Darin Ruf Ready to Dispense with the F*cking Formalities

Darin Ruf may look like a friendly teenager delivering your newspaper in the ’50s, but the truth is, if your roles were reversed, he’d swat that paper to the moon with the nearest lumber.

MOAR DINGERS Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

He’s earned his doubters; his presence is a bit of an anomaly and his defensive position is yet to be determined, but Darin Ruf is already part of the Phillies season.  A great deal of his participation is due the ambiguous nature of the lineup, but he’s here, and he’s not going anywhere.

Until after spring training, when he may be asked to go somewhere else, depending on how he does.  Darin, however, is prepared to ditch the “young fella at the fishin’ hole” image, kick the doors in, and start swinging wild.

We may not know where we’ll see Darin, but Darin seems confident he’ll be stationed in left field at least part of the time.  The knowledge of where the Phillies’ want him to be, ideally, is stabilizing, though his projection for making the roster out of camp is at a paltry 60%.

One thing that he wants you to know, though, is that those big league jitters are gone, and it’s time to start mashing without mercy.  As far as his defense goes, he’s overflowing with confidence, there, too.  Tell ‘um, Darin!

"“I’m not completely comfortable taking my eye off the ball yet…  I’m not quite there yet. These first couple days of spring training I’m going to try to work on things like that, things that I’m not comfortable with that hopefully I can pick up pretty quickly.”—Darin Ruf"

Okay, well… yeah, I mean, just keep your eye on the ball, and, like… see it and stuff.  And then put your glove where the ball is going to go–

You know what, you’ll get this.  Just don’t look at Ben Revere and think you’re ever going to be like him.  He may be the worst example to model yourself after and I know he’s the only one with a guaranteed job, but…

Look, just be careful out there, okay?  Here, hold this bat.

**Hands bat**

Yeah.  Yeah that’s way better.