Elly De La Cruz is raking in Cincinnati

Hal McCoy says he is the fastest Red since Deon, who he says was the fastest he ever saw and the probably has seen the most Reds games of anyone this side of Marty in person.

That infield hit to the first baseman a few days ago was a crazy play.

Lore is that Bob Howsam tried to get Cedeno from the Astros for the Reds a few times back in the 70s, but I think after he rooked them for Joe Morgan they were not dealing. Got to figure that the Astrodome probably knocked Cedeno's home run totals down a 100 or so.

Thanks...Noticed something else about De La Cruz/Puig while putting a FB post together: Cruz's debut (June 6) was almost 10 years to the day after Puig's (June 3, 2013).

This was kind of alarming if you were following De La Cruz's last AB online:

1 Ball 1 - 0 94.7 mph Four-Seam Fastball
2 Foul 1 - 1 94.8 mph Four-Seam Fastball

Game Advisory
Injury Delay

3 Foul Tip 1 - 2 82 mph Curveball
4 Foul 1 - 2 81.1 mph Curveball
5 In play, out(s) 94.6 mph Four-Seam Fastball

Not sure what happened--foul off his foot?

Hal McCoy says he is the fastest Red since Deon,

Faster than Billy Hamilton? Because that guy was damn fast.

Things that make you feel really old: an ex-student of mine referred to him as a kid ("the speed on this kid is unreal") on Facebook today.

MLB lists EdlC's height as 6'5" and Judge at 6'7" but I think they are a bit closer in height than that would indicate... who's bluffin?

he was born in 2002! I'll go with kid

all yr base are belong to him

ELLY DE LA CRUZ JUST STOLE HOME! 😱😱😱 pic.twitter.com/dx2WU3qfa3

— MLB (@MLB) July 8, 2023

when you’re in the same sentence with greasy neale

In the 7th inning of the Reds' win over the Brewers, rookie shortstop Elly De La Cruz became the first Reds player to steal 2nd, 3rd and home in the same inning since Greasy Neale in 1919.

The same Greasy Neale who coached the Eagles to the 1948 and 1949 NFL Championships.

— Reuben Frank (@RoobNBCS) July 8, 2023

Interview I heard with McCoy he said faster than Hamilton yes. At that level, it’s probably negligible.

The guy he reminds me of is Eric Davis, who I think was about the best athletic baseball player I ever saw play in person. People kind of forget how good he was before the injuries piled up.

Don't know Greasy, but I thought of Jackie Robinson and Rickey Henderson.

Elly so tall he can just reach out and touch home

Elly De La Cruz is not raking in Cincinnati

He really has crashed. His monthly OPSs: .881, .686, .663, .557--that, and hitting under .200 in both August and September. Still has a decent shot at some postseason exposure, though.

premature ILB threads titles are raking this year though

He’s only 21, league adjusted to him. MLB hyped him up hard, I still see about two of his highlights on every ad break during a game. Hopefully he can work on some things during winter ball & come back better.

premature ILB threads titles are raking this year though

My favourite: The Thread with a Looming Expiry Date: Luis Arraez Aims for .400

I actually wanted to bump that one cos I noticed Arraez had started hitting homers and wanted to register my fear if that’s a new development that sticks

I think medium-range power is normal for his kind of hitter: Carew, Boggs, Gwynn, and Ichiro all had at least a couple of years where they hit 10-20 HR (Gwynn had a few), and Boggs hit 24 one year.

I'm looking at Arraez's splits (wrong thread, I know--I'll go over there if I have anything more to say), and it's really just August where he struggled (.236). He's .382 for the rest of the year. His next hit is his 200th.

simply insane that Boggs got 200 hits in seven. seasons. in a row. (and then never got 200 hits again.) we didn't know we were fucking born back then, the guy was consistently hitting over .350 for the season, season after season.

By the way, between the Luis Arreaz thread and this--Jumping the Gun: the Carlos Correa Thread like to think I invented the meta-premature thread.

"I'd like to think..." (some coding glitch--I actually did have a closing em-dash and those words).

I dunno if anything can beat the crash and burn of the Wander Franco thread title. yikes.

Y'all Elly dlC is back to raking again

He smashed Hunter Greene’s car window with a foul ball in spring training!

From EDLC’s Instagram:

https://i.postimg.cc/qR93cS2h/IMG-5725.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/28NW1pzg/IMG-5726.jpg

From Hunter Greene’s Instagram:
https://i.postimg.cc/Kv7ML9jj/IMG-5727.jpg

This is brave, charming & impressive (especially in light of MLB drama this week):

Elly De La Cruz did his entire press conference in English, for the first time today.

“It’s important for the fans to understand me, and me understand the fans.”pic.twitter.com/IQOo4IIWwB

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 28, 2024

Refreshing even! A timeline cleanse for all the bad vibes~~~

what do de la cruz's fielding stats say? as someone who's SABR-illiterate

way too early for fielding stats to be reliable this early in 2024, but for 2023 he was well above average by the statcast Outs Above Average (OAA) measure - +4 OAA, which put him at the 85th percentile compared to others at SS/3B. his arm strength is already among the best of the game, at the 98th percentile

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/elly-de-la-cruz-682829?stats=statcast-r-fielding-mlb

i think the three hardest throwing shortstops in the game are all in the NL Central - elly de la cruz, oneil cruz, and masyn wynn

(if you want to know more about OAA, there are many more details on what it measures and how it's calculated here: https://www.mlb.com/glossary/statcast/outs-above-average)

ty zach! was just wondering because he's messed up a few easy gimmes in this mets-reds series

Didn't realize he was playing so well:

https://www.mlb.com/news/elly-de-la-cruz-power-speed-breakout-2024

tonite: 4-4 w/ 4 SBs versus Glasnow @ LAD

.277/.378/.516 (.894 OPS #17 in MLB)

is he on pace to challenge rickey?

30/44 team games = 110, so theoretically, within range (Henderson stole 130). But he's been on base 65 times (43 hits + 22 walks), and that projects to 239; Henderson was on 259 times, so probably not. Still wow, though. Of the nine seasons of 100 (Henderson, Brock, Coleman, Wills), only Henderson slugged over .400 in one of them (.421).

His success rate, it should be mentioned, is much better than Henderson's in '82: 30/35 for De La Cruz, 130/172 for Henderson. The rules are more favorable to base stealers now, though, right?

Yes - not quite apples to oranges. That said today's pitchers, partic relievers, are nastier than what Rickey had to face.

Lol I mean apples to apples.

Henderson became a better percentage base stealer as he got older--in the 70-80% range his first four seasons, 82% for the rest of his career. He seemed pretty hell-bent on breaking Brock's record early on.

(Plus he had a rather erratic manager...)

i'm not a fan of the oven mitts and pizza boxes. but maybe they're needed if pitches are getting to the plate faster and catchers have stronger arms than 30 years ago.