time to call up kroeger?

[MrApril]

Craig hasn't been rostered and has been available in the rule 5 draft for at least a couple years now. that he hasn't been picked by anyone tells you how other orgs feel about him, too.

 

and jack cust was available to any team in baseball for a couple of years if they were willing to put him on their major league roster. he only had the #8 OPS+ in the AL last year.

 

The Rule V draft is filled with guys who can't play and guys that can play at a high level...to me its just as big of a crap shoot as the regular draft, but you have to have to roster space in order to draft...maybe two or three teams a year can draft a guy and sit him on the bench for the entire year and not handcuff their 25 man roster.

 

For me, I guess I'm just tired of seeing all these upstart, young, teams like the Marlins, Rays, Diamondbacks(remember last years sweep), Rockies(last years NL champ), etc...beat up on my Cubbies using "their" young and developed guys while we use our highly overpaid free agent guys. Obviously those teams know how to develop and push guys, and we don't...So give Kroger and Craig a chance, we just might stumble upon something good with them.

Craig would be an old man on the Marlins, Rays, and Diamondbacks. He's neither young nor developed. Kroger on the other hand might be worth a shot in a platoon situation.

 

again, this is because he hasn't been advanced by the cubs. he hit very well (.275/.363/.509/.872) in his FIRST crack at AA at age 23. since then the cubs have not moved him anywhere. why should he be punished and thrown in the non-prospect Dusty because of this? move him up to iowa - where he should've been about 3 years ago - and see if he can play at a high level there. the PECOTA numbers and his solid patience suggest that he could be a decent RH bat off the bench, so why not at least give this somewhat of a chance?

 

I had to go back aways in the ole memory, but I first saw Craig in 2004 in the AA All-Star game playing along side Soto and Cedeno, where he had better numbers then both of them. One can only imagine what we would have now if he had been pushed along and given the same chances as both Soto and Cedeno. Switch hitting corner guys are as rare as left-handed power pitching starters....would you hold one of those guys back or would you push him along and give him every opportunity to contribute to the big league club?

[treebird]

I had to go back aways in the ole memory, but I first saw Craig in 2004 in the AA All-Star game playing along side Soto and Cedeno, where he had better numbers then both of them. One can only imagine what we would have now if he had been pushed along and given the same chances as both Soto and Cedeno. Switch hitting corner guys are as rare as left-handed power pitching starters....would you hold one of those guys back or would you push him along and give him every opportunity to contribute to the big league club?

 

guys who bat left and throw right are really rare too, but that doesn't mean they're all that special. it'd be nice if we had a two-headed pinch-hitter, but it's not exactly a huge loss that he didn't work out.