Cabrera Adjusting Well
PULASKI, Virginia - Being the youngest person in a group is not always easy, but Oswaldo Cabrera is feeling confident about his youth. On a team made up of players mostly in their early twenties, the 17-year-old is fitting in just fine.
"I'm proud of being the youngest one," Cabrera said about his age.
Although listed as a shortstop on Pulaski's roster, Cabrera has seen significant amount of time at second base this season. Cabrera said the transition to second has been smooth because he played the position at the beginning of his career. In 13 games at second base for the Yankees he has five errors on 54 total chances. When playing shortstop, Cabrera has committed zero errors for Pulaski.
Cabrera signed with the Yankees out of Guarenas, Venezuela, but he knew what he was getting into. His brother has previously played in the Yankees minor league system and told him about the team before he signed. Oswaldo said his brother talked to him about his learning experiences and the moments he enjoyed with the team.
Since finalizing his contract, he has seen time in the Dominican Summer League and the Gulf Coast League before being sent to Pulaski on July 26th. He has moved up the ranks quickly, only spending seven games in the Gulf Coast League before being promoted.
As if playing professional baseball at age 17 wasn't impressive enough, Cabrera can also boast that he is a switch-hitter. He has been practicing switch-hitting for a long time now. When Cabrera was 12 he decided to start getting at bats on his left side to improve his strength at the plate. Cabrera says hitting from both sides of the plate gives him two advantages over the pitcher.
"The first thing is you can eliminate one of the pitches, which is the curveball. It gets a little bit easier to hit it because it doesn't drift away from you, it comes to you. You also have a better angle to see the ball."