Cruz's impressively-hard-hit-that-would-have-been-more-productive-were-it-not-hit-that-hard moment today brought me to a weird comparable, as a Pirates and Flyers fan: Cruz has the Lindros conundrum. Physical specimen whose sheer size and power ended up causing him to develop wrong.
Lindros never learned to skate with his head up because in juniors he never had to. He was the biggest, meanest, fastest bastard on the ice. If anyone ever tried to coach that out of him, it might've been hard, because Lindros was an arrogant dick and any lesson would've been easy to forget, since it was irrelevant at the time. But when he reached a league where there were guys equally big, mean, and fast, it was his undoing.
Cruz seems to have this similar issue, though less detrimental to his physical health and more to his effectiveness as a ballplayer. At lower levels his throwing arm, hitting power, and running speed might have covered up a lot of deficiencies. But in the pros, a 4,000 mph throw to first means nothing if the gather took a week. There are pitchers who get a book on him and exploit his poor discipline. Their curveballs are reliable. And you can't get lost on the bases in the MLB.
This kid has so many impressive tools, but I think they may have prevented him from learning a lot of fundies. With the right coaching and patience he could develop into a total beast, but does anyone trust this franchise to provide that?
I sure as hell don't.
