Don’t Dis Darin Ruf Or His Little Brother Will Call You Out
Have you heard about Darin Ruf yet? He’s hit 29 home runs so far this season for the Phillies Double-A affiliate in Reading. Including the one he hit last night, he’s now homered in five straight games, and was his 11th homer in 13 games. That’s a lot of power.
Ruf, drafted by the Phils in 2009 out of Creighton University in Nebraska, has been somewhat divisive among Phillies fans: some see him as a hot bat with a chance to make it to the majors and some see him as a complete and total defensive liability.
Anyway, last night on Twitter, @loctastic and @atomicruckus were having an intelligent and informed discussion about Ruf:
@atomicruckus Goldstein really dislikes Ruf. Says he’s old for his level (he is, not his fault tho) and can only play first— loctastic (@loctastic) August 16, 2012
@atomicruckus yeah. agreed. I would like to actually see what his deal is in LF but I’m sure the Phils would have tried it if he could— loctastic (@loctastic) August 16, 2012
Fairly innocuous stuff. Loc then compares him to oft-maligned former-Phils prospect Matt Rizzotti, a guy who could mash the shit out of the ball but couldn’t play defense and never really found a place at to fit in at any level of the Phils’ organization.
@atomicruckus@doctomg I dunno either way. He sounds awfully Rizzoti-ish. That dude couldn’t play, for sure— loctastic (@loctastic) August 16, 2012
@atomicruckus but he didn’t do what they asked, lose weight and improve his D.— loctastic (@loctastic) August 16, 2012
So, to sum that up, Loc and Baumann compare Darin Ruf to a guy that was a defensive liability and had issues staying at a weight that the Phillies wanted him at. Eventually, the team dealt him to the Twins organization for cash considerations.
Then, out of nowhere, comes this tweet:
@loctastic@atomicruckus And you know this how?— Cortland Ruf (@cjruf) August 16, 2012
That was the very first tweet that @cjruf made on that account, an account which was early this morning right before posting that tweet and registered in the name “Cortland Ruf”.
Things got a little testier with CJ’s second tweet:
@atomicruckus@loctastic@doctomg Do some research on him before you bash him and the way he plays defense— Cortland Ruf (@cjruf) August 16, 2012
Kinda weird considering these dudes weren’t really bashing Darin at all, just objectively criticizing him.
So who is this mystery person who registered a twitter account just to defend the honor of a Double-A firstbaseman?
Pictured: Darin Ruf and my hand
According to a college bio, Darin Ruf has a brother named C.J. Confusingly, Darin’s middle name is also Cortland, but a quick Google search of “C.J. Ruf” turns up this Facebook page of a C.J. Ruf that went to Nebraska Methodist College, and went to the same hometown (Omaha) and the same high school (Westside High) as Darin. Plus, look at that punum: there’s no way CJ and Darin aren’t brothers. They look exactly the same!
To rule out the possibility that it was actually Darin trolling under a his middle name, I doublechecked the publicly available records from Nebraska Methodist College. Turns out that a Cortland Ruf from Westside High in Omaha made the Dean’s List in Spring 2012. Good for you, Cortland J. Ruf!
So, there you have it. Case closed. Darin Ruf’s little brother created a twitter account specifically to defend his big brother from people he thought were saying mean things about him on the internet. That’s actually pretty adorable.
About Author
Some points of clarification:
- I don’t have a link to back up what I said about the Phils asking Rizzotti to lose weight and improve D. I remember hearing at the time they were disappointed how he came into ST, because they asked him to do this, and he didn’t. Don’t recall how I heard it though. Also, I’m not a reporter, just an internet jitbag. (please don’t be mad at me, any Rizzotti siblings)
- I’ve never seen Darin Ruf play so I have no idea if he is really another Rizzotti, my point was that the Phils surely would have tried him in left if they thought he could hack it. Scouts seem to agree he can not. I have no idea myself (again, not a scout, just an internet jitbag)
- I feel like people calling for him to play LF for the Phils this year have also not seen him play.
That’s all I got.
The best part (the way I read this) is that he thought you were saying that the Phillies told Ruf to lose the weight and improve his D and that he didn’t.
Also – it would be awesome if he came up in September and hit a billion home runs and took us to the playoffs. The ghost of Shane Spencer and Kevin Maas would definitely approve.
“I feel like people calling for him to play LF for the Phils this year have also not seen him play.”
I feel like that’s a problem a lot of times people start yammering for a call-up. Having the “benefit” of living equidistantly between Reading and Lehigh Valley (or, you know, as some know it, “Allentown”), I know that the perceived talents of most player far exceed their actual talents.
Darin Ruf is one of those guys that you watch and pull for and really, really want to see him do well, but in a league with no designated hitter…