Skip Schumaker was practicing fielding 95-mph curveballs from a pitching machine in order to improve his defense this week. ?The chopper, the balls toward the bag ? every grounder I see in the game I?m seeing for the first time,? Schumaker said. ?Any ball hit to me is brand new. I wanted to get the toughest ball hit to me in practice, so that when it comes to the games all of this stuff is routine.? ?He?s such a good athlete, that it just is a matter of getting the repetition,? Troy Glaus said. ?Fungos are great, but it?s not like you?re going to be able to do those at game speed. And this ? this is a little more than game speed.?