One of the things I've grown to dislike the most in American sports is a beaten-down fanbase convincing themselves to accept low payrolls and last-place teams because of the promise of a rebuild or "The Process" as a cover for a cheap owner that would rather use marketing smoke and mirrors than provide a good product for their customer.
The reason this works is sometimes the rebuild goes to plan and something beautiful happens, ideally with some hardware.
The Cincinnati Reds ownership group has taunted fans through this rebuild, and all the club has to show for itself is one winning season in the past 10 years. And, yes, in 2023, the Reds are still below .500 with a 3% of making the playoffs, but let me use caps in case you're skimming the intro.
THERE IS UNABATED JOY SPREADING IN CINCINNATI BECAUSE ITS YOUNG BASEBALL TEAM IS FUN AS HELL.
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT IT.
This cup-runneth-over emotion in the ballpark basically began last week when my newly named top prospect in baseball showed up: Elly De La Cruz. If you aren't familiar, I can't give you a player comp for Mr. De La Cruz, because he's a unicorn birthed in a supernova.
In my preseason report on De La Cruz, I gave him 70-grade scores for his raw power, speed and arm strength, and now that he's played at levels where we can measure that more accurately -- and he might have improved since then, too -- it appears all three tools are top-of-the-scale 80-grade tools. I don't think there's another baseball player on Earth that has three 80's, with Bo Jackson being the only historical example that comes to mind.
It's hard to describe just how fun this player is to watch -- instead, let's watch a few clips and feel the corners of our mouths move northward.