Photo: Nick Plummer (Springfield Cardinals)
It is again time to select The Cardinal Nation’s Player of the Month. This covers play during July across the entire St. Louis Cardinals organization.
There were plenty of impressive performances during the month, including a player with an OBP over .500 and two who logged double digit home run totals. Considering all, it is Springfield outfielder Nick Plummer who is our choice for July Player of the Month due to his impressive display of hitting that included an OPS over 1.000.
This article will detail the performance of Plummer as well as other system standouts at the plate.
Guidelines
Please remember, this is NOT the “Player of the Month Among Top Prospects”. Every player in the system has an equal chance, with only their performance during the month used to differentiate the best of the best. Age and level, which are key prospect considerations, are not factors here, either.
To qualify, a player must have had at least 60 plate appearances in July. That narrowed our population from the 127 players who stepped up to the plate during July (including pitchers) down to 38.
To make the list of eight finalists, an OPS over .900 was required. This eliminated one player with an OPS between .850 and .900, and four other players with OPSes between .800 and .850. This is a high benchmark, and it is a sign of the strong production at the plate of these finalists who stood out in the system during the month of July.
We will take two views of the data. The first look will be at counting stats, followed by rate stats. Names are listed in the same sequence in both tables, in descending OPS order.
Counting stats – finalists
| Hitter | Age | Level | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO |
| Matt Koperniak | 23 | A | 21 | 82 | 65 | 8 | 24 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 9 |
| Nick Plummer | 25 | AA | 24 | 112 | 92 | 19 | 30 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 21 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 32 |
| Brendan Donovan | 24 | AA | 13 | 61 | 49 | 12 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 10 |
| Jacob Buchberger | 23 | A | 20 | 82 | 69 | 10 | 24 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 12 |
| Luken Baker | 24 | AA | 27 | 117 | 100 | 17 | 23 | 5 | 0 | 11 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 34 |
| Conner Capel | 24 | AAA | 26 | 99 | 81 | 9 | 24 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 13 |
| Pedro Pages | 22 | A+ | 18 | 77 | 62 | 7 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 19 |
| Juan Yepez | 23 | AAA | 26 | 110 | 96 | 18 | 22 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 23 |
Every full-season affiliate is represented on this list, although only Pedro Pages is from A-Advanced Peoria. Five of the eight finalists come from the top two levels of the minor league system. Deserving of special recognition are Matt Koperniak and Brendan Donovan as repeat finalists from June.
Donovan barely qualified for this list as his 61 plate appearances was just one more than the cutoff. As a result, he is near the bottom in most of the counting stats.
Two players on this list – Luken Baker and Juan Yepez – hit double digits in home runs, with Baker leading the system with 11 in July. Plummer and Koperniak also demonstrated extra base power as the former had the third most extra base hits behind Baker and Yepez, and the latter had twice as many doubles (10) as the next closest finalist.
Baker led the group in RBI, while Plummer finished second in that category and first in runs scored. On the other side of the coin, Baker also had the most strikeouts with 34. Plummer was the only other finalist to break 30 (32) with the next closest player Juan Yepez at 23.
Impressively, two players – Koperniak and Conner Capel – walked more than they struck out. Jacob Buchberger was nearly added to that group as he had as many free passes as he did strikeouts. Capel led the finalists in walks with 17 despite only having the fourth most plate appearances. The next closest competitor was Baker with 14.
Rate stats – finalists
| Hitter | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | TB | GDP | HBP | SF | IBB |
| Matt Koperniak | .369 | .500 | .569 | 1.069 | 37 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Nick Plummer | .326 | .446 | .598 | 1.044 | 55 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Brendan Donovan | .347 | .475 | .469 | .945 | 26 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| Jacob Buchberger | .348 | .451 | .493 | .944 | 34 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Luken Baker | .230 | .325 | .610 | .935 | 61 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Conner Capel | .296 | .414 | .519 | .933 | 42 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Pedro Pages | .306 | .429 | .500 | .929 | 31 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Juan Yepez | .229 | .327 | .583 | .911 | 56 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Koperniak led all finalists in batting average, OBP, and OPS. Buchberger had the second highest batting average, Donovan had the second highest OBP, and Plummer had the highest slugging percentage.
Plummer also led the group in hit by pitches with seven, while Koperniak was right behind him with six.
It is impressive that Koperniak finished the month with an OBP of .500. It is important to note, though, that he had the third fewest plate appearances of all the finalists. As a result, he lagged behind Baker, Yepez, and Plummer in total bases. As August began, Koperniak was rewarded with a promotion to High-A Peoria.
Six of the eight finalists finished the month with a slugging percentage over .500, while six finalists also finished with an OBP over .400.
There was a big gap in total bases behind Baker (61), Yepez (56), and Plummer (55), as the next best finalist wasCapel with 42.
Much of Baker’s production came from the long ball as nearly half of his hits cleared the fence. The same is true for Yepez, as each player had more home runs than singles.
TCN’s Player of the Month
As the winner of The Cardinal Nation’s July Player of the Month recognition, Nick Plummer was among the leaders in every statistical category. Even though Koperniak had a better batting average, OBP, and OPS, he had 30 fewer plate appearances. As a result, it is impressive that Plummer was able to remain so close to Koperniak in OPS despite having more opportunities for his rate stats to fall.
Plummer, St. Louis’ first-round pick in 2015, has broken out in 2021. After sliding steadily off prospect lists throughout his minor league career, the 25-year-old has slashed .300/.410/.494/.904 in 307 plate appearances with Double-A Springfield this season. The outfielder has maintained a high walk rate while cutting his strikeouts from 2019 despite playing at a higher level.
As a result of his strong performance in 2021, Plummer has returned to TCN’s Top 50 prospect list, ranking 34th in the July re-ranking of the system.
Defensively, Plummer has split time between left field, center field, and right field, playing over 100 innings at each position. This versatility pairs well with his bat, and it could have him eyeing a promotion to Triple-A Memphis before the end of the season.
This is the second time that the left-handed hitter has been a Player of the Month finalist, as he also made the list in May.
Other stat leaders of note
Player of the Month finalist Conner Capel led the system in walks in July with 17, but non-finalists Justin Toerner and Ivan Herrera finished the month right behind with 16 free passes.
Alec Burleson, recently promoted to Triple-A Memphis, led the organization in hits with 31 in the month, just one more than Plummer.
Delvin Perez led the minor league system in stolen bases as he swiped seven bags in nine attempts. Springfield’s shortstop and leadoff man cooled off at the plate from June though, with just a .636 OPS in July.
How last month’s winner fared this month
At the end of June, Jordan Walker received a promotion from Single-A Palm Beach to A-Advanced Peoria. He handled his transition very well, slashing .297/.350/.486/.836 in 80 plate appearances in the month of July.
Nine of his 22 hits went for extra bases, with two landing over the fence. However, he walked just five times while fanning in 21 of his plate appearances.
Still, this was another solid month for the Cardinals’ first round pick from the 2020 draft. The 19-year-old has stayed hot all season despite making the jump from seeing high school pitching to professional pitching, now at High-A.
Walker is having plenty of early success, but the Cardinals will likely leave him in Peoria in order to not advance him too quickly. However, if he continues to hit High-A pitching well, then he could be looking at a season opening Double-A assignment in 2022.
Related article
The Cardinal Nation’s 2021 July Pitcher of the Month – Edgar Manzo
What is next
The Cardinals organization should announce its corresponding July Pitcher and Player of the Month winners this week, as well.
Update
On Thursday afternoon, the organization announced Plummer as their top July hitter, as well.
Nick Plummer has been named the @Cardinals Minor League Player of the Month for July!
Story ➡️ https://t.co/T3I41yWn5q pic.twitter.com/ZgdTnbg6eb
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) August 5, 2021
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