When I googled "Yermín Mercedes" earlier this afternoon to see whether there were any updates regarding his 3-0 swing and triumphant moonshot off a similarly constructed, similarly postionless player in Willians Astudillo on Monday night, I was met with a bunch of stories citing a bunch of tweets explaining why nobody should be upset that Mercedes homered on a 3-0 swing off a similarly constructed, similarly positionless player.
When it came to what was causing the rush to Mercedes' defense, I could only find a single source: the Twins broadcast:
When I realized it was Roy Smalley, I automatically started thinking about his condition instead.
https://twitter.com/twinscenterig/status/1394504734090874881
... you're free to assume he's at best out of step with the times, and left to hope there aren't any corrosive effects.
I suppose I'm most surprised that an inning where a catcher is throwing eephus after eephus is a form of the game that deserves to be respect, when it has all the markings of a spectacle that somebody with Mercedes' talents ought to be free to contribute to. Indeed, Mercedes still doesn't see anything wrong with what he did:
Back when La Russa was introduced as the White Sox's old new manager, he tried to soften his previous stance against on-field exuberance by saying it was fine as long as it was "sincere." Well, Mercedes seems very sincere about hammering 47-mph floaters as far as humanly possible, does he not? Alas, as a lot of would have guessed, Mercedes' sincerity doesn't seem to count.
(Photo by Jordan Johnson/USA TODAY Sports)
