Down the Rabbit Hole (33.27): Manceau, Crauen Debut

[bpbrooksy]

With the rosters expanding as the season winds to a close, Edmonton filled up their active roster with 38 Rabbits, missing just one from the 40-man roster (Malcolm Guesne (6/7/7/5/6 Talents), still in recovery from an elbow injury.) Two of the most intriguing additions are rookie starting pitcher Maxime Manceau (7/8/7 Talents) and recent first-round outfielder Declan Crauen (7/8/7/5/7 Talents).

Manceau spent parts of the last two seasons at Edmonton's Triple-A affiliate in Winnipeg. This season, he had an ERA of 3.05, an ERA+ of 138, and 3.7 WAR in around 180 innings. Ideally, Manceau will immediately follow staff ace Bobby Lynch (10/7/9 Talents) next year, both in the rotation order and in production. His major-league debut could have gone better -- Manceau made it just five innings, giving up four runs on eight hits, and both walking and striking out three batters each. He'll get a crack at Calgary this week, who should be a slightly easier opponent than Havana.

Declan Crauen (7/8/7/5/7 Talents) is trying to earn his way into the 2034 lineup, making the jump to the big leagues directly from Double-A this September. Crauen was a .310 hitter in Saskatchewan, with a very even keel at the plate (55/50 K/BB ratio) and plenty of power (55 extra-base hits in 102 starts.) So far, Crauen has been loving BBA pitching, too. In six starts out of the leadoff spot since his call-up, Crauen is 8-for-19 with a homer and more free passes than K's.

If all goes well, both Crauen and Manceau will impress in September and next spring, and bump some dead weight off next season's Opening Day roster.

[ae37jr]

The young rabbits are just about ready to spring into action and change the landscape of the Pacific division.

[bpbrooksy]

The young rabbits are just about ready to spring into action and change the landscape of the Pacific division.

Here's hoping!

This is going to be an interesting offseason for us. We have a lot of money to spend and we'll see how much of a (financially reasonable) team we can field around the young core.