Why Pete Crow-Armstrong Should Stay When Seiya Suzuki Returns

The hope is that PCA is a long term fixture in the lineup, his development should take precedence over the marginal benefit to late inning defense/baserunning(neither of which are huge gaps without him).  Let him go back to Iowa and at least look MLB-ready there(he was not before his callup), then I think the argument for him to come up and be a part-time player gets a lot stronger.

yeah, TT is right. He needs the ABs at Iowa. If his bat doesn't play, he's fast Nick Madrigal in the OF

I say Happ goes to the IL when Seiya is back, you kick Belli to RF, Tauchman to LF and let Seiya DH.  Something is clearly not right with Ian right now.

9 minutes ago, mul21 said:

I say Happ goes to the IL when Seiya is back, you kick Belli to RF, Tauchman to LF and let Seiya DH.  Something is clearly not right with Ian right now.

This is where I lean too.  I think it's just bumps and bruises so should be a minimum stint, but get Happ right and keep PCA up through then, and then like TT said send Pete down because he clearly still needs the ABs (though I personally think he's looked better than his slash line).

2 hours ago, Bertz said:

This is where I lean too.  I think it's just bumps and bruises so should be a minimum stint, but get Happ right and keep PCA up through then, and then like TT said send Pete down because he clearly still needs the ABs (though I personally think he's looked better than his slash line).

I don't think that's happening. I won't say it *couldn't*, and I'm divided on whether it *should*, but I doubt it will. Happ wants to be in there, and what he's dealing with (lingering hamstring issue) is not serious enough to push him out, in his own opinion. That matters, here.

4 hours ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

The hope is that PCA is a long term fixture in the lineup, his development should take precedence over the marginal benefit to late inning defense/baserunning(neither of which are huge gaps without him).  Let him go back to Iowa and at least look MLB-ready there(he was not before his callup), then I think the argument for him to come up and be a part-time player gets a lot stronger.

I don't *WHOLLY* buy this, but it's worth noting that a lot of baseball people say AAA is worse than it's been in a long time right now. I'm not sure it's serving a strong developmental purpose for players at PCA's phase.

Personally, I like the idea of batting him ninth, never giving him a third PA in a game unless it be in very low leverage, but getting his defense for at least the first six or seven innings most days. (I know that's not how most people think about substitutions, taking *out* your defensive stud late, but I have long felt that was an unexplored place to find value. More balls in play early in games, before the strikeout dudes in the bullpen come in. Plus you can keep more options open for the moment in the 5th-8th when his spot is due, see what kind of hitter (righty? lefty? power? contact?) the situation demands, and you haven't burned anyone.

2 minutes ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

I don't *WHOLLY* buy this, but it's worth noting that a lot of baseball people say AAA is worse than it's been in a long time right now. I'm not sure it's serving a strong developmental purpose for players at PCA's phase.

Personally, I like the idea of batting him ninth, never giving him a third PA in a game unless it be in very low leverage, but getting his defense for at least the first six or seven innings most days. (I know that's not how most people think about substitutions, taking *out* your defensive stud late, but I have long felt that was an unexplored place to find value. More balls in play early in games, before the strikeout dudes in the bullpen come in. Plus you can keep more options open for the moment in the 5th-8th when his spot is due, see what kind of hitter (righty? lefty? power? contact?) the situation demands, and you haven't burned anyone.

I find myself more and more on an island with this among the analytical baseball obsessives so I'll admit my bias there, but I think the AAA outcomes are still meaningful.  If he was doing fine to decent but still had some yellow flags about his productivity translating to MLB, I get that argument and don't have a strong objection(especially considering the defensive value).  The sticking point for me is he was not good at Iowa pre-callup, pretty much across the board.  Not hitting for average, not hitting for much power considering league/park, not walking, not avoiding Ks, his wRC+ is higher in Chicago!  That's the foundation for my thinking, let him get to the point where we can even question if he'll translate, because especially if we think AAA is further from MLB than ever, him regressing across the board(from a fairly modest 2023 line) in his time at Iowa tells me he should spend more time there.

1 hour ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

I find myself more and more on an island with this among the analytical baseball obsessives so I'll admit my bias there, but I think the AAA outcomes are still meaningful.  If he was doing fine to decent but still had some yellow flags about his productivity translating to MLB, I get that argument and don't have a strong objection(especially considering the defensive value).  The sticking point for me is he was not good at Iowa pre-callup, pretty much across the board.  Not hitting for average, not hitting for much power considering league/park, not walking, not avoiding Ks, his wRC+ is higher in Chicago!  That's the foundation for my thinking, let him get to the point where we can even question if he'll translate, because especially if we think AAA is further from MLB than ever, him regressing across the board(from a fairly modest 2023 line) in his time at Iowa tells me he should spend more time there.

I *am* with you on that part; I think I wrote as much when he came up. My thing (and here's where *I'm* probably on an island, but so it goes) is that I'm not sure development is ever coming. I hated the approach he was taking in Iowa, just swinging at everything when it seemed like he needed to be working on exactly the opposite. And he looks overmatched a LOT at this level, and the approach sucks. I increasingly view him as living somewhere at the intersection of Corey Patterson, Brett Jackson, and Félix Pie. He's probably got a few years as a second-division regular in him, but I'm not buying him as a long-term answer at this stage. So I could see keeping him and trusting that whatever improvements he's still capable of can just as easily be made in a defense-forward part-time role, which is where I'd be aiming to settle him anyway.