His 40.4% K rate also ranks third among all relievers (AL and NL) with 10 or more innings pitched.
Per the Athletic, Blake and co. have tweaked Cruz's stance on the mound, dropped his cutter, mixed in a sinker to use with his fastball, and of course are having him spam that splitter, which he throws about half the time now. He's avoiding more hard contact and pitching a 2.25 ERA.
Love to see it from a lifelong Yankee fan. “I am helping my dream team win games in key situations,” Cruz said. “It’s just a dream come true. It’s a dream for me. I am really grateful and content and really happy for what’s happening with me.”
13 comments
Turn Cruz into the setup man and put Weaver back in as closer.
Another Cashman move that will get overlooked
on my list of most trusted relievers he’s 3rd after weave and hill
Dude is so transparent and genuine. Hard not to love him already.
So far an ok move… just would he would stop walking so many batters.
Saw the splitter in person yesterday and how the fuck is anyone supposed to hit that 😭
I feel really good about our bullpen, despite the issues with Williams. He’s been a great RP for years, so I think he figures it out eventually.
Williams/Weaver/Cruz/Leiter (yes, he’s been good!)/Hill can be pretty lethal. Add on Loasiaga and/or Hamilton if they can provide solid output, and that’s a fantastic bullpen to work with.
Now we just need some SP length so they’re not all dead by the end of the year…
Major difference with Cruz from all these tweaks is that most contact made is much softer than before. before if you made contact with any non-splitter pitch it was almost a guaranteed XBH.
Think it’s interesting we’ve been using him in spots to give Weaver and Williams innings off. He’s looked a lil shaky but he got it done in tough situations both times.
love Sharky
Sharkie
OK?
I’ve been saying he was gonna do this. It’s not a surprise at all, Matt Blake is a freaking hero. Been saying it for a while.
I knew he would be leading the league in strikeouts on April 21st, you can go all the way back to when I read this post that he was leading the lead in strikeouts to see me saying that he would be leading the league in strikeouts on April 21st.
With Williams seemingly forgotten how to do his job I really think Cruz/Weaver is the new answer as the current setup/closer combo.
There’s a 6 game stretch coming up vs Toronto and Baltimore at the end of April and the bullpen has got to be sharp for those games, no more giveaways to other AL East teams.
Cruz started throwing his splitter more and added a sinker back to his arsenal
Just your average Matt Blake masterpiece
#THIS IS THE DAWNING OF THE AGE OF CRUZQUARIUS