I have something of a defect in my personality. I enjoy watching people lose their cool. I think arguments are interesting, especially when they come off the rails. I find baseball fights (and basketball, frankly) to be endlessly entertaining, mostly because its a lot of yelling, pushing and shoving. I don’t care for extreme violence, and I don’t like combat sports, but watching someone charge the mound or argue with an umpire is just fun to me.
What I’m saying is that, aside from the baseball and financial reasons: 5 years of team control and a whole lot of raw power, this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw963eda8x8
might be why I held the torch for Tyler Austin a little bit longer than most.
Usually, I’m all for a fat guy who plays baseball, and Willians Astudillo is a fully realized version of that person. I was reluctant to really buy into the hype, however. At the very least, Astudillo had options and could have shown he was legit in the minor leagues.
Instead, he proved it in the major leagues. Not only has he continued to hit, but there is also a growing body of literature talking specifically about how good Astudillo has always been a good contact hitter all the way through his minor league career.
It turned out that there is enough evidence that Astudillo is the real deal. While the team did need a reliever, they surely thought that they could stash Astudillo in Rochester when that happened and keep Tyler Austin in the organization. Instead, Astudillo proved he’s too good to be in the minor leagues.
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