RIP Oscar Taveras

[Gehrig]

@LigaDomcom: Brian Mejia Oscar Taveras' agent has confirmed that the player had a car accident, waiting for more info on his health.[\quote]

RIP

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Re: RIP Oscar Tavaras

Holy mackerel. Top five prospect.

 

[Riptide]

Re: RIP Oscar Tavaras

Confirmed. What a loss.

http://deadspin.com/reports-cardinals-prospect-oscar-taveras-killed-in-car-1651077218?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_facebook&utm_source=deadspin_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

 

[Boom_70]

Re: RIP Oscar Tavaras

Wow Cards best hitting prospect since Pujols.
RIP

 

[Gehrig]

Re: RIP Oscar Tavaras

Third player on active Cardinals roster to die in the past 12 years. Seems like a lot. I know there was an Indians pitcher and maybe a few others.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Re: RIP Oscar Tavaras

Third player on active Cardinals roster to die in the past 12 years. Seems like a lot. I know there was an Indians pitcher and maybe a few others.

The young Angels pitcher - Nick Adenhart, I think?

 

[steveu]

Re: RIP Oscar Tavaras

As a Cardinal fan, I'm just beyond words at this news. Wow. Only 22 years old.

Looked like he was finally showing signs of getting it at the plate. RIP.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Re: RIP Oscar Tavaras

Holy crap. Just sickening.

What a hitter that guy was.

And Adenhart was the last active MLB player to die. Before that, the last two were Cardinals (Josh Hancock in 2007 and Darryl Kile in 2000).

And fix the spelling, Gehrig. It's Taveras.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Re: RIP Oscar Tavaras

Adenhart died on a night he pitched.
Two Indians players in the 90s, in that boating accident.
Hancock was driving drunk and Kile was just a total freak thing.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Re: RIP Oscar Tavaras

I forgot about Greg Halman, the Mariners outfielder who was murdered by his brother in 2011. He was the most recent one before Taveras.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Re: RIP Oscar Tavaras

Steve Olin and Tim Crews were the Indians pitchers who died in the boating accident while Bob Ojeda barely survived. Olin and Crews were relievers. There was a tremendous SI story, I think by Gary Smith, on it afterward, with the widows encouraging Ojeda to come back.

RIP for Taveras. Very sad because we all will wonder what might have been. Maybe we all lost a Hall of Famer.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

I can't ever recall a mega-prospect dying. Taveras was projected to be a five-tool star.

 

[Gehrig]

I can't ever recall a mega-prospect dying. Taveras was projected to be a five-tool star.

Len Bias of baseball? Or that's pushing it?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

His girlfriend was also killed in the crash. That car was absolutely destroyed.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I can't ever recall a mega-prospect dying. Taveras was projected to be a five-tool star.

Len Bias of baseball? Or that's pushing it?

He hit pretty poorly in his call-up this season, which probably tempered the expectations a little bit. Plus, Bias was famous in college. But it's not a bad comparison at all.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

I don't know how good Bias was.
I was very young, and it was never my sport.
But Taveras was being talked about as the next Vlad Guerrero.

 

[Moderator1]

Jose Oliva, a semi-prospect traded from Atlanta to St. Louis, was also killed in an offseason crash

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/olivajo01.shtml?redir

 

[Steak Snabler]

Yeah, Taveras was a Top 5 prospect each of the last 2 years according to Baseball America. And he was being handed the Cardinals' RF job next year.

This is reminiscent (for me) of Brian Cole, who was the reigning Mets Minor League Player of the Year when he was killed while driving his truck back to his hometown to be repaired at the end of spring training in 2001. I covered high school sports for nearly 20 years, and he was the best hitter I ever saw at that level.

Cole was still a year or two removed from the majors, but everyone who saw him play figured he'd be a future star. There was a big SI piece written about him a year or two ago, with several guys who played with him or against him in the minors, like C.C. Sabathia and Albert Pujols, raving about how good he would have been.

http://www.si.com/vault/2013/04/01/106303842/the-best-player-you-never-saw

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=cole--001bri

 

[steveu]

I still remember the day Kile died. Was getting ready to watch the Cub game and it was delayed even though it was a sunny day... then Joe Girardi (still in uniform with the Cubs as a catcher) has a tearful statement for the fans.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Closest I can associate is Joe Delaney, a rookie of the year who would have become a sensational player for the Chiefs.
Drowned in 1983 trying to rescue children despite his own inability to swim.