Oneil Cruz with the great play here on Pirates bowed out after making their second consecutive postseason appearance, coming on the heels of 20 straight losing season, the all-time record for futility in North American major professional sports.įirst baseman Brandon Belt had two hits and three RBIs for the Giants. So you can understand that his skills aren't just in explosive movements, but also manifest in fluid movements, take a look at this play in the hole: The Pirates are hoping that Cruz will grow into average defensive ability at shortstop and he has been a bit below that this year by the metrics - but still within spitting distance of average. That said, StatCast is helping us see that he's probably an 80 at peak speed, which might the most unbelievable figure yet. If you judge speed by timed running that includes starting from a still position, this tool doesn't grade as an 80 like his power and arm strength. For reference, Stanton is eighth-from-last at 24.2 feet/second, while Judge is around average at 27.3.Īgain, there isn't really a size comparable for Cruz, but he's notably faster than anyone who has physical traits even close to in common with him. If we work our way down the list to just find some players who are over 230 pounds or are at least 6-3, we find Julio Rodriguez (7th, 29.7 feet/second), Mike Trout (12th, 29.4), Bryson Stott (30th, 29.0), Ohtani (65th, 28.3) and Cody Bellinger (89th, 28.1). at 6-1, 200 pounds, which makes me think we need to at least try to find some players closer to Cruz's size. Of those three players ahead of him, the biggest is Bobby Witt Jr. We've sorted the teams with the most star power under control through 2024. While his home-to-first speed actually times out as average-to-a-little-better, his top speed (30.1 feet per second) is fourth in baseball among those with 80-plus competitive runs. Long-limbed players are often goofy and only fast because of long strides, and baseball isn't really conducive to running in a straight line for very long. You'd think the lanky, 6-7 player wouldn't also be the fastest - or even fast at all, for that matter - because he'd take so long to get going to reach top speed. While his arm strength certainly could justify that, it is clearly not the case. Some scouts who saw Cruz early in his pro career assumed a player this tall couldn't hit well enough to survive even in the upper minors and he should be put on the mound. I think it's safe to assume that Cruz might have literal lightning pulsing through his arms. I have confirmed that this is still the hardest-thrown infield assist in the StatCast era. Oneil Cruz with the fastest recorded infield assist in the Statcast era! /YohXbtBTB8- MLB Pipeline July 14, 2022 I also graded Cruz's arm strength as an 80 in the scouting reports from the Top 100 and I think you can see where this is headed: Cruz will always come with some strikeouts, but the adjustments he makes over the next couple of years will be key. He is letting some good pitches go by in favor of being more selective, but he still chases at an above-average rate and, because of his arm length and swing plane, still swings and misses at an above-average rate. Oneil Cruz launches his first MLB home run 408 feet in #Game162! /4jPIVgsrH3- MLB Pipeline October 3, 2021įor context on how this fits into his overall offensive game: He has reduced his swing rate to below big league average now, so pitch selection isn't the main issue. In his second big league game he did this, prompting me to compare his arms to boom mics: In his very first big league game, he hit a ball 118.2 mph. This isn't an isolated event he was doing wacky stuff in his two-game big league debut at the end of last season. This is actually the hardest hit ball in the StatCast era (back to 2015), narrowly beating out a gaggle of 120-plus mph Stanton batted balls. Oneil Cruz just hit the hardest-hit batted ball in Statcast era history! /bC9loelBoG- MLB August 24, 2022 How has that raw ability translated to the big league level? I give to you the hardest hit ball of the 2022 season: In the Top 100, I graded Cruz's raw power as a present 80 (the top number in the scale), so you should be expecting Aaron Judge/ Giancarlo Stanton/ Shohei Ohtani-level exit velocities immediately, even if not that often, since the hit tool - or frequency of hitting the ball hard - is a separate skill. Let me take you on a guided tour of the most delightful talent in our game. It's like someone went a little too wild using the create-a-player feature on a video game.Ĭruz's surface numbers as a rookie are just OK, hovering around league-average offensively - but that's flattening the most fun player in baseball into an OPS number. In case you aren't familiar with him - and brace yourselves if you're new here - Cruz is a 6-foot-7, lefty-hitting shortstop with the most raw power in the entire league, in addition to top-tier speed and league-leading arm strength.
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