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

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Something that is a bit bizarre about Cruz is that his average exit velocity on hits this year is only 91.1 MPH, which is lower than Hayes' average exit velocity of 91.8 MPH. Cruz has some absolute tanks, but I think he also has a bunch of weakly hit pop outs or fly outs that really bring down his average exit velocity. He has only hit a ball 95+ MPH in 33% of his at bats, compared to 49.7% by Hayes.

That may explain why his hitting tool is so low according to fangraphs. His .275-.280 average will come from him smoking it, but when he's not smoking it, it will likely be weakly hit outs.
 
We've been insanely lucky tonight and it might need to continue here with the leadoff runner on 2nd. Reynolds and Hayes have both looked bad at the plate all night.
 
Empoleon8771 said:
Something that is a bit bizarre about Cruz is that his average exit velocity on hits this year is only 91.1 MPH, which is lower than Hayes' average exit velocity of 91.8 MPH. Cruz has some absolute tanks, but I think he also has a bunch of weakly hit pop outs or fly outs that really bring down his average exit velocity. He has only hit a ball 95+ MPH in 33% of his at bats, compared to 49.7% by Hayes.

That may explain why his hitting tool is so low according to fangraphs. His .275-.280 average will come from him smoking it, but when he's not smoking it, it will likely be weakly hit outs.
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It's never too late to adopt a new more patient hitting approach. If Cruz were to do so, he looks like a ,300 hitter to me.
 
Cool to see Cruz homer and Yajure battle.

Once again, it's on the offense. Fedde is okay...I'd take him here certainly...but you have to get more than 2.
Bullpen circle of trust is collapsing to like 1 guy. 100+ losses.
 
The team is definitely more competitive but it has about 25% of a legitimate bullpen. It really feels like they are playing better and yet they are 2-16 against the not Cubs the last 3 weeks
 
Do hitters get brownie points for lifting the ball opposite field 350 feet when they obviously could never in their life actually hit it out that way?

If so we earned a lot of brownie points tonight.
 
July is going to suck people. VanMeeter, Yoshi, Newman, Marisnick, etc all coming back soon. They're going to play. At least through the AS break we're basically going to see Cruz a lot and then everyone else sporadically. Bae probably doesn't get up until August.
 
I thought Cruz and Madris both looked solid at the plate tonight. It's like a weird convergence of things -- the bullpen is simply just not good enough to hold a tight lead consistently, and then we burned opportunities with the heart of the order multiple times.

I don't think there are enough batted ball events for data on Cruz to settle very much, whether we are talking about exit velocity or other things. I also frankly just don't see poor plate discipline in him and think it's a bit of projection of something not there based on his player type. He's seeing a good amount of pitches in most ABs and isn't really chasing. I see a guy who is up there with a plan every time. A chunk of his Ks have come from him being fooled and freezing, which I think is better than lots of whiffs. His whiffs have basically just been on nasty sliders.

Overall I think it's a good sign in the very early going. He doesn't yet show a clear weakness though surely we'll still see a lot of attacks. Just guessing here, but the one part I'm not sure he covers well is the top inner part of the zone, but it's much easier said than done to throw it there and if you miss it, he's going to hit more piss missiles like we saw tonight.
 
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Yeah, trying to draw conclusions from like a week and a half of batted ball data is just bad statistics.

Anyway, nice to see 'ol JB having a nice year for the Nats. I still like the guy and cheer for his success. He deserves better than spending his entire career on the Bucs/Nats.
 
DJ Spinoza said:
I thought Cruz and Madris both looked solid at the plate tonight. It's like a weird convergence of things -- the bullpen is simply just not good enough to hold a tight lead consistently, and then we burned opportunities with the heart of the order multiple times.

I don't think there are enough batted ball events for data on Cruz to settle very much, whether we are talking about exit velocity or other things. I also frankly just don't see poor plate discipline in him and think it's a bit of projection of something not there based on his player type. He's seeing a good amount of pitches in most ABs and isn't really chasing. I see a guy who is up there with a plan every time. A chunk of his Ks have come from him being fooled and freezing, which I think is better than lots of whiffs. His whiffs have basically just been on nasty sliders.

Overall I think it's a good sign in the very early going. He doesn't yet show a clear weakness though surely we'll still see a lot of attacks. Just guessing here, but the one part I'm not sure he covers well is the top inner part of the zone, but it's much easier said than done to throw it there and if you miss it, he's going to hit more piss missiles like we saw tonight.
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Yeah I like his eye too. I don't however like his swing decisions. For example, he's yet to take a walk in his MLB career. Another example, he's making a ton of weak contact.

You don't think that's a just little bit of an issue?
 
I don't see poor plate discipline at all with Cruz.

I do see difficulty barreling a baseball. But when he does...
 
DocEmrickSkitters said:
I don't see poor plate discipline at all with Cruz.

I do see difficulty barreling a baseball. But when he does...
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Poor swing decisions often show themselves as weak contact, and in Oneil's case I do believe he has a good eye, I just don't think he chooses to use it enough. He swings at lot of balls he shouldn't for someone with his abilities. Hopefully he's just a little anxious and over-eager at the moment, and gets back to what he was doing in AAA that last month or two.

There are some repeatability issues, but I love that quick compact stroke. And it's kind of ridiculous how much of the strike zone he's able to cover.

If he tightens up at the plate, I think he becomes a very good hitter, one able to access that cray-cray power much more consistently.
 
Yeah I think it's more of a lack of patience with Cruz at the plate than having a bad eye. It's not that he swings at a lot of bad pitches (outside of sliders against lefties), but he just seems to want to put the ball into play and not want to take a walk.
 
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Walking is important for a hitter in terms of getting more pitches in the zone to hit. A guy like Cruz will be even deadlier when he forces P to throw strikes in the hearty parts of the zone and you do that, partly, by being patient and not giving P easier outs. Take a walk. Steal 2nd base and see how long teams pitch him off the plate.
 
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ImporterExporter said:
Walking is important for a hitter in terms of getting more pitches in the zone to hit. A guy like Cruz will be even deadlier when he forces P to throw strikes in the hearty parts of the zone and you do that, partly, by being patient and not giving P easier outs. Take a walk. Steal 2nd base and see how long teams pitch him off the plate.
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Let's all hope and pray he does that. Because if he starts walking regularly, not only is he going to hit better, but that speed is going to reap havoc on the basepaths.
 
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