I wanted to continue with the second piece of my three part series on generational players. As a baseball purest, while I have my allegiances, I can't help but admire when a player comes along and defies all logic of what a baseball player is suppose to be. I go see these players play against my team and get almost excited to see them as I do watching my favorite team. The first piece we focused on past and present generational players and what defines a player as a generational baseball players. I wanted to focus this piece on future generational players.
For a quick review, in the first piece I defined a generational player as a player who is not only a player worthy of hall of fame stature, but is also a player who seemingly is larger than life; someone who captures the hearts of the general baseball fan. These players are not only great on the ball field, but are widely admired off the field. They are your kid’s favorite players not just because they are great ballplayers, but because they also have that certain “it” factor and that makes them as attractive as Brooklyn Decker jogging in a tube-top bikini on the beach. The players I'm about to name may already be playing, but when they retire, we will look back on them and realize how great they truly were. So without further or due, here are your future generational players: Evan Longoria, Troy Tulowitzki, Tim Lincecum, Ichiro Suzuki, Stephen Strasburg, and Bryce Harper.
So now comes my logic. Evan Longoria has the potential to be a great third baseman. He is a great hitter, above-average fielder, and willing to get dirt when he needs too. He always seems to make the great play when a great play is needed to be made. That is the type of player that kids gravitate too. He is a household name that resonates and most of all; the Tampa Bay Rays have him locked up till 2015. He has MVP written all over him.
Troy Tulowitzki or "Tulow" is a quarterback playing short stop. He is 6'3", 215 and probably runs a 4.9 40 yard dash. If this guy wasn't playing short stop for the Rockies, he would be quarterbacking the Buffalo Bills. His 5-year career numbers are .292 average with 99 homers at age 26. Note: Cal Ripken Jr. holds the record for most home runs by a shortstop with 345. That mark can be easily obtainable by Tulow. He is consistently putting up remarkable numbers and fielding his position well. He is on his way to winning the MVP this year, and should win another one in the years to follow.
What more can be said for the little, lovable kid known simple as, “The Freak?!” Tim Lincecum in his short, 4-year career has already won 2 Cy Young Awards and has a World Series Championship under his 30 waist size belt. Coupled with the fact that Tim is five foot nothing, hundred and nothing, and with following locks of hair that would make Brett Michaels lose his bandanna. In and Out even has a meal named after him. He is baseball’s Rudy Ruettiger expect the chip on his shoulder is a double-double animal style.
It was said that when the Seattle Mariners first signed Ichiro to bring him over to the United States from Japan that they wouldn’t have traded him for even Babe Ruth in his prime. He was that good. All he has managed to due in his career is hit for more than 200 hits in the 10 seasons he has played here professionally and has a career average of .331. He is the consummate 5-tool player, even though he has a career 90 homers in 10 seasons. But this blogger still maintains that if Ichiro really wanted to, he could belt out 20-25 homers a season.
The next two players I’m going to talk about I’ll do as a combo. Ask yourself this, have there ever been two prospects so nationally hyped up and primed for hall of fame greatest than Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper? To my memory, probably not since Ken Griffey, Jr. or Barry Bonds, maybe A-Rod, but I’ve never read more scouts and reporters go Lady Gaga over two unproven players. So really, I’m drinking the Kool-Aid and slurping the fact that they may actually be right. I've seen the small sample size Strasburg gave us last season and I've seen the You Tube videos of Harper. If everything falls into place and Strasburg and Harper turn out to be the players they are suppose to be, they will be as popular a duo as Batman and Robin, Paul and John, Kornheiser and Wilbon, Prince William and Kate, or Brett Farve and whoever he decides to text.
So now that I've made my list of past, present, and future generational players, I'm sure the people not reading my blog will want to chime in and argue with me about the lists and the omissions. Yes, I know there are going to be players that I missed and overlooked, and there are players who you may feel should be on the list but didn't make it for one reason or another. This is why for my third and final piece on this topic, we will discuss the players that barely missed the cut, and the glaring omissions that once I realized I left them off, I had already hit the published button. So until then....Mr. Armchair Speaking
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