Nelson Cruz to bat clean-up? (and more Rangers news)
Well, that’s certainly a surprise, but according to a post from Richard Durrett of The Dallas Morning News (click here) it is quite possible. The news comes from a talk with Rangers manager Ron Washington. Durrett says that
“Nelson Cruz would be the cleanup hitter if the Rangers didn’t make any moves to add offense. Washington said he wants a right-handed bat behind Josh Hamilton and he wants to leave Hamilton third in the order.”
That certainly is interesting news, to say the least. Cruz is a player who has been around for awhile, but never has been able put things together at the major league level, well not until last season. After hitting .342 with 37 HR and 99 RBI over 383 AB at Triple A, Cruz joined the Rangers and continued his hot stretch, hitting .330 with 7 HR and 26 RBI over 115 AB. Are those numbers he can continue?
I don’t believe he can hit for that type of average over a full season, but he is a career .298 hitter over his minor league career, to go along with 149 HR. He showed the same type of power potential in 2007, hitting 15 HR in just 162 AB at Triple A, but flopped with the Rangers, hitting .235 with 9 HR over 207 AB.
So, the question is if it is possible that Cruz has finally found himself at age 28. The easy answer is yes, it is possible, though maybe not likely. Still, with the news that he could hit clean-up, with Ian Kinsler, Michael Young and Josh Hamilton hitting before him, he becomes so much more valuable. The chance of him driving in a ton of runs becomes extremely great, and we all know the Rangers have a way of finding offensive talent. He’s a player that certainly is worth targeting in all formats and be sure to monitor what the Rangers do the rest of the winter. He could conceivably be 2009’s version of Josh Hamilton or at worst the next Jack Cust (with a better average). That makes him worth targeting, don’t you think?
Additional news from Durrett’s post:
- Outside of Kevin Millwood and Vincente Padilla, there are no definites in the rotation. He says that, “Matt Harrison is pretty close to that as well and the rest of the young guys will fight it out”.
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Taylor Teagarden will compete for catching duties, though Saltalamacchia’s experience will be a factor.
- Both Derek Holland and Neftali Feliz will be “coming to big league camp as non-roster invitees”. Those are two young talents we’ve spoken about here in the past and certainly have a chance to make a major impact in 2009.
eric :
enjoyed the article on nelson cruz .
as always , i seek out your opinion on matters that are important to me .
cmulligan @ http://www.behindtheplatefantasy.com did an article on cruz , as well.
prior to washington’s statement , i projected cruz to be batting 5th , (maybe 6th) . obviously i’m not an expert , but i think that we all can agree that cruz will definately be an “rbi guy”.
of concern are his low walk rate , and what chris points out , a babip of .380
your thoughts on this .380 , please.
is it sustainable ?
and , for those of us needing further explanation , can you address what is a good and what is an average babip for mlb players .
much thanx .
and again ,
keep writing .
No, I don’t but the .380+ BABIP as being sustainable, as it would have put him in the top 3 with Milton Bradley & Chipper Jones. The number has to come down, which in turn will lower his average. That doesn’t affect his RBI potential, however, especially hitting in the middle of the Rangers line-up.
As for an explanation of BABIP, I’ll defer to our friend Mike Podhorzer of fantasybaseballgenerals.com who posted this explanation on their site:
“Unlike pitchers, research has shown that hitters actually do have a fair degree of control over the frequency at which their balls in play fall for hits. Factors such as the batter’s speed, power, and percentage of each batted ball type hit into play all contribute to determining the BABIP level of a hitter. BaseballHQ has suggested that a hitter will establish a “personal BABIP” level that he should be expected to regress toward in a given season. This personal BABIP level is simply the hitter’s average BABIP over the previous 3 years, or something similar.”