American League idol: O's Machado pitted against A-Rod

• Manny Machado, 20, is the Orioles' starting third baseman
• Like his idol, Alex Rodriguez, Machado's natural position is shortstop
• Machado and Rodriguez have worked out in Miami together

BALTIMORE – Manny Machado already is a huge career step ahead of his idol - and that star's idol before him.
The Orioles rookie has played all of 52 major league games – including Baltimore's wild-card victory at Texas. So, he's hardly carrying the credentials of Alex Rodriguez, Machado's fellow Miami native who is the opposing third baseman in the Division Series against the Yankees.
But Rodriguez, with whom Machado now works out with regularly at the University of Miami facility, didn't make the transition from shortstop to third base until midway through what is now a 19-year major league career.
And Cal Ripken, who Rodriguez calls his idol, did the same for the final five of his 21 seasons in the majors.
"It's funny," Rodriguez says. "I came up idolizing Cal Ripken and (Machado) is over there at the same position Cal was at. There's some irony there."
Machado made the position switch before he even arrived, just so the Orioles could find a way to get the 20-year-old into their lineup.
"It came naturally," Machado says of being asked to start taking ground balls at third while playing at Class AA Bowie (Md.) this summer. "It's just catching the ball and throwing the ball. It's what I've been doing at shortstop. Might as well do it at third."
Might as well. Never mind that he actually played only two games at the position before his Aug. 9 big league debut there. Never mind that his defense has bordered on spectacular at times while he's hit .262 with seven homers in 51 games.

Machado has fit right into the Orioles season of beating the bushes, the waiver wires and every other imaginable source for contributors.

It just so happens that Machado is the third overall pick in the 2010 draft, and one of the game's top 10 prospects entering this season. Accelerating his timetable to the majors was in Baltimore's best interests to contend this season.

Machado proved up to the task, carrying himself down the stretch in such a polished manner that J.J. Hardy, the Orioles' incumbent shortstop, said, "He's not 20."

But he is.
"He's just a great kid," says Rodriguez, whose major league indoctrination was hitting .224 over 65 games in 1994-95. "He's really got a great approach, a very, very bright future and he's got a great attitude. What he's been able to do at 20 years old makes me very proud of him. "
The Rodriguez-Machado direct connection is only a couple of years old, when another Miami product of Machado's generation enabled the hookup.
"Yonder Alonso (Padres first baseman) invited me over to work out and, one day, I was there and Alex came in," Machado says. "He was my favorite player growing up. I've always looked up to him since I was playing baseball. Ever since I picked up a bat, I was doing A-Rod."
Now he finds himself texting A-Rod even as they prepared to meet as peers.
"To be across the diamond and going against each other to move on to the AL championship -- I'm looking forward to that," says Machado, who wears 13, just like Rodriguez.
"No," Machado says in answer to the obvious question. "It's just the number that was given to me."
So far, at least, there's been no trash-texting.
"It's all good," Machado says. "We text to see how it's going."
Rodriguez jokes that his protégé, "Has been looking for some tips here and there. Anytime young players reach out, I'm going to try to help them. I wish him the best,.

"Just not too much this series."