Corey Seager’s first home run ball was traded for a David Peralta autograph
Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager looks like he could be the real deal. Through 10 games, the 21-year-old has hit an incredible .412/.524/.647 over 42 plate appearances.
[On this week’s StewPod: Jose Altuve joins us to talk about the surprising Astros.]
That’s a small sample, sure, but Seager has long been regarded as a top prospect. Even if his current numbers aren’t sustainable, many have expected him to be a special player in the league for quite some time.
So, when Seager hit his first career home run Saturday, we expected the ransom to be pretty substantial. The hit came on the road against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and provided an excellent chance for an opposing fan to leverage the ball for a ton of swag. That’s not what happened.
In return for Seager’s first home run ball, the fan wanted an autograph … from D-Backs outfielder David Peralta.
We’re not trying to pick on Peralta here. In fact, the 27-year-old outfielder has put up strong numbers since he was called up last season. After a promising debut, Peralta has taken his game to another level during his sophomore year. He’s hitting .305/.362/.512 over 467 plate appearances. His 132 wRC+ ranks second behind Paul Goldschmidt on the team.
Still, we can’t help but wonder if the fan could have done better. This milestone wasn’t as significant as Alex Rodriguez’s 3,000th hit ball, but the return for that was a $150,000 donation, various merchandise from the Yankees, tickets, “other perks” and a press conference.
Heck, the Cleveland Indians bullpen demanded a boatload of Apple products in return for Brandon Moss’ 100th home run ball, and they got their wish! They did that to their own teammate and got a huge reward.
One would think the fan could have at least gotten a couple items from Seager out of the whole exchange. Having a ball signed by one of the most promising young players in the game would have been pretty neat. Even a bat or some batting gloves from Seager could have been fun. For Seager, it would have been easy to part with those things in order to get his first home run ball. That’s a significant achievement. A bat and batting gloves mean nothing to Seager in comparison.
Perhaps our fan in question had no desire in Dodgers’ stuff. You know what, that’s fine. We respect that. Still, you know what’s cooler than just one David Peralta autograph? A David Peralta autograph, a Paul Goldschmidt bat and tickets to an upcoming game.
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Maybe we’re just greedy, though. In the end, the exchange took place without any drama, and we here at The Stew will always support that. Seager got his ball back, and the fan got the autograph they wanted.
Could the fan have gotten more? Undoubtedly. But if everyone is happy in the end, who are we to criticize? In fact, we’re starting to find the whole exchange kind of charming the more we think about it.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
