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Well, all we know for sure is that Urias lost his automatic camp invitation. While on outright waivers, he is in organizational limbo. If he clears waivers and isn’t traded, he would then have to receive an NRI, increasing camp size to 73. There is no way to know how all that will fall out ahead of time, but even if he is re-invited to MLB camp, he likely wouldn’t stay long. My guess is he will not get an NRI and would be told to report with the minor leaguers, but it is just a guess.
I’d also say that it’s a subtle exhibit that we’re very thin of quality outfielders at 2019 AA level and below.
I’d also say that it’s a subtle exhibit that we’re very thin of quality outfielders at 2019 AA level and below.
How so?????????
Boyer –
The names of Justin Toerner and Conner Capel were brought up as 2 who might have been NRIs.
IMHO –
1.) Justin Toerner is a little outfielder out of Cal State
State Northridge who was drafted in the 28th round in 2018. He played a full 4 years at Northridge. The majority of his games in the minors have been played in RF. He’s 5′ 10″, and weighs only 165 pounds. In 2019, he did well at Palm Beach and was promoted to Springfield after 54 games. At Springfield, in 49 games, he slashed .211/.338/.367/.705.
Is he really a prospect for a corner outfield position? He did show a little speed as he stole 14 bases, but he also got thrown out 8 times. At this time, again IMHO, there is nothing to really go on to view him as a good prospect. Especially at a corner.2.) Conner Capel is a high school kid who was a 5th round draftee of the Indians in 2016. He’s got decent size at 6’1″, 185 lbs. and has played mainly in CF coming through the minors. He made it to Springfield to start the season last year and here was his slash line in 98 games –
.232/.283/.352/.635. Is he a true prospect that deserves a non roster invite to practice alongside major leaguers in Jupiter? To take time away from other guys? I don’t think so yet, even though he had 8 good games at Memphis at the end of the 2019 season. Perhaps he’s someone to watch this season for the Redbirds.As far the rest of the minor leaguer outfielders from Springfield on down, let’s look at the OPS numbers –
Hurst – .586
Pinder – .560
Nootbaar – .712
Denton – .540
Plummer – .606
Riley – .620
Cedeno – .707
Ynfante – .542
Machado – .690
Benson – .471
Vinsky – .711
Espinal – .734
Fuller – .708
Warner – .819
Soler – .596
Del Rio – .631
Fletcher – .666
Garcia – .655
Torres – .747
Montano – .561
Romeri – .809
Burgos – .999
Jiminez – .845At least Warner and several kids in the GCL did okay. Outside of that, the cupboard at AA and below looks pretty bare for outfielders. Maybe Torres and Fletcher will give us some hope. Or maybe we’ll draft another high floor college outfielder or two in June. A Bader type.
bccran said:
I’d also say that it’s a subtle exhibit that we’re very thin of quality outfielders at 2019 AA level and below.
Well, at least at the full season levels. Short-season is in better shape. OFs Torres and Fletcher are among our top 20 prospects in the system and Romeri is a player to watch. But Springfield-PB-Peoria-SC is fairly barren of top-tier OF talent.
Brian has expressed concern about the minor league pitching. Nyquist has sounded the alarm about the middle infielders. Now bccrn is worried about our minor league outfielders. I guess our system just sucks.
Fletcher was drafted so high because of his overall athletic skills. In an area of the country that doesn’t produce as many prospects because the seasons are so short. I’m afraid he’s a long way from being a recognized bona fide high level prospect. We’ve been burned too many times with high school position player draftees like Boyd, Plummer, Denton, Perez, etc.
This might be new to non-subscribers, but I wrote about this when I was down for Instructional Camp last month.
New minor league batting tunnels and lab. The good news is that it is in a non-fan area, so public access should not be affected. https://t.co/u1YnDgrkWl
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) February 10, 2020
St. Louis Cardinals Instructional Camp News – January 15, 2020
As far the rest of the minor leaguer outfielders from Springfield on down, let’s look at the OPS numbers –
Hurst – .586
Pinder – .560
Nootbaar – .712
Denton – .540
Plummer – .606
Riley – .620
Cedeno – .707
Ynfante – .542
Machado – .690
Benson – .471
Vinsky – .711
Espinal – .734
Fuller – .708
Warner – .819
Soler – .596
Del Rio – .631
Fletcher – .666
Garcia – .655
Torres – .747
Montano – .561
Romeri – .809
Burgos – .999
Jiminez – .845The 2019 OPS for Darlin Moquete was 1.030. I know he gets disregarded for being a little old for the DSL but he still put up gaudy numbers. Let’s see what he does stateside before we forget about him.
The thing I think about with the lower class OPSes is that Palm Beach, Peoria, State College and the GCL are all poor hitting environments. So raw OPS doesn’t tell that good a story, IMO. I like Nootbar, Warner, Fletcher, Torres and Romeri in that group despite what their numbers might say.
Maybe I’m a pessimist, but out of that group, the only ones I see having a legitimate chance of making the majors and potentially being a regular are Torres, Fletcher and Romeri.
Let’s keep in mind that someone like Montero might not stick at 3rd and end up in an OF corner.
The good thing is that cheap, decent producing OF’s aren’t as hard to come by as a top notch SP or SS.
CC said:
Brian has expressed concern about the minor league pitching. Nyquist has sounded the alarm about the middle infielders. Now bccrn is worried about our minor league outfielders. I guess our system just sucks.
Well, I would not go that far, but it is closer than you think. Here are some sobering facts from 2019 about the farm system.
Aggregate W/L percentage: 29th of 30 organizations
Playoff teams: 1 of 9
Post season All-Stars: 1All of those are multi-year lows. I can provide others, but that gets the point across.
Most of the national farm system rankings are not yet out, but BaseballHQ puts the Cardinals at no. 20, almost in the bottom third.
Let’s start by taking some of the more respected prospects, one by one. First, Lars Nootbaar.
Most college players have strong slash lines and either power or speed to be drafted in the top 10 rounds. Paul DeJong slashed .333/.427/.605/1.032 at Illinois State. Had 14 home runs in 210 at bats. Harrison Bader was .297/.393/.566/.959 at Florida. Hit 17 home runs in 256 at bats. Nootbaar had the following at USC – .249/.357/.373/.730. Hit 6 home runs in 201 at bats.
The scouts must have seen something that those numbers don’t show. Last season, over 3 levels, Lars hit .264/.349/.364/.711. Had 7 home runs in 341 at bats. He plays corner outfield. I respect every poster’s opinion, but how does Lars project as a future major league corner outfielder?Fletcher? Off the charts on raw tools. Went to a prep school in upstate New York for 2 years and then transferred back to his regular high school in Maine and got reclassified so he could be drafted a year early. A cold weather player with limited game competition because of the rough climate, who left high school a year early.
Some have compared him to another cold weather player, who played in a state that had quirky game rules.
But he had a great swing. His name was Nick Plummer.Fletcher? Off the charts on raw tools. Went to a prep school in upstate New York for 2 years and then transferred back to his regular high school in Maine and got reclassified so he could be drafted a year early. A cold weather player with limited game competition because of the rough climate, who left high school a year early.
Some have compared him to another cold weather player, who played in a state that had quirky game rules.
But he had a great swing. His name was Nick Plummer.Plummer is one comparison, but others have compared him to a cold weather player who eventually found himself catching up to the game. A guy named Mike Trout. While projecting someone to be that great is out of the question, Fletcher has great tools to work with and could become a starting CFer one day.
I get so much more information from the people on here than I get from the Cardinals’ sources, and the PD.
Many thanks.
Patrick Romeri is an interesting case. He went to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. It’s a high school designed for talented high school players who have a super desire to be professional baseball players some day. Romeri is a Florida kid who was born in Sarasota. The coaches at IMG have combined over 200 years experience in either playing or coaching in the collegiate or MLB arenas. It’s a hi tech high school baseball factory. These kids either play games or are in skill drills the entire school year. Albert would like some of their training techniques. They not only have HitTrax technology inside their batting cages, but they have
“blast motion swing analyzers”
that analyze and improve swing plane, connection, and rotation.
I like Patrick’s size (6′ 3″, 195 lbs.) and the fact that he’s a warm weather player who’s had excellent near year round instruction. I’m sure our scouts have an excellent relationship with the guys at IMG, so we knew exactly what we were getting with this 2019 12th round
draft choice. He may have some promise.Torres is a little easier to get our arms around. He was born in Columbia and came into the Indians organization as a 17 year old in 2017. Played in the DOSL that season. Did okay at .255/.374/.408/.782 in 54 games. In 2018, he was playing in the Arizona Rookie League when the Mercado trade came, which brought Jhon and Conner Capel to us. The Cards brought Jhon over to the GCL and in 17 games he really raked – .397/.493/.683/1.176.
In 2019, he did fine at Johnson City (.286/.391/.527/.918, but got his lunch handed to him at Peoria as a 19 year old (.167/.240/.212/.252 in 21 games). Learning experience.
He’s now played in 152 professional games, had 620 at bats, and produced 28 doubles, 3 triples, 19 home runs, and 90 RBI. Good size for a corner outfielder – 6’4″, 199 lbs.
Still only 19, with 3 seasons of pro ball under his belt. Turns 20 at the end of March.IMHO, a very good prospect.
Even if unlikely, Torres will have to added to 40 man roster to avoid losing him in the Rule 5 draft
Andrew Warner profiles a little differently. A 40th round draft pick out of little Columbia College (NAIA) in 2018. Was 22 years old when he was drafted. Columbia College, headquartered in Columbia, Missouri has a total of 1,276 students (including both graduate and undergraduate), of which 1,004 are female students. Not a bad ratio for the male students.
Warner played a low level of collegiate competition, but he was a 2 time NAIA All American for the Cougars. Since he played that lower level of college competition, the Cardinals brought him into Jupiter to play in the GCL league so they could have a look. In his first 31 games, he knocked the cover off the ball – .342/.441/.605/1.046. They quickly promoted him to Johnson City, where he was cooled off a bit by Appy league pitchers. In 21 games he slashed .214/.382/.357/.739.
In 2019, as a 23 year old, they gave him a shot at State College against other recently drafted college players and he played the whole season there. Slashed .248/.368/.452/.819. Struck out 65 times in 182 plate appearances. Hit 7 home runs.
Andrew just turned 24 in November and hasn’t played for a full season team yet. Kind of your big, lumbering guy at 6’2″, 225 lbs., who can only play corner OF and 1B.
He may surprise, but IMHO I wouldn’t get too excited about his prospects.
48 players left the #stlcards organization since last season ended – and just two have returned for 2020. I break down who and how in this annual article. (free) https://t.co/1asMunyLfD pic.twitter.com/dhKpi9P0Mk
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) February 12, 2020
Well, spring training is here now. The long winter snooze and speculative blah blah is being replaced by that marvelous sound of slapping leather and cracking wood. I’m ready. I just tossed last season’s dirty, sweat-stained STL cap onto the burning fireplace logs and slipped on a fresh new one for 2020. I’m going with the navy blue away model this year. RAH CARDINALS!
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