Elly De La Cruz Is Coming For Rickey Henderson
Elly De La Cruz is a gigantic Dominican SS for the Cincinatti Reds and arguably the most gifted athlete relative to peers in any sport right now. The gap between his raw talent and the next baseball player is, again, arguably the most significant. The reason I say arguably is because I'm willing to listen to arguments. I just can't think of anyone else at this moment so I'm taking EDLC.
He gave an awesome postgame last night that's making the rounds on social. He called LA his city and then said it was because GTA.
How relatable
Indeed. And also distracting from the fact that he's on a remarkable run that could break Rickey Henderson's record.
Before continuing, I should admit that this is a shabby record pursuit because the pitch clock and pick-move limits have given base runners a huge advantage alongside the slightly larger bases. Timing a jump has never been easier as evidenced by the overwhelming increase in stolen base activity since the new rules.
Even so, I'm not ignored Elly De La Cruz's 30 stolen bags in 44 games. On pace for 110, which is 20 short of the record. But I sense he's warming up and there's bigger months coming, especially with the realization that he could break a record. Once that chatter picks up, I would anticipate his attempts will go with it.
There's another problem. He hits for too much power. Go look through the numbers and you won't find that many singles.
You'll also see that he doesn't hit fly balls. The fact you slug .520 with a FB rate about 25% less than league average is a preposterous fact and more telling sign that he's going to hit for more power over the season. There's a lot of things that need to still click for him to even approach his ceiling.
But as it stands, he's still on pace to be one of the league's best players. So that's kind of terrifying. I'm trying to think of other examples of when a league (any league) had a dominant player that existed purely off raw talent like this.
It's hard to find more names on this scale, so I'll again ask for some help. I can't wrap my head around the talent disparity.
What I do understand is that he's played 142 career games with 65 career steals. Rickey Henderson had 69 in the same span. So while there's no reason to speculate anyone could sustain Rickey's career pace, it's worth highlighting the torrid pace in which EDLC has started his career: we're comparing him to Rickey Henderson.
That's extremely disrespectful to Rickey so I'll just stop right here. I'm not taking it any further.
I will however encourage you to familiarize yourself with the absurdity of Rickey's early career.
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That 1980 BB:K ratio sends my loins into a deep throb. It's not Yogi Berra but it's not far behind on the spectrum.
Not really the point though.
More just generally concerned with raising awareness for the specimen in Cincinnati that will surely remain underrated amongst casual sports fans for no other reason than he is in Cincinnati. To me that's just not right.
That would be like ignoring Giannis over the last decade because he plays in Milwaukee. Just a ridiculously stupid thing to consider so maybe that explains my compulsion here.
Here's the shitty part: his team sucks (right now). The young guys that are supposed to improve alongside him are presently not improving. The pitching staff is average and maybe that's Full Strength, Nick Lodolo be damned/always hurt.
It's a long season if you haven't heard, and they usually don't get hot (if ever) until summer is in full bloom. So we got a lot of time for the Reds to figure it out. Just please don't turn this into the National League version of the Angels where we toil in a decade of failing to support one of the game's best players.
That would fucking suck.