Yahoo Sports MLB writers Hannah Keyser and Zach Crizer select a pair of young MLB players who are ‘built different’ and energizing fans for some rebuilding franchises
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Video Transcript
HANNAH KEYSER: Let’s get to a segment we’re calling Built Different, powered by Ram Trucks. Sometimes you see a guy whose performance is game-changing and you think, wow, he’s just built differently. So Zach, I’m supposed to say, who amazed you this week? But I know who amazed you this week. So tell us all about Elly De La Cruz.
ZACH CRIZER: Yes, Elly De La Cruz is– maybe it’s like he was built for this segment because he is a 6’5 shortstop-slash-third baseman-slash-switch hitting total, like a transformer for baseball who’s seemingly made of springs. He debuted for the Cincinnati Reds on June 6. He was one of the top prospects in baseball.
His rise from kind of curiosity because of his physical tools to oh, yeah, no, this guy is an amazing player, has been very fast. And he torched AAA this year, showing impressive changes in play discipline. All of this is to say this is how he got to Cincinnati. And he is in Cincinnati now. And so far, it’s been very exciting.
He’s hitting 296, slugging 519. He had a home run in his second game in the majors that hit the back wall of the stadium in Cincinnati. And then he also had a triple in that game. And then in another recent game, he scored a really crucial run by running from first to home on a double and running through the stop sign of his third base coach. And afterwards proclaiming, in English, that he’s the fastest man in the world, which per Statcast, at least in the baseball world, is correct.
So just an all-around– like, the sun arrived in Cincinnati after several years of darkness. And he is a skinny man named Elly De La Cruz.
HANNAH KEYSER: How tall is Elly De La Cruz?
ZACH CRIZER: Well, he’s 6’5 now. We think he’s grown 3 inches since he came into professional baseball. So his pages are a little off. Pocket yeah
HANNAH KEYSER: Ha, well my guy’s taller.
[CHUCKLES]
I wanted to talk about James Wood. He is a 6’6, bats left, throws right, center fielder, trying to stick in center field in the way that tall guys don’t always get to do. He’s also very fast. He’s really fun to watch run because he’s got these– multiple people have written about him, including me. And all of us have pointed out that like he’s just really beautiful to watch run. He looks like he’s floating and moving slowly but he’s actually moving fast.
And already this year, he moved up from high-a to AA. It’s like his stats don’t super matter. He was having a great year in high, which is why they moved him up to AA. And I just wanted to shout him out because I do feel like that trend– it felt like there was like a, between last year and this year, like a mini wave of that trend, of people getting really excited about guys who are at the very high minors, like on the cusp, like especially Elly De La Cruz, and Oneil Cruz, and those guys.
And now that we’ve got to look at all of those guys, I just wanted to shout out someone who’s still coming. So James Wood, something for Nationals fans to potentially get excited about. That was Built Different powered by Ram Trucks, built to serve.