The bash brothers have come and gone, the steroid era is fading away and a new stamp has been placed on Major League Baseball: Cuban ball.
“The Cubans bring a new element to the game,” senior Fahd Shakeel said. “They make it exciting because of how hard they play; they go 120 percent all the time.”
And it’s not just at the plate; they excel at all five tools of the game as well: Hitting for contact and power, running, fielding and throwing.
The headliner of this country has to be young Dodger outfielder Yasiel Puig.
“Puig is an amazing player,” senior Anthony Kindle said. “This man can literally do it all, run, hit home runs and has a cannon for an arm from the outfield, it’s always a good show when he is out on the diamond.”
I can personally testify to this statement myself, I have watched Puig play three times in his brief two-year career and the way he hustles out on the field, he never fails to disappoint.
Cuban style ball is a lot more fun and relaxing, but at times a little too much fun and relaxed. Puig doesn’t think when he is on the field and is often a free swinger at pitches out of the zone and takes too many risks on the base paths.
Hall of fame broadcaster Vin Scully, who announced the Dodger games for 65 years said that he didn’t like the way that Puig played because he felt as if Puig was disrespecting the game.
Disrespectful or not, the Cubans are now a driving force in the MLB.
Other significant hitters from Cuba are making their mark in the MLB are Yoenis Cespedes, Jose Abreu and Jorge Soler.
These players have been proven game changers so far in their young professional careers. Cespedes, who has a more proven track record than Abreu and Soler, made his American debut in 2012 after playing nine years of professional ball in Cuba.
“Cespedes is an amazing player,” senior Matt Zielonko said. “You know he is something special after watching Oakland, his old team, struggle since he was traded to Boston.”
Since Cespedes was traded from Oakland to Boston this year, Oakland’s left fielders have combined for only 11 RBI’s while Cespedes has hit four home runs and 32 RBI’s as a Red Sox, proving how impactful he can be.
Abreu and Soler have proven to be impactful ball players themselves as well. Both players are rookies and Abreu has single handedly took a below average Chicago White Sox team and has made them somewhat relevant as he leads the American League in RBI’s and sits third in the league in home runs.
Soler on the other hand has just recently been called up from the minor leagues and has only played 12 games in his big league career with the Chicago Cubs. Even though Soler doesn’t have a long track record in the bigs, he already has four home runs and 13 RBI’s.
“Soler has power through the roof,” Shakeel said. “I can’t wait to see what the Cubs can do moving forward with him in the near future.”
Now don’t think that the Cubans are all hitters, they have a couple pitchers who can sling the pill and make batters look foolish as well.
Jose Fernandez, the 2013 National League Rookie of the year, is already one of the top pitchers in the game and he is only 22 years old.
“Fernandez has some of the filthiest stuff in the league,” Kindle said. “His slider is amazing and his fastball tops out at 97 mph which is very good for a starting pitcher.”
Although Fernandez was lost at the beginning of the year due to a season ending Tommy John surgery, he will look to get back to his form in 2015 and be dominant once again.
As for the other pitcher, it’s the fireball reliever Aroldis Chapman. He is the most feared closer in the major leagues, his fastball reaches 103 mph and hardly anyone can touch it.
“I wouldn’t know what to do if I were facing Chapman,” Zielonko said. “I guess I would just have to close my eyes and hope I hit something.”
The Cubans are becoming more relevant in the game nowadays, everyone better be on the lookout.