Cruz Control

Back in May, we noticed that Nelson Cruz was blistering the baseball in the PCL and deserved another shot in the major leagues. The Rangers didn’t have any problems scoring runs, though, so Cruz stayed in Triple-A for most of the season, only finally getting back to Texas on August 25th.

He’s doing his best to show the world that he really should have been up months ago. In 46 at-bats since his return, Cruz is hitting .326/.404/.609, showing that his monstrous performance in Oklahoma wasn’t a fluke. He’s always been able to hit a fastball a long way, but with his more selective approach at the plate, Cruz is a bonafide major league hitter.

Despite the solid performances from Marlon Byrd, David Murphy, and Brandon Boggs, not to mention that Hamilton kid, the Rangers need to find room for Cruz in their line-up. Yes, Texas’ offense is already awesome, but sometimes the easiest way to improve a ballclub is not to address the glaring weakness – there’s not a cap on runs scored, and having Cruz’s bat in the line-up will help make up for the fact that they still can’t pitch and his teammates can’t field.

It looks like Cruz is going to play pretty much everyday the rest of the year, and hopefully, Texas will realize that their best line-up going forward has Nelson Cruz in it everyday.