Yunel Escobar is the first zero in Angels history, and it’s already making me nervous

Yunel Escobar is having a pretty good year, and the fledgling Billy Eppler move to ship out Trevor Gott and get Escobar in return seems to be a total Win at this point. As of today, he’s batting .306 with a .389 slugging percentage and a .357 OBP. For leadoff hitters in 2016 (with minimum of 100 games at the spot), he’s got the fourth highest average in all of MLB, and he’s announced himself to the Halos faithful as the leadoff hitter the team so desperately needed.

Yes, he’s been the source of many facepalms on the defensive side of things, but that bat tho. Of course, I don’t have to tell you guys, as you have been watching him all season and seeing the same productivity, not to mention we’ve written about him a few times.

Whatever he’s doing, it’s working, and he should definitely not change any-WAIT WHAT??!?

On Saturday night, as the Angels took the field against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays, there was something different about Esky. He had quietly ditched his #6 jersey that he’d been wearing all season, and he was now wearing a big ol’ number 0 on this back.

If you’re a jersey geek, you probably already knew this, but for the uniform uninformed, this marked the FIRST TIME IN ANGELS HISTORY that a Halo was rocking the zero. Pretty neat, huh? (Brennan Boesch came close, though, as he wore the ultra cool 00 jersey, but double zero is totes different than zero, right?!)

As for why the change, there wasn’t much on it anywhere, but our good friend of the site, Taylor Blake Ward, hit me up on via direct message to give me the lowdown:

“Just something he wanted to do since Spring, he actually had it as his original number going into Spring and then it switched.”

There you have it. He was all set to be a total zero this season, but then switched at the last minute. Mystery solved. Of course, if you’re like me and enjoy the silly whimsy of having superstitions, and have a masters degree in the art of mojo, then this number change may ultimately unravel Escobar.

Since he’s changed from #6 to #0, he’s got a slash line of .154 AVG/ .154 OBP/ .231 SLG. Sure, you COULD just say that it’s been three games, small sample, etc., etc., etc. All I’m saying is I’ve got a bad feeling about this zero business, amirite?!?!

I’ll be monitoring this situation closely, and if his numbers as Mr. Zero continue to plummet, then we’ll have to figure out a way to get him to go back to #6 next season. This is serious business, guys.

#Analysis