You are 100% correct on David Eckstein. He was my dads favorite player while he was on the Angels and still talks about him today for being a scrappy player
David Eckstein is the ultimate dirtbag player and I mean that as a term of endearment. He does all the dirty work and doesn’t need to hit bombs to be effective. An absolute scrap god
He's not even the most famous Eckstein in his family. Unrelated to baseball, but his wife Ashley has provided the voice of Ahsoka Tano since the character's introduction.
Loved Eckstein! His teammate in The Show, was a teammate of mine in high school: Darin Erstad. Darin was more offensively gifted (though less defensively so) than Eck, but cut from the same cloth. Along with Adam Kennedy, those guys were scrappy, gritty, pests that found a way to get on base, move runners, and/or impact the game. Often in ways that left them dirty and/or bloody.
Last season was so miserable for us but he was so nice for us it was a fun season to watch in a horrible year he was a ball of light for us in sandiego
good timing for this video cus my boy JD Davis just got placed on waivers last night, i liked him a lot last year and it sucks they couldnt find a trade. i have a feeling hes gonna end up being a great pickup for someone and turn out to be a prominent 3rd baseman somewhere
Not mentioned here but Asdrubal Cabrera to the WSH in 2019 off waivers from Texas should definitely be an honorable mention. He was instrumental in getting them to the playoffs, and hence the WS championship.
Very recent but someone to keep a eye on is Tyler Holton.He was waived by Arizona and got claimed by the tigers to be a reliever with a 2.11 era in 85 innings for his rookie reason
As an O's fan, loved the flowers for O'day. Had never seen that prank clip before, awesome! But that rant on Eckstein, as others have said, was great! Sounded like me trying to convince ppl how great Juan Pierre was.
Ryan O'Hearn and Aaron Hicks were two waiver claims that became God sends for the Orioles in 2023. They were acquired primarily as depth pieces but became key contributors to the 101-win Orioles in large part due to injuries to everyray starters. O'Hearn was claimed from Kansas City in the offseason and helped fill in for Ryan Mountcastle at First Base who missed time with vertigo. Hicks was claimed off of waivers from the Yankees when Cedric Mullins suffered a groin injuries in May. They played well enough that they both got significant playing time and made the O's postseason roster in 2023.
Fun fact about David Eckstein: he’s married to a Jedi. Seriously look it up, she’s arguably more famous than he is lol. He spends his days now helping her run a clothing company focusing on women’s Star Wars attire(when she’s not voicing her character).
He and Travis Shaw were two beasts on the corners in 2018. Both of them completely fell off the next year though. Aguilar resurrected himself in Miami for a couple years but Shaw’s career never recovered.
I work at a baseball facility and one of our instructors played with Eckstein in rookie ball, said he had the best footwork he had ever seen on the diamond
