Todd Frazier: From oddball to 'Toddfather' to All-Star starter for Reds

Joe Lemire | Special for USA TODAY Sports

Former Rutgers assistant Glen Gardner would be in the third-base coach's box watching the at bats of his team's All-American and occasionally mutter, "Oh no."

Former Class AAA Louisville manager Rick Sweet would sit in the dugout and sometimes shake his head at what he euphemistically calls his slugger's "unique style of hitting" that included "some of the ugliest swings to foul balls off you've ever seen."

Cincinnati Reds third baseman Todd Frazier is, by his own admission, "unorthodox."

"My butt goes out. I swing with one hand sometimes," he said. "It's kind of like Vlad Guerrero kind of swings though he's definitely a lot better than me right now. It doesn't matter how you look or how pretty you are, it's just a matter of getting the job done. That's always been my motto."

Frazier on Sunday was named the starting third baseman for the National League in what will be his second consecutive All-Star Game appearance - this time as the appointed hometown ambassador in Cincinnati.

The honor - thanks to a late voting surge that lifted him over St. Louis Cardinals star Matt Carpenter - comes amid a breakout season in which he leads the majors in total bases (192) and ranks third in the National League in runs (54); his 25 homers rank second in the NL and his .946 on-base plus slugging ranks third.

While Frazier's received plenty of air time over the years - a Little League World Series championship as a child, a Home Run Derby runner-up finish last summer - his profile figures to rise yet again as the baseball world comes to his doorstep.

After all, it is not former MVP Joey Votto or electric closer Aroldis Chapman looked upon to represent the Queen City and its proud baseball tradition.

Rather, it's a 29-year-old late bloomer who acknowledges his batting technique would never be featured in a Tom Emanski instructional video.

Nowadays, Frazier laughs at the very mention of "arm bar," a typically detrimental habit of a baseball swing in which the lead elbow fully extends in the load position, rather than staying in bent and advancing at a 45-degree angle.

"I hate it," he said. "It's one thing that I can't rid of, but I've come to learn over the years to make adjustments to my swing."

Gardner said Frazier eliminated his arm bar in tee and soft toss work, though it never translated onto the field.

"I'd be in the cage and boom, boom, boom," Frazier said. "Then in the game, I just, I don't know. It's something I always do and can't explain it."

Gardner, now Rutgers' director of baseball operations, recalled, "He used to look me all the time and say, 'How's that? Is that good?' And I'd lie right to his face, 'Todd, that's awesome.' I didn't want to tell him he was doing something wrong because he made it work."

Frazier, a star of the Toms River (N.J.) Little League World Series champions in 1998, became Big East Player of the Year as a Rutgers junior in 2007 and a supplemental first-round pick of the Reds (No. 34 overall) that June. He finished third in the NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2012, all while keeping his same individualized swing.

Throwing the bat at the ball is an expression for whipping the barrel through the strike zone, but in a major league game three years ago, Frazier literally did so — and hit a home run. He lost his grip on the bat, which only made contact with the ball after it had left his hands before traveling over the left-field wall in Cincinnati.

"I'd throw my helmet at it if I have to," he said.

A sixth inning at bat against the Mets' Noah Syndergaard on June 26 illustrated this approach. An 0-1 curve down and away left Frazier flailing and falling down to one knee. When Syndergaard threw the same pitch to the same spot on 0-2, Frazier reached across the plate and, with only one hand on the bat, lined a single past the diving shortstop.

That pitch was nearly in the opposite batter's box, but Frazier's long arms, long bat and odd grip — in which the bottom fingers of his left hand dangle off the bat handle, further extending the effective length of his reach — gave him the necessary Go-Go Gadget arms for the base hit.

Frazier, now 6-3 and 220 pounds, always swung an oversized bat, which his college coaches noticed while recruiting him during a wood-bat summer league for high school players.

"I asked him if I could look at his bat," Gardner said. "It was a 35 (inch bat). Most older guys — guys in college — swing a 33. He was in high school swinging a 35 and it was easy. As soon as I saw that, I said, 'This is kid is going to be something else.'"

Frazier acknowledges helpful hitting coaches along the way, not to mention his two older brothers: the oldest, Charlie, a sixth-round pick of the Marlins in 1999 who reached Class AA and the middle brother, Jeff, a third-round pick of the Tigers in 2004 who had a nine-game cup of coffee in the majors in 2010.

Mostly, however, Frazier's swing is self-taught.

"My dad gave me a bat when I was real little," he remembered. "He said, 'Here you go, swing.' I was just trying to chop it down and hit it as hard as I could. It's all about comfort and it's all about being relaxed."

This year's success — which has made Frazier an attractive trade chip on a fourth-place Reds club that may choose to rebuild — has largely been about better execution and an improved approach that have helped his prolific power manifest more often.

"He's getting pitched tough, and he's not expanding like he did when he first came up to the big leagues," Cincinnati manager Bryan Price said. "He's got a little bit more plate discipline."

Frazier slows himself down in the dugout after each bat. He mentally reviews each at bat to glean immediate insights so he can make the appropriate adjustments.

"We have a bunch of sayings here. 'Be aggressive but never in a hurry,'" he said. "That applies to me a lot because I'm always aggressive, but sometimes I am in a hurry."

The persistent character trait echoed by all of his coaches, past and present, is his cheerful winning attitude — except during the games.

As a college freshman, Frazier remained standing and cheering in the Rutgers dugout as his team was losing to an inferior opponent. All of his teammates were silently sitting on the bench.

"He said to me — and I'm paraphrasing because I can't use his exact words — 'I'm going to knock somebody out on this team,'" Gardner said. "I told him, 'Wait until next year when you're a sophomore.'"

Class AAA is often an awkward level to manage because most players are only concerned with taking that last step to the majors, but Sweet didn't see that from Frazier in two and a half seasons in Louisville.

"One of the things I never had to worry about with Todd — ever — is him showing up and wondering, How come I'm not in the big leagues?" said Sweet, now manager of the Rockies' Triple A affiliate in Colorado Springs. "I never had to worry about Todd Frazier and his mental makeup."

The most common stock photo of Frazier is his teenage self, fresh off Toms Rivers' Little League title, standing next to Derek Jeter at Yankee Stadium. Frazier said it'd be "cool" if he could ever have a similar impact on a young player. Sweet noted that Frazier still texts with his 13-year-old son, Seth.

"Guys run hot and cold, but with Todd the great thing, of course, is that there's no ebb and flow to his emotions," Price said. "He's always positive and upbeat and excited to play. I really enjoy that more than anything. The production is a very close second."

Frazier's finest season has come in a rather grim one for the Reds, who are 36-43 and far likelier to shed talent at the trade deadline than add. Frazier is not eligible for free agency until after 2017, which would make him an attractive rebuilding chip, but general manager Walt Jocketty said last week, "I wouldn't trade him."

The Reds and Angels forged an alliance to promote Frazier and fellow Garden State native Mike Trout, who leads his own league in total bases, in All-Star voting. "Jersey swagger," quipped Frazier, nicknamed The Toddfather.

The Reds leaned on Frazier's hometown roots to help him start the All-Star Game in his new hometown. No matter how, it's just a matter of getting the job done, just as Frazier does.

Lemire reported from New York and Philadelphia

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