The dirty rep is totally legit and hard to understand, I have never seen someone spike the first baseman on routine plays like that before. And hatred of sports figures doesn't need to be rational but it completely is in this case. But the hustle stuff is at least somewhat racist, same as with Sanchez.
Bryce Harper couldn't have tried less defensively last season, he was the worst defensive OF in baseball and he literally dove once and slid for four balls all season (per MLBN, 33 combined of those two the previous two seasons for him). His team and their league-leading payroll missed the playoffs, his defense couldn't have helped that. Somehow this is largely overlooked.
Meanwhile Machado has missed a TOTAL of 11 games in the past 4 seasons combined, averaging over 159 games per season. Which one of those guys would you label with hustle issues if you had to choose one?
You and I think every player should run their hardest to first every single time, but some players, Latino especially, seem to think there is an element of fake hustle involved there depending on the action. Charlie Hustle wasn't originally a compliment for Pete Rose, but I'm sure you know that.
Jon, Machado himself said he wasn’t Johnny Hustle. He doesn’t always run hard down the line.
If he hadn’t made his comments, I doubt I would be thinking about that he doesn’t always bust like a Jeter or a Pedrioa. But he did.
When I think of him, one of the bullet points is the hustle thing. I don’t have a racist bone in my body and only want my team to win, regardless of how any of the players look. I can’t blame a GM for thinking back to Machado’s admission.
His agent is likely trying to spin it. He didn’t really mean it that way. But if Harper had said that, I think Harper’s lack of hustle would stand out more for me and others.
And it kind of fits, in a non-linear way, with the dirty factor. Not that they are twin concepts but both make him dislikable.
And then there’s the added factor of his lukewarm performance in the WS.
And that he wants to play SS and is much more suited to 3B.
At the money he is demanding, all of it leads to a sandwich I would tend to avoid as a baseball executive. And I know he’s an excellent player. But still, if I referred later to the hustle comments or attribute, it would be truthful and not racist in any way.
And by the way, I wouldn’t be rushing to sign Harper either. Given all the big money deals that have not panned out and the overall picture with both of them, I’m not surprised that these guys have not yet signed.
