When Joey Gallo was called up last week in advance of the Texas Rangers' home series opener against the Chicago White Sox, there was a buzz at the ballpark that night.
It was rightfully so, too, as Gallo's debut was arguably the most anticipated since Pudge Rodriguez's in 1991 — before Joey Gallo was born. An argument could be made for Yu Darvish's debut with the Rangers in 2012, but it was a bit different since Darvish was a known commodity on the world stage, not a minor-league prospect like Pudge and Gallo.
Of course, as we all know by now, Gallo's debut couldn't have been any better. The Rangers won 15-2, and the power-hitting prospect went 3-for-4 with a homer, a double and a single and drove in four runs, getting a curtain call after his homer and a standing ovation after a strikeout. It was quite the spectacle.
A week into Gallo's big-league career, he's now had his first road trip — he was thrilled to see a charter plane and Chipotle on the menu — and a whole bunch of strikeout, but it's been a fun week for Rangers fans.
After a week in the bigs, Gallo has been exposed and he's had some big hits, which is about what we thought would happen all along. In his six big-league games so far, the 21-year-old is batting .292 with a .370 on-base percentage and a .954 OPS. He has seven hits — a double, two homers and four singles — to go with three walks and 13 strikeouts. Yes, that's an alarming number, but it's about what we expected from a guy who couldn't hit lefties in the minors and never saw breaking stuff like what he's seeing now. Nevertheless, it's been fun, and it's going to get a lot more fun the longer he stays up.
