Arizona Diamondbacks: Gregor Blanco is a high-five snubber and it’s awesome
If you’re familiar with the helmet charade that Elvis Andrus has had going with Adrian Beltre for years now, then this story about a pair of Arizona Diamondbacks outfielders is right up your alley.
The Arizona Diamondbacks are well on their way to clinching a postseason berth, leading the NL Wild Card by five games over the Colorado Rockies and 7.5 games over the closest competitor for the second Wild Card spot in Milwaukee. With the winning vibes enveloping the boys in the desert, there is bound to be a joker around to keep the team loose.
That joker is currently Gregor Blanco, known best for his time with the San Francisco Giants and two of their World Series winning clubs.
Blanco hasn’t been productive according to bWAR this year, worth -0.4 to date, but it does appear that he is making meaningful contributions to the clubhouse atmosphere–at the expense of David Peralta.
High-five high jinks continues. All in good fun. #Dbacks @GregorBlanco7 pic.twitter.com/0193v3EnbT
— Bally Sports Arizona (@BALLYSPORTSAZ) September 14, 2017
As you can see, Blanco has snubbed or cut in front of Peralta on at least four different occasions, which is one of those stupid little things that makes the fan in me smile quite wide.
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While a good clubhouse atmosphere is generally brought on by winning, little antics like this certainly can help snuff out a losing streak before it begins to fester.
Blanco has never been thought of as more than a fourth outfielder, and when he has been put in the position of being an everyday player has been when we have really seen him struggle. But as a fourth outfielder that gets around 300 at-bats a season, he can be a solid addition to any 25-man roster in need of the occasional jolt or high-fives for 23 of the other 24 guys on the roster.
It’s nice to see that even thought he’s batting a below league average .245 this season that he can still get on base around the league norm at .331 and adds a little speed to the bench with eleven steals on the year. Even though the advanced metrics aren’t a fan of his this season, at age 32, Gregor Blanco is still having fun and contributing in other ways.
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The Arizona Diamondbacks have the look of a real playoff threat this October. If they can get past the play-in game, either the Dodgers or Nationals will have their hands full with these snakes.