 Padres are full of Miami heat and Latin flavor and dudes who generally have a bit of swag—even if a good portion of the swag comes from the Swag Chain. (P.S. I’ve stopped adding the extra g at the end of swag that Manny uses, he can using it if he wants but I just can’t do it.) These Friars are straight ice. They’re heat. They’re handshakes I can’t do.
I almost don’t recognize these Padres. The Padres I remember were…uh…how do I put this? A little out of place by the beach. Exhibit A: Andrew Cashner.
But that’s what happens when you become a professional ballplayer—America’s a massive place, and you end up where you end up. Even if you’re Jake Peavy.
Baseball players and hunting are like peanut butter and jelly. Or I always thought they were. But you haven’t heard of many Friar hunters lately, have you?
Well, you’re about to. Adam Frazier just got traded to the Padres.
Adam grew up in Georgia and went to Mississippi State University. He’s still a massive supporter of Mississippi State football. And like every proper southern dude, he balances his love for hunting with a passion for golf.
If you’re not a fan of hunting, I don’t blame you. We’re San Diegans. We grew up by the beach. Not all of us grew up shooting rifles. If I moved to, say, Mississippi for work, I’m sure I’d be regularly uncomfortable. Okay, most of the world’s people would be uncomfortable in fuckin’ Mississippi. (No offense Mississippi, not that I have any readers in Mississippi…probably.)
It’s tough for anyone to suddenly move to a place with a different culture, even if its inside your own home country. Even if you’ve been quietly elevating your swag game in preparation, as we see here in Frazier’s All-Star Game red carpet appearance:
Adam has gone 5-27 (.185 BA) since joining the Padres with a .464 On Base Plus Slugging since hitting .324 with a .836 OPS in 98 games with the Pirates earlier this year. I don’t need to tell you that’s not what the Friars were hoping for from their new All-Star utility man.
But don’t worry. Adam’s a hunter. He’s still making contact. It’s his thing. He’s only struck out two times in his 28 plate appearances. And he’s hitting the ball hard quite often, with just slightly less production coming from balls in play. Some might say it’s bad luck, but it looks like a slight lack of self assurance to me—this ball, for example, he golfed into the air 341 feet off Colorado’s Jon Gray for a fly out, when the most minute swing change could have turned it into a line drive double.
But the thing about dudes who spend half their time hunting is that they’re used to missing by just an inch, and they’re not strangers to adjusting and eventually locking onto their prey. He’s been doing it for the Pirates for a half decade. It may be that he’s coming slightly down to earth—he hit .276, .277 and .278 in 2017, 2018 and 2019. But it could also be a sign of stellar improvement that he raised his slash line on a lineup with no protection—and now, especially if Fernando makes it back on the field, he’s surrounded by Miamian, Caribbean and generally swaggy bodyguard batters.
And the ironic part is that the more that Adam Frazier uses his Southern skills to hunt down hanging breaking balls downtown, the swaggier that Swag Chain is gonna make him.