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OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: Congrats to the Houston Cheaters on their win

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My thoughts exactly. Head first slides into home always have a degree of danger to them, and thank the Cubs for that shift taking the 2nd baseman out of that play completely.
 
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The one thing that gives me a little bit of hope is that the trainer and others helped him up by pulling his arms. Hopefully he just had the wind knocked out of him and is beat up a bit.
 
ImporterExporter said:
I mean yeah, Cruz has abilities 99.9% of current/past players don't. I cringe though when people, having never really seen a guy play (most people haven't seen Cruz until he made his debut) start going to the extremes with such limited viewing. Could Cruz be a multi-time MVP like Bonds? Maybe. But I just don't like going there.
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Same. I want to see him refine his overall game. Be a consistent defender. 275/350/525/875 type hitter at the plate, with crazy hard it balls.

I think that's doable without him getting close to his ceiling. I'd be stoked with just that.

But man - the raw tools really are insane. I mean - his top speed is faster than Tyreek Hill? That's just nuts!

Empoleon8771 said:
After today, Suwinski is hitting .178 against lefties.
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There's few rookie Lefties that don't struggle at first against their own kind. And the home runs also imply something Empoleon. I think he has a great eye, and will develop an ability to really work pitchers over. That's a hell of a foundation.
 
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since70 said:
Yeah, Bonds was probably on his way to a HOF career even before his head mysteriously grew, so maybe pump the brakes a little on Cruz for now. I'll be happy with the hall of very good.
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I'm mean - if the Writer's had liked him, Barry Bonds would have been a sure-fire Hall Of Famer before ever even touching the Juice. He might have been anyway if he just retired instead of roiding out.
 
I think the question with Cruz is how much can they turn that raw power he has into actual results that reflect that power. A single hit 110 MPH and a single hit 80 MPH count for the same in terms of slugging%. Hayes has the same kind of issue, he hits the ball really hard but he only hits a bunch of singles and doubles.

Whether Cruz can turn that raw power into HR power will determine if his stat line looks more like 2018 Marte (.275 BA and .800 OPS with 20 HRs and 40 XBHs) or 2019 Bell (.275 BA and .925 OPS, with 40 HRs and 40 XBHs). Through the minors, Cruz was much more 2018 Marte than 2019 Bell.
 
The big thing is getting him up in the order and protected. I think him hitting right in front of Reynolds is a perfect plan. Teams simply cannot afford to pitch around Cruz with a guy like Reynolds waiting in the ODC, especially this version of Reynolds. His speed alone makes him a major threat on the bases. This is an easy way to get Cruz more hittable pitches. Obviously that doesn't mean he's going to get a bunch of fastballs, but it will limit, to a degree, the amount of stuff off the plate P are willing to throw. Cruz of course can help himself by being a little more patient on stuff early in the count and also continuing to hit those pitches away.

This is why I think Cruz up top makes so much sense. Maybe you eventually move him down to 4-5 as he loses a step and/or get better hitters that can protect him. I know people are down on Davis/Gonzales a bit right now but

I'm fine with Hayes-Cruz-Reynolds though I also would like to see Marcano get a crack at leading off for a bit.
 
Yeah, I think that's right -- Cruz should be bumped up in the order both because of his speed and because it will help him get better pitches. Even if Madris stays locked in, having him hit 6th or lower is a recipe for pitchers to run a clinic on him, and not the best use of the pieces we have anyways.

I don't have much problem with a more conservative approach vs. LHP (I think we should probably sit him Sunday vs. McClanahan), but otherwise I hope Shelton just sticks him 2nd and leaves it alone.
 
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It's been about as I expected. Cruz has done a couple of amazing things but the overall stat line is underwhelming so far. That is ok. He isn't going to win ROY unless the writers collectively decide to meme it into existence to spite Nutting.

Implicit in his projection has always been a basketball-style "big men develop slower as they grow into their bodies" rationale. He was a top 20-30 prospect on the basis of what he might be in 2025-2030, not an immediate impact in 2022.

At this point he's here and he retains his right tail outcome which is Aaron Judge. Let's protect him in the lineup and watch him develop.
 
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ImporterExporter said:
The big thing is getting him up in the order and protected. I think him hitting right in front of Reynolds is a perfect plan. Teams simply cannot afford to pitch around Cruz with a guy like Reynolds waiting in the ODC, especially this version of Reynolds. His speed alone makes him a major threat on the bases. This is an easy way to get Cruz more hittable pitches. Obviously that doesn't mean he's going to get a bunch of fastballs, but it will limit, to a degree, the amount of stuff off the plate P are willing to throw. Cruz of course can help himself by being a little more patient on stuff early in the count and also continuing to hit those pitches away.

This is why I think Cruz up top makes so much sense. Maybe you eventually move him down to 4-5 as he loses a step and/or get better hitters that can protect him. I know people are down on Davis/Gonzales a bit right now but

I'm fine with Hayes-Cruz-Reynolds though I also would like to see Marcano get a crack at leading off for a bit.
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Yeah, I think the thing with him is weighing his speed plus contact skills versus his power. When that power starts to develop and starts to outweigh the speed and contact skills, that's when you move him to the #4 or #5 spot role. Not only do you not want to waste that speed, but I also don't think Cruz is really hitting for the kind of power you want to see out of a #4 or #5 hitter.

The biggest concern that I have with Cruz high in the order is that he hasn't shown good plate patience so far, he doesn't get as many walks as you'd like to see him have to utilize his speed.
 
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Bolton totally shat the bed tonight in his bid to join the rotation. Boo. For that matter, so did Yajure - boy has his star fallen.

At this point I think De Jong has to be the guy who takes the Eickhoff spot for a turn. I don't see any alternatives.
 
Yep, Bolton has been faltering of late. Burrows hasn't really pitched well 2 of last 3 times out, including his AAA debut. Yajure....yeah, he fell off a cliff after the injury. Still plenty young, hopefully he can reset things and contribute in some manner.

Mlodzinski and Jones have also seen their prospects fade considerably, though Jones is still really young and misses a ton of bats. Still hope for him as a starter, though he probably ends up in the pen as the command seems to be a pretty serious issue.

SP in the next calendar year really boils down to Burrows and Priester, and possibly a FA signing though I won't hold my O2 levels on the latter.

The good news is Keller has improved somewhat and Contreras, while not dominating, is still showing a lot of good things for a 22 year old arm. Quintana, if not traded, is a possible re-signing that could help us over the next 2-3 years and I think Thompson has upside as a quality 4/5.
 
ImporterExporter said:
Yep, Bolton has been faltering of late. Burrows hasn't really pitched well 2 of last 3 times out, including his AAA debut. Yajure....yeah, he fell off a cliff after the injury. Still plenty young, hopefully he can reset things and contribute in some manner.

Mlodzinski and Jones have also seen their prospects fade considerably, though Jones is still really young and misses a ton of bats. Still hope for him as a starter, though he probably ends up in the pen as the command seems to be a pretty serious issue.

SP in the next calendar year really boils down to Burrows and Priester, and possibly a FA signing though I won't hold my O2 levels on the latter.
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I retain a lot of hope that Burrows is a mid rotation starter at worst. He has all the tools.

Jones is pretty young and the raw stuff is so nasty that I'm giving him a pass this year. Maybe he has to move to the pen eventually, but from the little video I've seen the guy easily has an MLB+ arm. He'll make it here.

I think there will be a starter signing but at this point I think we have to add right-handed hitting and some sort of catching solution to the shopping list. I am increasingly seeing that this group of prospects will struggle against lefties. Great that Reynolds hit a righty homer today but he'll never be more than just OK against them. Chavis may get traded and he really isn't enough besides. I hate to keep going back to the last run but that series of teams could always bash lefties. Cutch, Marte, Martin/Cervelli and Mercer crushed lefties. Kang, Harrison, etc. Now you hold your breath whenever we have to face one and I don't see a lot of help on the horizon.
 
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