D2 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13 , 2020
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
ACC, Conference USA
games are postponed
Pittsburgh’s game at Georgia
Tech was postponed Thursday
after the Panthers were forced to
pause team activities because of
coronavirus protocols.
The game slated for Saturday
will instead be played Dec. 12.
“Our protocols have prepared
us to anticipate and manage
these circumstances,” Pitt
Athletic Director Heather Lyke
said. “Our top priority will
always be the health and well-
being of our student-athletes,
coaches and staff.”
Two Conference USA contests
scheduled for Saturday also were
hit. Louisiana Tech vs. Rice was
postponed because i njuries and
coronavirus issues left one of the
Bulldogs’ position groups too
thin. And an outbreak at
Alabama Birmingham put off its
game against North Texas.
Since late August, 59 games
between s chools in the Football
Bowl Subdivision have been
canceled or postponed because
of the pandemic — 11 that were
slated f or this weekend....
Avery Williams blocked two
punts that were returned for
touchdowns and Kekaula
Kaniho returned a blocked field
goal 91 yards for a score — all in
the first half — as Boise State
( 3-1, 3-0 Mountain West) cruised
to a 52-21 win over Colorado
State (1-2, 1-2) in Boise, Idaho....
Navy cornerback Cameron
Kinley and Hampden-Sydney
offensive lineman Tyler
Howerton from Langley High
are among 12 finalists for the
Campbell Trophy, which is given
by the National Football
Foundation to the college game’s
top scholar-athlete.
T he other finalists: Texas
quarterback Sam Ehlinger,
Memphis quarterback Brady
White, Washington cornerback
Elijah Molden, Tennessee center
Brandon Kennedy, B oise State
nickel back Kaniho, Charlotte
defensive end Tyriq Harris,
Grand Valley State linebacker
Tyler Bradfield, Abilene
Christian linebacker Jack
Gibbens, Alabama State tailback
Ezra Gray and Illinois State
tackle Drew Himmelman....
Mississippi State starting
safety Marcus Murphy said on
Twitter that he will opt out of the
rest of this season....
Kentucky assistant coach
John Schlarman, who was all-
SEC as a player and returned to
his alma mater to lead the
offensive line, died at 46 after a
two-year fight with cancer.COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Final plans were announced
for 11 days of college basketball
inside a modified bubble at the
Mohegan Sun resort casino in
Uncasville, Conn.
The event, which is dubbed
Bubbleville, will feature
40 teams, including No. 4
Virginia, playing 45 games intournaments that were either
relocated or created to be played
at the resort Nov. 25 to Dec. 5.
The event was organized by
the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame, which
holds its men’s Tip-Off
Tournament and Women’s
Challenge at the Mohegan Sun,
and the Gazelle Group, which
runs the Empire Classic and the
Legends Classic, both of which
usually are held in New York....
Kentucky women’s coach
Matthew Mitchell announced
his retirement, effective
immediately, at the age of 49.
M itchell, 303-133 in 13 seasons
with the Wildcats, cited “an
eventful offseason” with a head
injury and subsequent surgery to
relieve a subdural hematoma
this summer. Associate coach
Kyra Elzy will serve as interim
head coach....
Rhyne Howard is the first
Kentucky woman to be honored
as a preseason all-American by
the Associated Press. She is
joined on the t eam by South
Carolina’s Aliyah Bost on,
Louisville’s Dana Evans,
Arizona’s Aari McDonald and
UCLA’s Michaela Onyenwere.BASEBALL
The Los Angeles Angels hired
Atlanta Braves assistant general
manager Perry Minasian as
their new GM. Minasian, who
replaces Billy Eppler, received a
four-year contract.
“His background in scouting
and player development alongwith his unique understanding
of roster construction were the
leading factors in our decision,”
Angels owner Arte Moreno said
in a statement....
The Chicago White Sox are
sticking with new manager Tony
La Russa for now, saying they
understand the “seriousness” of
his latest drunken driving case
and will have more to say once it
plays out in court.
“Tony deserves all the
assumptions and protections
granted to everyone in a court of
law, especially while this is a
pending matter,” the team said
in a statement. “Once his case
reaches resolution in the courts,
we will have more to say. The
White Sox understand the
seriousness of these charges.”MISC.
Aryna Sabalenka eased past
qualifier Stefanie Voegele, 6-0,
6-3, to advance to her sixth
quarterfinal of the season at the
Upper Austria Ladies Linz.
The 11th-ranked Sabalenka
conceded just three points on
serve in the 26-minute opening
set and saved all nine break
points she faced....
Women’s 400-meter world
champion Salwa Eid Naser is
facing a new legal case that
could see her banned before the
Tokyo Olympics.
Track and field’s Athletics
Integrity Unit said it appealed to
the Court of Arbitration for
Sport against a decision last
month to close a case againstDIGESTNaser, who had been charged
with breaking anti-doping rules.
The charges were dismissed
on a technicality....
The all-female W Series will
be showcased at eight Formula
One events next season in a push
for greater diversity in auto
racing, organizers said. It has yet
to be decided at which of the
record 23 F1 races the W Series
also will be held....The San Antonio Spurs
promoted assistant coach Mitch
Johnson to fill the position that
was vacated by former Spurs
star Tim Duncan, who had
joined the team as an assistant
coach in July 2019 after working
off and on over the previous
three seasons with San Antonio’s
post players following his
retirement.
— From news servicesTELEVISION AND RADIO
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
7 p.m. Florida Atlantic at Florida International » CBS Sports Network
7 p.m. Iowa at Minnesota » Fox Sports 1
7:30 p.m. East Carolina at Cincinnati » ESPN2
GOLF
7:30 a.m. The Masters, first round » ESPN
1 p.m. The Masters, second round » ESPN
TENNIS
5 a.m. ATP: Sofia Open, semifinals » Tennis Channel
SOCCER
11 a.m. Africa Cup of Nations qualifying: Nigeria vs. Sierra Leone » beIN Sports
2 p.m. Africa Cup of Nations qualifying: Morocco vs. Central African Republic »
beIN Sports
AUTO RACING
7 a.m. Formula One: Turkish Grand Prix, practice » ESPN2
4 a.m.
(Saturday)Formula One: Turkish Grand Prix, practice »ESPNSWIMMING
10 a.m. U.S. Open » NBC Sports Network
WOMEN’S COLLEGE SOCCER
5:30 p.m. ACC tournament, semifinal: Duke vs. Florida State » A CC Network
7 p.m. SEC tournament, first round: LSU vs. Alabama » SEC N etwork
8 p.m. ACC tournament, semifinal: Virginia vs. North Carolina » ACC Network
9:30 p.m. SEC tournament, first round: Florida vs. Kentucky » SEC Network
WOMEN’S COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL
1 p.m. Kentucky at Mississippi State »SEC Network
8 p.m. Texas A&M at Arkansas » ESPNU
MEN’S COLLEGE HOCKEY
7 p.m. Wisconsin at Notre Dame » NBC Sports NetworkBY JESSE DOUGHERTYThe question facing Victor
Robles is whether he can play
with all the muscle, the weight it
adds to his frame, the two biceps
that make his shirts look like
children’s clothing. And his latest
attempt to untangle this will
come in winter ball in the Domin-
ican Republic.
Robles, the Washington Na-
tionals’ 23-year-old center field-
er, has joined Águilas Cibaeñas.
So instead of shutting down this
month and next, he will test his
arm, bat and speed on the fields
of his native country. The Nation-
als are counting on it going well.
In 2020, his second full season in
the major leagues, Robles re-
gressed at the plate and, more
surprisingly, on the base paths
and in center.
He had been a Gold Glove
finalist who finished sixth in
rookie of the year voting, a sign
that he may ascend up the bat-
ting order and meet the hype of
his arrival. But Robles struggled
with one noticeable difference:
Manager Dave Martinez noted
that he gained 15 pounds of
muscle while working out during
the coronavirus pandemic. Mar-
tinez saw that impact Robles’s
speed and flexibility, accounting
for the poor results on defense.
His offense, however, is a harder
puzzle to solve. Numbers and
observation point to Robles start-
ing poorly and, in turn, chasing
results instead of staying patient,
something the Nationals have
stressed with him since he de-
buted in 2017.
The recipe brought little good.
“Sometimes the best thing you
can do is see pitches,” Martinez
said of Robles in September,
adding then that he’s “not awful
right now” and still has much
room to grow. “Try to get the ball
in the strike zone. Know which
balls you can hit hard and wait
for that one pitch. I’ve been there
before. You start trying to swing
your way out of it. Sometimes you
start chasing way out of the zone,
and obviously he’s done that
quite a bit.”
The most concerning evidence
is that Robles swung at the first
pitch in 41.3 percent of his plate
appearances, well above the MLB
average of 28.3 percent. That can
be a solid strategy for some
hitters. But it’s a l ess encouraging
sign when the final numbers are
a .293 on-base percentage,
53 strikeouts to nine walks, and
just 37 hits in 52 games.
And though Martinez men-
tioned Robles chasing pitches,
the numbers don’t reflect any
shift in approach. His rate of
swinging at pitches outside the
strike zone was similar to his rate
in 2019, a much better offensive
season for him. He saw a s imilar
distribution of fastballs and
breaking pitches in each season.
His swing percentage — account-
ing for how often a batter swings
— hardly changed.
Yet his contact was down, and
his production sagged. That
hints at poor timing and worse
pitch recognition. Or, as Marti-
nez often suggested, Robles alsohad trouble adjusting to his new
physique. The manager was
quick to say that Robles was not
out of shape. He frequents the
gym in normal times, always
ending game nights with a lift
that leaves him sweating before
interviews. But he was slower, he
slipped on defense, and he gener-
ated limited power in the box.
Each development, backed by
advanced statistics, made it hard
to see what all the added muscle
is for.
In 2019, Robles’s average
sprint speed — measured by
Statcast in feet per second — was
29.3 with 62 “bolts.” Bolts ac-
count for any time a runner is
moving above 30 feet per second,
and 62 was the fourth-highest
total in baseball. In 2020, Rob-
les’s average speed was 28 feet
per second, and he finished a
shortened year with just four
bolts.
He lost a lot of his quickness.
Martinez explained on multiple
occasions that his first step was
slower in the outfield, leading to
a handful of balls dropping in
shallow center. In another area of
sharp regression, Robles led all
outfielders with 23 defensive
runs saved in 2019. A year later,
with the metrics warped by the
condensed schedule, Robles was
tied for 45th among outfielders
with negative-4 runs saved and
only preserved the perception of
his strong defense with a handful
of outstanding plays.
Then there was a concerning
trend at the plate. Robles put
118 balls in play in 2020. Only 27of them traveled 95 mph or faster,
putting him in just the second
percentile of hard-hit percentage
in the majors. His average exit
velocity was a quiet 82.2 mph,
good for the bottom 1 percent of
MLB. It’s tough to hit well when
hitting that soft.
“I know he’s trying really
hard,” Martinez observed in Sep-
tember. “Too hard sometimes.”
Martinez was willing to see
whether Robles could adjust to
the added muscle. “We don’t talk
to him about necessarily the
weight gain,” Martinez said. “We
talk to him about his flexibility,
his speed, agility, his first step. I
mean, stuff like that. If he feels
like he can carry the weight, then
we really want him to really hone
in on his flexibility and his first-
step quickness.”
As this past year wound down,
Martinez seemed torn on Robles
playing winter ball. On the one
hand, the manager recognized
the benefit of Robles seeing more
pitches and getting more reps in
the outfield. On the other, Marti-
nez felt that Robles, though
young and spry, may benefit from
another break. With the promise
of a shuffled lineup next spring,
the Nationals could really use
stark improvements from Rob-
les’s spot in the order, whether
it’s seventh, eighth or near the
top.
Offseason at-bats with Águilas
Cibaeñas now bring the chance
to fine-tune out of the spotlight.
Robles’s next steps will depend
on how that goes.
[email protected]For Robles, a winter of repair
After a disappointing year, Nationals outfielder seeks improvement in Dominican league
BY DAVE SHEININFreddie Freeman’s 2020 season
was a m icrocosm for baseball. He
missed most of summer camp
with a bout of the coronavirus so
acute he would later recall having
prayed to God, “Please don’t ta ke
me.” He started wobbly and slow,
dragging a. 190 batting average
and .656 on-base-plus-slugging
percentage into the third week of
the season. But he soon caught
fire, surged for the next seven
weeks and, against all odds, pulled
off a season that was both miracu-
lous and triumphant.
And on Thursday night, Free-
man, the Atlanta Braves’ veteran
first baseman and one of the most
consistent hitters of the past dec-
ade, was rewarded with the Na-
tional League MVP award, coming
two votes shy of being a unani-
mous winner.
Another first baseman, José
Abreu of the Chicago White Sox,
won the American League award.
Both players collapsed with emo-
tion as their names were called — a
reminder that, for everything that
was missing from an abbreviated,
60-game season wedged into the
summer of a pandemic, it was as
meaningful to the players as any
that came before it.
Abreu, in tears, pointed to a
photo of his grandmother on a
table behind him and said, “She
was my life.” He earned 21 of 30
first-place votes from members of
the Baseball Writers’ Association
of America, easily outpacing run-
ner-up José Ramírez of the Clev e-
land Indians. New York Yankees
infielder DJ LeMahieu finished
third, and Clev eland Indians
pitcher Shane Bieber, who one
night earlier was awarded the Cy
Young award, finished fourth.
Los Angeles Angels center field-
er Mike Trout finished fifth in AL
balloting — t he lowest finish of his
nine-year career. In previous sea-
sons, he was first three times, sec-
ond four times and fourth once.
Abreu, who led the majors with
60 RBI this season, became the
third Cuban-born player to win an
MVP award, following Minne-
sota’s Zoilo Versalles in 1965 and
Oakland’s Jose Canseco in 1988.
Freeman, meanwhile, received
28 first-place votes, winning in a
landslide over Los Angeles Dodg-
ers right fielder Mookie Betts —
who fell short in his quest to add a
second MVP award to the one he
won for Boston in 2018 and thus
join Frank Robinson as the only
players to win the award in both
leagues. A pair of San Diego Padres,Manny Machado and Fernando Ta-
tis Jr., finished third and fourth.
Washington Nationals left
fielder Juan Soto finished a d is-
tant fifth despite leading the NL in
batting average (.351), on-base
percentage (.490), slugging per-
centage (.695) and adjusted OPS-
plus (212). Soto, however, played
in only 47 games in 2020 after
missing the start of the season
because of a positive test for the
coronavirus. Voters were required
to rank their top 10 choices, and
two writers’ ballots did not in-
clude Soto at all.
Freeman, 31, finished second to
Soto in all of the above categories
while playing in all 60 games for
the Braves — despite his July battle
with the coronavirus — and amass-
ing an NL-leading 3.4 wins above
replacement (FanGraphs version).
He also had an unfathomable .423
batting average, .583 on-base per-
centage and .885 slugging percent-
age with runners in scoring posi-
tion. Freeman became the first
Braves player to win the MVP since
Chipper Jones, whom Freeman
considers a mentor, in 1999.
“So many emotions right now,”
Freeman, surrounded by family,
said upon hearing his name called
Thursday night. “Absolutely in-
credible. Never did I think some-
thing like this could ever happen.”
Freeman lost eight pounds dur-
ing his July illness, and by the time
he returned, the Braves had just
two exhibition games and a hand-
ful of intrasquad games remain-
ing for him to prepare for the
season. It took him three regular
season games to collect his first hit
and six to hit his first homer.
But by Au g. 23, he had lifted his
batting average above .300, and he
hit a blistering .375/.496/.750 in
September as the Braves sprinted
to their third straight NL East title.
“It hit me pretty good,” Freeman
said of the coronavirus. “It took
me about eight days to finally feel
healthy. And after that I was ex-
tremely tired. It took the wind out
of me walking to the other side of
the house. It took about two weeks
into the season to get my legs
under me.... Things started tak-
ing off from there.”
In the playoffs, the Braves ad-
vanced to the NLCS and pushed
the Dodgers to seven games before
falling, with Freeman hitting. 360/
.448/.720 in defeat. It was a strong
finish to 2020 for a player who
may have wondered back in July —
much like the sport of baseball
itself — whether he would make it
that far.
[email protected]An emotional Freeman,
Abreu are named MVPs
JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POSTVictor Robles underperformed at the plate, on the bases and in the field in 2020, when extra muscle on his frame seemed to affect him.
RONALD MARTINEZ/GETTY IMAGES TONY DEJAK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Br aves’ Freddie Freeman hit .341 with 13 homers and 53 RBI.
José Abreu of the White Sox hit .317 with 19 homers and 60 RBI.