Sammy Sosa Is Cheating, But It's Not How You Think

I know, I know: hear the words "Sammy" and "Sosa" and "cheating" in the same sentence, and visions of HGH and andro and steroids and cork and God knows what else are conjured up in your head. I don't blame you ... but SI.com's John Donovan says Sosa's latest "cheat" is of a considerably more innocent variety:

"He's cheating," the baseball whisperers say, "on the fastball."
This, in scoutspeak, means that Sosa has been so slow with the bat this spring that he has to start swinging early to catch up with a good fastball. He's guessing what's coming, in effect. The bad part of cheating is that he's then vulnerable to breaking balls, other off-speed pitches (he ends up swinging too soon) or stuff low and away (he can't reach it because he's committed to getting in front of the pitch).

See? Not as bad as you thought.

Still, this is probably not a good sign for Sosa's long-term prospects this season. If he's even more vulnerable to curveballs and change-ups than he was in his vintage days, it probably won't take too long for capable pitchers to pick up on that. If they can get Sosa into the third or fourth pitch of the count, and fool him with off-speed stuff, well, Sammy's heroic "return" will be short lived.

Then again, it's likely Sosa will pick up his bat speed and make the adjustments necessary to hit at a high rate again. And Orioles fans will all collectively punch themselves in the head.

Previously on the Fanhouse:
Sammy Sosa Makes Rangers Roster
Sammy Sosa Want To Hit 700 Home Runs
Guess Who's Back, Back Again ... Sammy Sosa's Back, Tell A Friend