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Cincinnati Reds 2023 (sell the team Bob)

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Dryden said:
Mantle is well before my time too. Tim Raines would be the switch hitting speed/power combo from my childhood. I was also a huge Eddie Murray fan.
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I forgot about Raines. That's probably a pretty good one too without looking at any numbers.

The thing that really gets me excited isn't all the tools but watching him clearly have an advanced baseball IQ. He makes adjustments very quickly. It's been 2 weeks and he's already showing MLB pitchers that he can hurt them on their breaking stuff.

How many light tower power guys have we seen come and go through MLB that have zero clue, make no adjustments and swing at arm motion until they day they get the axe? Countless. This kid should still be in AA by his age and he's making in game, and in at bat, adjustments at the MLB level.

I've never seen anything like it.
 
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I would qualify the Raines comp with the Rock being a tiny tank (5’8” 160lbs) who played in the 80s Astroturf era of cavernous cookie cutter multipurpose stadia. He hit fewer than 200 HR in his career but in his all star prime led the league or nearly the league in doubles for seven or eight season in a row IIRC (about when Mark Grace came along).

But then Mantle was 5’11” 195 and took the field immediately after hotboxing a pack of Chesterfields, eating three hot dogs, downing 300mL of bourbon, then taking the virtue of seven fair virgin maidens.

So, I guess you’ve got to adjust for the different eras. I leave that stuff to Bill James.
 
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Jaxbuck said:
You are never going to be on every night. He’s been very good this year and battled his way through an inning against the middle of the best lineup in the NL when his slider left him.

That’s what a pro does. I’ll take it.
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He has put out some raging fires this season, and had only allowed 2 hits in 9.333 innings prior to tonight. So, yes, he's having a solid year and I will accept it, as well. Just seems to be so eradic sometimes...
 
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Jaxbuck said:
First time I've heard the young Micky Mantle comp. I am too young to have seen him at his peak but that sounds right from what I've heard/read.

Switch hitting, power and speed guy. Those are rare. What was prime MM? 70 some odd years ago?
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Rickey Henderson, if he hasn't been mentioned. He hit 279 homers, but I think he holds the record for lead off home runs. Don't know how many times he hit for the cycle, but I know he did in the '89 World Serious.
 
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Zem said:
Ricky Henderson, if he hasn't been mentioned. He hit 279 homers, but I think he holds the record for lead off home runs.
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That's a good one too. Looking at Ricky's first partial MLB season he was only 20 and put up a wRC+ of 91. He the averaged a 133 for 24 goddamn years! (He had a wRC+ of 135 at age 40.)

It's just too soon to tell but if EDLC keeps anything close to this trajectory (he's at wRC+ of 144 right now) ... man oh man. He's already comping in some rare air.
 
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Non-Reds players are probably saying, "Well of course Votto is setting the league ablaze; he hasn't been out there playing every day for 2.5 months like the rest of us, so he's rested." That might be true, but hopefully he can stay hot for a long time.
 
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Mantle is the only real comparison. Based on talent not career, obviously. Raines and Henderson I think of as leadoff hitters with power. Unicorns in their era. DLC has Ruthian type power and the speed is above elite.
What I love so far is that he hustles. He’s always running hard out of the box. That shit will win life long fans in this city.
I hope he has a long HOF career here. Ive not seen a player in my 53 years on earth that had this skill set. Unreal.
 
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theathletic.com

Big Red what? Elly De La Cruz hits for the cycle, Reds win 12th straight

This year's team has done at least two things the Big Red Machine never did: win 12 games in a row and have a player hit for the cycle.
theathletic.com theathletic.com

...

“The first ball he hit is one of the hardest balls I’ve ever seen hit,” Bell said. “From the very first swing he took — I think it was a foul ball, straight back — you could tell it was going to be a great night.”

De La Cruz’s double was measured at 116.6 mph off the bat. That exit velocity has been bested this season by only seven players. His maximum exit velocity in Triple A was 118.8 mph, better than any batted ball in the big leagues this year. The only thing that kept it from being a home run was the 16-degree launch angle. It wasn’t high enough to clear the fence — maybe hard enough to go through it — and landed with a thud that could be heard throughout the park as De La Cruz cruised into second.

“I noticed that they threw it into someone in the middle infield, and they didn’t even turn it around. They just threw it to third,” teammate Spencer Steer said. “They were just like, ‘Don’t let him get to third.’ I think other teams’ defenses recognize how fast he is and what he can do on the bases. They’re thinking about the bases in front of the one he’s already going to. He’s only been up for two weeks. It’s incredible.”

...
 
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