The good the bad and the ugly

Get used it. As the A’s head into 2018, their rising third baseman is prepared to make a massive leap.

Matt Chapman, at age 24, could already produce a film festival worth of highlight plays.

But Rick Vanderhook knows a few bloopers that would wind up on the cutting room floor. “I saw some bonehead things when he was young,’’ the Cal State Fullerton coach said.

Chapman is a Gold Glove candidate as he enters his first full season in Oakland. Vanderhook calls him “spectacular,” and the two remain close.

But then there’s June 3, 2012.

an RBI single as the Titans were eliminated in a 3-0 loss.

“He called that one a little early,’’ Vanderhook deadpanned.

Suffice to say, Chapman figured things out. In his final season at Fullerton, he batted .312 with six home runs and a team-leading 48 RBIs. He had a .412 on-base percentage, 16 doubles, six steals and made the All-Big West Conference first team.

Matt starred at El Toro High School, even if he had to wait. As a sophomore in 2009, Chapman rode the bench behind Nolan Arenado, who would grow up to be a star for the Colorado Rockies.

measured at 110 mph.

Chapman snared that streaking comet with a dive to his right, then spun for an accurate throw to start a 5-4-3 double play. Replays showed A’s pitcher Daniel Gossett shaking his head is if he’d just been pranked.

“The most incredible double play I’ve ever seen,’’ Christenson called it.

Two days later, Chapman sprinted across the spacious foul territory to make a catch on a dead run. He then hurdled over a fortress of Gatorade jugs and into the A’s dugout.

“He stuck the landing,’’ Braden said. “That’s the kind of stuff where you can tell he’s thinking about it before it happens.”

Of course he was.

“I was aware that the (Gatorade jugs) were coming up,’’ he said that day, “and I just kind of planned in my head that, ‘Well, I either I barrel into them, or I jump over them.’”

“Here’s a play he’ll never forget in his life,’’ Vanderhook said, setting the stage. Fullerton faced Austin Peay in an NCAA regional game in Eugene, Oregon. Chapman was a freshman third baseman.

“And he’s really good at catching pop ups, if you haven’t noticed,’’ Vanderhook said. “So every time the ball goes in the air, he’s calling it.”

But this particular pop up was on the first-base side of the field, meaning the hardcharging Chapman would have to scramble over the mound to get there.

Oh, and did we mention it had rained?

“And I’m sitting in the firstbase dugout, and I see what’s happening,’’ Vanderhook said. “I say, ‘Uh, oh. Look out!’”

“And he comes flying — because everything he does is 100 percent — and he hits that pitcher’s mound and just went — pssshhhseewww!’”

Chapman’s wipeout left a vapor trail from the mound to foul territory. The ball fell for

On the day Chapman got called up to the big leagues last June, he called his former coach from the airport. Vanderhook connected his phone to the PA system on the team bus so the Titans players could hear what it’s like for a dream to come true.

“I mean, that’s a big deal, even if it’s for one day,’’ Vanderhook said.

Chapman will clearly stick around longer than that. As A’s fans get to know him, Vanderhook advised keeping an eye on his throwing ability.

“That arm, you never see. You’re lucky if you see it one time,’’ Vanderhook said. “If you’re old enough, there was a guy named Ken Caminiti at San Jose State. He had a bazooka. And Chapman has that bazooka.”

(Caminiti, who died in 2004, won three Gold Gloves over his 15-year career.)

Chapman’s arm was so good that he even pitched a few times in college. More often, the third baseman would beg coaches to clock his fastball on the radar gun.

“And he’d go throw 94 mph just after playing catch,’’ Vanderhook said. “He’s just different.”