Aaron Altherr Striving to be 2013’s Darin Ruf, but Better
By Justin Klugh
Last year, career prospect Darin Ruf surprised everyone with a push for the Eastern League triple crown.
The Phillies gave him a shot in September, and he hit a few home runs, gave some people reasons to mark him the next king of the boroughs. It was a fun little narrative to learn about periodically while growing increasingly unkempt and unhygienic about the Phillies.
This year, Darin Ruf is out – the kid is old news, and we at TBOH are all about the cutting edge.
Ruf is somewhere in Lehigh Valley, getting directions on how to get to the movie theater. Down in Clearwater, Aaron Altherr – the guy whose name sounds like the first page of a children’s book about the alphabet – is being Darin Ruf even harder, and he’s not even limiting himself to home runs.
Damn...Aaron Altherr is at it again. 4-4, with a single, double, triple,ru, rbi and SB.
— Phuture Phillies (@PhuturePhilz) April 25, 2013
After 20 games, the 22-year-old right handed center fielder is hitting .342 with a .908 OPS, 25 hits, and nine doubles.
If he plays his cards right, he might just get to be mostly ignored, live the sweet life of a September call-up, get called “the something something” of the future by fans, put in some speculative projections for the 2015 opening day lineup, and then be forced by Phillies management to learn a new position because they’ve already got an outfielder lined up for next year and they don’t feel like dealing with all that darn paper work.