PITTSBURGH — Spending time with Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski during spring training and this season with Coach Nick Leyva has sure been paying off for Neil Walker. The Pittsburgh Kid entered today’s action with a career-best, 52-game errorless streak at second base. Walker also had a 42-game errorless streak earlier this season with the Pirates.
“I’ve felt good,” Walker said. “I’m doing what I need to do on a daily basis to prepare myself for the game. Maz helped me out a lot during spring training, especially turning double plays. Nick Leyva does a great job keeping all of us in the right position and where we need to be. After that, that’s really all they can do, compare us, help us prepare and hope that we’re in the right position. It’s been a good year for me on the defensive side of the ball but there’s still a lot to improve upon.”
Walker, who was originally drafted in 2004 by Pittsburgh as a catcher, has a .992 fielding percentage this season, which currently ranks first among all National League second baseman, slightly ahead of Cincinnati’s Brandon Phillips (.991).
“His defense has been just so good and so solid,“ Manager Clint Hurdle said. “It’s kind of the way he is. He’s very dependable. His defense has been very dependable. He puts away outs. The work he was able to do in Spring Training, the focus and attention spent with Mazeroski, the attention to detail as he’s followed through with Nick Leyva, it speaks for itself now by where he is on the charts defensively within the league.”
“He has an intense desire to be good and that’s what’s helped him. He has taken ownership of being a good defensive player out there.”
The club record for the highest fielding percentage at second base in one season is .993 –set by Johnny Ray in 1986.
Not only has he been solid with the glove, Walker has also been solid with the bat in his first full season in the Majors playing in his hometown of Pittsburgh.
“I don’t know of many other cities that have a player who is one of your foundational pieces that is born in that city, grew up in that city,“ Hurdle said. “The baggage that can come with that only he can address and speak to.”
Walker currently leads all NL second baseman with his career-high 81 RBI, which is the most by a bucco second baseman since Freddy Sanchez had 81 in 2007. The next is Maz with 82 in 1966.
“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs but we’ve had a lot of different faces in here through the course of the year. But I think we’ve made strides, definitely on the defensive side, pitching side,“ Walker said. “Offensively we’ve had our good moments but we still feel like we can improve there. But the first full season for me has been good but its also been tough in a learning experience for me, learning how to play every single day at the Major League level. It’s certainly something I’m going to prepare myself for next year.”
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
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