Dogging It

[DOUGHBOYS]

With two outs and nobody on and the Yankees already trailing the Red Sox 3-0 in the second inning, Gleyber Torres came up to bat.
Torres is a darned good hitter, We don't really know what kind of niche he will fall into.
Will he be the consistent guy who just goes about his business?
Will he be a member of the 'Only want to move if I look cool' club? (Cano, Machado, Fowler, Puig, StCastro, etc)
Will he be injury prone?
So far, Torres fits the first description.
But in this at bat, Torres grounds a ball directly to 2B Michael Chavis and Torres dogs it out of the box, going into an instant home run trot.
And of course, Chavis muffs the ball, then picks it up and drops it again, then picks it up and throws it to first base to still get Torres easily, who hardly moved past the home run trot stage even with the dropsies by Chavis.

I had a wonderful baseball coach. Everybody should have that one coach in their life that not only teaches you baseball, but life lessons as well.
At the time, I was arguably the best hitter on the team and when I hit a ground ball to an infielder, my inclination was to dog it, just like Torres did on this night.
My Coach noticed.
He didn't say anything during the game. Nor after.
Monday at practice was normal. Until it wasn't.
Our Coach gathered us all together at home plate. All 18 of us.
I still remember the number of players that were there.
Our Coach addressed us...
"Boys, as you all know, after we hit a ball in fair territory, we run as hard as we can."
"He then looked straight at me, "NO MATTER WHERE THAT BALL GOES WE RUN AS HARD AS WE CAN!"
I wanted to find a hole to crawl in.
"Now Boys, it doesn't take any more or less talent to run once the ball has been hit, ANYBODY can do it!"
"Mr. Kenyon has forgotten that we run as hard as we can to first base, so we're all gonna have a little repetition drill to remind us that we run as hard as we can after striking a ball!
Mr. Kenyon, I want you to run as hard as possible from home plate to first base. Then another boy will run as hard as he can to first base.
Then Mr. Kenyon again, then another boy, then Mr. Kenyon again, then another boy.
18 wind sprints down to first base later, I was darned winded.
But, I had learned my lesson and you can bet that nobody on that team would ever dog it going out of the batters box.
Gleyber Torres would have his glove brought out to him by Aaron Judge and Judge had a few words with Torres. Hopefully telling Torres that no Yankee should dog it, especially playing the rival Red Sox.

From a fantasy sense, I tend to stay away from 'doggers' or 'too cool' players.
It just seems to me that players like Cano, Machado, Fowler, etc only want what comes easy.
They can put up good numbers because in the batters box, it takes the same efforts to strike out or hit a home run.
Once on the bases, they will do whatever they want to do. Most of the time, as little as possible (unless it can look cool)
Our leagues are sometimes decided by one rbi or one run scored.
I think about these players when drafting and know that it is MY choice to draft them or not.
If they're being too cool for school on the bases, it is MY fault for drafting them, not theirs. We know their motus operandi. It's on us.

I am hoping that Torres hits another ground ball to second base today.
I want to find out if Judge really did impart some heeded advice or if Torres will dog it again.
If dogging it again, I'll again think of my Coach.
Laughing at the thought of Aaron Boone having a practice and signaling out Torres the same way.