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I just read the piece on Kelly on the front page news. The thing that is disturbing to me is that if Kelly does real well, he still goes back to AAA. If he fails, his trade value might just plummet. It may also mean the Knizner will have to endure the same treatment as a top prospect. Matters only get WORSE if they both do well. Being productive for the two prospects, in this case, becomes a negative for the organization. Will Knizner be added to the 40-man roster now? That’s another hurdle for the organization to jump. It has become a speculative and troubling situation for all involved.
This is not how top prospects get treated by the people that should be assisting them with their careers. “Carson and Andrew get yourselves ready for MLB…. but don’t expect to to play regularly for three years. You two are among our very best prospects so you will need to maintain your level of play until then. We’ll get back to you later….. AND don’t call us we’ll call you IF and WHEN we need you so don’t hold your breathe. As of now, we have a catcher that we just extended a contract to, but we KNOW he will get hurt, so stay on your toes.”
The catching position is unique in that you NEED one to play and you MUST HAVE one to be the backup and ideally he should play on a somewhat regular schedule so as to not allow him to get rusty.
In St. Louis we have a catcher that demands to play and won’t sit, of course, until “if” and “when” he gets injured. Uh, not a good situation to put a highly rated, young player. Don’t you think?
Seems to me like a lot of unnecessary worrying about what might or might not happen later. I think this is too complex. I see it pretty simply.
Seems pretty clear to me that it is good they did not trade Kelly.
Kelly is up and not as the reserve. They need him to help them win games now. He seems the next best catcher after Molina. They obviously believe Knizner is not close. Pena and Baron are not MLB starters.
Why not sit back and see what happens first and worry about the rest later?
This should be Kelly`s chance to shine although i bet MM goes with Pena more than half the time.IMHO Kelly needs to start every game when poosible.Pena is backup for a reason.
Knizner is probably staying at AA to get regular playing time and to continue to work on improving his defense.I would think Memphis starts Steve Baron nearly everyy game and use Jenner once or twice a week.Joe Trezza
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Incredibly durable still at 35, Molina started 30 of the Cardinals’ 31 games before yesterday’s freak injury. These things happen to catchers, but rarely to this extent.
Now it appears Molina will be limited to fewer than 130 games for just the second time in nine years.The timing of my comments yesterday was interesting. I mentioned Wong as trade bait and he hits a walk off. I mentioned Kelly as trade bait and he is now our starting catcher. Will Mujica get the call up?
I’d like to see reliever Hector Mendoza move up to Memphis… he has been amazing at Springfield. That would mean someone in the Redbird pen would get pinched. As good as Mendoza has been, that’s how bad ArReyes has been and at 26 he would be a prime candidate.
Also Voit continues to have problems. At 27, he has hardly made the case to be promoted upward. He’s being passed by by Ravelo and Springfield’s Nogowski (.364). He may be on thin ice if there’s no improvement.
ESPN’s power rankings are an absolute joke. I know now why I always gave them little credence.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23384147/ranking-mlb-teams-week-5
Neither RZavelo or Nogowski offer any power threat.Atv least Voit proved last year he was capable as a PINCH hitter .I think if Ravelo is so good then why has he not been a serious option for the3 40-man roster?I think Ravelo and Nogowski are organization guys who fill a role in AAA/AA while Voit hangs around fringes of the 40-man because he has a bit of a track record in the majors.
That
s my point.Ravelo has not shown anything to justify such a move.Voit has had some success at the MLB level.Thats why he is still around IMHO.I think Ellis and Poncedeleon are interesting prospects. What do we do with them? If they keep pitching like are, they surely would be a good chance to be lost via the Rule 5 draft, or they may be 7 year free agents. They could help our bullpen, but with no 40 man roster spot avaiklable, and barring a trade to lessen the roster crunch that seems unlikely.
Also, is there any news on Derian Gonzales and Ronnie Williams’ injuries? I thought Williams was seeking a second opinion on his elbow.Second straight player of the week honors for Springfield. Nogowski, now Roache.
https://www.milb.com/springfield/news/hot-hitting-roache-awarded-texas-league-player-of-the-week/c-275689298As reported by our keymaster, Williams is done for ’18. Maybe a comeback in ’19 will result in a lot better performance for this once highly regarded prospect.
I found this on the Redbird Daily site:
Montero is a big-bodied third baseman that was pretty much unknown, save for The Cardinal Nation, who ranked him 36th. TCN reported that he was a solid defender with pop, and so far his .526 SLG is proving them right.
Montero might be a little less than a “solid defender”. Already 9 errors at third, but this guy can hit and was just inserted into to MLB top 30 Card prospects.
The “solid defender” comment is a direct quote from an opposing manager in the GCL who saw Montero play regularly all last season. There were comparable quotes from others. That might be more telling than a quick look at the error count for a teenager in his first month in a new league after a direct jump from the GCL to Class-A.
P.S. It is nice to have The Redbird Daily writers as subscribers and for them to reference us!
Members can refresh your memories on what we said regarding Montero here. In April, he moved up to no. 31 and should keep progressing in May.
I saw an internet commenter tonight say the same thing that Montero is likely not a third baseman long term. I have to wonder how many times he has actually seen Montero play, since the teen has barely a month outside the DSL and GCL.
This is from MLB.com’s scouting report on Montero.
“His best defensive tool is his arm and the Cardinals think he has the hands and actions to stay at third long-term.
Others think he might outgrow the hot corner and a lack of speed does limit his range to an extent. The good news is that if his bat continues to progress, he might profile well at either infield corner when all is said and done.”
Peoria’s Montero sits in the four spot on the best hitting team in the MidWest League(16 teams). He is only 19 and continues to maitain a high BA (.351 and 6th in the league). At 6′-3″ 195 he fits the corner INF build perfectly. The question that keeps coming back is his glove (2 more errors last night) 11 on the young season. That one stat keeps him from being the best third baseman in the organization so far in ’18. Palm Beach’s Mendoza (22 in June) hits every bit as well and handles 3B a lot better.
Despite losing Yepes to promotion, the Chiefs still have a solid 1-6 in their order. Its the team’s pitching that has them playing only .500 ball. They have won only two series all season, the last on being April 20-22 against the lowly Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. And the only other series they won was against the same team. PEO is 15-16 and 6-0 vs. WIS.
Their starters have been inconsistent. Before last night’s dandy by Prendergast, there has been only one other GS over 50 this month. After great outings in April both Walsh and Guillory are now struggling a bit. Seijas has been up and down all season, Oviedo looks like something is missing and Nicasio has been replaced by Prendergast.
A couple of starts back I saw Walsh taken out of the game early, like 2+ innings and a low pitch count. I have seen this before. I wonder if it is due to injury precaution, or an attempt to keep innings low for a young kid. I think this happened to Reyes and Helsley in the past few years. Then, like Walsh, they take their normal turn in the rotation like nothing happened.
Nice piece by Springfield’s PR on Wainwright and Knizner:
https://cardinalschirps.mlblogs.com/wainwright-on-knizner-i-think-hes-gonna-be-a-superstar-70f9ace39155Nice piece by Springfield’s PR on Wainwright and Knizner:
https://cardinalschirps.mlblogs.com/wainwright-on-knizner-i-think-hes-gonna-be-a-superstar-70f9ace39155Apparently, Wainwright’s opinion does not matter. based upon the roster moves made yesterday.
I just read the piece on Kelly on the front page news. The thing that is disturbing to me is that if Kelly does real well, he still goes back to AAA. If he fails, his trade value might just plummet. It may also mean the Knizner will have to endure the same treatment as a top prospect. Matters only get WORSE if they both do well. Being productive for the two prospects, in this case, becomes a negative for the organization. Will Knizner be added to the 40-man roster now? That’s another hurdle for the organization to jump. It has become a speculative and troubling situation for all involved.
This is not how top prospects get treated by the people that should be assisting them with their careers. “Carson and Andrew get yourselves ready for MLB…. but don’t expect to to play regularly for three years. You two are among our very best prospects so you will need to maintain your level of play until then. We’ll get back to you later….. AND don’t call us we’ll call you IF and WHEN we need you so don’t hold your breathe. As of now, we have a catcher that we just extended a contract to, but we KNOW he will get hurt, so stay on your toes.”
The catching position is unique in that you NEED one to play and you MUST HAVE one to be the backup and ideally he should play on a somewhat regular schedule so as to not allow him to get rusty.
In St. Louis we have a catcher that demands to play and won’t sit, of course, until “if” and “when” he gets injured. Uh, not a good situation to put a highly rated, young player. Don’t you think?
Kelly is at least getting a chance to prove himself. Knizner, on the other hand, is not being given the same opportunity. Talk for the last year has been that Knizner has improved tremendously defensively, and yet suddenly, when Kelly gets the move up to St. Louis, the organization comes out with the statement that Knizner still has work to do defensively? I am not buying it.. and it seems fishy to me. He is not MLB ready, but he deserves a go at Memphis while Yadi recuperates.
The kid who performed well in Springfield last year, performed at AFL, performed at spring training, batted for several weeks at the top of the Texas League, and was touted as a potential superstar by Wainwright just this week is still at Springfield, while his backup gets a call up to Memphis yesterday. As another posted commented in the minor league thread for 5/12, this is definitely a head-scratching move that makes one wonder what is really going on.
14NyquisT, you are absolutely correct when you stated “This is not how top prospects get treated by the people that should be assisting them with their careers.” …. and Brain hit the nail on the head in his “hope beyond hope” speculative musing in his member’s only article about the Memphis roster moves. Mind blowing and unconscionable, for sure.
Hey, JeMartinez is not Knizner, but he ain’t chopped liver either. As mentioned by 1776 on the MiLB comments, Molina comes back…. where does Kelly go if Knizner is at Meemphis? Send Knizner back to AA? That’s something to be considered.
So you believe that it is better to NOT promote a deserving player because he MIGHT have to go back down a level in a month – IF nothing changes in the interim?
That would be a bad way to run an organization, IMO. Set expectations properly up front and no one is surprised later. It is not hard to do.
Q: Why would that be any different for Martinez than it would be for Knizner? A: none.
In fact, at the end of minor league spring training, when Bader was called up to St. Louis at the last minute as an injury replacement for Gyorko, they promoted Arozarena to Memphis. One month later, when St. Louis’ and Memphis’ hitters were healthy, Arozarena was returned to Springfield. He held his own at Triple-A, saw what the next level was like and gained some valuable experience.
I cannot believe that was NOT the best path to take with Arozarena, even though he could not stay at the higher level, and I see no substantive difference between that example and the current situation with Knizner.
(P.S. This has nothing to do with Martinez. The fact is that Knizner is a better prospect and is further along.)
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