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I like Mautz but he is gettting old for a prospect. It will be nice to have him, Hjerpe, and Henderson coming through on the LH pitching side.
LHP-wise:
I am penciling in Doyle, Libertore, and Mathews as starters with the above 3 as the fallback options, bullpen pieces.blingboy
Opens a spot for a 4A acquisition.Haha!
Yeah this is not great news at all for Nootbaar and I’m not exactly happy that he didn’t have the surgery at the end of August either. It probably was affecting him in September.
LACardFan
Bernal is 21, Crooks is 24.
I always subtract at least 150 pts of OPS from Memphis hitters making the jump to the majors. That would put Crooks in the .620 OPS range. His actual was .396, which was even worse.
I was just responding to your comment about not doing anything to warrant a promotion.
This was still Crooks’ age-23 season. Bernal is a year ahead of him though for sure. Crooks is on the Masyn Winn path imo, whether he achieves that is yet to be seen.
LACardFan
Oh, I hope they have him repeat AAA. He did nothing to warrant a promotion to MLB. The Cardinals need to be developing their players in the minor leagues.
He’s one of the best defensive catchers in minor league baseball. He had a .778 OPS at AAA (which is better than Bernal’s AA OPS of .726) That’s slightly above-average there. I think that’s a good reason.
Likewise, he was promoted when Pozo got hurt. With his age, it’s probably best for him to be in the majors as the primary backup.
blingboy
I am put off by Bernal’s .726 OPS this year. There was no forward progress over his brief AA stint at the end of the previous year. He was young for level, and if he moves up to AAA will even more so. It might be smart to let him hit his way out of AA if he can.
He really struggled through the second half. He had an .860 OPS through June, then had OPS of .639, .577, .492 OPS July/August/September. Being 6’0 and 245 lbs and catching through the summer may have taken it’s toll. He is from Panama though, so who knows. Fangraphs says he struggles with high velocity pitchers.
#6 Crooks
Crooks edges Bernal for me. They are both really good prospects.
Bernal is playing at AA at age 21, rather than 22, plus Crooks was an old 22 that year. Crooks did hit much better there and held his own in Memphis this year as well. Crooks has been listed among the best defensive catchers in the minors though.
Crooks being a LH hitting catcher would be a good thing most of the time but Bernal being a switch hitter negates that. Bernal is massive too and may lose his agility as he ages.
For me it comes down to proximity. Crooks also made BPs top 100 list last year.
On the negative side, Crooks has a high K rate at Memphis which could lead to a 30% rate in the MLB.
Bernal showed some separation in his L/R splits, hitting LH pitching much better this year. That could make these two really good platoon partners down the line.
My vote is for Rodriguez though at #4.
He’s a top 100 prospect in all of baseball. I wouldn’t put Bernal or Baez at that level yet.
Can Baez play CF in the majors? He’s mostly played RF for his career, but had some time in CF this year, albeit only like 20 games.
LACardFan
ParticipantFree
With respect to Rodriguez’ size, the following sites have him listed at 5’10”:MLB.com
Baseball Reference
Ballysports
Baseball AmericaI am guessing he has grown since he was signed.
Maybe Brian will chime in with the eye test.
Molina was 5’11”.
In Bob Reeds thread about Rodriguez, this came up and BW commented this:
The source of the industry info is the Cardinals, who listed Rodriguez at 5-10, 197 when he was signed in April 2024. That was when he was in the DR.
This year, he came to the US for the first time. In their Media Guide, the Cardinals now list him at 5-8, 209. Those industry sources rarely update the initial height and weight (for 6000-7000 professional players).
Bob Reed
#3 Rainiel Rodriguez
The errors were a little elevated this year, but the passed balls were distinctly better than average and he gunned 30% of base stealers (32% in 2024). So right now there’s no reason to think he’ll be a Gold Glover — and also no real reason to think he can’t stick behind the plate long term.
Other than just about every scouting report I’ve read, sure. With his height being 5’8, there’s no way he can play 1B so I hope he can improve his defense or grow some since he is still young. One thing is certain, he can hit.
osuagec
Here are my predictions as to what the Cardinals will do this off-season.
I’m expecting quite a few trades. Specifically they trade Arenado, Gray, Contreras, Nootbar and Pages
Contreras talking about the team needing to keep a vet got me thinking. If he is traded, they could go and sign Goldschmidt back to provide that ‘leadership’.
Goldschmidt is almost unplayable vs RH pitching, meanwhile our young, heir-apparent 1Bman, Burleson, is .200 OPS worse vs LH pitching.
They would make a really nice platoon and you wouldn’t be blocking anyone with Goldschmidt, like you would with Contreras.
Goldschmidt had a .981 OPS vs LH, while Burleson had an .830 OPS vs RH, for reference, which is nearly in line with their careers.
I’m thinking of the Pujols signing as well that worked out really well for us back in 2022.
Career 3.33 ERA for the Cardinals. I just could see them keeping him.
They don’t have anything in the LH reliever pipeline and I really don’t think he will get a raise either. He performed poorly and was injured.
ZTR
If Herrera is moved back to c then we still need a rh outfielder.
An under-the-radar free agent RH outfielder we should pursue is Miguel Andujar. He’s been above-average for 3 years running, won’t cost a lot, and can backup 3B if needed.
I didn’t realize Burleson was so bad in the outfield stat-wise. I’ll have to adjust my expectations there.
Herrera said he wanted to catch so I assume they are gonna try it one last time after his surgery.
Gray has no trade value. In fact, it’s negative. I can’t see them eating salary to placate him.
There’s also a point where we have to maintain a minimum team salary and keeping the big three seems like an easy way to do that to me. Why trade Gray to save $20M if you have to turn around and give $20M to a lesser starter?
If they move the alluring Leahy to starter, then they don’t even have to go after any free agent starters (if Gray stays)
jj-cf-stl
If Willson wants to stay, catch him 😜
How you like them apples Mo?Sooo, who do you want at 1B? Burly? To keep him away from the outfield grass?
Is Herrera at DH? Arenado and Winn left side. Who is at 2B? The rook and Saggese (UI)? Noot, Donny and Scott outfield.
Catcher production upgrade.
Shame we can’t pitch. Sell!I prefer Burleson as the designated DH. Herrera at CA. If they trade one of Donovan or Nootbaar, then you can move Herrera or Burleson to the outfield some. I don’t know. None of them seem exciting at all.
