Treanor: Marlins are Learning
I haven't had to go to Joe Girardi for advice. He usually comes up to me before I even have a chance.
Stuff will happen during the game and he's looking for me. He'll see something going on and tell me how it should be handled if I'm in that situation. He'll have me run up to the clubhouse and look at some video real quick of certain plays sometimes.
Joe doesn't miss much. When he played, that's how he was on the field. He was in charge of everything. Now he's trying to instill that same level of game awareness in us. You can control the game from behind the plate.
Of course I was excited about him getting hired. He's a grinder. I think the part I was most excited about was that I was going to learn a lot. Even at 30 years old, you always hear guys saying you can learn more every year. Knowing that Joe was a catcher, I knew I was going to get hands-on stuff that would be valuable to me, specifically.
You have different ways to reach each pitcher on this staff and you need to learn what makes each one of them tick. You might have to kick a guy in the butt or build up his confidence. For example, Dontrelle Willis, you have to slow him down because he tends to want to get three, four guys out -- sometimes all at once. Some of the younger guys, you have to go out there and bring them back to reality, have them refocus and realize where they're at again.
It's important, especially with most of the young guys, to give them a solid game plan. That gives them a productive way to focus their minds rather than thinking, "Oh, we're in Wrigley Field or we're in Miami or Cincinnati," or wherever we're playing.
While everybody knows the game is the game, it does speed up a little bit here. If you can realize that and slow it down in your own way, whatever that is, you're going to be all right. Inexperience isn't as big a factor as people tend to think. Yeah, guys get flustered, they see a lot of people in the stands. They see that they're in a big stadium rather than seeing open air. It does get different, but the most part, the game is the game.
We've got a lot of natural talent on the Marlins. We've got a lot of guys with a lot of upside. Getting everyone to play with that level of baseball awareness is going to be the challenge, not just for the coaching staff, but for the players that have been around a little bit.
Some of our bench players have been around. I know Wes Helms has talked to a few guys, just letting them know they're not out there by themselves. Everybody learns. It's not like you're coming down on somebody. You could be 38 or 40 years old and guys are still learning the game.
It's been really cool to see all of these young careers getting started, though. Especially in the first week of the season, you see balls coming out of the game -- souvenirs of their first hits, first RBIs, first home runs ... that type of stuff.
It's also exciting because it took me a long time to get to the big leagues. I appreciate what it takes to get here. To see guys getting a chance early on in their careers is pretty cool. You're going to see some of these guys playing in the big leagues for a long time, too.