Maybe it’s just because I live on the East Coast and follow an American League baseball team, but it seems like nobody around the game of baseball is talking about what the Dodgers are building around Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger in Los Angeles.
Last season, the Dodgers finished with a Major League-best 104 wins. Their two young stars combined for 63 home runs and each had an OPS of above .850––incredibly impressive for players just breaking onto the major league scene. Their success was recognized by Major League Baseball, as they were both All-Stars in the spring. Yet, ESPN and other national media outlets have not stopped salivating over the offensive minded, yet pitching starved Yankees long enough to talk about how good the Dodgers are going to be this season and for seasons to come thanks in part to these two young All-Stars.
I have a couple of theories as to why Seager and Bellinger are being ignored. First off, Dodgers fans are garbage fans who don’t show up to baseball games because they are too busy surfing and being cool, California teens. Seager and Bellinger don’t have anyone to grossly exaggerate how good they are (like Yankees fans do with Judge) because they have fewer real fans who actually care about the team.
I think a good portion of the lack of national attention can be attributed to the Yasiel Puig era. Puig-sanity was bananaland. He took the nation by storm. For about a month, all you saw on ESPN were highlights of his outrageous bat flips and lackluster outfield play. Puig played with the national media for a little while, but when it was over and his career started to crash and burn, every analyst that debated Trout versus Puig began to look like a fool. Determined to avoid making the same mistake twice, it seems that national media members are unwilling to buy into another pair of Los Angeles products.
The meteoric rise of Aaron Judge has also stunted the growth of Seager and Bellinger's well-deserved public image and widespread recognition. Frankly, the 6’8” baseball masher is a lot more interesting and a lot more marketable than a couple of scrawny infielders who look like they could be playing yard ball for Kappa Sigma Delta right now. My point is they are basic, regular looking dudes in a sport that can’t market it’s players. That just doesn’t cut it anymore. You need to have hair like Bryce Harper, be a Cuban escapee like Yasiel Puig, believe really strongly in God like Tim Tebow or just simply be tall like Aaron Judge.
After this season, the Dodgers will be sitting on a pile of cash that’ll allow them to go out and make a run at big players like Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. If they are able to pull off one of those signings, they will have MVP potential up and down their lineup and will be fearlessly lead by the consensus greatest pitcher of our generation in Clayton Kershaw. The Dodgers are the team to fear––both now and for years to come.
Yorumlar