CRON! Just a little appreciation thrown his way.

[DocBauer]

Going to fully admit I knew very little about C.J. before the Twins signed him. I did what a lot of us did, look up his career numbers and felt a little "meh" initially. And i read all i could about him. 2 things stood out to me from all that I could find:

 

1] His numbers were fairly solid overall, despite never having more that 400 AB until 2018.

 

2] He reportedly made some adjustments in his approach/swing for 2018 and finally had over 500 AB after seemingly always being stuck behind other options/players.

 

It has been argued, and deservedly so I think, that a 1B/DH option with some power is maybe the the "easiest" roster spot to fill, unless said player is special. And I am not going to debate that...would be foolish to do so...nor will I re-hash any of the Austin or Austin and someone else discussion. It's old news.

 

My hopes for 2019, even if it would be his only season with the Twins based on rising prospect options, were based on 2 things:

 

1] The FO being smart and signing a bit of a kate bloomer finally getting opportunity as well as his adjustments, all previously mentioned.

 

2] Rocco being familiar with him.

 

Let's pause for a moment to look at numbers. Career slash line, which includes 2019 to this point:

 

.260 AVG/ .312 OB/ .466 SLG/ .778 OPS

 

Good, solid numbers, if not spectacular.

 

Now, his 2018, breakout numbers:

 

.253 AVG/ .325 OB/ .533 SLG/ .816 OPS...with 28 Dbls, 30 HR and 74 RBI.

 

Without going the extra mile of XBH or RBI per AB, he slipped some in BA, but exceeded all other quad slash line numbers.

 

This far in 2019:

 

.263/ .325/ .533/.858

 

Above his 2018 numbers, which is great. And his 2018 numbers weren't out of line with his career numbers. In other words, steady progression for a maturing player gaining experience and opportunity.

 

As I post this, he is 2nd on the team in HR and RBI. He has played an OUTSTANDING 1B defensively by any measure I can imagine.

 

Can we just pause for a moment to admit Cron was a great signing and maybe a better player than we even realized? Despite roster flexibility and top prospects on the way who could supplant him, potentially, in the next year or two, I just think we got a good one here.

[nicksaviking]

Yeah I was hoping the Twins would treat 1B as a 2nd DH spot and just sign the best possible offensive players for both 1B and DH. I was feeling OK, not great about Cron and Cruz.

 

Turns out they might have signed the best possible offensive talents after all. They just so happened to play 1B and DH.

[TheLeviathan]

I'll happily eat crow.  I thought this was a redundant, unnecessary move.  I've been very wrong.

 

And happily so.

[terrydactyls]

 

I'll happily eat crow.  I thought this was a redundant, unnecessary move.  I've been very wrong.

 

And happily so.

 

Crow L'Orange.  MMMMMMM.  My favorite.  I'm happily eating it for breakfast.

[rv78]

Great aquisition! Defensively as good as Mauer was at 1st base and everything the Twins had hoped for offensively. 

[Old Twins Cap]

What is his contract situation for 2020?

[MABB1959]

Nice to have power all throughout the line-up.  The last few years we had barely any unless Dozier was on a hot streak or Sano was hitting but Dozier didn't have any streaks last year and Sano was not there too much.  I am thankful for power hitting at 1st and a real DH.  Last year wasn't that split by Mauer and Grossman? 

 

[nicksaviking]

 

What is his contract situation for 2020?

 

One more year of arbitration, so he'll be here in 2020 if the team still wants him. Same with Blake Parker.

 

Add in Martin Perez's and Nelson Cruz's club options, it looks like they did pretty well.

[Mr. Brooks]

Happily eating a plate of crow, so far.

[bird]

The Angels sent Cron (the 17th overall pick in 2011) to the Rays in exchange for Luis Rengifo, and then the Rays dumped him for nothing.

 

Inexplicable. A career 113 OPS+.

[Mike Sixel]

He's been good. But if they didn't spend money on more pitching because they signed him, it's hard to say what was right or not..... But it's hard for me to believe his salary was why they didn't sign RP help, so I'll say it has been a good signing.

[bird]

 

He's been good. But if they didn't spend money on more pitching because they signed him, it's hard to say what was right or not..... But it's hard for me to believe his salary was why they didn't sign RP help, so I'll say it has been a good signing.

 

 

Yeah, we don't really have much insight about the RP decision-making we've all questioned. Our intrepid beat writers are determined not to challenge the FO with tough questions about it. But I think it would be cynical to make a connection between a $4.5M Cron commitment and and spending on FA RP's.

 

If you haven't read Diehard's terrific blog on the RP subject, in which he chronicles results to-date of about two dozen talked-about FA candidates, you should. We don't know if the Yankees are brilliant or if it's dumb luck, but they snatched up about the only guys who haven't either been a disaster or pretty meh. 

 

It would be equally suspicious to credit the FO for avoiding most of these FA's, or even to credit them for getting better RP results elsewhere, than it would be to opine that the only reason they opted out was because of spending.

 

It would be nice to go in-depth with Falvine on the matter. Oh well. LaVelle had other ideas.

 

But as for Cron, Schoop, Gonzales, Cruz, and Parker? A+ grade.

[Doomtints]

Cron has been massacring lefties and there have been a lot of lefties facing the Twins lately. He will settle down a bit.

 

He will be a nice tool against the Yankees bullpen.

[USAFChief]

 

Yeah, we don't really have much insight about the RP decision-making we've all questioned. Our intrepid beat writers are determined not to challenge the FO with tough questions about it. But I think it would be cynical to make a connection between a $4.5M Cron commitment and and spending on FA RP's.

 

If you haven't read Diehard's terrific blog on the RP subject, in which he chronicles results to-date of about two dozen talked-about FA candidates, you should. We don't know if the Yankees are brilliant or if it's dumb luck, but they snatched up about the only guys who haven't either been a disaster or pretty meh. 

 

It would be equally suspicious to credit the FO for avoiding most of these FA's, or even to credit them for getting better RP results elsewhere, than it would be to opine that the only reason they opted out was because of spending.

 

It would be nice to go in-depth with Falvine on the matter. Oh well. LaVelle had other ideas.

 

But as for Cron, Schoop, Gonzales, Cruz, and Parker? A+ grade.

Nice post. 

[Thegrin]

I still wish it was Austin instead of Cron.  I still see how Austin is being misused by the Giants.  *sigh*

[jorgenswest]

I don’t think signing Cron was the block to signing late inning relief help. Their commitment to him is relatively minimal.

 

I thought it would have been better to get a left handed bat to match with Austin. I was wrong. Cron is a complete player at 1B.

[Mike Sixel]

I just checked, he's about median in 1B WAR so far.....about the same distance from 30th as 9th......I thought he'd be higher, frankly. 

[Mr. Brooks]

Cron has been massacring lefties and there have been a lot of lefties facing the Twins lately. He will settle down a bit.

 

He will be a nice tool against the Yankees bullpen.

Only 35 of his 169 plate appearances have been against lefties. So I think he's actually faced a disproportionately low ratio of lefties so far.

[jkcarew]

I just checked, he's about median in 1B WAR so far.....about the same distance from 30th as 9th......I thought he'd be higher, frankly.

 

14th in wRC+...also middle-ish. Then again, only 13 first-basemen better offensively than ours. Pretty significant improvement over recent years.

[USAFChief]

 

14th in wRC+...also middle-ish. Then again, only 13 first-basemen better offensively than ours. Pretty significant improvement over recent years.

Careful. You're close to kicking a hornet's nest.

[operation mindcrime]

CROM!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

No one needs to eat crow on this one. It’s natural to be suspicious that a team like the Rays would DFA a perfectly good first baseman like Cron still in his prime years, but apparently they did.

[drivlikejehu]

Cron is an average first baseman, that's not the kind of player the ultra-cheap Rays like to pay for, even in arbitration. Cron would be the Rays' 3rd highest-paid player for 2019 (on the Twins he's 9th highest).

 

Considering that the Rays have 1.1 WAR at 1st base for $1.4 million, while the Twins have 0.7 WAR for ~$5 million (Cron plus some cheap backups), it seems like the Rays knew what they were doing. But overall it's a win-win, given that the Twins lacked good 2019 alternatives at the position.

[Doctor Wu]

I haven't watched any games so I'm curious as to how good Cron has been defensively as a first baseman? Does he really look as good as Mauer did at that position? Is he good enough that he could earn gold glove honors at the end of the season?

[ashbury]

Considering that the Rays have 1.1 WAR at 1st base for $1.4 million

Ji-Man Choi has the majority of innings at 1B, and he is scuffling at the plate relatively - I see 0.3 WAR whether B-R or FG. Whom do you have in mind?

[notoriousgod71]

Cron is 10 RBI away from matching Mauer's 2018 total.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I was pretty meh on the signing (it was okay, nothing to get excited about) and he’s been pretty good thus far. I’m happily wrong about this one.

[Linus]

I also was meh about the signing and I was wrong. He’s good in the field and has been a definite contributor with the bat. Good call by Falvine to grab him and not worry about Austin

[Channing1964]

Here's the thing about C.J. Cron...He is a coaches son, his dad is actually a coach in the Diamondback's minor league system(Reno i think) and his brother Kevin, who is obviously from the same stock plays for Reno as well. He seems to me like a super smart defender and hes becoming a much more disciplined hitter because doesn't have to worry about his playing time anymore. For most of his career in the Angels system he was behind Pujols or some other journeyman 1b man. I think he may become a much better player than he is right now.

[Channing1964]

And even if Austin could have been competent in the outfield there was no way he was taking that 1b job. Or any bench spot either.