9-News - 48.015: Sartika Learns on the Job

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9-News - 48.015: Sartika Learns on the Job

Post by RonCo » Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:10 pm

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May 12, 2048: Yellow Springs – When manager Alberto Sanchez told rookie Dian Sartika that he’d be playing more second base than anything else, he wasn’t phased. “I’m a quick learner,” he said. “besides, I’d walk on host festering Loserville coals to stay in the big leagues.”

The 22-year-old middle infielder made the team’s utility coming out of Spring Camp, but he hadn’t fallen off the turnip delivery system just yesterday. No one sits the bench for long in Yellow Springs, and he wasn’t going to be the exception. Unhappy with shortstop Elvan Masûkî, production against left-handed pitching, the team’s front office explored platoon options in the off-season with limited success. So, instead they designed one of those three-legged platoon systems, and set Sartika off to learn second base, a position he’d not played in the minors.

Now when an opponent tosses a lefty, you’ll mostly see Sartika at second and Dong-po Thum at short. A righty gets you Thum and Masûkî. He’s replied well enough, posting a .250 OBP against left handed pitching (despite only .235 as an average). “That’s what we need him to do,” Sanchez said. “I really don’t look at his numbers against right-handed pitching because literally anything we get fro him there is gravy. I want him to not be a plug against lefties, and to pick up the game at second. If he does that he’s golden.”

“Obviously I like it,” Sartika said of the challenge of learning a position at the topmost level of professional baseball. His time there hasn’t been brilliant, but in his 9 games he’s not made an error.

“I feel his pain,” said Thum, who notoriously learned second base during a post season stint. “Dian’s quick, though. He asks the right questions, and he’s picking everything up very fast.”

Some are pondering if the move to use Thum more at shortstop could reduce his candidacy for the Zimmer Award at second, but he says he doesn't mind. "I've got a few of those already," Thum said. "If the voters vote for me or not, that's all good. Mostly I just want to win, and if that means me at shortstop, I'm not going to complain."

And, of course, in a pinch when Sartika is at short Masûkî still swaps in during late innings of close games.

“This team is always manufacturing things out of places no one else thinks to look.” Said broadcaster and Voice of the Nine Melissa Lester. “It’s always fun to come out to the ballpark because you never know what you’re going to see.”
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