My impressions on what I saw from the position players in Memphis. With a roster decimated by injuries to Colby Rasmus, Shane Robinson and the departure of Brian Barden, there was only one player that looked like a major leaguer.

Tyler Greene: He never stood out at the plate but he looked smooth defensively with a nice arm for a SS.  I didn’t see the raw power that he displayed at Springfield.  Might have a future as a backup shortstop but the bat looks questionable.  If you want an MLB comp, think Brendan Ryan with more pop.

Brendan Ryan: Speaking of which, I’m not sure there’s a single player that I feel more wrong about one year later than Ryan.  He looked lost at the plate the whole weekend swinging as slop off the plate and rolling over on pitches for weak groundouts.  If the Cardinals are willing to go with Izturis-like offense, they might as well go with Brendan Ryan next year but he looks different than what I saw last year.  I not sure if he just had an extended hot stretch but I vastly overestimated his ability with the bat.  He also had a very bad mental lapse where the third strike got away from the catcher at the end of Saturday’s game and it took the bench yelling at him to get him to run it out.

David Freese: Despite hitting reasonably well at the plate, Freese doesn’t strike me as a major leaguer.  He’s got a nice arm at third but he’s too passive on groundballs for my liking.  Anything hit hard is liable to gobble him up on a bad hop and find him on his heels.  I still like Allen Craig better as a prospect.

Josh Phelps: Had a nice weekend with some very hard hit balls.  That still looks like a major league bat to me.  If I was a team like the Mariners, I might try signing him to a minor league contract as a servicable and cheap 1B option.  Not of much help to the Cardinals but probably not done as a major leaguer.

Bryan Anderson: Still not a great defender.  Let one ball go right between his legs on Sunday.  Needs to do better at blocking balls in the dirt.  Lateral movement behind the plate was good.  Arm strength is good but accuracy is probably only average.  Should be able to hit .300 in the majors but without a lot of secondary skills unless power develops late.

Jon Jay: Of all the players I saw, he looked like a major leaguer in all facets of the game.  I like the comps that were offered in the DFR yesterday.  Schumaker is one that seems extremely apt although I’d say Jay’s tools are slightly better across the board.  He’s a very good defender making a spectacular diving catch in Sunday’s game.  He takes good routes to the balls and gets good reads.  At the plate he showed an advances approach making solid contact and wasn’t fooled by breaking pitches or offspeed stuff.  The power is below average.  He’s quicker than I had anticipated him to be showing above average speed.  Overall, I think he’s probably a starting CF for a major league team that is getting power from other positions.  Is that with the Cardinals?  Probably not, but he should be a worthwhile trade chip next year.

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