A scary, but then kinda-funny moment from yesterday’s game, as Javy Baez lost the grip on his bat, sending it hurtling toward the Cubs’ dugout.
Welcome to the big leagues, Albert Almora:
Thank goodness for the fence protection there, or Almora would have had a fat bruise on his hindquarters as a souvenir from his first week in the big leagues.
All was well, as the pair teamed up for a bunch of runs later in the game, though, when Almora stroked a pinch-hit up the middle to score a run, and Baez followed with a three-run homer:
[adinserter block=”1″]That homer pushed Baez’s season line to .272/.305/.440, good for an even 100 wRC+, and nobody remembered the bat thing anymore. A league average bat who can play plus defense at second base, shortstop, and third base, and runs the bases well? Yeah, that’s an extremely valuable player, and is very much the guy the Cubs were hoping they’d have in Baez this year. AND he still has upside! A lot of it!
Through 10 big league plate appearances, Almora is hitting .300/.300/.400, which is humorously about the kind of line you’d expect from Almora right now – a fair number of hits, no walks, and not a lot of power (86 wRC+). Since it’s 10 plate appearances, I’m not actually going to deconstruct the numbers – I just though it was fun to point out, since we were already having fun with these two guys.