Kevin Gorman

O'Neal Cruz had 38 and the majors tied for National League lead.

That would put some serious speed on the base pass for, you know, whatever the order follows with, you know, Reynolds, Lau, O'Hearn, Ozuna.

You know, you could drive in some serious runs with those guys on the bases.

And I think that's tantalizing.

There's also, you know, a feeling among the Pirates that Griffin only has 98 plate appearances above O'Neal.

Class A baseball.

And even though he was dominant in double A in Altoona last year, in those 21 games that he played, they may want to get him some more seasoning before they bring him up.

But he's a guy who's drawn comparisons in terms of stature to Alex Rodriguez, in terms of style of play to Bobby Wood Jr.

And those are pretty heady comparisons.

You're talking about, you know, some superstar shortstops.

And I think Connor Griffin has all the talent in the world.

And I think even if he's not on the opening day lineup and not in the starting lineup on opening day, he's going to be there soon enough.

A couple years ago, we talked about Paul Skeens.

I thought the Pirates needed to be careful about him so they could have him at the end of the season because there was a major jump from being a part-time pitcher at Air Force to full-time pitcher at LSU to jumping to the majors the next year.

I don't think that Connor Griffin necessarily has to... I think you can take the reins off.

You don't necessarily have to hold him back.

I think this is a guy who is going to...

embrace the challenges just like he did in facing schemes, and I think he's going to thrive by playing against better competition.

That's just the read I get from him.

Now, we'll see how he fares in grapefruit league games.