Texas Rangers rookie phenom Wyatt Langford notched his first career home run on Sunday, and it was of the inside-the-park variety against the Reds (CIN-TEX GameTracker). Here’s a look:
That one left the bat at 101.4 mph and traveled 378 feet. That distance plus your very own eyes tell you it was very close to being a standard-issue outside-the-park home run, but in the interests of novelty and content the baseball celestial powers knocked it down and let it pinball enough to afford, yes, an inside-the-parker. Langford becomes the 10th player since 2010 to notch an inside-the-park homer as his first career homer and the fourth Rangers player to do so in franchise history.
A player’s first career round-tripper is always a welcome occasion, and maybe that’s especially the case for the 22-year-old Langford. He entered Sunday’s slate with a disappointing slash line of .245 AVG/.324 OBP/.296 SLG for the season. The word “disappointing” is somewhat unfair to a rookie just 27 games into his career, but in Langford’s case the expectations were high. Speaking of which, here’s part of what our R.J. Anderson wrote in ranking Langford as the No. 4 overall prospect coming into this season:
CBS Sports ranked Langford as the No. 2 player in the draft class last summer, noting that he would’ve been a quality No. 1 pick most years. It’s to be seen how his big-league career pans out, but he validated our belief in him as much as he possibly could have in 44 minor-league games. Langford hit .360/.480/.677 with 10 home runs, 12 stolen bases, and two more walks than strikeouts split across four levels, including a five-game cameo in Triple-A. He has unorthodox swing mechanics — he barely loads his hands and he steps in the bucket — yet scouts have felt confident giving him plus offensive projections even before he took a pro at-bat.
Perhaps Sunday’s landmark homer will lead to better days for Langford and the Rangers.
