OnlyBucs

4B49535543260 wrote: Ask Possum to know for sure, but . . . the quickest call-up I know of was Dick Groat. I think he went right from college to the major leagues - and played basketball at the same time.


Groat signed out of Duke on June 16, 1952 and played his first game on June 18, 1952. He spent the next two seasons in the military but came back in 1955 and played 151 games. He never spent a day in the minor leagues.



In addition to his baseball skills Groat was the 3rd overall draft pick in the 1952 NBA draft by the Ft Wayne Pistons and played guard during the 52-53 NBA season. He was an All-America guard at Duke and was the first player in Duke U history to have his number retired.

Dont pull a Josh Bell on us and wait till he hits AAA to try him at 1B...we see how that worked out. By the time Cruz is in Altoona, you should know where he's gonna play. Thats the latest i would move him to other positions, especially if the bat is gonna be as good as we hope. Thats a sweet lefty swing!
Give him a place to call home so he can work on his deficiencies.

26313C38383C363E66550 wrote: Dont pull a Josh Bell on us and wait till he hits AAA to try him at 1B...we see how that worked out.  By the time Cruz is in Altoona, you should know where he's gonna play.  Thats the latest i would move him to other positions, especially if the bat is gonna be as good as we hope.  Thats a sweet lefty swing!
Give him a place to call home so he can work on his deficiencies.

Understandable, but Bell was a slug in the OF before transitioning. That candy-cane arm of his and lack of speed made him a bad outfielder.

The only time I think I've ever seen an infielder fail miserably at 1b defensively on a transition was Pedro. Even most catchers seem to pick it up decently, Ryan Doumit being the exception to that rule. But again, Doumit was bad at everything.