Pirates sign Juan Cruz

[Steelreign]

He was 5-0 with a 3.38 ERA last year in 50 relief appearances with Tampa. He has good stuff and could be a solid addition to the bullpen.

[Pirate Fan in KW]

I saw him pitch in a couple of Rays game I attended last season. Looks like he has pretty good stuff. I hope he makes it to the bigs for us instead of the minors.

[Steelreign]

He still has good stuff and would be a good 7th inning guy imo.

[Kipper]

From Tom Singer...

Cruz Control

McGehee, however, did not come cheaply. The price to the Pirates was reliever Jose Veras, who had ranked second in the NL with 79 appearances in which he was pretty valuable. How valuable? The Pirates went 40-39 in those games.

But they may just have found a replacement for Veras the other day, in one of those low-profile signings that are typical for this late stage of the offseason. Righty reliever Juan Cruz was one of about a dozen free agents last week to sign Minor League contracts that came with invitations to Spring Training.

Don’t read Cruz’s prospects into his “non-roster” status. The Pirates couldn’t offer him a more secure deal because, at 40, their Major League roster is filled to capacity. You bring guys like him into camp and if they show you their goods, you make the necessary roster moves to create room.

Cruz has had some notable dips in his career graph but overall has been a major bullpen weapon for 11 years. The Tampa Bay Rays are experts at career revivals, and they turned Cruz into one of their successful projects last season. Although often used in mop-up roles, he did post a 3.88 ERA in 56 outings and was perfect in five decisions.

That marked the fourth time in eight years that Cruz had a sub-4.00 ERA in 50-plus appearances.
He could go quickly from afterthought to the forefront.


http://tomsinger.mlblogs.com/2012/02/03/cruz-control/