Community briefs

web1_Nanticoke-OHaraVB_2.jpg

WVC boys volleyball field a mix of new and old faces

Clint Frazier was the centerpiece for the New York Yankees in the Andrew Miller trade with the Cleveland Indians last season.However, Frazier struggled to adapt with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders at the end of the 2016 season. But with a full offseason under his belt and a successful stint at the Yankees&#8217; major league camp in the rear-view mirror, the Georgia native is ready to turn heads in 2017.For this week&#8217;s Away From the Game, we caught up with the prized prospect during his time at the big-league camp and discussed his 2016 season, his love for naps and his expectations for the upcoming campaign.DJ EBERLE: How do you think things have been going this spring?CLINT FRAZIER: I think things have been going good for everybody here. We&#8217;ve been playing really well as a team and it kind of wears off on yourself when you&#8217;re doing as good as they are. I&#8217;m just glad to be here with this group of guys.<ins>You look at the way things are, obviously you&#8217;re part of that core youth movement this year.</ins> What were you expecting from yourself this spring?First off, I just wanted to come over and get acclimated. I didn&#8217;t know many people coming over here. I think I&#8217;ve done a good job with that so far. Then after that, just put an exclamation mark next to my name. Let people know the things that I can do, just see me as a player and get to know me as a person.You came over in the trade for Andrew Miller. What was that like for you &#8212; that process? You were at Columbus at the time and coming to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area.Difficult. I think I put too much pressure on myself to perform early and it hindered me down the remainder of the season and I learned from that. It&#8217;s good for me to go through those things and realize I should probably just have more fun than put pressure on myself.<ins>When you see trades like that &#8212; on any side &#8212; and when you think about the players and they have to pick up where they are and, for you, switch states. What was that part like?</ins><ins>I don&#8217;t even know how to describe it. I think more surprising that I was put in that deal and then to get up and change clubhouses and meet a whole knew group of guys and be away from the ones I&#8217;ve known the last four years of my career was different for me. It&#8217;s not easy any time you have to get up and go somewhere else unexpectedly.</ins>And you come in to a really great team in the RailRiders last year, and you guys make that run to an International League title and a national championship. What was that experience like?I think it was really good for everybody. That was the most-loaded team that I&#8217;ve ever been a part of. To be on that team and get to be around a lot of good guys that came through there, it was awesome for me to be a young guy and see what it takes to perform over the long haul.You&#8217;ve spent a couple months there in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. What were your thoughts of the area itself? When you had some free time did you get to go and see what the area was like?I didn&#8217;t do much on my free time. I like to sleep on my days off. I thought it rained a lot. I thought it was a nice town. I was not playing the way I wanted to, so I didn&#8217;t get out as much and I probably spent 10 times more time at the field than I did anywhere else. When I go back there this year, I&#8217;m going to explore it more. I didn&#8217;t get to see it that much.You talk about the grinding schedule and how you like to sleep. What are some of the things you do to take those mental breaks?I think for me it&#8217;s just finding an outlet. I have a really good group of friends, a great family and an awesome girlfriend, so those people do a good job of distracting me and helping me get away from the game because it consumes so much of our life, man, you have to have a life away from the field and find away to decompress. For me, it&#8217;s mainly making time for my family and friends.<ins>For you,</ins> You&#8217;re from Georgia and you&#8217;ve spent the majority of your baseball career up north, in Ohio, Pennsylvania now. What&#8217;s it like being in the northern states versus Georgia? <ins>which is probably a different atmosphere?</ins>Start with the accents. People sound different, people have different manners, people are just from a different area. I think overall the weather is a lot different. It&#8217;s a lot more humid in Georgia and obviously down here in Florida it&#8217;s humid. Scranton, it just rained a lot. That&#8217;s all I really remember from there.When you have that free time in the offseason, what are some of the things you do for fun? Some of the hobbies you have? <ins>Things to take breaks?</ins>I sleep until 3 p.m. every day. I&#8217;m not lying. I literally did the same thing. I would sleep until 2, 3 p.m., go work out, hit after and then invite some people over.I literally felt like I did the same thing every day. I shop a lot. I spend time with my girlfriend. Go to my family&#8217;s house. I just try to not make my routine the same during the offseason as it is during the season.So sleeping, is that big for you as a recharge considering how grinding things are for you on a day-to-day basis, whether it be training or in-season?I&#8217;m a night owl, so I can sleep all day. I have blackout curtains so somehow I get lost in my sleep and end up sleeping half the day away, but I enjoy doing that. It&#8217;s something I think I need to just recharge.<ins>What are the goals for you this year? It&#8217;s a big season for you, big season for the team.</ins><ins>I think for me it&#8217;s to continue to be a better teammate, enjoy the game. I think if I enjoy the game, I put the pressures aside of performing and just let myself play better. My numbers will come, but I think the numbers will come as I continue to settle in here and get to know guys. But I want to play in the big league. I feel like I have a chance.</ins>Do you feel like the settling down, do you feel like you&#8217;ve been doing that this spring?I think I&#8217;ve done a really good job of becoming friends with guys here and feeling a part of something that&#8217;s going to be really special here in the future. I think it&#8217;s good for me to be at big-league camp this long and get settled in.Lastly, what&#8217;s the big difference that you&#8217;ve noticed? Your time as a Yankee has been short, but what&#8217;s the big difference being with Cleveland and that organization and the Yankees?The attention. Cleveland maybe had two beat writers there. Here I feel like there&#8217;s 50 different guys in the clubhouse every day and people take baseball a lot more seriously here, as far as the fans, the media, the attention. Everyone loves this team, so it brings a lot more fans. It kind of raises the expectations over here. But I think I was built to be here, so I&#8217;m going to enjoy it.<style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Clint-Frazier2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">After struggling to get acclimated after his trade to the New York Yankees, Clint Frazier is ready for a bounce-back year this season with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. (AP Photo/John Raoux)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Clint-Frazier2.jpg</photo0><caption0>After struggling to get acclimated after his trade to the New York Yankees, Clint Frazier is ready for a bounce-back year this season with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. (AP Photo/John Raoux)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By DJ Eberledjeberle@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</shirttailMeta></div>

Away From the Game: SWB RailRiders outfielder Clint Frazier out to make impact