White Sox two-way slugger Matt Davidson is becoming a Cy Young candidate and his pitching prowess might be the only reason he’s still in the big leagues.
Matt Davidson (yes, that Matt Davidson) strikes out *reigning MVP* Giancarlo Stanton with a curveball because baseball is fun pic.twitter.com/WkMla789J1
— Ben Palmer (@benjpalmer) August 7, 2018
Davidson (The GOAT) fanned super-slugger Giancarlo Stanton on Monday night with a devastating hook right and textbook demonstration of sequencing. Sure, Stanton strikes out 30 percent of the time, but Davidson worked him high in the strike zone and set up a buried breaking ball with seasoned aplomb.
And for his next trick, he worked out of trouble after Aaron Hicks laced a single for the first hit Davidson allowed in the big leagues.
Matt Davidson's career ERA: 0.00
nbd 💪 pic.twitter.com/qH9zTAHyVB
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) August 7, 2018
Davidson may have a second act as a pitcher if he can’t figure it out at the plate. Just look at the records he is setting on the mound.
Matt Davidson: first position player in #WhiteSox history to make three pitching appearances in a season.
— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) August 7, 2018
15+ Home Runs & 3 pitching appearances in a season
American League history2018 Matt Davidson 16 HR, 3 pitching appearances
1919 Babe Ruth 29 HR, 17 pitching appearances2018 Shohei Ohtani is close (11 HR, 9 pitching appearances)
— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) August 7, 2018
Position player pitchers this season:
51 appearances by 40 different players
10.06 ERA, 48.1 IP, 63 Hits, 28 Walks, 19 Strikeouts, 19 HRMatt Davidson: 0.00 ERA in 3.0 IP, 1 Hit, 1 Walk, 2 K, 0 HR
Everyone else: 10.72 ERA in 45.1 IP, 62 Hits, 27 Walks, 17 K, 19 HR— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) August 7, 2018
The Matt-Davidson experiment is working. The good news is that the Rick Renteria is using his secret weapon in instances that don’t make a mockery of the game. Davidson has only pitched in the ninth inning of blow-out games and increasingly, he is becoming a serious option in tough situations. If Renteria trotted Davidson out in the fourth inning of a losing effort to mop up innings I would be the first person to call him out for negligence and disrespecting the game. But closing out the ninth in a lost effort is fair.
Davidson is not a pitcher and with each trip to the mound, I fear injury more and more. I know it is unlikely, and he has only thrown three innings, but it only takes one pitch to put him on the shelf for an entire season. And yeah, I know, we wouldn’t miss his .222 batting average with streaky power numbers.
Still, he’s a quality piece of the puzzle as the White Sox saunter down the meandering road to success.
