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00:03 - All right, let's shift our focus now
00:04 down to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
00:06 And this is a team that last season were hot, hot, hot
00:10 until one guy went down.
00:12 Well, look who's cold again.
00:14 And honestly, Joe, we talked about this
00:16 from a baseball perspective.
00:17 They've moved Aniel Cruz up and down in the order.
00:19 I have him hitting A time here.
00:21 Let the guy just hit wherever you need him to hit.
00:24 He's got the tools.
00:25 I mean, if you look at him and you look at Elie De La Cruz
00:27 from a physical standpoint, they have a similar makeup,
00:30 but that's where the similarities stop,
00:32 in my opinion, thoughts?
00:34 - Look, I don't get this.
00:35 The Pirates are a team
00:38 that needs to be developing the future.
00:40 Ono Cruz is the future.
00:41 Why are you dropping him to the eighth spot?
00:43 What are we doing here?
00:44 Leave him at the top of the order.
00:45 Let him continue to get at bats and work through it.
00:47 That's it.
00:48 That's the only answer here.
00:49 And he is a player that always has a high strikeout rate.
00:51 So you had to take that into account.
00:52 There's gonna be some struggle.
00:54 And the last week has not been good.
00:55 - You're right. A lot of players have that nowadays.
00:58 So you have to think the good with the bad.
00:59 Look at Elie De La Cruz, right?
01:00 Everybody was freaking out the first week
01:01 where he had a lot of strikeouts
01:02 and he wasn't making good contact.
01:04 The Reds just left him alone.
01:06 And look what happened.
01:06 The guy has been lights out ever since.
01:09 Leave O'Neal Cruz alone.
01:11 I know the last seven days have been bad.
01:13 26 at bats, no homers, 13 strikeouts.
01:16 I know that's terrible.
01:17 Buck 57 batting average.
01:19 I get it. He's hitting 214 on the year.
01:20 I understand.
01:22 And the OPS, 379 over the last seven days.
01:25 Not good.
01:26 But O'Neal Cruz is a better player than this.
01:27 In fact, this is a great buy low opportunity on Cruz.
01:29 He's a very talented player.
01:31 He's got a lot of upside.
01:32 So if somebody is very frustrated early on with him,
01:34 yeah, go out there, throw out that low ball offer
01:36 and try to get O'Neal Cruz.
01:37 But the Pirates are doing themselves and him a disservice
01:41 by dropping him in the order.
01:42 It makes no sense to me.
01:43 It's not how he's gonna get better by seeing worse pitches.
01:46 He needs to be at the top of the order
01:47 in front of good hitters to see good fastballs
01:49 that he can actually hit and work through it.
01:51 Don't drop this kid.
01:52 It ruins confidence and it ruins the opportunity
01:54 to get good pitches to hit.
01:55 It makes no sense to me.
01:57 The Pirates need a little bit of a check here.
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