When was the last time you saw a Cuban debutante, and possessed by the bad habits of the National Series, leading the American Major Leagues in homers and RBIs? Surely you don’t, because that man does not exist or did not exist until the arrival of José Dariel Abreu in the lavish setting of the majors with the Chicago White Sox.
Many will say that Rafael Palmeiro and Jose Canseco , both with Cuban roots in their youth , those distant 80 and 90 , bombarded any pitcher that dared to challenge them , with several individual awards , but none of them played in the Cuban classics, far from leading foreign competitions qualitatively .
Others will mention Kendrys Morales or Yoennis Cespedes , who came from the National Series and connected at ease as rookies, but none of them with glitter in their statistics similar to the Cienfuegos first baseman .
Abreu, who just a few months ago entered professional baseball, now is in the front page of major sports media, thanks to his brilliant start, where he has broken several records for rookies with homers of enormous size and great opportunity.
What’s more, the portentous slugger has made many fans in the U.S. Cellular Field, despite some completely normal ups and downs in a player who had not faced the atmosphere of the MLBr and dragging certain deficiencies in his hitting mechanics.
As expected, pitchers found flaws in Abreu and have exploited with some level of success, he has struck out 26 times and went through a slump of 25 at bats with only a single-but the Cuban system adapts slowly and has moved out of depression because of the speed and acceleration of the swing, hand-eye coordination and work on lower body power.
In addition, with the help of his countrymen in Chicago, particularly Alexei Ramirez and Dayan Viciedo, who have also started hot, with astronomical averages above 350, in the case of Viciedo second in the American League in average in which appears to be his year of consecration.
“They asked me about him and I told them that was going to happen was what is happening now. He only had to play. He has all the conditions to succeed and here he is doing it, “Ramirez told ESPN.
AND WHAT A WAY TO SUCCESS!
José Dariel commands the majors in homers (10), extra-base hits (17), RBIs (32) total bases (68) and slugging (626), and he is third in runs (20), without forgetting he has the best frequency of home runs among over 500 players, with about a homer every 10.3 innings at home.
Some of these stats represent records in Major League Baseball or his franchise. For example, the rookie has managed as many RBIs in a month for a White Sox player, tied with the legendary Frank Thomas (Hall of Fame), who reached the high level in August 2003 when he was a veteran of 14 seasons.
He also established home run record for a rookie in his first month and reached the highest number of RBIs for a novel, breaking the previous record (27) by Albert Pujols, who has been one of its most experienced advicers in the complicated MLB .
“He told me a lot about what the majors system. I accepted him with love and lots of care and faith. I think the words he said to me are so far true and I thank him for helping me in those moments, “Abreu said in an interview with ESPN.
On its new record in RBIs as a rookie he said he doesn’t feel comfortable with the fact it was from one of his most prominent mentors. “He deserves all my respect. Records are to be broken and Albert Pujols will pardon me for those things. “
Best of all these details is that April still has a couple of days to go, when Abreu will go for further fatten his already outstanding statistics. For the remaining two days of the month he will be in a very demanding test against the Detroit Tigers, which will send to the mound stars Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, the latter Cy Young Award winner in the American League last year.
But there is no challenge the slugger doesn’t accept, ready to hit fly balls to write a history in the best baseball in the planet.
