Baltimore Orioles: The Most Pleasant Surprises Of The First Week

Baltimore Orioles catcher Jesus Sucre has received high praise from his pitchers.

Remember when Jesus Sucre went 3-4 with three runs driven in against the big, bad New York Yankees? He has yet to drive in another run since and hasn’t drawn a walk in his four games (five strikeouts), but he wasn’t signed to be an offensive threat in the heart of the order. He was signed to help a young pitching staff and a group of catchers lacking defensive prowess.

But then the visa issues delayed his start to spring training and Chance Sisco excelled in early spring. The odds of Sucre making the Opening Day roster seemed slim, but he has since quickly settled in and been an influential piece to the team from behind the plate.

From a story by Roger Mooney in the Tampa Bay Times, Sucre explained how he plays the game of baseball.  “I like to control the game,” Sucre said. “I like to feel like I got this. I try to tell the pitchers, ‘Hey, this is my plan. I know you have a plan, but this is my plan right here.’ … I’m the kind of guy where all I worry about is taking care of the pitchers.” His former manager, Kevin Kiermaier proclaimed, “He’s a guy who you try surrounding yourself with as much as possible.” I think David Hess agrees.

Sucre has had his mistakes, from passed balls to a dropped pop up, but the positives are currently greatly outweighing the negatives.

He led David Hess through a masterful outing of six-plus innings of shutout baseball and followed it by catching six more shutout innings, this time from Andrew Cashner. Sucre isn’t afraid to show emotion and talk it up behind the plate his reported personality (I’m not in the clubhouse so I can’t speak firsthand here) is much-needed on a roster of young players and guys playing with massive chips on their shoulders.

He’s a reminder to have a little fun!