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Katie Woo reports that Victor Scott is being called up today to replace Michael Siani. No word yet on how long Siani will be out, but this is especially tough for the Cards with CF depth thinned out at the trade deadline.
What about Antico? He was just ok at Double-A, hasn’t come close to mastering Triple-A yet and isn’t on the roster. I would bring up either Walker or add Koperniak to the 40-man ahead of Antico.
I would bring up either Walker or add Koperniak to the 40-man ahead of Antico.
I would not want to see Walker in center field. I don’t know about Koperniak.
Fortunately, these moves are not made in a vacuum and players can be moved around. Of course, they would not play Walker in CF, but you also know that they could rejuggle and move Nootbaar there, freeing up a corner spot. The fact you don’t know about Koperniak does not eliminate him as being a better option than Antico, which was the question on the table. At least Koperniak has shown an ability to consistently hit Triple-A pitching.
So go ahead and make your case for Antico. I will await your response…
This is plan B??? Scott is over-matched at AAA. At this point the Cards are looking for more offense. See what we have with Koperniak…. he is up to .316 23-2B 14-HR 57-RBI at Memphis and is a good defender. Scott ain’t the answer here. Certainly another bad move by the FO.
They clearly are NOT looking for more offense or they would have added Walker or Koperniak. This is clearly a defense-first move.
But what we don’t know yet is if Scott will start or Nootbaar will move over. They could put Donovan back in the OF and start playing Gorman at 2B again.
Only time will tell if it is a good or bad move.
FWIW, Scott has hits in his last seven games, during which he is 10-for-27 (.370). Does hot hitting carry over? It didn’t for Winn last year when he came up, but that was his first time. At least Scott knows what to expect. Whether he can do anything about it remains to be seen.
The issue was what to do about the Siani injury. Yes, Noot could be shifted to CF, but what is the back up? That was my point about Walker. I would not want Walker, nor anyone else on the roster backing up CF. That is why bringing up Walker would have been absurd. You have no coverage behind Noot. I am not sure about Koperniak backing up CF. Antico has negatives, but at least he is a center fielder and can provide coverage. In the end, Scott was the best of poor options.
Scott did not impress me all that much defensively in his brief stint early in the year. But small sample, and I am sure he is good as management should know.
Tough break for Siani. He was established as the center fielder. Wish we could annul the Carlson trade. Or better yet, can we reverse the O’Neill trade – that one is looking like a real clunker.
Since we can’t do that, I would have preferred giving Koperniak the shot over VSII.
jj asked:
Does Scott have much rookie status left?
He was up for just under than a month before. So, another couple of weeks is a rough estimate.
Winn put up a 28 ops+ last season. Scott gets a reset in the minors and we’ll see where he’s at now. CF has been a developmental position all season anyway.
Bling, I get your point about back up CF, but worst case if something happened to Nootbaar, they would only have to play a partial game before bringing up a replacement. When all is said and done, I get why they didn’t take Walker, but if was only between him and Antico, I would still take Walker.
It gets down to how important one views adding offense over defense.
Walker might be the best hitter. Scott might be the best defender. Koperniak might be the best balance (due to his ability to cover CF).
Yeah, I am intrigued by Koperniak and how he might fit in next year. The Cardinals org has been playing him at CF, seemingly getting sizing him up as a CF capable 4th-5th outfielder. Similar to how they started playing Saggese at SS, potentially positioning to be a SS capable infield UT. It doesn’t necessarily mean you would want to see either at those positions, but it is giving the org a chance to see what it looks like, and in the event a trade scenario comes up, it checks the box.
Our OF has been a fiasco all year. Edman, Carlson, and Noot have been hurt. Walker and Scott were overmatched. Donovan and Burly have been good but aren’t full time OF’s. The one bright spot has been Siani and now he will probably be lost for several weeks if not the rest of the season. Those oblique injuries can be persistent. We just can’t win for losing.
Agree gscottar, and trading from the ML roster is risky when there is nothing backing it up. Carlson was not very useful, and Edman hadn’t made it back yet, but still, they were moved without having anything set to move up and take their place. It didn’t take long for that hole to get found. In the end, we do not get better by trading since it is zero sum. Losses in talent from aging out, toll from accumulated injuries, or skills just petering out, has to be made up from either developing talent or buying it.
Not sure what Koperniak needs to do in order to receive call up. He’s twice the offensive force Scott and isn’t twice as bad in Center.
For those who haven’t noticed…
.316/.369/.512/.881
Not a bad slash line at Memphis. Now, let’s look at VSII….
.219/.302/.319/.621
Of course, I understand Scott II is on the 40-man and Koperniak is not…but come on man…this team has to start scoring more runs.
Now let’s all watch Scott II hit .600 for the next two weeks!
bling said:
It didn’t take long for that hole to get found.
I agree, but think about this. If they hadn’t acquired a starting pitcher, they would have been one short when Lynn was injured literally a few hours after the trade deadline passed.
IMO, the core problem is a lack of depth pretty much everywhere. They made a decision to protect the long term and not trade top prospects, with the risk that the short term is not improved as much as it could have. More playing it down the middle…
I agree with bringing Scott up. He’s the least bad option. However, I still maintain that we should have kept Carlson and sent him to Memphis. This is part of the reason why. Instead, we got a 2 month rental on a reliever with mixed results and we had to give TB $100k in the deal. Overall, there’s almost no question in my mind that the trade made us worse.
Scott has been hitting better of late. And he is definitely the best CFer on the roster. Koperniak is probably roughly equal to Noot in my estimation for 2nd best. But in this case, both 2nd best options are probably below league average.
Has Siani officially gone on the IL?
The Cardinals haven’t announced it yet but if the reporters are correct it appears to be imminent.
With CF Michael Siani (right oblique strain) headed to the Injured List, the #STLCards have recalled speedy CF Victor Scott II, a source confirmed to MLB .com. https://t.co/nHPrVWJNhU
— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) August 4, 2024
Batting line for July at Memphis:
Walker: .213/.304/.350/.654
Scott: .208/.322/.389/.711Scott out slugged Jordan Walker last month.
Fresh start for Scott, just like Winn got, when he put 2023 in the rear view mirror.
And then there’s Sinai’s ops+ improving by month. Another opportunity for Scott sounds good to me. Start him while he’s here. It’s what rebuilding teams do.
For those of you who have him locked in as a career .600 ops, take a peek at his .109 BAbip
I’m no prospect hugger, but what he’s done so far at mlb will be hard to repeat.
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