The Rutschman File
Team: Baltimore Orioles
Height: 6-2
Weight: 220
Age: 25
Birthday: 2/6/1998
Average Exit Velo: 87.9 mph
College: Oregon State
Draft: 1st overall, 2019
Contract: Signed an $8.1 million signing bonus when he was drafted
WAG: In a relationship with Alli Schwarm
Children: N/A
Record/Accomplishments
- Golden Spikes Award winner, 2019
- Won the Dick Howser Award, 2019
Adley Rutschman's Funny Stat
Sometimes, us media makers can get ahead of ourselves. Hype is a dangerous game, and at times, the athletes being presented handle it better than the rest of us.
We can find this phenomenon every so often on live television. Baltimore Orioles fans were excited for Adley Rutschman, as they should have been. He was the top prospect in baseball almost instantly and dominated at every level. It very much seems like he’ll be the face of the franchise for the next decade.
Those working the aforementioned television broadcasts should probably be a bit more reserved in their excitement. During his rookie season, the Baltimore broadcast put up a graphic when Rutschman stepped up to the plate. It would quickly become the main character of Baseball Twitter’s evening.
“Most career home runs,” the graphic began innocently enough. “Last name beginning with ‘Rut.’”
Oh so quickly, we devolved from rookie milestones to ancestral dart throws. Babe Ruth had hit 714. Josh Rutledge hit 20. At that point, Rutschman had hit 8.
Graphics can highlight greatness, educate the common fan, or share an interesting fact. They can also, apparently, be mind-numbingly stupid when fueled by hype.
Unfortunately for the Orioles prodigy, he’s probably only ending up in second place on the next rendition of that leaderboard.