2024 Minor League game thread Week 23 – 9/17-22

For you minor league aficionados how would you compare Matt Koperniak to Lars Nootbaar? As I recall Noot wasn’t a very highly regarded prospect. He just played himself onto the STL roster and stayed. Koperniak seems a bit similar to me. I know that he is about “out of runway” as they say and is another LH OF but man all he does is hit. I would think a team as offensively challenged as the Cardinals could find a spot on the 26 man for a guy like him.

Gscottar – They are both left handed outfielders. They both can play CF but probably shouldn’t. I’d rate Koperniak as the slightly better CF and overall OF in general, but it’s close enough to be a toss-up. They both have some power when they get into one. While they both have solid speed, neither is really a base stealing threat. Nootbaar definitely hits the ball harder more consistently. To me, that gives him an advantage. It also makes me question whether Koperniak would hit well at the next level. Nootbaar also walks more, although Koperniak isn’t necessarily bad in that department. Neither strikes out a lot. They are basically the same age – Matt being about a half year younger.

Overall, Nootbaar is better. Koperniak could be a 5th outfielder on our bench and would be good in that role. But we already have left handers in Noot, Siani, Scott, and Donovan so Koperniak doesn’t really offer any advantages. He’s not a significantly better fielder or hitter than any of those guys (ok, he’s probably a better hitter than Siani, but light years behind him in defense). Thus, he sits at AAA waiting around for a slew of injuries. Antico is in a bit of the same boat except he’s also behind Koperniak.

The one kind of cool thing about Koperniak is that he was never drafted. He was picked up after the 5-round 2020 draft for like $20,000 in a signing bonus.

I’m not sure why you believe Nootbaar is a platoon bat. He’s at 101 WRC+ over the past 3 seasons against lefties. He’s at 121 against righties. And he walks over 12% of the time against both. Yes, he is fragile, although his injuries have generally been unrelated. That’s an overall valuable player. Yes, we could trade him if we want to zoom in on a future window. But it does make ‘25 likely worse. I’m not buying that Koperniak would be an upgrade.

I think the age factor is a bit overrated. I mentioned in a different thread that Mike Yastrzemski made his MLB debut with the Giants at age 28 and has had a fairly decent career. What matters right now is whether Koperniak could help the big league club. The fact that he didn’t make the majors four years ago is irrelevant to what we need now.

All I’m saying is that for a team with one of the worst offenses in the league you would think they could find room on the 40 man, if not the 26 man, for a guy who has demonstated very clearly that he can hit AAA pitching. If he is a bust at the big league level then move on but why not give the guy a shot?

Noot can hit righties and lefties. That is the least of the problems. The first layer of the onion is they have 5 guys, Noot, Walker, Siani, Burleson and Donovan and they don’t know who their starting outfield is. Donovan’s IF/OF role further complicates it. Who is the second baseman? Donnie, Saggese, Gorman? Walker and Siani have offense issues. Burleson is a platoon hitter, Walker and Burleson have defense issues. Noot is only OK in CF, but Siani doesn’t provide much offense. Nothing says either Gorman or Saggese can hold down the everyday 2B job so it might come back to Donnie.

If Goldy does not return, then you peel another couple layers off the onion because Burleson and Walker might be in that conversation along with Baker and potentially Herrera and potentially Contreras. So now we have the catcher position involved.

That is what I would call a roster cluster without even getting to bench and backups and depth. Somebody has to decide what to do, and they have to do it quick, because they have to decide who does what so they know who are the extra guys they can deal, and what are the holes they need to fill.

We can’t do another season of dumping a bunch of guys into a blender and pouring out a lineup and defensive alignment every game all season. That hasn’t worked. That doesn’t work. So I have to ask all of you this. Based upon the roster construction and roster management decisions over the last couple years, what reason is there to be optimistic about the chances this turns out well?

Bling, it’s a rarity, but I agree with all of your points in your last post. This is indeed the crux of the problem. Noot, Arenado, and Winn are really the only 3 starters who check the boxes for “Should they start?” And “Are they for sure starting in the right position?” The entire rest of the offense for next season is a complete question mark. It’s not that our other players are bad. They just aren’t well rounded for the positions they have been playing – which makes them not good.

Burleson is a bad outfielder. He also still swings at a lot of bad balls.

Walker is a bad outfielder. He swings at too many bad pitches.

Siani is a good outfielder, but he’s a terrible hitter.

Contreras is not a good defensive catcher and age may cause him more injuries there.

Gorman is a poor defender at 2B and clearly struggles to hit the ball when he swings.

Donovan is really pretty good anywhere, but we need to get him a permanent home.

Contreras is not a good defensive catcher and age may cause him more injuries there.

Neither of Contreras’ injuries were caused by age. One was caused by taking a bat to his arm, the other by taking a ball to his finger.

I’m not terribly good with statistics (A problem with oldfarthood I guess.) Can somebody please point me to something that confirms “Burleson is a weak defender.” I see that shortcoming frequently tossed around but I can’t detect it with my own eyes.

Ahh. All is clear now. Thanks