앤드류 람보와의 인터뷰

Andrew Lambo had a long summer in Double-A and he’ll tell you so. While Lambo was struggling in pro ball for the first time, he got a crash course in how nasty baseball reporters, fans, fantasy baseball owners and impatient skeptics can get when a prospect ranked No. 1 in his organization prior to the season suddenly discovers, wait a minute, learning to play this game isn’t as easy as it looks.

I saw Lambo in the Arizona Extra-Work League recently and I’ll break him down for you in a sentence: he doesn’t trust his hands. That’s an adjustment that he’s going to have to make to have success. Hate to be so blunt, but when they break this guy down in staff meetings, that’s something they’re going to say. When I talked to Lambo, I offered that impression, and he agreed. You have to like it when a guy can look himself in the mirror and think about what he can learn from a few poor months. Baseball Beginnings caught up with Lambo out in the barren wastelands of professional Fall Ball.
오래간만에 baseball beginnings에 가봤더니 사흘전에 앤드류 람보와 인터뷰를 했더군요.
현재 그는 Arizona Extra-Work League에서 뛰고 있다고 합니다. 이게 단순히 교육리그 같아보입니다. AFL처럼 정식경기는 아니지만, 그래도 선수가 뛴다면 소식이라도 들릴텐데, 소식을 접하기 힘든곳이 AZL(Arizona League) & GCL(Gulf Coast League)와 DSL(Dominican Summer League) & VSL(Venezuela Summer League)죠.

Baseball Beginnings: Not to bury you, but this couldn’t have been the season you wanted.
Lambo: It wasn’t the season that I wanted. But I thought it was a good learning experience. That double-A league was tough, but I thought I learned more about the game this year than I ever had before. I think you have to take it as a positive. You can’t sit there and sulk. You know you have the ability. You know you can hit those guys. You have to bring a little bit more mental consistency up there. The game is faster. You have to slow things up. I didn’t know how to do it. Things got too big. I just needed to relax and start like I had success before. I tried to bring that out here. It’s not my swing or my mechanics, it was what I was swinging at. It was like my mental approach was not there at all. It just deteriorated at the end of the season.
올해 시원찮았는데, 이에 대해 람보는 자신 역시 자신이 원하던 시즌이 아니었다고 하네요. 하지만, 아주 좋은 경험을 얻었다면서, 더블 A는 확실히 터프한 리그라고 하는군요. 이전에 해왔던 것보다 더 많은 것을 배웠기에 긍정적으로 생각하겠다고 합니다.

Baseball Beginnings: Did it get better or worse as the season progressed?
Lambo: The first half was better than the second half. The second half, I just started giving up.
실제로 람보는 전반기가 더 좋은 성적을 올렸으며, 특히 4월에 타격(94타석동안 .321/.383/.548)이 아주 좋았고, 당시 다저스의 BA 랭킹 1위를 막 거머쥘때여서 인지는 몰라도 좋은 모습으로 기대감을 갖게 했습니다. 월별 성적에서도 유일하게 ISO지수가 2할을 넘겼구요.

Baseball Beginnings: This was the first time you had struggled consistently.
Lambo: In pro baseball, yes.

Baseball Beginnings: So now you had to learn how to deal with it. How did you cope with struggling for the first time? Did some of the mental aspects seep into the swing mechanics?
Lambo: A little bit, but I don’t think it was as bad as my approach. It wasn’t smart. I wasn’t mentally there. I could go on and on, but my mental was not there. When people tell you when you’re younger that the game is 90 percent mental, they’re not lying. Now you really do understand how mental it is. But you don’t want to think too much. You want to go out and have a good game plan. The biggest thing is to have one game plan that fits you. Don’t get too big. Just find your game plan. If you have a consistent game plan, your outcome is going to be good. But you have to have a consistent game plan and that’s where I struggled. I was up and down. If I don’t pay attention to approach as much as I do to my swing, then that’s a roadblock. You have to really pay attention to what’s going on. What’s the count? Who’s on? Who’s the pitcher? What does he got? Those are the little things you need to be aware of.
처음 찾아온 슬럼프에 대해 어떻게 대처를 했느냐하는 질문인데, 맨탈을 많이 언급하네요. 분명 계획을 가지고 경기에 임해야함은 맞지만, 그렇다고 (한꺼번에) 너무 많은 생각을 하지 않을려고 했다네요. 투수와 맞딱뜨리는 순간순간에 집중하는 것이 좋다고 합니다.

Baseball Beginnings: So you’re talking about situational awareness.
Lambo: Yes, absolutely. Situational awareness is a good wording for it. Situational awareness is what got me. I didn’t have a handle on what they wanted to do with me with first and third and a runner on first and no outs. I figured it out when they would throw me three sliders in the dirt and I would swing at all three of them.
아마도 '상황 대처 능력'에 대해 말하는 것이 아니냐고 기자가 물었는데, 좋은 표현이라면서 이 부분에 대해 자신이 미숙하다고 하네요.

Baseball Beginnings: So you have the physical, now you’re telling me that you’re learning how to play the game, and never realized that you’d have to.
Lambo: You kind of just want to skim by and just see ball and hit ball. It’s not really how it works. You have to have a game plan. That’s the biggest lesson from this year for me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s up to me to make the adjustments and prove that I can play.
아직도 배워야 할(혹은 깨닫지 못한) 점이 있다면? 칠 볼과 치지 말아야 할 볼을 구분할 수 있는 능력을 기르고, 그걸 실제 경기에서 보여줘야 한다고 생각한다네요.(이 해석이 맞나 모르겠습니다.)

우리가 익히 알고있는 그는 고딩때 마리화나를 피웠고, 수업도 자주 빼먹는 불성실한 학생이었기에 실제 드레프트에서 인성문제로 미끌어졌는데, 그 이후에는 별탈없이 지내고 있습니다. 일단 말이야 좋게 한다고 비이냥거리게 읽었을 수도 있겠지만, 분명 생각이 있는 선수가 되었으면 좋겠네요. BA에서 1루수가 될 거라고 하는데, 전 아직도 그가 매니의 대체자가 되었으면 좋겠습니다. 일단은 자리라도...