In one of those fierce debates that take place in baseball groups on social networks, a fanatic said that the Cuban Yordan Alvarez he had run out of gas in the second half of the major league contest, which could be classified as disappointing. Confident and without getting too upset, someone replied that, certainly, the man from Las Tunas had slowed down, but that it was too early to cross him with half a month of competition ahead of him.
Witnessing that exchange, I dedicated myself to segmenting Yordan’s season with the Houston Astros, especially in terms of evaluating the quantitative differences between the first and second halves, and to see if the category of disappointing for the performance of the prodigious 24-year-old slugger. The look yielded revealing results…
In the first 75 games of 2022, Álvarez was a steamroller in the offensive rectangle, from where he signaled a strong candidate for AL MVP. During that period, until July 9, the man from Las Tunas hit 26 home runs and 38 extra-base hits, drove in 60 runs, scored 57 and left a colossal 1,058 OPS.
According to projections of Baseball Reference, the West Indian had the pace to connect 56 home runs, drive 130 runs and score 123, figures that, as a whole, only 12 players have achieved in history of the Majors.
However, an ailment in his right hand kept him from the diamonds, prevented his participation in the All-Star Game and somehow broke that overwhelming pace he was carrying. To give you a better idea, in his first 40 games back from injury, Yordan saw his OPS drop to an “earthly” .814, with just five homers, 14 extra-base hits and 22 RBIs.
In August, Álvarez only hit one home run, the least amount of his career in any month, and his offensive line (Average/On-Base Average/Slugging) has plummeted to .234/.326/.312. In addition, between August 12 and September 10 he was 20 games (82 appearances) in a row without taking the fences, the worst streak of his career in MLB.
So far, one might think that the second half of Yordan’s season has been disappointing, especially if we look at his gargantuan performance through early July, but it really isn’t wise to cross him early. We have seen a very clear proof in recent days, in which the people from Las Tunas have reactivated the productive machinery with the wood.
Since 9/11, Álvarez leads all major leaguers with six homers and an otherworldly 1,556 slugging percentage. Much has to do with the three home runs he hit last Friday against Oakland, with which he joined José Canseco, Yoennis Céspedes and Kendrys Morales as the only cubans with more than one three-homer game in history.
Among these four sluggers, Yordan makes the difference, because he already has two games of three homers and is only 25 years old, while Canseco achieved it with 29, Céspedes with 31 and Kendrys with 34. In fact, the man from Las Tunas still boasts of being the youngest cuban (22 years and 44 days) to hit three home runs in the same challenge.
Yordan raised his home run total to 37 on Saturday after bouncing another ball against Oakland, putting the 40-round barrier within reach. This mark has only been achieved four cubans (Rafael Palmeiro four times, Canseco three, and Tany Pérez and Jorge Soler once) in history, and of them only Canseco did it before turning 25, the age of Álvarez.
Randy dreams of 20-30
The Cubans with at least 30 stolen bases in the present century They can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Alex Sánchez did it twice in 2002 and 2003, Alexei Ramírez and Leonys Martín emulated him in 2013, and the man from Villa Clara repeated it in 2014. End of the list…
Wait, let’s slow down a bit, because in this 2022 we have a player from the Island with 30 scams, so that club has already added a new member. We are talking about Randy Arozarena, from Pinar del Río, who last week became the tenth Cuban in history with 30 steals in the Major Leagues and the eighth representative of the Rays with said figures.
“As the season has progressed, I created a new goal: get 30 stolen bases. And even now, I still plan on stealing more, maybe five or ten more.” said turn-basher to reporter Adam Berry, who interviewed him just a few days ago.
The first objective that Arozarena set for himself at the beginning of the contest was to repeat the 20 home runs and 20 steals, just as it happened in 2021, when he won the Rookie of the Year award. However, the Cuban has packed himself and has already accumulated 30 steals, but he is missing a home run to complete the double ten and enter very exclusive clubs.
For example, of the Cubans in MLB, only two have achieved campaigns of 20-30:
* Bert Camapaneris in 1970 (42 steals and 22 home runs, the latter figure he only reached once)
* José Canseco in 1988 (42-40, first player in history to reach those numbers)
In Rays history, the only who has materialized the 20-30 is BJ Upton, who did it in consecutive campaigns (2011 and 2012). Arozarena can join these lists of honor with a single swing that sends a ball beyond the limits, a goal that he now has between eyebrows.
“It’s a lot easier to steal a base than it is to hit a home run. I’m going to try to hit that home run and focus on that, and then I’m going to keep stealing bases.”
José Adolis has a date with history
Jose Adolis Garcia it was news just a few days ago because was one step away from tying the Cuban record of more consecutive games hitting hit, which still remains in the power of Rafael Palmeiro. But, if we are fair, we would have to continue talking about the Avilanian patrolman that today shines and leaves historic numbers in Texas.
García has already reached 25 home runs and has just over 15 games left to hit six more and try to match his record of 31, set last year. However, the most striking thing is that the outfielder has already broken his record for stolen bases by a wide margin (from 16 to 24), proof of his excellent combination of power and speed.
Adolis is one scam short of becoming the second cuban of history and Rangers sixth player who joins the club 25-25 (home runs-steals) in a season. On the Island, only José Canseco achieved such numbers (1988, 1991 and 1998), and in the Texan franchise the only ones who achieved it were Toby Harra (1977), Bobby Bonds (1978), Iván “Pudge” Rodríguez (1999), Alfonso Soriano (2005) and Ian Kinsler (2009 and 2011).
As if that were not enough, Adolis has also shown his productive capacity and already has 92 trailers, up from the 90 he had in his rookie season. In more than 100 years of history, only 53 players they have achieved at least one campaign of 25 home runs, 25 stolen bases and 100 RBIs, a goal that the Avilanian could reach.
The list includes the immortals Vladimir Guerrero, Jeff Bagwell, Iván Rodríguez, Chipper Jones, Larry Walker, Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, Joe Morgan, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Willie Wells, in addition to other wonders marked by substance use for improve performance like Barry Bonds, José Canseco or Sammy Sosa.
It may seem simple, but in the last six years only real stars have achieved it: Mookie Betts (2016), Mike Trout (2016), Trevor Story (2018), Ronald Acuña Jr. (2019), Shohei Ohtani (2021), Bo Bichette (2021) and José Ramírez (2018 and 2021).
Another detail: of that list of 53 men, the only ones who achieved these marks with the Texas jersey were “Pudge” Rodríguez in 1999 and Soriano in 2005, more than 15 years ago. Adolis is at the gates of making history.
Yulieski Gurriel maintains exclusivity
Hardly Yulieski Gurriel feel satisfied with your season. After winning the batting title in 2021, the native of Sancti Spiritus is averaging .243, adding only eight home runs and 48 RBIs –the lowest totals of his career in a full 162-game campaign–, while his OPS is .658, so low as in his disastrous 2020 campaign.
The Astros’ first baseman hasn’t found the formula to reverse a prolonged offensive slump. Without going too far, Yulieski was 58 games! without hitting homers this season, between July 2 and September 12. This is the second worst mark of the year for Cuban baseball players (only surpassed by José Iglesias’ 59) and the worst in Gurriel’s career, whose record in this regard was from 2018, when he went 48 duels in a row without taking the ball further of the limits.
The streak was broken last Tuesday, September 13, at Detroit’s Comerica Park, where he hit a 380-foot shot that was lost in the left field stands. Her victim was left-hander Andrew Chafin, who served her a 92-mile fastball to center plate.
But Yulieski’s true strength in 2022 has been his consistent doubles production (37), a department in which he leads all Cuban players alongside Randy Arozarena and ranks in the Top-10 of the American League. Precisely, last Monday, September 12, he gave a tubey that became the 300th extra-base hit of his career in the Major Leagues.
Gurriel is the fifth fastest Cuban (783 games) to reach that figure in history, only surpassed by José Abreu (655), Yoenis Céspedes (685), José Canseco (707) and Tony Oliva (715). Despite the bad year, she has managed to put his name on an exclusive list.
Chapman returns, but nothing is certain
After several days away from diamonds for a infection in a tattoothe Cuban guy Aroldis Chapman he returned to the mound this week in the minor leagues. The left-hander pitched two innings for the Somerset Patriots, the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate, and he wasn’t bad, as he didn’t allow runs and struck out five of the nine batters he faced.
“We saw his electric fastball,” said Patriots manager Dan Fiorito, who acknowledged that the West Indian reliever had 100-mile pitches and a remarkable ability to execute and control his breaking balls. “Certainly, he is on the right track. Seeing it there lights up the radar,” added the manager.
“He looked great on his way out of rehab. He has to earn certain positions from him. Hopefully he can be successful and throw the ball like he is capable of, because he is physically fine”, pointed Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
Chapman, in fact, was activated by the Yankees this Friday and on Saturday he completed his return to the Major Leagues in Milwaukee, where he worked an inning with a base and a strikeout. In any case, several specialized media ensure that the Holguín player may not have a guaranteed space on the postseason roster of the Bronx Bombers, who they have lost confidence in the shooter.
Chapman’s contest has been fraught with wild fluctuations in performance. He has combined very good periods with other disastrous ones and, unfortunately, the latter have weighed too much, to the point that he lost his position as the Yankees’ main closer, which, compromise your legacy and his next visit to free agency after the season ends.
The West Indian reached 300 rescues in MLB last year and during the current contest he climbed ranked 24th all time with nine saves in the first two months of the course. However, an Achilles tendon injury and the aforementioned tattoo infection have limited his playing time. To top it off, while he’s been active his performance has fallen short of expectations, with career lows in ERA (4.55) and WHIP (1.42).
