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Luis Cruz’s MLB Debut
By Chad Gramling | September 2, 2008
This one almost got past me. Former Wizard, Luis Cruz made his Major League Debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates on 9/2/2008, becoming the 73rd former Wizard and 11th this season to do so. That means, when Wade LeBlanc takes the mound on Wednesday, he will break the 2002 record of former Wizards to make their MLB debut’s in a single season.
Cruz went 1-4 against the Cincinnati Reds, with one hit. He collected his first MLB hit in the top of the first off Aaron Harang by lining an 0-1 fastball to left field.
There’s also a nice article about Cruz and his father on MLB.com. (Note: They misspelled Luiz’s first name throughout - Bet it happens a lot).
After years of trailing his father and trying to follow in his footsteps, Luis Cruz will do something that even his father — a 16-year professional baseball player — never did: play in a Major League game.
After finishing up a coming-out season in the Minor Leagues, Cruz was the most unexpected of the 10 players the Pirates called up from Triple-A after Indianapolis’ season ended on Monday. After starting the season with Double-A Altoona and moving up in late July, Cruz made his first big league start on Tuesday night.
Luis Cruz played with the Wizards way back in 2003 after he came to the Padres via a trade with the Boston Red Sox in exchange for 2B Cesar Crespo. He appeared in 129 games and posted a .231 average with 8 home runs, 53 RBI’s and 2 stolen bases while walking just 30 times over 481 at-bats. On the bright side, he struck out just 55 times. His lackluster offense and propensity to ground into double-plays (he led the team with 15) left much to be desired.
Similar lines followed him all the way up the Padres farm ladder to Portland this season. He was released after a disappointing .168 average with 24 strikeouts in 155 at-bats.His .216 on-base percentage didn’t help his cause either.
After his release, Cruz signed with the Pitsburgh Pirates and was assigned to Double-A Altoona before being promoted to Triple-A Indianapolis. His number, again, were not overwhelming. Between the two assignments, he hit .279 with 9 home runs and 61 RBI’s. However, while in Triple-A, he hit .325 and had a .247 on-base percentage. In fact, it may have been his late season heroics while in Indy that lead to the callup.
Cruz may be one of my all-time favorite Wizards if for no other reason than the fact that I can vividly recall Ryan Schoener (I think it was Ryan at that time) announcing his name over the PA. “Now Up to bat . . . Loo-eese Crooooze!”
September 15th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I saw the Pirates game yesterday, Sunday Sept 14, and was impressed with Cruz at shortstop and at the plate. I attended with a young fan who has always been correct about whether a player new to the Pirates will be good, and she likes Cruz a lot. He was smooth and assured in the field, and not at all overmatched at the plate.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Thansk for visiting and commenting Tom. I appreciate you relaying your thoughts on Cruz. Perhaps the kid has a future after all. He’s one of those forgotten former Wizards that I like to follow. Hoepfully he’ll be one of the players who can help turn that Pirates franchise around (during a Cubs off year, of course
).