"Ready" is a fanciful notion that lacks explanatory power. I am not making claims about whether or not AAA is "evil", nor am I making moralizing claims about the Pirates "wronging" Cruz. If we want to go that route, I'm prepared to go much further, because all baseball players have a raw deal with respect to who actually creates monetary value.
AAA pitching is not a meaningful challenge for a lot of hitters once they've reached a solid number of AA at-bats. This is especially true against LHP, who usually end up in the big leagues if they are event half decent. It also tends to be more true as the season progresses because injuries further decimate what quality depth exists. Sending Cruz to AAA instead of having him continue to play through his ups and downs would be the cherry on top of a shitshow season in which bad decisions have significantly hampered any cause for optimism.
It is incorrect that Cruz took more walks towards the end of his AAA time. I don't know if you are scanning the box scores wrong or misremembering, but comments like that smack of only paying half-attention, just like not acknowledging the PAs he had vs. Rodon, for instance...
Cruz has started to take more walks at the MLB level, and generally seems more dialed in at the plate since the all star break. He's having bad ABs and bad games, but my sense remains that he's in an adjustment period which would have started in April or May in a better organization like Seattle. He's also performing more than adequately in the field, and adds a lot with the power presence, even if it's not fully exploited because of how bad half the players are who Shelton has at his disposal.
