15 NBA players you’d like to have on your beer league softball team
By John Buhler
J.J. Barea
Every baseball or softball team has to have that guy that loves to get dirty. It came down to this guy and Matthew Dellavedova for that role on this team, but the diminutive middle infielder that will be completely covered in dirt from the first pitch is J.J. Barea.
Ideally, Barea would play second base, probably starting there in most instances. He will be one of the guys that will rob Ron Baker of his much deserved playing time. Barea is one of maybe four guys on this team that will slide into second base in basketball shorts. He’s basically Pigpen from Peanuts on this beer league team.
At the plate, Barea can handle the bat. He is an adept bunter, has a quick first step out of the box and has no problem serving a pitch to the opposite field. However, Barea offers no power and tries to slap hit out of the batter’s box like he’s Ichiro Suzuki or something. Nobody fouls pitches of his foot on this team quite like Barea.
While he is slightly above average at the plate, Barea is good for three errors a game at second base. At least one ball will roll through his legs in a completely embarrassing moment. He might knock down a few balls with fair range at second, but covering the second base bag might as well be the moon to him. Barea is scrappy and tries hard as this team’s Charlie Hustle nobody asked for.