From the September 4, Lawrence Eagle-Tribune:
Alan Siegel - Rookie Revelations: Chambers battles through first year with SpinnersThe right-handed Chambers rocks the bat slightly, pulls in his front foot from his slightly open stance and cracks a line drive to left field. At 6 feet, 175 pounds, he has quick wrists but hasn't shown much power so far.
As of yesterday, he's hitting .252 with 40 hits, 20 RBIs and a team-leading 28 runs scored. Just four months after shattering his own single-season doubles record (26) at Division 2 power Franklin Pierce, Chambers is still learning to become a contact hitter.
His approach at the plate, Lowell hitting coach Alan Mauthe says, has been erratic this season.
"When he controls the bat head and stays in control of his body and tries to hit like a hitter his size, he's very effective," he says. "Him, like a lot of young hitters, they try and get more and hit the ball harder and farther. That's when he gets himself in trouble."
Chambers struggled early, going 3 for his first 32 minor-league at-bats. That was back in June and early July, when frustration led to chronic over-swinging. Chambers credits Mauthe with helping him break out.
"I learned I need to trust my hands all the time," says Chambers, who hit .308 in July. "Sometimes I try to hit home runs or I try to hit the ball a long way, when really all I can do is relax and let my hands do the work and the ball will hit the gaps."
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The smile Chambers often flashes at LeLacheur Park doesn't mean he's exempt from stress. While he embraces the fact that he's a hometown boy playing for his hometown organization, the "gee-whiz, I-can't-believe-I-got-drafted-by-the Red Sox" euphoria has faded just like the major-league club this season.
That first slump, he admits, cost him nights of sleep.
"I didn't even know what to do," he says. "I was down, and I was wondering if I was going to play anymore. I didn't trust myself."
He worried about being released. He needed feedback, reassurance that he belonged here. He sought hitting tips after every at-bat. He worked with Mauthe. He constantly asked him what was going right or wrong.
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After most games, Chambers calls former major league pitcher and Concord, N.H., resident Bob Tewskbury, now employed by the Red Sox as a sports psychology coach. The topic of their discussions is usually Chambers' focus, which has strayed at times this season.
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Low-round picks benefit from organizational patience. But the feeling rarely trickles down to eager players with major-league dreams. As Chambers says, it's easy to get discouraged during a slump. Few remember that Hall-of-Fame third baseman Wade Boggs spent six seasons in the minors before breaking in with the Red Sox in 1982.
Realistically, the odds of Chambers making it that far are low. Since 1996, five 32nd-round draft picks have found spots on major league rosters. Kansas City's Joey Gathright (2001) and Tampa Bay's Nick Green (1999) are the only ones still in the big leagues.
In the not-so-distant past, a player like Chambers would be considered a "senior sign." In other words, a four-year college throwaway who didn't have the talent to be drafted as an underclassman. That stigma has changed recently, as college players are often more seasoned and cheaper than their high school counterparts.
Chambers may have played Division 2 college ball, but he learned how to handle a wooden bat in the Northeast-10 Conference. He's also a college graduate. (Traditionally, remaining tuition costs factor into negotiations).
Chambers may not be a bonus baby (his was $1,000), but all the draft hype (or lack there of) means nothing to coaches when the season starts.
"You don't have a sign on your back that says what round you got taken in," Fagnant says.