Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz won’t be able to return to the club this season, manager Derek Shelton said on his 93.7 The Fan radio show, as relayed by Alex Stumpf of DK Pittsburgh Sports. Cruz has been been on the injured list since April and hoped to return before season’s end, but it seems that won’t happen.
It’s hardly a shocking development, as it was reported last month that Cruz had “plateaued” in his rehab. He was still experiencing soreness in his leg at that time and had been shut down for seven to 10 days already. A few weeks have gone by since then but the end of the season is drawing nigh and the Bucs are out of contention, making it sensible to focus on next year.
Though not surprising, the news is surely still disappointing to Cruz, the club and its fans. It was hoped that 2023 would be the year Cruz answered questions about his long-term path forward. But in just his ninth game of the season, he collided with catcher Seby Zavala of the White Sox while attempting to score and suffered a left ankle fracture that required surgery. The club provided an estimated four-month timeline on his return to action but it seems things haven’t been able to follow that plan.
The Pirates will now go into 2024 with the same questions they had coming into this year, and perhaps more. Cruz has showcased elite tools in his time in the big leagues, with his exit velocity, arm strength and sprint speed all featuring at or near the top of league leaderboards. But there were also reasons for hesitation. He struck out in 34.9% of his plate appearances last year, a mark that only Joey Gallo and Chris Taylor topped, among those with at least 350 plate appearances.
There have also long been questions about whether he can actually stick at shortstop, as no one with his 6’7″ frame has ever done it before. He was given a +1 grade from Defensive Runs Saved last year but Ultimate Zone Rating had him at -7.5 and Outs Above Average at -9.
Ideally, 2023 would have been a chance for him to show progress in those areas and convince the Bucs that he is their franchise shortstop going forward. Or even in the scenario where he didn’t progress, it would at least give them the information that they needed to start getting him time at other positions and find other solutions for the position. Instead, it’s been essentially a lost season, with Cruz sitting out the vast majority of it. The club sprinkled the shortstop playing time to various other players without any of them doing anything to cement themselves at the position.
Those questions around Cruz’s long-term fit will now linger, with the added uncertainty of how his ankle will heal. Perhaps more rest over the winter and a normal Spring Training will get everything back on track for next year, but his inability to get healthy on the expected timeline this year is at least somewhat concerning.
Although the Pirates showed signs of life early in the year, they ultimately fell out of contention and are in fourth place in the National League Central. With still many question marks around the roster, perhaps the club can still give him the chance to prove himself that he didn’t get here this year. But they will have to make a pivot towards contention at some point, which will eventually force some kind of decision on Cruz.
That sucks and is not a good sign for next season but better to shut him down now than making it worse.
I am worried that he was “plateauing” for 2 months without getting better but maybe some rest can make it better.
This dude was hot in 2022, damn shame he was hurt in 2023. Pittsburgh needs something to grow on, let it be Cruz
Too bad Shelton and Haines are returning next season
Only managing to score 2 runs against a pitcher with an ERA of over 5 last night while striking out 8 times is beyond pathetic
Of course putting players in the lineup who’s BA hovers around .200 doesn’t help much
And starting a pitcher who can’t hold it together after 3 innings doesn’t help either
I think a big issue is the pirates minor league player development. They have a lot of prospects but nearly all of their hitters have severe strikeout issues.
guys like nick gonzales and temarr johnson were considered plus hit guys as amateurs but in the minors they developed huge K rates.
Of course K rate isn’t everything, especially if you have power but to make a 30% k rate work you need huge power.
Pirates had the 10th highest k rate and the 9th lowest isolated power which is a bad combination.
On the positive side they where 7th in walk rate which is good but the rest was pretty bad.
When Corbin has breaking stuff working he will shut down much better teams than Pittsburgh.
I have no idea what Haines is doing. What better hitting coach do you have in mind? I figure anyone who is good is already working somewhere. And if someone was available why would they want to come somewhere that if they don’t get results with weak talent and cheap owner they will be fired in 2 years. I would wait for a better situation. All for finding someone better. Have to find a sleeper other teams don’t know about because Pittsburgh would be towards the bottom if not the bottom of my list.
“I have no idea what Haines is doing?” Neither does he and the people who hired him.
Ke’Bryan Hayes improved his batting recently after working with pirates’ AA Altoona in batting coach Jon Nunnally. He also was coaching when many of the now-struggling recent call-ups were enjoying success in the minors.
Can you name someone who has improved thanks to Haines?
When a coach has no success in two years in Pittsburgh following three pathetic seasons in Milwaukee, it’s time to move on.
In the same vein, can you name one pitcher Oscar Marin has helped in his four seasons. Mitch Keller’s improvement began after off-season work with a pitching group.
OK Here’s an easier question, can you name a pitcher who has not performed as expected with the parent club? Where do I start???….
A change in coaches doesn’t guarantee 100 percent success rate. But when there’s almost a zero percent success rate, it’s 100 percent correct to try someone else.
Oscar sure. Can name 3 Anderson Quintana Velasquez. Seems to get something from dumpster relievers. He has done something.
Haines I haven’t seen anything. But maybe he doesn’t have the talent. I don’t know. All for replacing him if he is the problem. Seems he should be fired as a fall guy. Maybe he will surprise next year.
Except that there players were swinging at pitches nowhere close to the plate.
They are free swingers basically and if wasn’t just pitchers like Corbin either
Andujar’s first AB in last night’s game is a perfect example
3 straight pitches outside and down, he swung and missed on all 3
Haines had a history of failure when he was hitting coach for the Brewers yet the Bucs hired him anyway
Maybe it says more about BC than Haines
It goes without saying that he has the physical tools to become a star. Would definitely like to see him improve his overall game going forward and capitalize on his immense talent. I feel for Pirates fans and the frustration they have endured over the years. I really enjoy visiting that awesome ballpark they have too.
Has improved ever year. Should be good if injury is recoverable. Pirates fans have had it good under Nutting. Successful rebuild. 3 years of one of the better teams in baseball. Should have been 4. Another 3 years of a decent team. Hired a solid gm. 1st year if rebuild was only 2 month season so only had to suffer through 2 rebuilding years. This year they fielded a respectable team. Farm system is good. Future looks good. Pirates fans just like to complain. They just want a owner who will waste $. Not that interested in actually winning games.
Dream GM-Are you kidding me?A successful rebuild at a winning % of 450?Are they going to be invited to the WS because of that?
Real Pirate fans have endured 27 losing seasons out of 31.Fly by night fans cannot understand that.
Nutting gets rapped for a lot of things sometimes unfairly but a more involved owner would have forced major changes to this point.
After 20 some losing seasons in a row 3 straight years of playoffs is a successful rebuild. If your definition of success is a championship good luck.
Anyone who has followed any of my posts knows that a WC is not in in the cards for the Pirates
And yes three straight playoff years,even with the watered down system now in place,would be the goal of any rebuilding small market team.
They are not there yet.
They kept who could be the best hitter in the organization in AAA for over 400 at bats with an OPs of almost 1000! Who does that?And the manager who puts a rookie with a 5.79 era in to help to save a game against the best hitting team in baseball!Doh.
You know that Shelton is not a good manager.His lineups are made up by computer and he does not temper them with real life input.Could that be BC’s idea?
Who is the best hitter in organization that they kept in AAA for 400ab?
Andujar.I am surprised that you do not know of him.
He should have been up since August 1 at least and given consistent at bats to find out whether he can hit ML pitching.They have never given him an extended chance.These guys are not going to produce giving them 3 or 4 games then forgetting about them.
He is still not getting regular playing time.
@Mendoza – I hope the Bucs give Andujar a shot next year. Rivas is organizational depth at best. Oh, and what’s with Alika Williams? This cat looks like a skateboarder. I hope the Bucs have seen enough of this kid. Would love to see Triolo stick as a Utility IF. It would be a shame to not utilize a defensive star on a near regular basis.
I know of him. Never considered him for best hitter in the organization. At least Pirates gave him a chance. He was dfa twice and none of the other 29 teams thought much of him.
Tree- The time to give Andujar a shot was yesterday.
Why aren’t they playing him instead of Joe?
Who is to say that they are even smart enough to keep him until next year.
He was on a roll in Indianapolis and the stupid Pirates did not promote him to see if it continued.
These are the type of decisions that the good GM’s routinely make.These are the type of decisions that the good managers routinely make.
Regarding Alika,he has been an experiment.Right now he is about a 220 hitter.Yes,he does look like a skateboarder.But he is a fine fielder,the most consistent shortstop on the whole team.Will Cruz be healthy enough to play shortstop next year?Can Alika improve his average to 250?Remember that he is a young hitter too and this is his first ML experience.
The Pirates are a young team and they make mistakes.Shelton was a first time manager but has he learned on the job after four years?Some,but not enough.Some players need kicked in the butt sometimes and he cannot do that.And they need to consistently stress winning and not just be proud that they have many “prospects”.
I know it’s a small sample size but Andujar’s current stats would play as a big league 1B if projected to a full season.
He may or may not be but with Reynolds coming down to earth and the young players being young he could be.
Wouldn’t it make sense to play a guy with a 960 OPS in AAA consistently to find out if he can?
Wouldn’t it make sense if you were the manager to play him consistently since your broadcasters are smarter than you and call Andujar “an rbi machine”?
Wouldn’t it make sense to play him at first base instead of the immortal Connor Joe and Rivas to find out first hand if he can play there?
These are the kind of stupid decisions that make one wonder whether BC gets it as it is pretty obvious that Shelton does not.
They need to win about 87 games next year or this five year rebuild is a bust.And with Shelton.’s lineups,playing time distribution,and mediocre use of relief pitchers it will be difficult to do so unless both the fundamentals and hitting clearly improve.
The reason that you play young players is to see if they can play in the ML’s.
Andujar is not young.But he was second in ROY voting so he must have been a good hitter at one time.
The Pirates do not have Willie Stargell sitting on the bench ready to play first base.
That position is a big void and if they are waiting on Nunez good luck.
They can spend more on starting pitching if they have a competent first baseman.
There is a difference between being negative and critical.Some posters on here are rarely positive.But If two guys like Treehouse and Mendoza can spot the obvious why can’t ML GM’s and managers do the same?
He has 6 starts in 10 days. With off days, matchups and rest that is normal. Cheaper younger more team control guys need to play. I expect with more games facing righties his stats will come down.
And don’t get me started on Haines.Nunnaly would be a much better coach,and they don’t even have to go outside of the organization!Haines wants them to walk.Professional coaches want them to hit.Davis is hitting 118 on sliders.What do you think will be thrown to him?
What young position players on that team have shown promise?How much starting pitching depth did BC provide his manager?
How come they continually are at the bottom of baseball in fielding %.Do you think that it has anything to do with playing a 660 ops guy at first base or a catcher in right field without the proper seasoning?
This team is not going to challenge for what was a winnable division with the on field brain trust and the hitting and fielding coaches in the minor leagues.And that is on your buddy Cherington since he is clueless as to putting competent managers and coaches on the field.
Coaching only works if the player wants to be coached. In Cruz’s case, he brought his own guy – and had a 35% strikeout rate to show for it.
I don’t envy Haines, he’s coaching a bunch of young guys who often push too hard to prove they belong. There is no way Andy Haines is telling any of the players to swing out of their shoes at a two-strike pitch off the plate; he can only do so much with pitch recognition; he can talk up an approach, but he can’t run out onto the field and make a player actually execute it.
The biggest problem I see with Haines is that the players who stick to the plan get rung up on pitches 6 inches out of the zone, then are smugly told that the ump was giving them a chance to homer. I do think that Haines probably does not stress “contact at any cost” as much as he ought to, I don’t see many players on the team who have a swing meant solely to waste a good pitch.
Hitting coach is a tough job but it is a very competitive environment for most teams and if the Pirates want to compete they will take steps to maximize their hitting.
Some of these hitters should bunt more.Some should try to foul off two strike pitches that fool them.Some should be swinging at third strike pitches near the strike zone.Some should learn how to hit the slider.
Many of these guys have been promoted before their time.They are young players and as such will need to learn on the job.But none of them have really impressed as far as hitters go.There a number of teams where that is not true,including several teams who have passed the Pirates in team development in less time.
Most teams make changes when the particular area is not working out.The pitchers seem to grow.BC has brought in a number of low level transaction pitchers who have pitched well.
Not so much with the hitters.
And he kept his best minor league hitter in the minors for almost the whole season.He is a player that both broadcasters call “an rbi machine”.He May or may not be that in the ML’s but wouldn’t it be good to find out?
Andujar played first base in AAA and Shelton continues to play 228 hitting Connor Joe at first base where he plays poorly.
These are the obvious shortcomings on a team whose ceiling is not much better than 500 unless major changes are made.
PNC is the most beautiful ball park… The Jewel of MLB alongside oracle park? To bad the person who built it isn’t running the Pirates? Team might match the building?
This is unfortunate, but not unexpected after his rehab was shut down last month.
This Pirates fan isn’t concerned about this injury extending into next season. We’re talking 5.5 months until ST begins. He’ll be fine.
They had 2 players that were injured on unconventional slides, Marcano and Cruz
Maybe bring in a base running coach to prevent these from happening again
Promising young player that makes Fernando Tatis Jr. look like an ironman in his first 2 seasons.
No comparison. This was his first full year and he got hurt. There’s no Tatis Jr pattern here.
Cruz is like half a foot taller than Nando…
The bucs season is over anyway, and he has a great future ahead.
Why risk aggravating the injury for a lost season. Let him fully heal and be ready for spring training next year.
The most overrated young player in MLB, and there at at least 50 of them.
Lol ok I’ll bite. Who do you consider a properly rated young player in mlb and why? It’s not exactly unusual for prospects graduating to mlb to take multiple seasons to reach their prime/peak level of performance ya know.
A player can’t be measured in terms of success or failure with such limited playing time, Samuel.
Cruz hasn’t yet played an entire season
He doesn’t appear to have the most basic baseball fundamentals down. Doesn’t do what he doesn’t want to do. Got hurt for the year because he didn’t now how to slide (and who doesn’t know it). That play at the plate is done 5 time’s a day in MLB….the runner slides into the right-handed batters box, puts out his left hand and touches home plate as he slides by.
This guy doesn’t have a Baseball IQ at all. No awareness of the game situation. Stands around totally unprepared to do anything but hit, run, throw and catch the ball if it’s hit or thrown to him. Thinks MLB is computer baseball.
I stand by my point, he’s played very limited and he can’t be judged until he’s played an entire season
Buy him a first baseman’s mit and teach him that position in the spring. By then he should be running fine and hitting.
My complete opinion. He will be Gregory Palanco 2.0…. I think the same goes for De La Cruz and maybe even Walker for the cards.. these guys are brought up very young and pushed to perform immediately and then fizzle out. No doubt rhey have talent but can the sustain it on the big stage? Time shall tell…
Polanco fizzled out after injuring his shoulder during an attempt to catch a fly ball as he slid on the surface
He was never the same after that injury
Polanco actually injured his shoulder on a horrible slide in a mid-September game against the Marlins. Goes to show you how bad the slide was – and maybe a common thread – it is not something you should have to teach at the ML level. But you’re right, he never was the same after that. It was a shame how he was treated at the end, the guy literally hurt himself and derailed his career trying to win a game while the Pirates were 70-71.
There’s many things you shouldn’t have to teach at the major league level, but with this team, they do require some form of training
Buting being one
Obviously sliding is another
Learning the strike zone
These are basic fundamentals that should be taught in the minors yet when the Bucs are promoted they seem to in la la land with these examples
Cards-Polanco had an ungainly body and his fundamentals were bad.His career was hijacked by a slide even worse than Cruz’.Cruz seems more coordinated and serious about playing.Polanco got the big contract early and never really delivered until the year that he got hurt.
I am fearful of the same result with Cruz.
Smart decision. No reason to risk anything.
Get him healthy for what looks to be an exciting 2024. Pirates will be a “sexy” pick to make the playoffs if they just add a position player (First Baseman) and a couple competent pitchers to supplement the young talent.
Been saying that every year, this year is no different. Couple signings and they won’t be bad. To be fair they’re not in last this year so there is that.
They are bad. other than Jack all the prospects have not performed on offense. Most of the pitching is similar. A few step up then they have a shot in 2024. I’m optimistic but not confident they’ll be better in 2024.. Roansy is starting to look better in AAA though so there is that.
Year 3 of their latest rebuild and other than not being in last place, they really haven’t improved much offensively
Last in runs scored, last in BA, second to last in Home Runs
They’re 7th highest in strikeouts
Reynolds who historically drew on average 65 walks per season, only has 42 this year
Despite Suwinski’s nominal improvement, he’s 5th in the league in Ks with 145
The kids promoted were forecast to hit with consistency and they have failed miserably
There’s a few current players that should be looking for another team next year, Connor Joe being one. He will be 32 next year and despite being given regular playing opportunities, he’s below average for what this team needs
And they should look for a first baseman, and backup catcher that can hit more than 1 homer a season
Reynolds also has improved his strike out rate from last year… so there is that. no where near his 2021 performance though.
Suwinski’s improvement over all is much more than nominal but yeah he strikes out a lot to put it mildly and it is enough to drive anyone batty. I wouldnt be surprised if he passes Pedro’s 180ish strike outs in a season.
They only have a few positive bats that have had more than a handful of plate appearances.. Reynolds, Suwinski, Hayes, Cutch and Joe. Not that they’re good, just that they are around average as a whole.
2024 is up t the prospect gods. So far almost everything other than some flashes has been a dud. In order to be considered as a possible .500 team going into spring they basically need to sign half a team of at least average players.
I’m the eternal optimist for the Pirates. but after every prospect flopped this year I’ve tossed in the towel. I haven’t watched a game in a couple weeks.
It’s a sad story when the team leader in RBI has only 74 with 14 games to play. I’m not taking anything away from Reynolds, he’s been this team’s best overall offensive player but he can’t drive in runs unless there’s someone on base ahead of him
I was mistaken in a previous post, Suwinski has 153 ks though his swing has improved as of late
And lastly, Alika Williams is out of his element, he was forecast to be a defensive whizz who could hit and has already committed 4 errors and strikes out far too often to be on this team
To say they haven’t improved is so hilarious. All you have to do is look at the win total and see that you’re wrong.
Every position except 1b and DH/C seems to be settled moving forward (even the bench pieces) and the upside is extremely high.
Bullpen is very good and controllable. What’s needed is starting pitching, and guess what? That’s the strength of the system in the upper minors (Skenes, Jones, Solometo, Ashcraft, Chandler).
You being jaded by the Pirates past is clouding your judgement on where they are. They’re on the brink of winning and ironically most people outside of Pittsburgh believe that (Pirates fans are the pessimists).
@Buc
I’m an optimist as i have been for quite a while. They have been “a piece or two” way from being a quality team for years. That changed quite a bit this second half for me
Disclaimer: I’ve watched very little the past few weeks.
The Pirates are just as likely to be a sub-70win season as they are to be an 80win season in 2024 based one what I saw.
Based on performance… the only players they got that really performed are Hayes, Reynolds, Suwinski and Keller.
none of the better prospects did well. Pegeuro, Gonzalez, Davis,Rodriquez,Priester all flopped.. granted short sample and in some case very short sample. All of them doing bad broke my back this year.
Coming out of spring could be different but now i just shake my head. They need to figure out why all of them failed and fire the person responsible… One or three failing okay.. it happens. all of them shows there is a problem in the system. They find and fix that then they have a shot.
You lost me at, “I’ve watched very little the past few weeks.” You mean the last few weeks when they’ve been above .500 despite playing mostly rookies? That last few weeks?
The rest is just incorrect. I’m not going to write a novel explaining point by point, but Peguero, Rodriguez, Mlodzinski, and Triolo, all came up and have performed very well. Davis is an unknown because he was injured and is learning a new position at the MLB level and not being allowed to catch (that’s TOUGH to do).
Most rookies don’t perform well right away, the point of the end of a rebuild is to let them fail/succeed/fail again/succeed…that’s the entire point of this season (like the Reds last season and this season). Trout and Judge both struggled their first time up in the majors. Elly De La Cruz had all kinds of hype for the Reds this year and he’s struggled. It happens to a majority of players. McCutchen and Reynolds aren’t the rule, players struggle like Marte, Walker, Alvarez, Harrison, Suwinski, Keller, Bednar, etc. just as much, if not more.
Just enjoy that they are improving and trust the process. Being negative about a team that’s going to improve by 10+ wins with a roster full of rookies is silly. You should be optimistic. This season didn’t break my back, it brought me back from being negative to excited for next season.
@Buctober
yeah i watched little the past few weeks. The rest of the season.. well not even the rest of the season.. just a few months they have been really bad. epicly bad.
Peguero has not performed well at the plate at all by any metric. his sops+ for the past month is 66, it gets even worse as you narrow down the past couple weeks.
Rodriguez is even worse at the plate
Trillio on the season has done okay and is hot right now (based on stats) but that is over 26PAs. so very small sample. Hopefully he can keep anywhere near that.
Davis had more PAs than those three and was worse than all of them offensively.
Mind you i’m just talking offense. Defense I love Davis’s arm and Endy is a pretty decent catcher.
Most rookies hyped up as they are don’t do as bad as they have. Not doing well is one thing but as bad as they have been is something epic.
The Pirates have played above .500 baseball over their last 60 games. So you basically made that entire first paragraph up.
Peguero is 22 years old with an OPS of .685. He’s going to be just fine.
Rodriguez has struggled at times at the plate, but he’s not been decent on defense, he’s been outstanding (one of the best in baseball).
Triolo is a Gold Glove caliber defender anywhere you put him and his track record shows he’ll hit for average, but he’ll have little power.
You didn’t even mention several rookies. The current active roster has half rookies, and they’re winning.
You last paragraph is just absurd. Most prospects struggle out of the gate, that’s the point of getting them at-bats in a lost season and “throwing them to the wolves”. There is always almost a learning curve, that’s why “prime years” exist. Over the history of baseball almost every player has the same overall peak years of between ages 26-31 (outside of the steroid era lol). Power and stolen bases peaks earlier, OBP/BB% peak later, and age 27 is the most common overall “peak” year over the thousands of hitters in the history of the game (pitchers are totally different and peak later).
You’re being over the top pessimistic and trying to bring others down with you. Not going to happen. Had you actually watched the games over the last two months you’d be positive heading into next season. I’d suggest you turn on the TV and enjoy the youngsters growing in front of your eyes.
The current 28 man roster has the following breakdown:
14 rookies
7 second year players
7 three plus year players
They’re the youngest team in baseball and not even close to the worst. Three quarters of their roster is first and or second year players and they’re playing above .500 ball for two months now. How could anyone be pessimistic about that?
I made nothing up. Look at May June July August two and a half months of playing decent does not inspire confidence. also have to look at the teams they played. they have had a favorable schedule.
You can say rookies all you want but the “impact” rookies did squat this season as a whole. and heck Endy has gotten even worse at the plate thats some real growing.
Hey if these rookies do league average the rest of the way through that would be nice way to finish out. Trillio doing a bit above league average is a nice plus too.
I’ve said most of the way through that this team would be closer to 80 wins than 70 and that seems to be happening but these rookies have not been the reason as far as offense. well… okay okay.. endy is better at the plate than Hedges 🙂
I’m not writing off next season but based on what I saw on TV and looking at the stats the past little while I find it hard to believe they’ll be any better next year with out significant moves both coaching and roster moves.
That said, their record is on pace to be about where I thought they would be
But Hey, if they win out the rest of the season then heck they could be in the play offs with some luck. These rookies step it up during that time I will definitely feel better.
Maybe me not watching is their weakness haha 😉
So the Pirates have met your expectation and taken a big step forward, and have played much better after dumping the vets and playing the kids, but somehow you’re pessimistic? On what planet does that make sense?
Triolo hasn’t been a bit above average, he’s been equivalent to a 5 WAR player over a full season. That’s an All-Star. It’s a small sample size and I don’t think he’s an All-Star player, but you’re basically downplaying everything to try to make a point that’s inconsistent and all over the place.
Take your negativity somewhere else. I don’t think you represent a “fan”, you’re the stereotype yinzer that’s negative about everything all the time. The other option you have is to enjoy the step forward, the large increase in wins year over year, and the development of the youngsters (I promise you’ll be more happy).
Its pretty consistent you are just failing to recognize that while the record improved the players (in general) did not. Sure sure.. record is way more important than an MVP player but they’re not going to make the play offs with Keller and 4 back end rotation pitchers and very little offense.
Just imagine if any of the impact prospects played anywhere near average offense… the probably would’ve have had 5 more wins if not more.
But again like i said.. Maybe players like Henry, Endy, Quinn, Nick,Roansy, etc… take what they learned and makes positive adjustments in the off season. Really, couldn’t be a whole heck of a lot worse 🙂 I have forgotten about Cruz though. Him coming back next year hopefully fully recovered can provide some much needed offense. Hopefully he adjusts to be a more complete player as well.
Clearly you haven’t been following me for the past many many years of being probably the most optimistic fan out there.. That’s okay, I have no idea who you are either. Up until this year I missed almost no games outside of going to weddings and that sort of thing or some weird black out bull crap. I’m on the edge of multiple black out areas and sometimes it just gets wonky. So take your your thought about me not representing a fan you can just throw in the garbage.
FYI: I did go back and watch a bit of the ones I did miss hasn’t changed my opinion that they are in a bad way right now despite their record the last 60ish games
Cruz is bad has been not much more to say about it than that. In his short MLB career he turned into a one dimensional player with good power with greatness potential with that power.
its not that he doesn’t have the talent to be a more complete player, he just hasn’t shown it yet.
Better patient at the plate less strike outs.. few more walks things will go well for him. He is a 4.5 tool prospect. Power, Contact, Throw, Catch and Run the things holding him back as a prospect is/was his desire to stay at short and injury fears. So far he has only show cased power. Things did look promising going into the season though.
Worthless Shelton again has Hayes on the bench in favor of Connor Joe batting 3rd
His determination to exclude Andujar from the lineup is mind boggling.
SMH