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I know I’m not supposed to overly express my enthusiasm for how fabulous Burleson has been for Cardinals. But Wetherholt is going to be very comparable to Burly as an MLB hitter. Stay tuned.
Think it was the choice available to the Cardinals. Glad they didn’ take a flyer on a lower rated player.
Writing this before I read all the comments (I’m reading through the picks in order in the thread), but I’m really happy with Wetherholt as the pick. His scouting report reads like Kolten Wong when we drafted him, with a little better pop. That may sound a bit scary as it seems like Wong didn’t turn into a star like we maybe hoped. Yet if we get a touch better than what we got from Kolten (say 4 WAR per year instead of 3-3.5), that would be a great pick.
I know I’m not supposed to overly express my enthusiasm for how fabulous Burleson has been for Cardinals. But Wetherholt is going to be very comparable to Burly as an MLB hitter. Stay tuned.
Wetherholt has excellent plate discipline, an extremely low chase rate (14%), a double-digit BB rate (18%), is fast (28.7 ft/s), and potentially can play multiple high-value defensive positions. The only thing he and Burleson have in common is they’re both LHHs with high contact rates. You’re a broken record.
The only thing he and Burleson have in common is they’re both LHHs with high contact rates.
Whetherholdt is like Burleson who is like Ted Simmons. We drafted Simba Whetherholdt.
Whenever Ted Simmons is a part of a conversation, almost without exception, I recall being in attendance during a late season game in 1969 when I was 11 years old and witnessing Simmons being loudly booed by TBFIB after he had committed a throwing E during a rundown of an opposing baserunner between 3B and HP. Simmons was still a teenager at the time and was manning up behind HP in place of fan favorite Tim McCarver. I also clearly recall my paternal grandfather who was seated next to me quickly taking notice that I was a bit puzzled at the sound and sight of all the loud and boisterous jeers. He looked over at me and in a solemn voise said, “Don’t ever do that.” I’ve never even booed an umpire or an opposing player. Not even Pete Rose or Lenny Dykstra.
It will be interesting to see if drafting Wetherholt alters their trade strategy later this month. Does it make Gorman, Edman, Donovan, Saggese, Prieto, or Dunn more tradeable?
It will be interesting to see where Wetherholt slots into TCN’s top prospects list once he’s signed and assimilating. MLB Pipeline has him a 60 grade prospect, but I’m not sure if that’s just relative to the draft or overall. If so he’d be around 10th overall in their rankings. On ESPN, Kiley McDaniel said that he was a coin flip with Caglianone at the #4 overall and Cags will be ranked #39 in the top 100 when he signs. So Wetherholt should be around the 40-45 range, you’d think. So he and Hence could be 1-1A, although I expect that Hence will get the edge here.
It will indeed be interesting to see where Wetherholt slots in our prospect list. I look forward to see how he progresses as well – I think he will zoom by Davis rather quickly.
While he will likely be at least a couple of years away from the majors, it does make it easier to let go of middle infielders should we be looking to make a deal. If JJ zooms up the system, I can’t see both Edman and Gorman on our club in 2026. At least one of them will be elsewhere, probably tommy since he has a two year deal.
But that is speculation and down the road. Need to let the kid play first to see what we have.
Wetherholt has excellent plate discipline, an extremely low chase rate (14%), a double-digit BB rate (18%), is fast (28.7 ft/s), and potentially can play multiple high-value defensive positions. The only thing he and Burleson have in common is they’re both LHHs with high contact rates. You’re a broken record.
Well said. He has tools. Not tool.
Wetherholt and Scott, the former Mountaineers, can hopefully look forward to being teammates on the Cardinals in several years.
bccran
It will be interesting to see if drafting Wetherholt alters their trade strategy later this month. Does it make Gorman, Edman, Donovan, Saggese, Prieto, or Dunn more tradeable?
The AAA guys don’t matter regarding blocking/tradability. Sure they are as tradeable now as they were a week as they’ll be a year from now.
Edman is playing CF and will be a FA by 2026. Donovan is playing LF.
Gorman may be affected in 2026, but by then he could play 1B or DH as well (Depending on Walker/Burleson). All 3 would have a position though so, either way, I can’t see Gorman affected.
How’s W-holt’s speed compared to Edman, Bader, O’Neill, Winn, etc.?
JJ, as I mentioned above, Wetherholt was tracked at 28.7 ft/s top-end sprint speed. By way of comparison:
Player/2023/Best-season
Winn: 29.2; 29.2 (28.8 in 2024)
Edman: 28.8; 29.4 (No data in 2024)
Bader: 28.8; 30.0 (28.2 in 2024)
O’Neill: 28.5; 30.0 (27.5 in 2024)(I picked 2023 as the base year to get a decent number for Edman.) These are all basically 90+ percentile sprint speeds.
Brian, limited data, but he clocked 30.4 ft/s top-end in his short time in the majors. That’s 100th percentile(!) speed.
Interestingly, the player tied with Victor Scott for the top sprint speed in MLB this year: Bobby Witt, Jr.
A poster on VEB claimed that one baseball analyst heard that a team outside the Top 5 had told Wetherholt they would give him $8 million, which would be significantly over slot for the Cardinals.
That may explain the Holiday selection at #80, as he should have been available at least one round later, if not the fifth round.
All day long, The Cardinal Nation is updating our Day 2 #STLCards draft recap article, with bio info, video, scouting reports and more, starting with 3rd rounder, OK State RHP Brian Holiday. https://t.co/oe50lXuBSY pic.twitter.com/fuFCKMECQ7
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 15, 2024
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