Featured autograph - C.J. Cron

Besides Mike Trout, the reputation of the Angels farm system hasn't been great in the last five years - but maybe the Angels can promote a player like Cron to the major leagues and show the organization still has some talent.

At 24, Cron is an older MLB rookie and his minor league stats don't seem to be all that special - hopefully he can stay healthy and establish himself as a first baseman / DH who is going to stick around for a while.

Cron definitely has some pop in his bat, though given 500 at-bats, he maybe more of a Billy Butler type of hitter - as opposed to a Mark Trumbo all-or-nothing slugger.

Since this post is about Cron, I took a picture of an Angels Weekly rerun on TV when host Alex Curry is asking him about possible nicknames he has gotten - he says it's usually C.J., since that is a nickname of sorts.

I found it utterly fascinating how people have mispronounced his last name - if I heard it right, it's supposed to be like said like 'Krone' and not 'KRON.'

Angel prospect mailday - C.J. Cron

I'm primarily an in-person autograph collector and while I'm so happy to get a certified autograph of the Angels top draft pick in 2011 for the price of a Subway sandwich - it almost ruins the anticipation of trying to meet the player and get his autograph for the first time.

With only 'hits' in Leaf Metal Draft, I don't think I'll touch any Leaf baseball product until the company can produce a set with actual base cards - if I just wanted a certified Cron autograph for my personal collection however, I probably couldn't do any worse than having picked up this shiny card that sort of has an 'insert' feel to it.

Featured card: 1992 Donruss Chris Cron #698

I vaguely know former Angel Chris Cron through the few baseball cards he has - from his brief stint as a Major League player back in the early 1990s. Apparently he has made a career as a long time manager in the minor leagues.

More importantly however, one of his sons [C.J.] was selected by the Angels with the 18th overall pick in this year's draft - I'm going to have to pay attention to the younger Cron, since I've never even heard of him until I read some blurbs about him a couple of weeks ago.

It looks like C.J. Cron is a big, hulking slugger type - he maybe a guy who can get to the Major Leagues in a couple of years, if he progresses as he should.

Despite not expecting C.J. to be able to help the parent team in Anaheim anytime soon - it seems like there is a power outage and the Angels probably need guys in the farm system capable of hitting the ball out of the park.