{"id":661814,"date":"2026-04-04T00:18:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T00:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661814\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T00:18:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T00:18:26","slug":"chase-delauters-red-hot-start-has-cleveland-guardians-fans-dreaming-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661814\/","title":{"rendered":"Chase DeLauter\u2019s red-hot start has Cleveland Guardians fans dreaming big"},"content":{"rendered":"

DeLauter, a rookie, won AL Player of the Week honors as fans ride the hype – but 3News’ Mike Polk Jr. says let’s pump the brakes on the nickname game.<\/p>\n

CLEVELAND \u2014 Editor’s note: This article was written before the Cleveland Guardians’ home opener on April 3, 2026. In that game, a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs, Chase DeLauter hit a two-run home run,<\/a> adding to his phenomenal start to the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is nothing wrong with being overly excited about the early performance of Cleveland Guardians<\/a> rookie phenom Chase DeLauter. In fact, the only folks more excited about this kid\u2019s debut than Cleveland fans right now, is the Yankees management team who will attempt to swoop him up at the first contractual opportunity by showering him with their corrupt gold.<\/p>\n

But there will be plenty of time to dwell on that ghastly inevitability in seasons to come. For now, let\u2019s just cherish the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DeLauter was just named the American League Player of the Week<\/a> after his impressive debut, the first Cleveland player to win the award in the season’s opening week since Albert Belle in 1995.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s hit four home runs in five games, giving him a current average of .8 dingers per game. Now assuming he were to keep that pace, that would produce 129.6 home runs by the end of the regular season, but lets round that down to 129, just to be conservative.<\/p>\n

That would still comfortably best Barry Bonds’ current single season record of 73. So he\u2019s got some breathing room to claim that crown, even if he were to hit a two-game skid at some point.<\/p>\n

But perhaps I\u2019m setting my expectations a bit too high for the young lad. \u00a0After all, I suppose one could argue that five games is not an adequate sample size in which to invest all of the pent up hopes and dreams of this fanbase that\u2019s been desperately waiting for a legit, power hitting outfielder since Manny Ramirez departed.<\/p>\n

So of course, it\u2019s natural that we\u2019re all so excited by what we\u2019ve seen so far, and that\u2019s fine. There will be no Yum Yucking from this camp. Ride the vibes.<\/p>\n

However, I would like to take a moment to urge caution on just one aspect of the runaway Chase DeLauter hype train: Let\u2019s hold off on assigning the nickname, just until we get to know they guy a little better. Because I don\u2019t want us to make a hasty decision that we might regret later on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example:\u00a0According to Cleveland.com, DeLauter\u2019s current proposed nickname is \u201cThe Martian\u201d<\/a>, as dubbed by his teammate Erik Sabrowski, because Chase\u2019s skills are \u201cout of this world,” which sounds like the caption on a sixth grader\u2019s Valentine. So whoever said \u201cthere are no bad ideas in a brainstorm\u201d has apparently never been in a brainstorm with Guardians reliever Erik Sabrowski. Because that name stinks, and it\u2019s exactly what happens when you try to rush the nickname.<\/p>\n

The best nicknames have to develop through time and experience as we get to know the person organically. That being said, I did want to at least try to get the ball rolling, by suggesting some general themes and wordplay that we can draw from, for the eventual selection.<\/p>\n

I began by confirming what I already suspected to be true, and that\u2019s that ChatGPT was no help. AI is capable of many wonders still has its limitations, one of which is apparently assigning amusing nicknames to burgeoning superstars, because these are all lousy.<\/p>\n

The Chase
Chase Mode
Full Chase
Chase Supreme
The DeLauter Show
DeLauter Damage
The DeLauter Difference
DeLauter Deluxe
DeLauter Dynasty
DeLauter Deal
The Land\u2019s Chase
Lake Erie Launcher
CleveLand Shark
The 216 Hammer
Terminal Tower Terror
Rock & Roll Raker
The Cuyahoga Crusher
Forest City Finisher
The CLE Cannon
DeSlaughter
DeLauncher
DeClobber
DeLaser
DeLeader
DeLongball<\/p>\n

So having been failed by the future, I turned to the past, and asked some old friends in a group text to send me their suggestions, most of which are still pretty bad, but some of which were at least entertaining, such as:<\/p>\n

\u201cChases Loaded\u201d
\u201cFort DeLauterdale\u201d
\u201cThe Thrill\u201d
\u201cChase DeLauter the 4 Base Trotter\u201d
\u201cHis Grace DeSwatter\u201d
\u201cChase Closed\u201d
\u201cThe Wild Goose\u201d
\u201cChase Off: Starring Nicholas Cage\u201d
\u201cThe Chase of Spades\u201d – Bonus for this one, his walk up song could be that Motorhead jam. (Play 3 secs)\u00a0<\/p>\n

And finally, \u201cThe Fragrance\u201d because his name sounds like an expensive cologne.<\/p>\n

Look, none of these suggestions is going to end up being DeLauter\u2019s eventual nickname. Not just because they\u2019re not great, but because these things take time. We\u2019ve been waiting for this young man to develop in the minors for years now, and early indications would suggest that our patience has been rewarded. The least we could do for him is take our time and label him properly. Because a good nickname finds you, you can\u2019t Chase it. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Enjoy the ride, folks. Let\u2019s go Guards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DeLauter, a rookie, won AL Player of the Week honors as fans ride the hype – but 3News’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,538,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-661814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-guardians","11":"tag-clevelandguardians","12":"tag-guardians","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116343571349284617","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}