I'm absolutely heartbroken tonight. I'm a Brewers fan, but I can appreciate talent from any team. And I've been watching Oscar Taveras for three years. A few years ago, I signed up on MLB.tv for the first time, and I signed up on Milb.com the year before last, in large part, to watch Taveras play.
I bought this Bowman Chrome prospect auto the day after the product hit eBay. It was $100 well spent, I thought. I still thought that this afternoon, too.
This guy was about as close to a sure thing as I've seen since Mike Trout. He didn't have Trout's speed, but he could hit like nobody's business.
Just two weeks ago, he was hitting a pinch hit, game-tying home run in game 2 of the NLCS.
Lots of people have said that Taveras was the next Albert Pujols. While much of the time, comparisons made to a young player coming up are unfair because of the incredible pressure that they come with, this is one time where the expectations were not unfair. Taveras had incredible bat speed, and a great eye. He did not set the world on fire in his brief stay in the Majors: .239 AVG, 3 HR, 22 RBI in 234 at bats. But Taveras was coming. The Cardinals were so sure of it that they traded away Allen Craig, a career .306 hitter, so right field would be open for Taveras in 2015.
Not even a month ago, I was joking with some fellow posters on a Brewers forum I frequent that Taveras was going to kill us for the next 15 years. Nobody took me to task for saying it, because they knew what I knew. It was never a matter of "if" with Oscar. It was a matter of "when". That classic swing, tailor made to send baseballs into the seats, was beautiful. Below is the video of his first Major League hit, a home run. Go to 1:04 in this video, and watch his swing in slow motion.
I've talked to some Cardinal fans tonight. They are numb. They were making plans for next season, and the talk revolved around Taveras. He was going to start. He was the next great one, playing for a franchise that has had more than their share of great ones. Now he is gone.
It doesn't matter if you are a fan of the Cardinals or not, or even if you are a fan of today's game. We all can appreciate the impact of this loss. This was a young man with his whole life ahead of him. He had worked so hard to get where he was, and tragically, he will never have that chance now. Taveras and his girlfriend both died in the car crash, and we are left to wonder what could have been.
My heart goes out to Oscar's family and friends, and Cardinal fans everywhere. On behalf of the Brewer nation, I wanted you guys to know you are not alone. We share your pain.