Two Roads Diverged In A Yellow Wood

I have had two Pro Debut autographs sitting on my desk now for the better part of three weeks.  I have actually been waiting for the short season to start so that I can write a little bit about one of the players.  I probably should have just gone ahead and done some sort of write up instead of this one with a Robert Frost quote as its title.

The two prospects have kind of gone in two different directions this year.  Two roads if you will.  Numbers say they are diverging, not converging.

High road first which belongs to one of the greatest Wake Forest Demon Deacon baseball players ever.  Here is the card....

For years Will Craig was in Winston-Salem and all he did was hit the baseball.  He's now playing for the Pirates in A-Ball, after being their first round draft pick in the 2016 amateur draft, and all he is doing is hitting the ball.  In 70 games with Bradenton in the Florida State League the 1B prospect has a .291/.392/.423 line with 5 home runs, 18 doubles, and 37 RBIs.  I know a lot of people, myself included, thought he was going to hit for a ton of power in professional ball, but I am thinking something more along the lines of Sean Casey.  

This is my second Will Craig autograph.  Cool to see him in a Minor League uni on a card, especially because I think this might be my first West Virginia Black Bears card.  I am not sure at what point they changed their name to the Black Bears from the Power, but I like it.  Cool little logo too.  

Nothing to sneeze at.  Now the player I wrongly stalled for, or the low road.  Card....

Delvin Perez was drafted by the Cardinals last year in the first round because he failed a drug test and slipped all the way down the bottom of the first round.  His cards have still been expensive and there is still plenty of hype around the young shortstop.  I was hoping the season would start off well for Delvin and I could make a cool post.

Not really happening.

Like all else that has gone terrible for the Cardinals this year Delvin Perez is off to a rather slow start.  I mean like a bad six games, but I am impatient.  So far he has a .130/.230/.130 slash line with just three singles.  Seems like a drastic flip out over a small size.  True, but I am also going on vacation and trying to clear off my desk.

I am managing my expectations for the Cardinals the rest of the summer.  The bar is pretty low at this point.

The Babe Ruth of Winston-Salem

Wake Forest did not quite finish last every year that Will Craig was playing baseball for the Demon Deacons, but the team only finished at .500 once during his three years in Winston-Salem.  There place in the standings had nothing to do with Craig's on-field performance as much as it did with the fact that the Deacons are a little short on talent and play in one of the tougher baseball conferences.

He hits, he pitches, he was the greatest Wake Forest baseball player to ever don Deacs uni....

Craig was the ACC Player of the Year in 2015 and was a 1st Team All-American in 2015 and 2016.  While he did not take home any of the big hardware in college baseball, he was certainly deserving of consideration for awards like the Golden Spikes and Dick Howser Trophy.  In the end he did take home the D1Baseball National Player of the Year which is sort of like that time Ernie Banks won the MVP award when the Cubs finished in last place.  

I'm not sure how Will Craig will fair as a Major League player, but the Pirates picked him up towards the end of the 1st Round in last summer's amateur draft.  While he can hit and pitch, the Pirates have made him a full time position player, so for the moment he will have to just be Babe Ruth at the plate...I'm sure he can talk his way into pitching at some point.  

While Craig was one of the better players in the ACC over his three years in college, the Wake Forest star never appeared in any baseball card sets up until last year.  I was a little disappointed that he never appeared on any USA Baseball teams, but now that he's in the Minors it's time to catch up with some of his cards.  

I just picked up my first autograph of the former Wake Forest hitter/pitcher.  

I was happy to see Topps include the Pirates third baseman in their end of year Bowman products.  They even did a pretty good job of airbrushing his Pirates uni over his Wake Forest uni.  Craig had a nice start to his professional career last summer, so he should continue to appear on baseball cards for the foreseeable future.  In just over 200 at-bats in A ball Craig posted a .280/.412/.362 slash line.  The power is a little disappointing, but no complaints about 40 walks in 200 at bats.  

No pitching appearances.  

Will Craig is the stuff of legends in Winston-Salem and many in central North Carolina are eager to see what will become of his professional career.  While he was sort of a modern day Babe Ruth during his college career, many ACC baseball fans would take a nice solid professional career for the greatest college baseball player in the history of Wake Forest.