[nychief]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

You can't trust Cruz with the bat, either. They had a virtually identical OPS last year and their K/BB rates are almost identical (Cruz a little less likely to strike out, Butera a little more likely to walk).

Cruz is horrible man. And I'm not saying this to shit on the Royals, this is purely shitting on Cruz. In 600+ ABs, Cruz has a WAR of -2.8 That's below replacement level, mind you. Not even 2.8 wins below average, which would be pretty damn impressive in only 630ish ABs. But nearly 3 wins below 'random guy plucked from any minor league system' in about a single season worth of plate appearances.

That's some seriously condensed suck right there. Butera's only a -1.7 in 850 plate appearances.

Like I said, it's difficult for me to really make a comparison between the two guys because I've seen Butera play maybe twice, but if you're saying that Butera was at least a sound defensive catcher, then he's a better player than Cruz. And if you just give a quick glance at WAR over their respective careers, it would seem to back that.

I'd keep Pete Kozma on the team over Tony Cruz and that's about the most damning thing I can say about a major league player. Yes, Tony Cruz is just that terrible.

We released Pena... We gave up nothing. Who gives a shit.