Cincinnati Reds Star Elly De La Cruz is the Perfect Kind of Baseball Player
Elly De La Cruz is a dream player for the Cincinnati Reds, and for fans, in so many ways. On Monday, he showed his ability to take over a game in only the way he can but he also presents the ultimate debate topic for baseball fans.
De La Cruz became the first Reds player since Dan Dresden in 1982 to hit an inside-the-park home run and an over-the-wall home run in the same game. He also reached base all four times to the plate (once on an error) and scored all four of those times. He can hurt you just as much with his legs as he can with his bat.
What he does is provide an interesting subject for a glass half-full, or half-empty, kind of baseball discussion. One of the most talked about sides of his game is the strikeouts. He strikes out A LOT. In his first 41 plate appearances, De La Cruz is striking out 41.5% of the time. Most will look at that number and feel some sort of heartburn. Sure, strikeouts are becoming more commonplace in baseball, but THAT much? No way he’s having a good season, then, right?
Well then you look at the other numbers he has and they’re All Star level. He’s hitting .297 with a .366 OBP and .595 slugging. In fact, he has the fun distinction of having the exact same batting average and Isolated Power (which is calculated by subtracting batting average from slugging percentage). Basically saying what your batting average would be without counting singles. He’s also got six steals in 10 games. If you average that out, he should be about 96 steals this season.
There’s also another crowd that can chime in and say, well, he’s got a .500 batting average on balls in play (BABIP). He’s getting far too lucky and that will come down. League average is about .299, so that’s far too overblown, right?
Well, De La Cruz is unique from almost any other player. His speed changes most outs into hits, and BABIP does not take into account the errors he hits into. Will he finish the season with a BABIP of .500? No. Will it be around league average? Also no. I believe he will be one of those high BABIP players. What that looks like, I can only guess at, but it fun to debate the performances of De La Cruz, isn’t it?
Mostly, I implore you: enjoy De La Cruz. The things he does on a baseball diamond are unlike anything we have ever seen. He will continue to do these things. He will also have games that frustrate us. He is 22 years old.
If you have ever heard of a 22-year old person who was described by using the word “consistent,” I’d like to meet them. I never have, and that’s fine. He’s building that consistency and all the while showing flashes of the kind of player we all hoped he would be for our Reds.
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JEFF CARR
Jeff has hosted the only daily podcast covering the Cincinnati Reds since 2018. He’s been a life long fan of the Reds. He was at Clinchmas and the 2015 Home Run Derby. He is also the channel manager that supports all MLB podcasts on the Locked On Podcast Network. Jeff has extensive media experience as he covered college basketball and volleyball for Tennessee State and college softball for Mercer University.