TEMPE, Ariz. -- The left knee buckles to the ground, the right knee collapses after it and then Geovany Soto's entire body rocks forward, at which point he releases the baseball, follows through all the way to the ground, swipes the dirt with the palm of his right hand and wipes the excess clay off his pant leg, all in one fluid motion.
Soto, entering his 12th season as a Major League catcher and his first with the Angels, has long been mystifying observers with his distinctive approach toward lobbing baseballs back to pitchers. He's been doing it this way for the last year or so, more than 100 times each and every game.