Cincinnati Reds' Elly De La Cruz Continuing to Make History and Join Record Books in First Week
Sometimes, prospects don't live up to the hype, that's true.
And sometimes, they exceed it. That's true too.
For Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds, it's the latter, through his first game and a half.
De La Cruz made some unique baseball history on Tuesday night in his major league debut and continued a rash of achievements on night two.
At the time of this posting, De La Cruz is 2-3 with two runs scored and two RBI against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also hit his first major league home run and his first triple.
Lets start with the list of impressive achievements. First, from ESPN Stats & Info:
The Reds' Elly De La Cruz hit his 1st career MLB HR in the 1st inning tonight vs the Dodgers. His HR traveled 458 feet, 7th-longest distance on any player's 1st career HR in the last 15 seasons.
OK, that's pretty good. De La Cruz is the No. 4 prospect in baseball currently and is known as one of the "toolsiest" players around, for his combination and power and exit velocities. It's not surprising to see him join this list, but in Game 2 of this career? That is.
Next, from Danny Vietti of CBS Sports:
Elly De La Cruz was clocked at 30.9 ft/second on this triple. That is the fastest any player has ran this season, according to Baseball Savant.
So, elite speed and elite power? That's what we were told De La Cruz had coming up, and that's what he's shown so far.
The Reds and Dodgers are currently tied 6-6 in the top of the seventh inning. De La Cruz has helped make the Reds must-watch TV over the past few nights.
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