The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

I’m always surprised they don’t crash into each other more often.

 

Julio doing his best Oprah imitation:

“And you get a baseball. And you get a baseball. And you get a baseball … “

 

Good thing Rutchsman has the third most homers by three and isn’t in the final four

 

bump

 

As long as one is Zack Hample! CC: @TheSportsPredictor

 

The book on Clark is that he's a five-tooler. I suspect that what they're looking at is something of a white Riley Greene, who was also drafted out of high school (albeit in Florida not a cold-weather state like Indiana), which in terms of timing might be right around the time Greene needs to be moved to a corner to protect his legs. I think you can already say Greene is a success story, as he would have started on Opening Day 2022 (2 1/2 years post-draft) had he not fouled a ball off his foot and broke it in the last week of Spring Training of that year. Greene just came back from missing basically a month with a stress reaction in his leg but even with that is the best bat in that lineup by a full WAR. And he's 22 and won't hit free agency until 2029.

Apparently power is the least-developed tool, so assuming he makes the bigs, I'm guessing the floor for him is probably a "gritty" "grinder" whose carrying tool is speed or defense like Brett Gardner or Kevin Kiermaier. The ceiling? Anyone's guess.

After the Tigers seemingly taking an SEC right hander with a power fastball and command issues basically every year of the 2010s, I'll take it. Clark is risky, but I'll take it.

 

Props to FOX for going to break with “Black Hole Sun”
The music will be (as the kids say) “banging” tonight.

 

Fuck the marketing people. Go back to wearing your team's uniforms.

 

Whew. I turned on just in time to see ARod and Big Papi throwing fish at Pike's Market. That is always so thrilling.