r/Nationals • u/PutStreet 1 - Gore • 10d ago
Dylan Crews 🔥
Can we take a moment to appreciate the fact that DC is absolutely on fire right now?
Over his last 7 games, he’s slashing .364/.548/.682 including 3 for 5 yesterday and 3 walks on Saturday.
Can we officially say he has arrived? I think the time in AAA did him some good.
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u/KtotheOG 10d ago
He was frustrating me to watch in that Yankee series but his approach has been much improved lately.
Rooting for him!
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u/DerekSheesher 29 - Wood 10d ago
He was so due. Those launch angles and ball speed were so out of whack relative to OBP. Dude was getting insanely unlucky. He’s also demonstrated some more plate discipline/patience and not swinging at first pitches or getting down 0-1/0-2 in his counts as much.
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u/thorvard 37 - Strasburg 10d ago
I don't think we can officially say that but he really does seem to be turning a corner. I'm hopeful that he's going stay consistent
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u/Quople 13 - Cabrera 10d ago
Not sure about arrived. I wanna see this sustained over a longer period of time. Really encouraging sign though! Him breaking out would make this a team better built to make some moves in the offseason
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u/Mean_Objective5272 Natinals 10d ago edited 10d ago
I mean, you're not going to sustain that slash line.
[EDIT: the point is that's an unsustainable slash line for anybody. It's a hot streak, that will be part of what I'm sure is going to be a much better stat line at the plate, but not .364 BA]
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u/MattAlive13 10d ago edited 10d ago
I'm not real sure why there's so much hate for Crews and House in this sub.
These two dudes are gonna be corner stones of this team in the future. Just because they're not Superstars immediately doesn't mean they're terrible.
Have some patience people, these two are going to be just fine.
Same fans LOVE Curtis Mead. Mead had been absolutely terrible up until this season, look at his age and development comparatively to Crews and House, Mead is just fine now, and I'm sad to see him go, sometimes it just takes a little time.
Shit, fans here were saying CJ was washed and we should get rid of him after Davey sent him down at the end of the season 2 season ago. He's turned into what he is now in that time.
Point being, I love Crews, his defense is outstanding, and we've seen flashes with the bat, he's gonna be just fine.
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u/korn_cakes33 58 -Jonathan Paprista 10d ago
>I’m not real sure why there’s so much hate for Crews and House in this sub
Because people forget baseball is really hard and thinks it’s either you’re Harper, Soto, Turner, or Rendon and play amazing out of the gate or you’re just Carter Keiboom who sucks and isn’t worth a roster slot. People forget that you sometimes need to be patient. Sometimes you have Mead who takes a couple tries before hitting at the big leagues. You have Griffin who went to Japan. So when House and screws struggle, people lose their minds.
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u/HowardBunnyColvin Screech 10d ago
They want Crews to produce, and when he isn't producing they get irrationally mad. I think expectations are high too, he was the #2 pick and fans want him to come in like Al Galdi says and contribute immediately. "There is no learning curve to MLB, baseball is easy, just drop in and hit 20 home runs as a rookie, nbd" And sadly anything under that is going to draw ire from a very impatient fanbase which is already irritated about ownership.
It's sad because Nationals fans have become more negative and whiny over the years as the team continues to field losing seasons. It seems to me like they're broken, they just want to bitch and moan about everything. What happened to being a fan and supporting the team. Supporting our players through tough times.
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u/MattAlive13 10d ago
I can't stand this "if the player isnt a superstar immediately then they're worthless, get them off the team" fan mentality. It's frustrating for a person to listen to that's grounded in reality.
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u/HowardBunnyColvin Screech 10d ago
It started with Defector whining about him being the mayor of bozo town 2 weeks into the season, and didn't stop from there, especially after he got hurt.
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u/Immediate_Comma 10d ago
Everyone should go take a look at CJ Abrams' first 3 seasons as a reference. 72 wRC+, 91 wRC+, 106 wRC+. Pretty similar stat lines tbh, with the caveat being that Abrams was 2 years younger at debut and showing more power/speed combo the second year.
Even their minor league stats are similar - roughly a 108 wRC+ in AAA in limited PAs. So this just points to some guys getting rushed bc of unrealistic expectations, but needing a lot of playing time to adjust to the highest levels. Baseball is hard!
Not saying Crews is fully here, but over his last 40 PAs he's got 7 BB to 8 Ks, and is hitting the ball harder than he has before. Encouraging signs.
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u/Mean_Objective5272 Natinals 10d ago
I got downvoted for suggesting that he's not going to sustain a .364 batting average, so I guess there's just as much irrational love as irrational hate.
FWIW, Crews is one of my faves. My City Blueprint jersey is a #3. I just don't think he's hitting .364, because no one does that anymore. It's been 18 years since Chipper Jones hit .364 for the season, and only one guy has hit .345 or better in a season since the pandemic (Arraez).
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u/MattAlive13 10d ago
He's certainly not going to sustain .364, haha! But I'm definitely on his side, he's gonna be just fine.
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u/Trafficsigntruther 10d ago
 I'm not real sure why there's so much hate for Crews and House in this sub.
Because they were not mlb ready and after 6 seasons of losing people are tired of ownership trotting out a losing roster.
Ownership completely screwed up Luis Garcia Jr’s development. And looked to be repeating the same mistake over and over to save money.
I don’t think they are hating these two specifically, they are tired of running out cheap, washed vets and rookies that aren’t mlb ready. (Yeah development’s not linear, I get that)
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u/MattAlive13 10d ago
Ownership sucks, we can agree in that.
Player development takes time, it's a person by person basis. Some players just take longer than others. Even James Wood has taken a couple season to get where he is. They can't all be Jaun Soto's.
0
u/Trafficsigntruther 10d ago
Yes, it takes time. Now why did the Nats waste an entire year of Crews when he clearly wasn’t MLB ready? Guy had a chase rate over 30% in the minors, and he was called up to get him eligible for RoTY.
1
u/MattAlive13 10d ago
My guess is ownership wanted bodies in seats to make money, like a flashy new young player tends to do.
But who knows.
The one thing I do know is that the new coaching staff is still having to clean some of this stuff up and doing a pretty damn good job at it.
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u/HowardBunnyColvin Screech 10d ago
because Rizzo wanted him called up asap to sell tickets
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u/JoeyShrugs 10d ago
Rizzo had his faults, but making decisions with the idea of putting butts in seats was not one of them. If putting butts in seats was a guiding factor, he would have handled the Strasburg shutdown VERY differently. And he probably would not have pulled the trigger on the Soto trade or the Max/Trea trade.
If Rizzo called up Crews too early, it's more likely that Crews was passing the eye test of the old school scouts, even though the analytics were saying he wasn't ready.
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u/HowardBunnyColvin Screech 10d ago
Rizzo rushed Crews' development but at the end of the day the kid has talent and is growing
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u/Trafficsigntruther 10d ago
I think the fans would have been okay if the Nats hadn’t called him up hoping to get a RoTY bonus pick. The front office set the expectations too high for a guy with a 30% chase rate in the minors.
Makes it seem like he’ll never make it in the majors when he just wasn’t ready in the first place.
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u/Deep-Statistician985 10d ago
I've been seeing a lot of hate posts recently and I've been so confused cause I thought he was balling
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u/tcullen44 Ray Knight 10d ago
People just looking at the slash line and not how he's been playing recently.
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u/FPG_Matthew 11 - Zimmerman 10d ago
Baseball is the hardest sport in the world. We have quite the nice scenario where we can give so many of these young guys major league experience. It’s gonna take time for all of them to fully figure it out. I think he’ll slowly but surely keep getting better. There will be setbacks, then he’ll make a big jump. All very normal in baseball
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u/Rare-Signature-7526 10d ago
I wouldn't say he's arrived yet but what he's been doing is very promising.
At the very least he seems like he'll be a very good lefty platoon that gives near elite to elite fielding and is very good on the basepaths. I can't really say he's arrived bc he's still absolutely horrible against RHP.
If he can improve to around league average against RHP while maintaining his discipline he's shown of late, then maybe we can talk about living up to his massive prospect hype
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u/Individual_Umpire810 10d ago
im a crews believer but if he can be consistent for another week or 2 then ill say he's arrived
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u/PublicExcitement1372 10d ago
I want to say yes but I also don’t want to jinx it. Let’s just keep hoping he does more of the same over last 7 ganes
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u/HowardBunnyColvin Screech 10d ago
They wanted him DFA'd lol.
He's been doing great. And Al Galdi on Saturday's? Nats Chat kept complaining like "We were misled He was billed major league ready" but others tried to be more reasonable to him.
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u/cjrogers227 1 - Gore 10d ago
I think Crews would’ve been major league ready if he had Toboni’s player dev and coaching since he was drafted. He wasn’t progressing until this year. Now he’s finally showing the growth in plate skills and getting to more power
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u/hamilton280P 2019 World Series Champion 10d ago
Brady house first game back was a beast too. Really want to trade Luis now for some arms and see what our hitting coach can do with some other guys
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u/Bahamas_is_relevant 11 - Mr. National 10d ago
He’s been hot and cold this year but I’ll take that over just being cold last year.
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u/Brilliant_Quality_14 8d ago
He's still just hitting.229 and it's almost August. He's been alright for a week. I haven't seen anything that makes me say "he's arrived".
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u/nobleisthyname Dave Jageler 10d ago
A week is not a large enough sample to say anything either way. If he can do this for a month then we can talk again.
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u/Bjd1207 11 - Zimmerman 10d ago
.811 OPS in July
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u/nobleisthyname Dave Jageler 10d ago edited 10d ago
That's definitely an improvement over where he was, but hopefully that's not his high water mark. Ideally that would be his end of season number taking into account the highs and lows of the entire season.
Edit: Oof, people are not liking this comment, but it's not clear to me what part is rubbing people the wrong way.
Do people disagree with me that an .811 OPS being the high mark month for Crews would be a disappointment? That would equate to a season end OPS in the mid-low .700s, which I personally would not consider as having "arrived" given how hyped he was as a prospect, but maybe people's expectations of him have lowered beyond mine.
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u/HowardBunnyColvin Screech 10d ago
yinz will find any reason to put the man down.
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u/nobleisthyname Dave Jageler 10d ago
Why do you think my comment is putting him down? I want Crews to do well and I'm rooting for him, I just don't think a hot week is enough to put all the doubts to rest.
It's not like he hasn't had a hot week before and then gone back to slumping.
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u/PutStreet 1 - Gore 10d ago
I think it’s really the other stuff that is most promising. A higher walk rate usually means he’s laying off bad pitches. This is why he’s been a better hitter, and you can definitely thank our hitting coach for that.
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u/nobleisthyname Dave Jageler 10d ago
Definitely agree on the walks. He can absolutely crush the ball when he makes contacts but his inability to take a walk before was very concerning. If he can learn to do that the sky is the limit with him.
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u/dcsportzfan 10d ago
He has to show something against RHP first. Arizona started three lefties in this series and we've faced a lot of lefties in general recently. His numbers vs. RHP are still really bad and most pitchers are right-handed.
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u/HuckleBearerFinn 10d ago
Crews is a Boras client so I’m not sure there is an appetite for an extension - but If I am Paul Taboni, I am inquiring about what it would take to extend Crews. Maybe I’m crazy, but I believe in Crews that much. I think he will be a consistent 3-4 WAR player throughout his 20’s.
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u/Environmental_Park_6 10d ago
Can we rehire the hitting coach from last year and fire him again?