Welcome to Wittenmyer & Williams – a point/counterpoint column on the Reds and baseball from Enquirer Reds reporter Gordon Wittenmyer and sports columnist Jason Williams. Here, the long-time friends, reunited after covering baseball together in Minnesota earlier in their careers, pick a hot baseball – or sometimes, non-baseball – topic and debate it.
Williams: Well, I thought I was done with you after we parted ways covering the Twins back in the day. But here we are. Together again. I guess we weren’t done arguing.
Wittenmyer: Kinda like me and my ex-wife. Can’t get rid of you.
Williams: Thank goodness, at least you can cover baseball. Speaking of which, about that team of yours. What a run. Bunch of young guys having fun.
Wittenmyer: Dude. In all my years of covering baseball, I don’t know if I’ve seen anything quite like this. All these rookies and second-year guys with all this athleticism and talent. Most people hadn’t heard of these guys until last month. Now I’m starting to think a couple of these newbies should be All-Stars. Crazy.
Williams: Well, obviously Alexis Diaz.
Wittenmyer: No, dude. I’m talking about Elly De La Cruz.
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Williams: You’re kidding, right? He’s been in the big leagues less than a month.
Wittenmyer: Have you watched him in the last month? The guy has done things in a few weeks that most guys don’t do in a career. The guy won league player of the week his third week in the big leagues.
Williams: That’s my point. Three weeks. You know this as well as anyone: Baseball is a long game. It’s not what a guy does in a few weeks. You’ve seen plenty of flash-in-the-pan players. By no means am I saying De La Cruz is that. But you need more than three weeks to gauge whether a guy is a bona fide All-Star.
Wittenmyer: Look, if Rob Manfred can have a lifetime achievement roster spot for old guys, baseball can certainly find room for the most exciting young talent in the game no matter how many weeks it’s been.
Williams: It seems like it’d be a desperate PR move by baseball if it puts De La Cruz in the All-Star Game. Maybe your argument would be a little stronger if he’d been superhuman every game, or almost every game, since Day 1. He’s not Shohei Ohtani. Not yet, anyway. De La Cruz had 3 hits and 10 strikeouts in the five games after hitting for the cycle. By my calculation, that’s a .136 batting average. He went hitless with five strikeouts in the Kansas City series. Please understand, I’m not picking on the guy. No one expects him to be superhuman every day. He’s been phenomenal overall, but we just haven’t seen enough to anoint him an All-Star yet.
Wittenmyer: Bottom line, this is a showcase event for Major League Baseball, an exhibition. And nobody puts on a show in the National League right now like De La Cruz does. By the way, in that hitless Kansas City series, he also manufactured at least two runs in a pair of one-run wins because of his best-in-baseball speed. And don’t be so sure about that Ohtani thing. De La Cruz hits the ball as far and he throws it almost as hard to first as Ohtani does to the plate.
Williams: Heck, if you’re going to look at deserving guys who haven’t been in the big leagues long, what about Matt McLain? He came up May 15. He’s done well enough to finish fourth in the fan voting at shortstop – and that’s ahead of high-priced veterans Trea Turner and Dansby Swanson.
Wittenmyer: I’ve got no argument with McLain. Put him in, too. He deserves it. I’m just saying if you want the most exciting All-Star show possible in Seattle, I don’t know how you leave out the National League’s most exciting player.
Williams: Is the All-Star selection about who’s the most exciting player? Or is it about who’s been the best, or among the best, during the first half of the season?
Wittenmyer: All of the above. Why even bother with the event if we’re not going to be open to all the great possibilities it can offer?
Williams: Just like old times. We’re never going to agree on anything. Whatever. What about being open to the possibility of De La Cruz being in the Home Run Derby?
Wittenmyer: Now that’s something we can agree on.
Williams: It’d be a way to get De La Cruz to Seattle to showcase his talents. In fact, it might be a better show with him being in the derby rather than playing a couple innings in the All-Star Game.
Wittenmyer: It would definitely be loud. Talk about a Puget Sound.
Williams: Sounds like we finally agree on something after all these years.
Wittenmyer: Not so fast, JDubs. He should be in both.
Have an idea for a debate topic? Contact Gordon by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @GDubMLB. Reach Jason at [email protected] or @jwilliamscincy.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Should Cincinnati Reds’ Elly De La Cruz should make MLB All-Star Game