Toggle sidebar

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

Status
Not open for further replies.
This team really does punish a fan for daring to have a bit of hope.

I have a conspiracy theory that 2013-2015 was a glitch in the Matrix because I can't believe this organization fielded 3 playoff-worthy teams in a row even though I witnessed it firsthand.
 
honestly some of those memories are all that sustains me at this markedly lower level of interest. beyond the obvious cuettoing, just the feeling of a tight playoff baseball series was so intense.
 
Hayes shouldn't play another game for a while. And the volume of people defending him not giving a shit while eating seeds during a run scoring play is an abomination for someone making millions every year.
 
Gally's boy Tim basically dying to lose all his credibility:



Pessimism is the only correct answer/stance with this organization right now. You can be optimistic to go against the grain, but the evidence is pretty well stacked against ya.
 
Man, I was really hoping Cruz would finish strong and instead we're seeing the shit that plauged him early on. Back to K'ing almost every time up. There is just soooo much raw ability. Might just be one of those guys who has wild peaks and valleys.

Castro on the other hand....strong.

I"m trying damned hard to focus on the positives, of which there are quite a few, mainly at the minor levels, but even guys like Keller give some degree of hope.

I'll say it again though, Shelton and Haines should be fired the day after the season ends. If we continue to employ them, how can any sane fan think we're going to see a productive big league team?
 
  • Like
Reactions: TNT87 and td_ice
I don't think I can tolerate a player who strikes out at a 50%+ clip but then just hits occasional tanks. It is so dispiriting to watch as a fan. Can we really say a player is that talented when they Can't make contact? Is Joey Gallo more talented than Bryan Reynolds?
 
Ultimately; it is still Cruz's rookie season, but checking the box score while watching football and seeing 4 k's with the run he has been on lately is just depressing.

How does Albert Pujols suck for years on the Angels and suddenly become a good hitter again for the Dodgers and Cards? Some sports franchises are just so rotten that almost everything works out poorly for them.
 
I can't wait for my opinion to be totally pwned by BC when he wins 83 games in 2025.

f****g sick, Patron Saint of Last Place.

All that said, BC's merely a below-average GM. Nutting is an abomination of an owner.
 
I was gonna post some scattered thoughts later today or tomorrow (namely, I do not care in the least about Hayes and sunflower seeds - it's tabloid BS), but on Cruz, I think the key thing with him is how he's looking over the results.

There's obviously no way that tons and tons of Ks is going to play, so games where he has 3 or 4 Ks while also maintaining a fairly high K rate from game to game aren't going to cut it, but I would still maintain from the eye test that he's a much different player at the plate. What he's adjusting to is when and how to pick spots early in counts. Simply put, he can't be excessively choosy, but he also has to lay off stuff and make the pitcher execute in order to get ahead, i.e., if a pitcher is executing perfect breaking stuff or perfect fastballs on the edge of the plate, then he's not going to be able to do much anyways and can't be chasing that.

I think on the whole, he's continued to stay in a good approach and is mostly only chasing whenever it's a 2-strike count, which is just a situation that's going to happen anyways.

I also think it's worth continuing to emphasize that it's his rookie season. It is not an exaggeration to say that he would hit 40 HRs in a full season, and couple that with playing shortstop and you have an extraordinarily valuable player already. Would it be better if he wasn't hitting .220 or so? Sure, but it's important to take into consideration the run environment all across baseball, and if he jumps his average 40-50 points, then we are talking about one of the handful best players in the league.

At the end of the day, the K situation will need to improve, but I'm still taking lots of positive things away from how the approach has shifted and been maintained for the vast majority of games recently. There's no question that he'll continue to be streaky at times going forward, but I think it's also easy to underrate just how good some of the counting stats are, especially the HRs. Pitchers are pitching him like he is a huge threat because he is.
 
  • Like
Reactions: td_ice
If you think Hayes should have escaped any criticism for munching on seeds during live play....I'm just going to disagree because I can't invest another super long winded post...we manifest losing culture by allowing shit like that to play (and it's far from just this incident). Hayes hasn't hit for shit almost his entire career to this point, he's in no position to be glove off, eating, regardless of whether he's in the play or not. The guy is the highest paid f***ing player on the team. Wait until the play is over to do that. It's that simple. I'm not saying Hayes should be castrated or forever scorned but to literally allow him to play without any consequence was a bad look IMO. But that's Shelton's MO. He has no spine. I was reactionary in saying he should be benched multiple games but sitting him for 1 should have been the call. If the 10, 11, 12 year old kids I coach in youth ball can go an entire season without eating on the field during live play, so can a guy making millions per year.

Guys get pulled from games for not hustling down the line. Hayes was eating during a run scoring play, glove off. It's an awful look, whether he was involved or not.

On a more positive note, Cruz needed a game like today and doing that off DeGrom makes me excited. Still, need to get the K's under control. But like DJ said above, even if he K's 200+ times and is only a .220-.240 type BA, he can pop 40 home runs and drive in 100 RBI's which is extremely valuable as a SS.
 
Saw some speculation that Endy could be called up since there are still open 40-man spots and Altoona is done, but based on BC's comments, sounds like he may get a brief taste of AAA next week instead. Wonder if it might be a bit of a signal shift in comparison to what they did to "reward" Cruz, though if they did this, I suppose it's also possible that he could play out the last 10 games with Indy and then still get a series in the MLB (which iirc may also be exactly what happened with Cruz, though he was coming back from injury too).
 


Not an ideal end to Brubaker's season (apparently BC thinks he can come back, I guess for one start, but I'm skeptical), but not the worst cost to swallow to get a couple more looks at Ortiz. Love the prospect of him getting the big challenge in Judge and NYY.

I expect there will be talk about him needing to develop the changeup or another third pitch more, and that will likely be a legitimate developmental reason for him to spend a few months in AAA next year, but I'm not sure it's the most make or break thing for him. The fastball is plus plus and so is the slider. If he can locate them consistently, he will be a quality MLB starter. If he is more inconsistent, then he's still a leverage reliever.
 
NewAgeOutlaw said:
Ultimately; it is still Cruz's rookie season, but checking the box score while watching football and seeing 4 k's with the run he has been on lately is just depressing.

How does Albert Pujols suck for years on the Angels and suddenly become a good hitter again for the Dodgers and Cards? Some sports franchises are just so rotten that almost everything works out poorly for them.
Click to expand...

PEDs.
 


People are rightly worried or pointing at the very high K% or BABIP and raises skeptical concerns about Cruz, but I think it's actually easier to underrate him right now. The counting stats are extremely impressive and I don't really think it's excessive homerism to say that what we're seeing from Cruz might be his floor: a 3 WAR player at the most valuable defensive position who adds 30 HRs and is a huge threat to opposing pitchers.

There's really no point in adding much to the chorus of obviousness that a 40% K rate will eventually bring problems, but what I think can also be overlooked and is also not really excessive homerism to point out is the extent to which teams are pitching around Cruz. Teams approach him in the same way that they approach Harper or Judge (Harper is probably the better comparison since he's a lefty).

I don't really think it's the case that he's up there lost or without a plan most of the time. I don't have precisely manicured numbers to back anything up, but it seems to me that after several weeks where there was less consistency between ABs, he's mostly stuck to a good approach and still not exactly gotten the results you want in terms of Ks.

Maybe the point where I stretch this too far is that there can be differences in Ks that can't be seen from looking at the box scores. Generally, Cruz sees 4-5+ pitches in each AB and is continuing to adjust to picking his spot to attack, instead of chasing an getting into bad counts quickly and going down with a strikeout after 3-4 pitches. If that were happening more often, then I think there would be more of a cause to worry if there's still a worse floor here.

But I think if you look at the overall approach, and then look at the minors and account for how much better MLB pitching is, it's more likely that there's another gear or two in there, and probably not even too insane to think that signs might point to a still-bad 30% K rate being all he really needs to tick the batting average up a little bit more, add another 5-10 HRs, and be more of a 4+ WAR player.

The biggest sign I think we could see that points the arrow way up is if he starts to draw walks at a decent rate. I think some of that with his recent stats can be fudged a little -- I'm thinking of the really awful calls he had against him in that game last week that turned BBs into Ks -- but this aspect of his game was also there in the minors and hasn't yet translated much. It's also obviously what guys like Harper or even Schwarber are able to do that make them better than just quite good 3 WAR players, which at the end of the day is still a pretty damn impressive rookie season.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rave7215 and NewAgeOutlaw
I think pitching to Cruz must be no fun because there is always a slight possibility that he hits a 120 mph line drive right back at you.
 
DJ Spinoza said:


People are rightly worried or pointing at the very high K% or BABIP and raises skeptical concerns about Cruz, but I think it's actually easier to underrate him right now. The counting stats are extremely impressive and I don't really think it's excessive homerism to say that what we're seeing from Cruz might be his floor: a 3 WAR player at the most valuable defensive position who adds 30 HRs and is a huge threat to opposing pitchers.

There's really no point in adding much to the chorus of obviousness that a 40% K rate will eventually bring problems, but what I think can also be overlooked and is also not really excessive homerism to point out is the extent to which teams are pitching around Cruz. Teams approach him in the same way that they approach Harper or Judge (Harper is probably the better comparison since he's a lefty).

I don't really think it's the case that he's up there lost or without a plan most of the time. I don't have precisely manicured numbers to back anything up, but it seems to me that after several weeks where there was less consistency between ABs, he's mostly stuck to a good approach and still not exactly gotten the results you want in terms of Ks.

Maybe the point where I stretch this too far is that there can be differences in Ks that can't be seen from looking at the box scores. Generally, Cruz sees 4-5+ pitches in each AB and is continuing to adjust to picking his spot to attack, instead of chasing an getting into bad counts quickly and going down with a strikeout after 3-4 pitches. If that were happening more often, then I think there would be more of a cause to worry if there's still a worse floor here.

But I think if you look at the overall approach, and then look at the minors and account for how much better MLB pitching is, it's more likely that there's another gear or two in there, and probably not even too insane to think that signs might point to a still-bad 30% K rate being all he really needs to tick the batting average up a little bit more, add another 5-10 HRs, and be more of a 4+ WAR player.

The biggest sign I think we could see that points the arrow way up is if he starts to draw walks at a decent rate. I think some of that with his recent stats can be fudged a little -- I'm thinking of the really awful calls he had against him in that game last week that turned BBs into Ks -- but this aspect of his game was also there in the minors and hasn't yet translated much. It's also obviously what guys like Harper or even Schwarber are able to do that make them better than just quite good 3 WAR players, which at the end of the day is still a pretty damn impressive rookie season.
Click to expand...

This is the key to me. I do not really care about one strikes out if he walks a lot and produce power numbers.

The Joey Gallo comparable in that sense works. Gallo, when he was usefull, was a pure 3 outcome guy. With his speed, Cruz can be more than that. Judge strikes out a lot and no one cares because he walks a lot and also hit for average. His BABIP is very high though.

If Cruz learns to pick his pitch better, he will be a superstar. If he doesn't, he'll be Joey Gallo.
 
Yeah, I think besides seeing more walks, the weak point in his game right now is mostly that he isn't hammering more pitches when he does get himself in a competitive count, which is at a relatively good clip. I know he mentioned before that he felt like he was being too picky earlier in his callup, as the quality of necessary strike for an MLB pitcher is much higher than a AAA pitcher, so I think it's more about timing and adjustments to come.

I'm really confident, though. Another more drill down talking point going around today is this:



Talking to some others and looking up things on Statcast, and the number of pitches Cruz actually sees in this heart of the zone is low -- about 21-22%, which is identical with Harper and actually below Judge by a couple of ticks.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom