Allen Craig...future 3rd base?

by cardsphan04 on Jun 27, 2007 11:03 AM EDT Comment 16 comments

I was just wondering what everyone thought about this guy and what his future may hold. Every day I check the updates at Future Redbirds and this guy continues to impress. He is always hitting and now his average at high A is up to .317... He seems like he has some power to with 15 homers. i really don't know much about him though, drafted? or his past? Erik or azruavatar ....maybe you guys could shed some light. i looked him up in my baseball prospects guide and found him no where. Not even ranked in our top 30 prospects and from what I can tell I think this guy might be better than Skip who was ranked liked 29th. Anyways here is his info...

http://firstinning.com/players/Allen-Craig-a

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Everything I've heard....

points to the fact that he won't be able to stick at 3rd defensively. You are right though, his bat is becoming very interesting.

Pitch to swing and misses...not contact. I've never heard of a "seeing eye K"

by bobbyballgame1 on Jun 27, 2007 12:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

i was just thinking of our future at third base...

and went to check out Travis Hansens stats, he if he is the future of anything i'd rather just not be around.

Craig's bat is impressive, but lets remember it is only High Class A ball, so we'll temper expectations until Double A comes around and we see what he can do.

by lopey986 on Jun 27, 2007 1:23 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

High A is a pitchers league...

So if a hitter does well in High A, he has a good chance of sustaining that success in Double A, which is much more of a hitters league.

Miller sucks.

by Ankiels Missing Curveball on Jun 27, 2007 2:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He did...

...hit a homer and a single yesterday...

by whopperman on Jun 27, 2007 2:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't know how his fielding skills are but....

I like what I see from the bat. I really like the improvment from low A to High A. Shows he has the skill and is willing to put in the effort. I think he deserves to be moved up to double A but i don't know who is blocking him off the top of my head. I think that if there is someone in the system showing progress at third base it may time to start a fast track on em'.

2/3rd's of the earth is covered by water, the other third is coverd by Jim Edmonds

by cardsphan04 on Jun 27, 2007 1:41 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

last month in an interview here

jeff luhnow had this to say about craig:

"Craig has impressed us with his bat both last year and this year, but he also has improved defensively and we don't know what his position will be down the road. He must have worked out a lot during the offseason, because he came into camp in great shape. I wish all the players would do that! For now he will stay at third base."

http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/story/2007/5/29/9716/65393

for whatever it's worth, he was a good enough athlete to play shortstop at the university of california, which is a pretty good program.

with respect to 3b, another name to keep in mind is wilmer alvarado, who is one level behind allen craig at quad cities, but 4 years younger. he's a product of the cards' venezuelan scouting operation. off to a bit of a slow start, but the cardinals seem to like his upside.

by lboros on Jun 27, 2007 2:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

also, don't forget about

tyler greene. his isolated power is .204 at double A, which is pretty good --- for comparison's sake, chris duncan had an iso of .184 at the same level, and about the same age. greene still has work to do (esp. improving his strike-zone judgment), but if his bat comes around he probably will have the glove to play 3d in the big leagues.

by lboros on Jun 27, 2007 3:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

need a link for ISO

yet another sabr term that I do not understand...

by silent_bob on Jun 27, 2007 4:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Isolated power

Slugging percentage minus batting average

by whopperman on Jun 27, 2007 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well in fairness

Luhnow isn't going to come out and say that Craig is a worthless layabout.

Allen Craig had an April like Mark Hamilton had a post April. I'm a fan of Craigs bat but you can see that the scouting report got out on him after that first month. When you aren't walking at all, you go from star hitter to disaster in about 2.0 seconds. It's good to see that after his K rate soaring in May he's brought it back down and is hitting for average in addition to taking some walks.

Fortunately for Craig, the Cardinals don't have any 3B to speak of in the high minors. So he can be as bad as he wants at 3B (provided it doesn't impact his offense). He's 23 (July 18th) and he's in High-A ball so temper your expectations. I hate to try and put him in a box given that he still has development time. . . but I just don't see Allen Craig making it as a MLB regular. We'll know more once he makes it to AA.

And his defense is bad. It could improve but he's been a butcher in the field so far from everything I've read/heard.

by azruavatar on Jun 27, 2007 6:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't know about anywhere else...

but Springfield seems to be a bit of a black hole at 3B.

Also, has anyone noticed how Colby's batting average has straight up began to plummet? My man's batting around .240, but he does have a pretty solid OBP (.344) and he's 11 for 11 in stolen bases. But still... the average stinks. I'm impressed by the dude's ability to draw the walk at such a young age, though.

by mynameistyler on Jun 27, 2007 2:11 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

has was doing very well

up around .300, until he got sick at the beginning of June and went through a streak where he was something like 5 for 50 with 25 k's.

There may be other issues at work as well- he's only had 5 hits in the last 10 games, but 4 were home runs, which may indicate he's trying to do too much.

Don't Panic!!!

by SleepyCA on Jun 27, 2007 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He had some bad sinus infection...

or something, made him lose a bunch of weight, and get all weak. He's over it now, and has been hitting again.

Miller sucks.

by Ankiels Missing Curveball on Jun 27, 2007 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yep

I interviewed him last week for a local entertainment mag article, and he said as much. At the time of the interview, his stats broke down as follows:

April: somewhere in the mid- to low- .200s
May: .340 (Texas League player of the month)
June: .191

But even in the week or two since then he's recovered and got a lot of his strength back. His average has been on the rise in the last week or so.

I'll probably have the interview uploaded to our site by Friday or Monday, even though it won't be linked for public viewing until next Wednesday. While about half of the questions were baseball related, the other half were more about his personal life. He had a couple of funny answer. I might be able to post a sneak preview link for this community...

.500 here we come...

by effin fisk on Jun 27, 2007 3:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs