Baseball America does a Q&A with Clayton Mortenson. My favorite part -
BA: Tell us something most people don’t know about you.
CM: I’m a video game nerd. I play a variety of games, and I play them all the time.
Clay, can I call you Clay? K, thanks — might I recommend Dungeon Siege II. I just purchased it and am already addicted.
Tyler Greene is going to have what could be season ending surgery. I couldn’t add this to last nights DPR as the boxscores were disheartening enough. (By the way, answering my rhetorical questions in the comments — Brilliant!) Greene’s always had highly touted tools but never really seemed to get everything together. At this point he looks more like a bench player than a regular starter and maybe not even a viable SS backup depending on who you ask.
Chris Narveson is trying to get himself back into working order. Kid missed a big opportunity with his untimely oblique strain (about which there were conflicting reports) given how awful some of the STL Cardinals’ starters have been this season. He’ll be a minor league free agent at the end of the year so he may not be with the organization next year. He’s always been one of those prospects I liked regardless of performance.
Mark Hamilton does his best to make AZ look like an ass. Remember my Mike Ferris comment way back when. ya…about that. I can promise you that I won’t ever shirk what I say on this site and I seem to have been overly hard on Hamilton. That’s gonna happen. I’m gonna mess up on prospects (erik stood up for him) and I’m ok with that. He’s still just in AA but he’s really turned it on since his dismal April. Well done, Mr. Hamilton.
Chris Lambert is a terrible pitcher. Nope, I think that about sums it up on that topic.
{Update} As I mentioned on erik’s thread, I shot Joe Strauss an e-mail regarding Bryan Anderson. Here’s my e-mail and his response (after the jump — this got too long):
[Azru:]
Joe,
I enjoy reading the chats you do on STLtoday.com but I’ve got to disagree with something you wrote today (7/18): “Molina becomes arbitration-eligible after this season. I anticipate the Cardinals will approach him about a multi-year arrangement. He does not have a challenger within the system as the team’s starting catcher. ”
I’m hopeful that the Cardinals don’t go long term with Molina. He’s a great defensive catcher and seems well-liked by fans, teammates and coaches but he’s terrible offensively. I’ll refrain from deluging you with statistics but put simply he has been such a drag on the offense that it negates most (if not all) of his defensive value.
The real issue I take with your response is that he doesn’t have a challenger in the system. Bryan Anderson, despite being 20-years old is playing exceptionally well at AA. I won’t argue that he could step in now or even at the beginning of 2008 but mid-2008 or 2009 seems like a distinct possibility. He has some defensive issues to work through (notably blocking balls in the dirt) but offensively, he appears to be leaps and bounds better than Molina. Anderson is currently hitting .315/.366/.418 in AA. At the same level, Molina played in 2003 and was a year older (21) he posted a .275/.327/.332 line.
I don’t think Anderson is the second coming of Mike Piazza but to say that Molina doesn’t have any challengers is inaccurate. Going year-to-year on Molina’s contract could save the team money and give them flexibility if they decide to make him a backup catcher (say, to Anderson in 2010) or trade him. Molina isn’t such a fantastic player that the Cardinals should endeavor to lock him up long term (not that you said they should, simply that you anticipated it).
Again, thanks for the entertaining chats.
[Struass:] As long as TLR manages the club, Molina is the catcher. Anderson has serious defensive deficiencies that often go unmentioned because of his offensive upside. The Cardinals and most other clubs view C as a defensive position. I believe Anderson may become a hybrid player C/3B, C/OF if he fits long-term with the Cardinals.
Let’s parse his very concise reponse because there’s a lot there. First off, Anderson does have serious defensive deficiencies and I don’t think anyone here at Future Redbirds is unaware of that. 13 (or so) passed balls is nothing to sniff at although Anderson is scouted as having a good arm and quick release. But Joe’s right. I don’t think there’s anyway Anderson moves past Molina with TLR managing. The infatuation with Molina as a premium defensive catcher is overstated, imo, because the intagibles of catching are overemphasized in many fan’s minds. (Go to Baseball Prospectus and look up Keith Woolner and catcher for some studies.)
The second part of his response that most clubs view catcher as a defensive position is also accurate but I wonder how much that is a product of the limited number of catchers that are both average defensively and above-average offensively. Also, just because it’s a baseball mantra, doesn’t mean its a good thing (see Brad Ausmus). There may be a shift in this mentality given the number of young quality backstops (Martin, McCann and Saltalamacchia, Mauer) that have risen through the ranks recently.
The hybrid player comment is the most intriguing part in my mind — Will Carroll discussed roster expanders on BP’s Unfiltered – because it’s not an unreasonable outcome for Anderson. His bat is good enough to make him an average player at 3B in a utility kind of roll. Something along the lines of Eli Marrero where he may play 50-60 games behind the plate and another 70-80 at a variety of OF and 3B positions. I’m hopeful that this siutation doesn’t happen because I think Anderson is to good of a talent to waste because of an unwieldy belief in the defensive backstop but Strauss is right in that it’s a distinct possibility.
To say that Molina doesn’t have any challengers is still a misnomer if you ask me. A more accurate statement is that the Cardinals are committed to Molina despite the better offensive play of Bryan Anderson. Whether this remains true or is really in the Cardinals best interests is something we’ll have to wait to know.
(Thanks to Joe for responding to my e-mail. There are plenty of writers who wouldn’t bother.)
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erik
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fewgoodcards
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Hamilton credits Derrick May with making an adjustment that helps him stay back on breaking balls. I continue to be impressed at how often Warner and the players give May credit for tweaking a swing or modifying an approach. It’s also happened with Mather, Hoffpauir, and others.
If Strauss is right about TLR and Molina, then that’s enough reason for me to call for Tony’s head all by itself, never mind all the other things that have been beaten to death on the Cardinals blogosphere.
Mike - I’m not sure it’s just TLR though. The organization has a long standing with Matheny and Molina as all-glove no-hit catchers. If it were just TLR, I’m not sure it would be this stringent.
The astros are an organization that’s been the same way for years. It’s a still a very progressive idea (that catcher’s defense is overemphasized) to modern baseball. On a list of reasons to call for TLR’s head, one’s that haven’t even come to pass should be near the bottom.
Az,
I’m probably overreacting, but I’m just getting sick of our org’s attitude that’s it’s ok to punt offensively at so many positions. I know a lot of it has to do with injuries but every time I see a starting lineup with some combination of Taguchi, Miles, and Skippy batting in front of Pujols I die a little inside.
I wonder how much Whitey is to blame for this defensive-catcher thing. When he traded Simmons and brought in his own favorite catcher, Porter, he had to justify the trade. So he ripped on Simmons’ defense. I remember Bill James wrote a great line in a men’s magazine (Playboy or Esquire, I think), supporting Herzog’s decision: “There’s no evidence Simmons could throw out Nancy Reagan if she got a good jump.”
I can’t say this for sure, but I’ve always suspected that Herzog and James were instrumental in diminishing Simmons’ stature. He was one of the best offensive catchers ever, despite the fact he played in the dead-stadium era.
Given how bad our offense is, and how bad it figures to be going forward, I can’t see how anyone can justify substandard offense at any position. We expect our pitchers to be able to make contact and move runners over. Why wouldn’t we expect our catcher to get on base more than 30 percent of the time?
i never understood the mike ferris comment in the first place. ferris did absolutely nothing his entire career while hamilton won the NYPL homerun title last year even though he only played in the league for about a month and then held his own in the midwest league.
now if you want a mike ferris, check out dan descalso.
thanks to joe for answering but that answer stinks. he has a very good arm, throws out 40% more of would be basestealers. yadi was abysmal when he came up at blocking balls in the dirt and has steadily improved. moving his bat to the corner outfield or infield reduces his value. one reason i wouldn’t mind seeing tony gone so we can see a player like anderson be appreciated. i really like yadi, i do but he’d probably hold some good value via trade, or even better, they could share C. catchers wear down and if anderson played 4-5 games a week while yadi played 2-3 it could be a pretty fearsome combo for would be base stealers, and yadi’s lack of hitting prowess would sting less.
Three Cards position prospects made BA’s mid-season surprise team, including:
Allen Craig
Joe Mather
Rick Ankiel
Linked up:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/online/prospects/features/264504.html
Yeah, I guess it was nice of Strauss to answer. Maybe it’s just me, but Joe Strauss, to me, always seems a little too dismissive of anyone who doesn’t come down firmly on his side of an issue,(kind of like a certain manager he happens to cover) and usually shoots down any prospects the Cards might have just on general principle. Hell, he’s only stopped claiming everyone’s drastically overrating Duncan the last month or so.
The idea of some sort of super utility role for Anderson is enough to make me a little nauseous. I understand we don’t really know what kind of a player he’ll end up being, but if he is what he looks like, that would be a drastic waste of talent.
And if someone’s going to tell me that Molina can throw out enough baserunners to make up for the potential difference in off. production between he and Anderson, I’ll show you a bridge salesman.
There are a lot of Yadi lovers out there — and I really like what he does defensively. I still see some offensive potential as well. But I would caution anyone against completely disregarding Anderson out of some irrational devotion to Yadi. Erik’s right — Anderson can work on blocking pitches in the dirt, and you have to figure that the number of those should diminish as he advances. The bottom line is this — if Yadi is worth 10 runs more than Anderson defensively but Anderson is worth 20 runs more than Yadi offensively, Anderson’s the better choice, despite Yadi being better defensively.
Additionally, by the time Anderson is ready, and earning the major league minimum, Yadi will be in his 2nd or 3rd year of arbitration and will be earning around $5 M per year. He’ll also be approaching free agency where a C w/ his defensive reputation might earn $6-8 M per year. Plus, he’ll have trade value.
Let’s say the 2 catchers are just even — Yadi’s defense is worth the same number of runs as Anderson’s offense. Option A is pay a C $7 M a year for 4 years. Option B is trade the expensive C for something valuable and use the other C who earns around $400,000. Which is the better choice? If Yadi’s going to justify earning $6 + M per year more than Anderson, he’s going to have to really start hitting!