Let's Geaux: Dylan Crews

[JCA-CrystalCity]

BABIP giveth, BABIP taketh away.

Through 8/20, Crews had a BABIP of .249 and a batting average of .209. For a guy who hits  the ball  hard (44% of  his contact) and is fast, that's absurd.

From 8/21-28, Crews had a BABIP of .435 and a batting  average of .323. He's done this with a slight drop in his hard hit rate (39%) and increasing his GB% to 52.2% from 38.6%.

xwOBA up to 8/20 was .315. Since then, it's .327.

[imref]

.919 OPS last 7 games.

[NatsLSU]

Awesome walk off! Was that really the first walk off for the team this season? Insane.

[varoadking]

Curious...where are all the DC3 fanbois following an 0-11 performance over his last three games?  Y'all lost your minds when he got a single on Sunday...



.204/.248/.311/.559 over 103AB's in August...

...and he continues to be a model of consistency:

2026 Regular Season with 329AB's:     .216/.287/.356/.643

Career Regular Season with 741AB's:  .213/.284/.354/.638

He needs to be gone...

[spidernat]

Curious...where are all the DC3 fanbois following an 0-11 performance over his last three games?  Y'all lost your minds when he got a single on Sunday...

They can be found in aisle 3 at Kroger.

[Slateman]

Curious...where are all the DC3 fanbois following an 0-11 performance over his last three games?  Y'all lost your minds when he got a single on Sunday...



.204/.248/.311/.559 over 103AB's in August...

...and he continues to be a model of consistency:

2026 Regular Season with 329AB's:     .216/.287/.356/.643

Career Regular Season with 741AB's:  .213/.284/.354/.638

He needs to be gone...

.229 xBA, .366 xSLG in August. So getting slightly unlucky. His last 10 games he's hitting .256/.341/.359. The increase in walk rate is pretty significant.

Quite frankly, there's no reason not to play him. This team isn't trying to win. They're using the rest of the season to develop and evaluate players. Crews is showing some signs of improvement and should continue to get playing time. He'll probably get more to start next year, as they will want to see if the offseason development plan has any results. They can punt at any time for really no money and use Pickney as a 4th OFer.

[Natsinpwc]

Yea just play him and maybe something good will happen. Probably not. But maybe

[Slateman]

Yea just play him and maybe something good will happen. Probably not. But maybe

Pretty much. We're hoping for Mickey Moniak.

[varoadking]

They can be found in aisle 3 at Kroger.

Damn...I walked right by them...thought they were Hare Krishna's... 

[varoadking]

We're hoping for Mickey Moniak.

Great...so we only have to wait another 4 years for that...

[Slateman]

Great...so we only have to wait another 4 years for that...

No, just took Moniak one offseason to make the correct adjustments. Once he left the Angels, his coaches got him to improve his pitch selection.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Morbid curiosity is perhaps not the best way of putting butts in seats, but in the absence of anything else...

[imref]

No, just took Moniak one offseason to make the correct adjustments. Once he left the Angels, his coaches got him to improve his pitch selection.

Moniak was drafted out of high school so a bit of a different path. And, he was worse in Philly than he was with the Angels. Yes, he has been on average better since leaving Anaheim, but that also comes with a shift to Colorado. His age 25 season in Anaheim has been roughly equivalent to his first season in Colorado at age 27.

FWIW, Moniak's age 24 season: .200 / .226 / .417 in just 19 games. Crews, for comparison, has posted .216 / .287 / .356 though in a lot more games (89)

Moniak at age 25: .280 / .307 / .495 with 14HRs in 85 games

Moniak has also never played more than 135 games in a season.

[Natsinpwc]

Moniak was drafted out of high school so a bit of a different path. And, he was worse in Philly than he was with the Angels. Yes, he has been on average better since leaving Anaheim, but that also comes with a shift to Colorado. His age 25 season in Anaheim has been roughly equivalent to his first season in Colorado at age 27.

FWIW, Moniak's age 24 season: .200 / .226 / .417 in just 19 games. Crews, for comparison, has posted .216 / .287 / .356 though in a lot more games (89)

Moniak at age 25: .280 / .307 / .495 with 14HRs in 85 games

Moniak has also never played more than 135 games in a season.

I think the difference is he was pure platoon in the past and now batting more against lefties this year..  He's improving.  Will never be a star. seems a fair comparison.

[Lintyfresh85]

I think people would kill for Crews to have an .802 OPS

[imref]

I think people would kill for Crews to have an .802 OPS

yep. i wouldn't be disappointed if Crews' age 25 season is as good as Moniak's, with more than 85 games played.

[Slateman]

I think people would kill for Crews to have an .802 OPS

Oh absolutely. Look, is it what he was touted as in the draft? Nope. But an .802 OPS means I can play him in CF and have a top 3 CFer in baseball. Even in RF it makes him top 5. It also means that I can plug Wood in to LF against LHP, put Young in CF and Crews in RF. Now I've replaced my sub.600 OPS against LHP bat (Lile) with an .800 OPS bat (Young). On top of that, an .802 OPS can justify being a DH, so I can rotate through my OFers as needed, if we have a situation where House, Chapparo, Morales, and Ortiz aren't working out to cover 3B, 1B, and DH.

Yep. I would 100% go breakout all my old crow recipes from Luis Garcia's buffet and start cooking up a storm for the Crews coming out party.

[imref]

Oh absolutely. Look, is it what he was touted as in the draft? Nope. But an .802 OPS means I can play him in CF and have a top 3 CFer in baseball. Even in RF it makes him top 5. It also means that I can plug Wood in to LF against LHP, put Young in CF and Crews in RF. Now I've replaced my sub.600 OPS against LHP bat (Lile) with an .800 OPS bat (Young). On top of that, an .802 OPS can justify being a DH, so I can rotate through my OFers as needed, if we have a situation where House, Chapparo, Morales, and Ortiz aren't working out to cover 3B, 1B, and DH.

there was a post the other day  making the argument for a Lile/Crews platoon.

https://www.federalbaseball.com/washington-nationals-analysis/93781/nationals-should-consider-platooning-daylen-lile-dylan-crews-2027

It noted:

Daylen Lile vs RHP/Dylan Crews vs LHP combined in 2026:

509 PAs, 468 ABs, .260 AVG, 21 HRs, 26 2Bs, .318 OBP, .468 SLG, .786 OPS

This was before Lile got hot though.

[Slateman]

there was a post the other day, i think on nats.talk, making the argument for a Lile/Crews platoon.

Yea, that doesnt make sense to me right now UNLESS, the purpose is to allow cosches additional time before games to work with Crews in the cage in hitting right handers. But I dont know that we should be making him Alex Call this early in his career. We have the time, lets use it.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

there was a post the other day  making the argument for a Lile/Crews platoon.

https://www.federalbaseball.com/washington-nationals-analysis/93781/nationals-should-consider-platooning-daylen-lile-dylan-crews-2027

It noted:
This was before Lile got hot though.

some of us have said that here

[Natsinpwc]

some of us have said that here

WNFF work stolen again. 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Could Crews play some in LF if you want to keep Young in Centerfield and Wood at his favorite position in right? I think long term they will have different players rotate through the DH position if they want House to be the long-term 3B but also high on Mead(who then would become a UT player and rotates between 1st, 2nd, or 3rd or DH himself sometimes).

yes. At a minimum, do that when Lile DHs or sits against a lefty

[hotshot]

No, just took Moniak one offseason to make the correct adjustments. Once he left the Angels, his coaches got him to improve his pitch selection.

Moniak still can't hit lefties.

[Natsinpwc]

Moniak still can't hit lefties.

Baby steps

[varoadking]

I think people would kill for Crews to have an .802 OPS

Sure, but it will never happen...he simply isn't talented enough...

His OPS would be in the .500's if he didn't beat out all the 60' dribblers he sends down the 3rd base line...