Source: waitingfornextyear.com --- Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Being a fan employs a natural level of irrational affection or disdain towards athletes and teams. When this crosses over into Baseball fanhood, we tend to elevate athletes that meet certain criteria: hustle, swagger, and charisma. Tyler Naquin and Jason Kipnis collectively checked these boxes and ascended quickly. Kipnis’ Fenway debut sparked fan adulation only further amplified by Manny Acta’s ‘Dirtbag’ moniker. Naquin hit all the right notes on the “Gets Us” meter following an improbable walk-off inside-the-park-homerun as he flashed the now infamous hand gesture telling the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame city to ‘Rock On.’ The two of them also produced immediate results causing initial collective fan opinion of them to skyrocket. Each player saw their value become quickly distorted; reaching points of excessive praise. As a natural response to the over-valuation of a player, human nature kicks in and we pick them apart to the point that their collective skill sets tend to be marginalized and undervalued. The boomerang effect has left us with two guys who fans are generally down on and with good reason to an extent. Tyler Naquin Tyler Naquin’s 2016 campaign was incredible, particularly in the first half. For much of it, he was an integral cog in the soon-to-be American League champion Indians’ offense. Over that 365 plate appearance sample size, he was basically Ryan Braun. A home run every 26 plate appearances. An OPS just shy of ...
from Baseball http://ift.tt/2FC3Dqv
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