Angels' Cron shows range

[jsnpritchett]

Fun Fact:

 

CJ Cron HRs: 9

CJ Cron Stolen Bases: 8

 

Cron = The next Mike Trout?

[Inside Pitch]

I'd be fine trading both Cron and Cowart for a solid pitcher.  I just don't see them contributing to the major league team.  Cron will probably hit well in SLC, but his defense will never be stellar.  1B and DH is blocked by Pujols, Trumbo, and all our 4th OFers.

 

Trumbo shouldn't be blocking anyone.  Trumbo should be trade bait.

[Angel Oracle]

Trumbo shouldn't be blocking anyone.  Trumbo should be trade bait.

Agreed, the only worry is his becoming a righty Chris Davis at some point.

Both have similar hitting tools.

 

I might give it one more season keeping Bourjos, Trout, Hackilton, Trumbo, and Calhoun for the 3 OF spots and DH.

That's 648 games between them plus whatever games Pujols isn't in the lineup at 1B. 

120 games for Hackilton (sitting vs most lefties), 125 games for Calhoun and Bourjos each, 130 games for Trumbo (sitting only against some righties), 150 games for Pujols, and 160 games for Trout.

[Inside Pitch]

Agreed, the only worry is his becoming a righty Chris Davis at some point.

Both have similar hitting tools.

 

I might give it one more season keeping Bourjos, Trout, Hackilton, Trumbo, and Calhoun for the 3 OF spots and DH.

That's 648 games between them plus whatever games Pujols isn't in the lineup at 1B. 

120 games for Hackilton (sitting vs most lefties), 125 games for Calhoun and Bourjos each, 130 games for Trumbo (sitting only against some righties), 150 games for Pujols, and 160 games for Trout.

 

Davis always made better contact -- but even if Trumbo did have a massive breakout at some point, the Angels are better off getting max value now before he has a third mediocre year and his value craters -- particularly as his costs through arbitration rise.  

It's my hope Calhoun is able to establish himself to a degree so that trading Trumbo becomes an easy decision to make.   Better defense, better speed, if he can handle 1B he offers even more flexibility than we are getting out of Trumbo.   With Grichuk, and Borenstein around there is a level of depth in the OF and if the tubby dude in AA ever translates his BP sessions into on field production 1B/DH has a warm body as depth.   Truth is any number of guys could DH for us -- look at the average slash lines from DH's of late -- a .750 OPS would make for an above average DH currently.

 

I'm hoping the team moves away from one dimensional players who don't control the count even at the cost of power.

[jsnpritchett]

Cron hitting 6th again tonight--and he's 0 for 3 again so far.  6 straight games without a hit.

 

Meanwhile, Cowart's nightmare season continues: down to .212 as of the time I'm typing this, with a slg % under .300 for the season.  That's actually hard to do.

[FireThemAll]

I've watched Cron play, several times, and I am really not sold this guy is Major League talent. He looks like an AAAA guy to me. His plate discipline/approach is embarrassing. It's not even the lack of walks that totally bothers me. It's the fact that he swings at so many borderline pitches when ahead 2-1 or 2-0 in the count. Power hitters are supposed to be centering in on a pitch to drive in that situation, and spitting on anything else. He makes a healthy amount of weak contact with that approach. I'm not sold on any part of this guys game. Even his power doesn't jump out as much as a guy like Trumbo's did in the minors. I just don't see it.

 

Edit: And he can't play the field. This is a DH only bat with serious holes in his offensive game...it's the saddest thing that he's one of our top prospects. If I got offered a project pitcher in the minors with upside for Cron, I would not hesitate to pull the trigger. Let Cron be someone else's question mark. Much rather gamble on an upside arm with some flaws than an upside bat with flaws.

[Second Base]

It's easy for everyone to pile it on when a bat goes cold.  Undoubtedly, Cron is seriously struggling at the plate right now.  But everyone experiences slumps, this is the first real one of his career so I'm curious to see if he can snap out of it before the season ends. 

[jsnpritchett]

Hey, Cron actually had a hit last night!  1 for 4 with a single.  Slugging is about to drop below .400.

[FireThemAll]

Cron has literally shown no improvement in his plate discipline either when you consider that 5 of his 20 walks this year are intentional walks. Last year only 1 of his 17 walks was an intentional walk. Basically a 16 walk per 500 at bat player...that is worse than Aybar and Trumbo at the MAJOR LEAGUE level. Awful for a power hitter, especially bad for a power hitter who is supposed to be an advanced, college bat

[Second Base]

Well I think the non-improvement in plate discipline can be tacked up to facing more davanced pitching.  He hasn't improved, but the pitching has.  And if you get passed the fact that he isn't as advanced of anhitter as he was advertised in college, I think you'd see him for what he is.  A contact hitter with exceptional raw power.  It isn't a question of whether or not the power will mainfiest itself in the big leagues, we know he has that power.  It's more a question of will he square up enough pitches to be a good power hitter. 

 

I suspect he'll do enough to be a decent .270 or .280 hitter with 25 HR's a year.  At first base, this would make him an average or even below average option considering his competition. 

[jsnpritchett]

0 for 2 with 2 K tonight so far--but he does have a BB!  Grichuk w/ 2 HR...

[Scott34]

OPS is plummeting far past age-old Boeings.

[Second Base]

Yup, that dude is struggling something fierece right now.  Perhaps time for one of those good old fashioned "mental-day-offs"

[Angel Oracle]

If Cron was the best college hitter available in 2011, as some have said, that must have been just an average group of college hitters.

[jshep]

Oh jesus, I just noticed how truly terrible his August has been:

 

.143/.208/.184 over 49 ABs.

 

Seems like he would be better than that just based on sheer dumb luck.

[Scott34]

Quickly losing prospect status.  He'll be 24 next year in AAA with basically zero track record.

[FireThemAll]

Yeah, Cron is looking like a poor man's Mark Trumbo at this point. Every time I see him play I come away thinking he's going to be a replacement level (AAAA) player at the MLB level. Very unimpressive skill set.

[Second Base]

Just a bad month for him.  It'll get better.  But as Scott said, the fact that he's going to be 24 next season sort of serves as a dividing point between prospect and minor leaguer.  However, I'd dispute this with the argument that it's the same timeline used for Trumbo, who wasn't necessarily considered a prospect but has still come up and been an all-star in the majors. 

 

It doesn't mean that Cron will, but it goes to show that some guys just develop at a slower pace, or in some cases and organization brings players along at a slower pace.  Cron should still be in the Major Leagues by age 25 and should be ready to succeed at the top level at age 26.  Not an all-star, not elite, but solid enough. 

[Hollyw00d]

Trumbo is an all star like erik estrada is a celebrity.    He's not a consistently "All star" calibre player.   He'll have an all star-type month or couple of weeks here and there, but for the most part he is below average.

[Scott34]

He found something.  Killing it the past 2 days with a salami today.

[Angel Oracle]

Cron was just channeling his inner Hamilton, waiting 4.5 months to start hitting.

[jsnpritchett]

2 HR for Cron in tonight's playoff game.