![]() ![]() Dodgers manager Dave Roberts watched Thursday’s session closely. The Dodgers announced a list of 21 non-roster players who have been invited to major-league camp.Muncy didn’t pick up a bat during the Dodgers’ series in Arizona last weekend but has started taking early batting practice this week. If I’m being honest, that’s not something you want to practice anyway. Guys can throw it up the line all you want, but until you have a runner bearing down on you, you can’t practice that. You’ve just got to get over the mental hump of being cautious of it and just do it. Things are going to happen and you can’t always control that. You’ve got work through it and get over it. “I would guess there would be a little hesitation. He acknowledged there will be a mental hurdle to overcome the first time a throw tails up the line and takes him toward the baserunner – the scenario that resulted in his elbow injury. He would fit into this lineup really well and we’d be extremely dangerous with him, that’s for sure.”ĭanger will be on Muncy’s mind whenever he does return to first base. Any team would be happy to have him, especially us. “He’s one of the best hitters in baseball. Every year it’s the same exact numbers he puts up. He’s been one of the most consistent hitters we’ve seen. ![]() Just look at what he’s done over 11, 12 years, however long he’s been in the league. “He’s one of the best hitters in the game. “I think he’d be pretty incredible in this lineup,” Muncy said of Freddie Freeman, who is being pursued by the Dodgers. The DH has been added to the National League and Muncy took ground balls at second base briefly Saturday morning – options should the Dodgers sign, say, a free-agent first baseman who grew up in Orange County and recently won a championship with the Braves. Where he might be playing that day is a multiple-choice question. But he did say “yeah, I think we’ll be ready for Opening Day.” Muncy will huddle up with the Dodgers’ training staff in the next few days and come up with a timeline for when he will start hitting against live pitching and when he might be able to get in games. Today, being out on the field, maybe a little higher I’d say. I can feel like I’m swinging as hard as I can, but when you’re in a cage there’s only so much effort in there. “Eighty-five (percent) would probably be a good estimate because you can never get full adrenaline in the cage. All I’ve been doing is swinging in a cage,” Muncy said. “Well, today was my first day on the field. So it’s a yes-and-no answer.”ĭodgers manager Dave Roberts, who was finally able to contact his players when the lockout ended Thursday, estimated Muncy is at 85% of the way back in his recovery. … It’s just one of those things where you benefit working with guys who know you and know how you work and everything like that. “I still got good treatment (from a physical therapist who acted as an intermediary). Who knows? But we’re feeling good right now.” But it’s one of those injuries that might not be back to normal until next year. “We’re still there right now, but we’re able to get through some swings. I didn’t start swinging until mid-January and even then it was really stiff and really – I don’t know if painful is the right word but it didn’t feel right. Then after that, it was just kind of breaking up the scar tissue and going from there. “We knew the day it happened it was torn so we had to keep it immobilized for several weeks,” Muncy said Saturday after taking batting practice on a field at Camelback Ranch. A tear in his ulnar collateral ligament – the ligament involved in Tommy John surgery – has taken all winter to heal. And he admits now his injury was much more serious than he wanted to admit publicly in October. Muncy’s absence from the lineup was a significant factor in the Dodgers’ National League Championship Series loss to the Atlanta Braves. “I’m hoping it’s very realistic,” Muncy said. In the days after he injured his left elbow on a play at first base during the last game of the regular season, Max Muncy was asked if it was realistic to think he could heal fast enough to play if the Dodgers reached the World Series.
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