Dylan Cruz, 2023 No. 2 pick MLB drafthe debuted on August 28th, so we have to realize that we’re dealing with a small sample size in order to discuss his numbers, but…
Cruz hit .145/.213/.261 in 75 games while CJ Abrams struggled or was sidelined in West Palm Beach after the season ended abruptly. . Appearance of the plate.
Batting second (25 PA), Crews finished with a .174/.240/.174.
Batting 7th?: .333/.375/.619 in 24 PA.
“I think it took the pressure off a little bit for him,” Davey Martinez told reporters before the penultimate game of the season (Cruz batted 6th.). “He’s a guy who studies pitchers, so I think he can help young hitters just by observing how pitchers attack batters sometimes.
“But overall, he’s probably going to be a kid that we want to have up the top of the lineup and hit as he gets older. He can do some really good things. ”
Martinez has mentioned several times over the past month or more how Cruz has studied pitchers, and on the penultimate day of the season, the manager talked about what he’s learned from the 22-year-old top prospect during his time in the majors. He talked at length about what he had seen. .
“I look at him, he’s one kid who’s passionate about the game,” Martinez said. Observe how the men are attacked. Monitoring positioning etc. He works hard on how other pitchers attack our hitters.
“Right-handed or left-handed. He’s watching the spin, seeing if they’re going to throw a changeup. How they use their fastball. All that kind of stuff.”
“He’s the guy who sits at the top of the dugout and watches pitches,” the captain said in early September. “…Watching the pitcher work, watching what he does and watching our at-bats.”
As Martinez explained, Cruz’s recent unique approach is a throwback to what players used to do before they used iPads in the dugout, allowing him to track what pitchers were doing and what they had done. Recorded as instant video.
“I always say it’s outdated,” Martinez said. “So he’s not running to his iPad. He’s sitting there watching the game and learning, which is pretty cool.”
And what are the benefits of the old-school approach to studying pitchers?
“You learn a lot by watching games,” explained the veteran, who spent 16 seasons in the majors as a player and now seven seasons as a manager.
“That’s how I was raised as a player, and that’s how the people before me and the people after me were raised.
“You can still learn a lot from the iPad, but if you watch the game, the game teaches you a lot, and he does that. mosquito [they] The right-handed hitter’s offense, what they’re trying to do, the spin of the ball, the changeup, how it’s working. He left the other day and went right away [Andrés] Chaparro was telling him, “Hey, his slider has a little bit more bite than we thought, so get the ball up,” so it was great to hear him talk about it. he is a student He pays attention to detail.
“You know, I like to hear from the players before I put my two cents into things. But it’s been great to communicate with him in particular. He knows what he’s trying to do. Because I understand that.”
GM and President of Baseball Operations Mike Rizzo also liked what he saw from Cruz in his first exposure in the majors, and said in an early September interview that Cruz showed he belonged in the big leagues, according to Audacity Sports. told Junkies.
“I think he’s shown his skill set very clearly, and like pretty much every young player that’s been here, it’s that consistency that needs to improve,” Rizzo told Junkies.
“He has the skill set, temperament and makeup to be a successful big-time player in the big leagues. And I think he’s done a great job in a short amount of time. [span]” Lizzo continued. “I think he showed everything he needed to show he belonged here, and now he has to deal with the consistency standpoint and the day-to-day things of this major league season.
“He has a lot to learn, [he’s] We’ve only scratched the surface, but I think he’s going to be a really good player for us. ”
