Danny Valencia still coming on strong

The Twins have gotten him to settle down a little, but they haven't turned Danny Valencia into a machine. Whether you call it spirit or hubris, the team's young third baseman still exudes it.

"Not everybody is always going to like you," he said. "If you try to make everybody like you, it's not going to work."

Even before he was called up for his major league debut last June, Valencia's confidence was legendary; he was the talented infielder from the University of Miami, where student-athletes can major in audacity, who needed a lesson in humility.

He got more than his share last season, even as he hit .311 and took the third base job for his own.

He led the team in kangaroo court fines, imposed for breaches of clubhouse etiquette ("I financed the (team) party," he said). He had his clothes shredded during a road trip to Texas (and had to wear them home). And when the rookies wore costumes for an annual hazing road trip ritual, the veterans saved the most embarrassing one for him.

"Danny's a very proud guy, as he should be. He's a very good player and all that," clubhouse leader Michael Cuddyer said. "The majority of time, rookies figure things out on their own. They need to figure things out. Not just baseball, but the life of being a major league baseball player, and the quicker you can figure things out, the better off you are."

None of the hazing seemed to dim Valencia's fire. He has started this year by opening a Twitter account and taking aim at Cuddyer and Denard Span, the team leaders in Twitter followers, telling readers he was looking for 5,000 by the time TwinsFest ends this afternoon (he had 3,111 by Saturday evening).

"That's just how I am," he said. "I'm so competitive. It's just how I am."

Valencia said that's a key to his success on the field, but it also has at times run him afoul of teammates and others. It was enough of an issue that Twins senior adviser and former general manager Terry Ryan pulled him aside and gave the then-minor leaguer some pointed advice.
"He's always shot me straight, told me what I need to work on and what I need to clean up; what I'm doing wrong and what I'm doing right," Valencia said. "I really respect Terry Ryan for that."

And what was the message of the sermon?

"When I was young," Valencia said, "when I first came here in '06 and '07, I had a bit of an attitude, maybe a little chip on my shoulder. He told me I needed to get rid of that. I worked hard on that to try to be a better teammate, a better guy in the clubhouse, and I think I've done that.

"A lot of that was really getting that wakeup call from him, because when you hear from the GM, where there is smoke there is fire. When you hear it from him, you have to believe it."

It's hard to find fault in Valencia's game right now. He hit .311 with seven home runs and 40 runs batted in, batted .386 at Target Field and finished third in American League rookie of the year balloting.

The performance essentially earned him the third base job this season.

"We expect him to take the job and run with it," manager Ron Gardenhire said Friday. "He goes into camp as our third baseman, and I'm pretty sure he's going to leave as our third baseman. He should be fine. I'm looking forward to seeing him out on the field again.

"He was pretty impressive. He deserves that."

Valencia said he has worked hard this winter in Miami — with New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada, and Kansas City's Melky Cabrera — and vows not to get complacent. As for his clubhouse manner, he swears he gets it, and that he always did.

"I looked up to a lot of those guys, and I told them right from the get-go, ' I look up to you guys,' " he said. "I may not show it the way I should at the beginning, but they knew that I genuinely cared and genuinely wanted to do what they wanted me to do."

General manager Bill Smith said Valencia's path to the majors is not uncommon, and that no one should read too much into his brushes with management.

"I don't want to get too much into Danny Valencia because he's not the only player," Smith said. "There are a ton of players that have been taken aside by managers, coaches, front-office people and given some counseling. Danny's one of them. He joins a long list, and a lot of them are in the big leagues now.

"You don't want to take away a player's personality. We don't want to turn them all into robots."

Clearly, that is not the case. And if Valencia continues to perform the way he started in 2010, that spirit — or hubris — might be easier for everyone to understand. Or at least deal with.

"The people who know me realize that's what I use to perform," Valencia said. "That's what kept me going, kept me competitive on the field. You know, you have to accept everybody for who they are."



(twincities.com)