Alcantara and Lopez Give Marlins NL’s Two Greatest Pitchers

“They each throw with nice arm pace, and there is no sense of ‘I will attempt to place this pitch,'” Stottlemyre stated. “They’ve stored energy on the forefront, in order that they maximize their motion and their end to the pitch. They’re particular.”

The pitches, sure, but additionally the folks. When Stottlemyre’s father Mel Sr., the longtime pitcher and coach, died of a number of myeloma in January 2019, Alcantara and López each known as to console him. Stottlemyre, who had only recently joined the Marlins, has since helped each pitchers by their private trials.

“Sharing what that seems like, having the ability to have that encourage and provides function and which means to all the pieces you do — we have all three spent quite a lot of time speaking about that,” stated Stottlemyre, who’s 58. “It damage me, too, watching them, as a result of I solely understand how I dealt with my dad’s dying. And to be younger? I received to reside with my dad for nearly all of my life, and to expertise all the nice occasions. That received taken away from them.”

Stottlemyre acknowledges his father’s affect in the best way he speaks along with his pitchers. He invests time in constructing relationships, incomes their affection — the pitchers put on T-shirts calling themselves “Stott’s Tots” — and belief. He has opened up about his youthful brother, Jason, who died of leukemia in 1981, and stated he has by no means been as shut to 2 pitchers as he’s to Alcantara and López.

“I see him not solely as a pitching coach,” López stated, “but additionally as a father determine and a fantastic function mannequin.”

López’s father inspired him to pursue a professional profession with the Seattle Mariners at 16 years previous, when he had one other heady possibility: medical faculty at La Universidad del Zulia, his mother and father’ alma mater. López had graduated from highschool at age 15 — mastering 4 languages ​​alongside the best way — and his mom’s facet of the household cautioned that the baseball world might be very unsure. Danny reasoned that medical faculty may at all times be a backup plan for baseball, however not the opposite approach round. That logic gained out, although López has struggled at occasions with the burdens of excessive achievement.