St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol is not here to pretend. When ESPN’s Buster Olney asked him recently who the toughest opposing hitter is to game-plan against, Marmol didn’t dance around it.
He named Freddie Freeman.
And he used a strong word.
“I hate Freddie Freeman in the box,” Marmol said. “I love him when he’s not in the box. He’s an incredible human, man. I enjoy talking to him.”
That kind of quote usually gets clipped out of context for drama. But if you know baseball, you know what Marmol was really saying. He wasn’t trash-talking. He was tipping his cap in the most grudging way a manager can.
So what makes Freeman so nightmare-ish to face?
“He can beat you so many different ways and he has such a good understanding of what he’s trying to do and what the pitcher’s trying to do,” Marmol continued.
Freeman isn’t just a slugger who sits on fastballs and launches them. He’s a thinking hitter. He uses the whole field. A lot of his homers go out to left-center — not pull-side cheapies. He also hits for average, gets on base at an elite clip, and rarely chases bad pitches. He’s the kind of guy who can break a game open with one swing or grind out a 10-pitch at-bat that tires out your starter.
Oh, and he’s a leader too. The Dodgers know it. The clubhouse knows it. And now the Cardinals know it better than they’d like.
Marmol’s comment shows something real. When a rival manager says he hates seeing a guy step into the batter’s box, that’s maybe the best compliment you can get. It’s not personal. It’s professional. It’s a manager sitting in the dugout, watching a guy who’s smart enough to know what you’re trying to do, and talented enough to make you pay for it.
Freeman is 35 now. He’s not the same raw athlete he was a decade ago. But he’s still putting up MVP-caliber numbers. And he’s still the guy no opposing manager wants to see with two outs and runners in scoring position.
Marmol said it best. He hates Freddie Freeman in the box. And that says everything.
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