Max Muncy's journey from out of MLB to out of this world by Buster Olney | ESPN Senior Writer — 3 hours ago The Keller High School baseball team, of Keller, Texas, generally follows the same daily schedule. As a result, Lee Muncy and his son, Max, could venture an educated guess as to when practice would end and a batting cage would open for the Muncys' use. "We didn't want to interfere with what they were doing," Lee Muncy recalled. Once they got their turn, usually in the early evening, Max Muncy would take about 200 swings -- four buckets of baseballs, roughly 50 balls per bucket. Then Max would throw and catch and field a few grounders, trying to stay fresh in case somebody called to offer him a job in pro ball. But as each day passed in those first weeks of April 2017, Max chatted with his father about what else might be next. He was 26 years old, after all, and had been released by the Oakland Athletics at the end of spring training. Maybe he would go back to Baylor, he said, to finish that last year of courses and get his degree in business. Maybe he would try independent ball. Fifteen months later, Lee and Midge Muncy structure their days around the schedule of the Los Angeles Dodgers -- an afternoon nap to prepare for a 10 p.m. Eastern time start -- because their son got a job. Max didn't have to go back to college to pursue another line of work, and he no longer must wait his turn for a round of swings at a high school cage. He's playing regularly for the Dodgers, and the other day, Clayton Kershaw referred to him as "the best hitter in baseball right now" -- in earnest. Over the past 34 days, Muncy is batting .319, with a .479 on-base percentage and a slugging percentage of .749. He has blasted 17 homers in his past 41 games, and it's possible that on Sunday, Max will be part of the National League All-Star team unveiled on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET. "It's unbelievable. It's surreal," Lee Muncy said. "When he was first called up [by the Dodgers], we thought, 'OK, we hope he gets to pinch hit.' Then we went to hoping he would get to platoon. Now we hope he's playing more. "We always thought he could hit 20 homers in a season. For him to do that [already], that's surprised us, along with everybody else." It even surprised Farhan Zaidi, who was responsible for the belated phone call that brought Muncy into the Dodgers' universe late in April 2017. Zaidi, the Dodgers' general manager, previously worked with the Oakland Athletics under Billy Beane and knew Muncy from that organization. After playing three years at Baylor, Muncy was a fifth-round draft pick of the Oakland Athletics in 2012. He advanced to the big leagues for brief appearances in 2015 and 2016, hitting .195 in 96 games and 215 at-bats, but the Athletics released Muncy at the end of spring training in 2017. Under Andrew Friedman and Zaidi, the Dodgers have built layers of functional depth in their farm system, creating safety nets, and Muncy was a good candidate for that, in spite of his first unremarkable appearances in the majors. He established a history of good at-bats, with relatively few strikeouts, a good contact rate and a willingness to take walks, and he played multiple positions. Zaidi and the Dodgers signed Muncy to a minor league deal, and he spent last year with Triple-A Oklahoma City, batting .309 with a .414 on-base percentage. Along the way, Muncy joined the wave of players who have adjusted their approaches in an effort to lift the ball. Like Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, Muncy is something of an ideal candidate for adaptation because of his hand-eye coordination and ability to make contact. He explained in the visitors clubhouse Saturday that the changes were not really to his swing but to the mechanics setting up his swing and allowing him to hit underneath the ball. Max Muncy has tried different swings his whole life. Lee Muncy is an ardent fan of baseball, and years ago, he absorbed an observation by Duke Snider about left-handed hitters -- that they enjoy the natural advantage of being a step or two closer to first base than right-handed hitters. He encouraged Max, naturally right-handed, to swing from both sides of the plate. Max smiled when Snider was mentioned and said, "That's my Dad's story. I can't remember a time when I didn't hit left-handed." Lee remembers a very young Max standing in front of a TV imitating the stance of whatever hitter happened to be on the screen: perhaps the left-handed Ken Griffey Jr. or the right-handed-hitting Jeff Bagwell. For a time in his early life, Max modeled what he did at the plate after Jim Thome, with the point of the bat in the direction of the pitcher and the socks exposed high. Now, many years later, there are probably young Dodgers fans standing in front of televisions and imitating Max Muncy, who has tried to fend off thoughts of whether he could be selected as an All-Star, little more than a year after he was out of baseball and running out of options. "It's been pretty crazy," he said. "I've been enjoying it a ton."
I think it is man the way Fox was fawning over Max, talking about his HR's per at bat and his surprise emergence. Now it's ESPN's turn to do it.
It was all great, but Max stinks now since we played the Angels. Sad. Andy Warhol told us...long ago.
At least he hit another homer tonight ...and leads the team I'm inclined to patient with Max... and hope he turns into this year's Toles... as Toles comes back strong
