Sports Reunion: Tigers like Crosby’s prospects
Not too long ago, Casey Crosby’s bosses ordered him to cancel his honeymoon trip to Antigua.
That’s a good thing.
It means the Detroit Tigers believe the 2007 Kaneland High School graduate — one year after his second arm injury — has resumed his trajectory toward the big leagues.
Crosby, who just wrapped up a healthy season in the starting rotation for Class AA Erie, was rewarded with one of the Tigers’ six allotted spots in the Arizona Fall League.
The left-handed fireballer will serve as a relief pitcher for the Salt River Rafters — but only after taking 2008 Kaneland graduate Haley Balluff’s hand in marriage Oct. 1 in Aurora.
“She’s one of the first people I met when I moved to Kaneland from Wheaton,” Crosby said. “We never dated in high school. We started dating while I was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery in 2008.”
When Crosby and Balluff plotted their wedding date and honeymoon plans, they presumed Crosby’s season would end when the Class AA Eastern League wrapped up in September.
After all, Crosby pitched just 3 innings in 2008 after undergoing the surgery for a torn elbow ligament.
After a full season with the Class A West Michigan Whitecaps in 2009, Crosby pitched just 12⅓ innings in Rookie League in 2010 because of continual cramping in his forearm.
Crosby, who turns 23 on Sept. 17, needed to make progress this summer to remind the Tigers why they promised him $916,500 to sign in 2007.
“Missing two years is never a good thing,” said Baseball Prospectus’ Kevin Goldstein, who speaks with professional scouts daily. “But left-handed pitchers with his stuff don’t exactly grow on trees.
“I think that if you told the Tigers in April that, regardless of results, Crosby would spend the entire year simply healthy, they would have been thrilled.”
In 25 starts for the SeaWolves, Crosby posted a 9-7 record with a 4.10 ERA. Though he led the league with 77 walks in 131⅔ innings — a control problem that grew better toward season’s end — he also led the league in getting batters to hit groundballs.
Crosby, who throws in the low- to mid-90s, credited his changeup for getting opponents to pound the ball into the dirt.
“I had never really thrown it before this year,” Crosby said.
Goldstein suggested Crosby’s increased usage of a two-seam fastball helped as well.
“He’s a groundball machine all of a sudden and that helps his case tremendously,” Goldstein said.
Because Crosby has been in the minors for the last four years, the Tigers need to add him to the 40-man roster in December or risk losing him to another organization.
He’d like to think with a strong showing this fall and another at spring training, he might be able to break camp with Detroit.
“If I’m throwing hard and getting guys out, you never know what will happen,” Crosby said.
Goldstein suggests Crosby’s next step ought to be Detroit’s Class AAA team in Toledo, but that’s not a slight.
“(Predicting) his ceiling is a difficult one because of the skills and injuries,” Goldstein said. “It’s easy to say he’s a big-leaguer, but figuring out what kind is difficult.
“If he could stay healthy and handle 1,000 batters a year, he’s a good middle-rotation starter. If not, he’s a valuable power/groundball lefty in the bullpen.”
lwillhite@dailyherald.com