Topkin: Tampa Bay Rays Sign Juan Cruz
by Steve Slowinski on Feb 3, 2011 8:10 PM EST
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PrintThis news from Marc Topkin at the St. Pete Times:
The Rays added another candidate to their bullpen competition, signing RHP Juan Cruz to a minor-league deal.
Cruz is a pitcher that's been discussed here on DRB for a long time. Tommy Rancel first mentioned him up as a potential bullpen candidate before the 2010 season, and he covered Cruz again this off-season, advocating him as a good buy low candidate. Although Cruz was injured for the majority of the 2010 season and he's only signed to a minor-league deal, he's a very intriguing pitcher due to one main factor: his strikeouts.
In the past, Juan Cruz has been the definition of a power arm. In 2007 and 2008, he struck out over 12 batters per nine innings while making batters whiff on around 12-15% of his pitches; for comparison, Joaquin Benoit stuck out 11 batters per nine this past season while generating whiffs on 14% of his pitches. Cruz's stuff was electric - a 94 MPH fastball and an 81 MPH slider - but he had a control problem, walking around five batters per nine.
His control wasn't a large issue as long as he was striking out 12 batters per nine, but in 2009 Cruz signed with the Royals and promptly fell apart. His strikeout and whiff rates plummeted to 6.8 K/9 and 9% whiffs, his wildness didn't improve at all, and he finished the season with a 5.72 ERA and a 4.92 FIP. And then in 2010, Cruz only pitched five innings before suffering an arm injury and undergoing shoulder surgery for a cyst.
It's impossible to say whether Cruz still has the dominating stuff that allowed him to strike out so many batters in 2007 and 2008, but the Rays have had good success working with injury prone, wild relievers. Before joining the Rays, Grant Balfour and Joaquin Benoit both had recent injuries and control problems, but the Rays were able to successfully manage both problems for each of them. Will this be the case with Juan Cruz? Only time will tell, but I know I'll be keeping an eye on his progress this season.
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hopefully
I love these low risk potential high reward moves.
No pressure to make me look smart or anything Juan
Funny this moves reminds us alot of Benoit and Steve went with an pic that is almost idential to the one I used for Benoit in 09…
http://www.draysbay.com/2009/10/7/1065359/why-the-rays-should-target-joaquin
While the Benoit comp is obvious, no one should expect that to be the norm. If we can squeeze 50 innings of 3.75-4.0 FIP out of him on a minor league deal, it will be a win.
www.espn1040.com, www.theprocessreport.com, www.bloombergsports.com Twitter @trancel
by Tommy Rancel on Feb 3, 2011 8:29 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
I am so excited about your new "glass half-full" persona this season
Quickest turn from a heel to a face since the nWo caught on.
#WCWreferences
@RealNolenBailey
Even later. I think Benoit was in March
www.espn1040.com, www.theprocessreport.com, www.bloombergsports.com Twitter @trancel
very beginning of Spring Training
I believe same day or day after pitchers and catchers reporting.
Wasn't Benoit still recovering though?
Is there any word if Cruz is fully healthy?
Anyone have ANY idea about the status of the 40 man
We did just officially sign 2 guys like three days ago. Weird that this has not been announced yet.
Cruz made the most sense
If AF couldn’t trade for a closer, Cruz might have been the last closer type available that had a chance to show he’s healthy, get back to some form and possibly become the 9th inning close the door guy out there. On a MiL deal it’s a low risk move but still leaves a big question mark at the back end if he can’t make it back.
The last two pitchers I know of that had a cyst removed were Bedard and Maine...
….and that hasn’t turned out well for both of them. Best thing here is that Cruz had the surgery 9 months ago so at least he’s had some time to recover. I would assume the Rays have seen him throw somewhere and are satisfied his arm won’t fall off.
This might not mean anything
But both Bedard and Maine were SP and never attempted a relief role. Perhaps, although Cruz throws hard, without the stress on the arm that SP feel, he can bounce back faster. Who knows? I’m optimistic.
GO RAYS!
by SandalsNoPants on Feb 4, 2011 12:35 PM EST up reply actions
Nice - Classic AF
This smacks of the Benoit signing. With the MiL contract he can go to the MiL w/o passing thru waivers and build up arm strength, if needed, ala Benoit.
love the competition
The bullpen options are looking better and better. The making of the pen will be the inside story of the spring with the Dam Man duo getting all the hype. With Andy retiring to clear brush, we are now in great postion thanks to AF and his homies.
no risk/high reward
Should be AF’s motto.
How cheap do you think we can get Chad Durbin for? He has to be the best arm left on the FA market.
Under construction
Is Pedro Martinez under contract somewhere?
I’d vote for Pedro to get a shot at closer.
GO RAYS!
by SandalsNoPants on Feb 4, 2011 12:58 PM EST up reply actions
Zimmer still owes Pedro an ass whuppin
They could brawl in the Tampa Downs parking lot.
I read about that
But if he decides to return, Braves still have him on their 40 man. It would take a few unlikely things, first he has to decide to come back (still doubt this) then the Braves have to decide they want to go with Kimbrel and Venters anyway (this is possible) and finally the Rays have to open up their wallets for him (It’s the Braves again, maybe they will pull off another Soriano but I don’t see it)
I don’t know what he is waiting for but I still say Wagner will not pitch this season.
Under construction
I agree with you.
Just thought I would mention him. I mean, if we can mention Pedro and Delgado, why not Wagner?
This is good?
Farnsworth and Cruz were pathetic in KC in 2009 and 2010. They were supposed to part of a rebuilt bullpen and instead led the way to the Royals pen falling apart in 2009 after it was a strength in 2008. A nice run the rays started for Cruz on 7/17/2009 and it only got worse. Not too mention he had an attitude that pissed off a lot of people in Kansas City. Hey, and the Rays added Joel Peralta too! I know it is a minor league deal with no risk, but there is no doubt that right now the Rays pen is not only one of the worst in the division, but in all of baseball.
Saying that about anyone's bullpen
before a season starts is foolish. With a very few exceptions, nobody knows how most relievers will perform in a coming year, and so long as a bullpen has power arms, pitchers with a history of striking out lots of batters, pitchers with a history of ground ball tendencies and the like, they have the possibility of doing well.
Excerpting 2 seasons out of over 10 for two veteran relievers, and including one in which a pitcher was injured and so pitched but 5.1 innings while another had a pretty good season in one of the two noted is either dishonest or an extreme example of tunnel vision.
What truly is tunnel vision...
is consistently saying that everything AF touches turns to gold. Hell, even Dayton Moore had a solid run of putting together solid pens in 2007 and 2008 before it blew up on him. The fact is that if Pittsburgh was signing Farnsworth, Cruz, and Peralta-everyone on this board would respond with “typical crap veteran Pittsburgh signing.” Instead now, these marginal veterans are now seen as “diamonds in the rough.” Well its obvious as Fangraphs shows that Farnsworth can’t pitch in any high leverage situations effectively-he’s a mop up man. Peralta will give you some ROOGY run, but more often that not he is the pitcher he was in 2008 and 2009. A key thing to remember is the Royals released Cruz and THEN he went to get surgery-he’s a jerk and a clubhouse cancer. If they hadn’t he would have hung around getting roped on a daily basis unable to pitch in any decent leverage situation-every single on of his runners he inherited in 2010 scored, he was atrocious at every level.
Here’s a great nugget about Cruz:
In 315 relief games, he has been brought into just 78 when his team had the lead. Of those 24.7%, it was a Save/Hold opportunity only 39 times (50% of games where team had lead, 12.4% of total games as reliever). In those 12.4% of games, he converted a save or hold just 71.8% of the time. He currently sits with an overall career average LI of .873 and a .867 the last three seasons – bottom ten among qualified relievers.
I am not saying that everything Friedman touches turns to gold.
On the contrary, I can list a lot more examples of acquisitions who did not succeed than those who have. It is the nature of the beast that few players make it. What we look for is the rationale behind the acquisitions, and using that criteria, Friedman has earned our confidence.
I am saying that before a season starts it is foolish to assume you know how relievers will perform. As for leverage, I am not sure how significant the stats are that you present, how much they are informed by the accidents of usage or anything else about them. What we do know is that over a long period of time, the veteran pitchers the Rays have signed have demonstrated important skills, and the younger pitchers have demonstrated excellent tools. I am not confident they will succeed, but do think they may. I don’t think it reasonable to be any more certain than that. You may be skeptical about their chances while I am more optimistic, but to assert that there is no doubt they are the worst in baseball is nonsensical.
As for suggesting that had the Pirates signed them people here would respond critically, aside from that being speculative at best, it might actually be legitimate to criticize such a move as the Pirates are not contenders and so probably should not be signing veteran relievers. Although given the cost of Peralta and Cruz, I doubt anyone here would be negative anyway.
I always have the same response to claims of “cancer in the clubhouse” which is you have no idea what you are talking about. I am sick of hearing that nonsense about players like Manny and Bonds and Upton and all the rest who have run afoul of a particular journalist or teammate or front office.
As for Cruz specifically, the only significance being a “cancer” can have is that it impedes a team from winning. He has not been on teams as excellent as those Manny has been on, but he was on the 2003 Cubs who won their division, the 2004 Braves who won their division and the 2007 D-Backs who won their division. Apparently his influence was not so negative that his teams could not win.
This is my biggest worry about the signing
Not too mention he had an attitude that pissed off a lot of people in Kansas City.
He was known to be a real dick, enough that KC sportswriters even mentioned it.
The whole problem with the world is that fools & fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. ~ Bertrand Russell
by SagehenMacGyver47 on Feb 9, 2011 3:21 PM EST up reply actions
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