During the Winter Warm-Up, the Cardinals picked up another veteran middle infielder on a minor league deal with a spring training invite. This time the player was Ramon Vasquez. Not sure what the reasoning is for this acquisition, but that’s not what we are here for today. Let’s analyze Vasquez’s stats and see where he fits in amongst the Cardinals’ Future Redbirds.
In 2010, he did not make it out of AAA and to the majors and 2008 was his best season of his career when he was with Texas. His 2008 season was supported by a BABIP of .342, but he did hit a much higher percentage of line drives that season. Despite that strong season, he could not replicate it with Pittsburgh in 2009. His career OPS in the major leagues is .678. So, maybe we should take a look at his defense?
His career UZR/150 at shortstop is 0.8, which puts him slightly above average. His UZR at all other infield positions are negative.
Considering all these numbers, Vazquez is pretty close to the definition of a replacement player. Considering the Cardinals middle infield options in the minors, I’m not sure why the Cardinals would add another replacement level middle infielder. Tyler Greene is projected by ZiPS to have an OPS similar to Vasquez’s career numbers in 2011. Daniel Descalso is projected to have a much higher OPS, although he is not a shortstop. Will the Cardinals carry Vazquez and Punto north from Spring Training rather than Greene and Descalso? Will the Cardinals keep Vazquez in Memphis just in case of an injury to one of their middle infielders?
As a replacement player, I cannot see what Vazquez brings to the organization or to the Memphis Redbirds or St. Louis Cardinals.
Entries (RSS)
Vazquez starting SS at Memphis. Descalso at 2nd. Solano backup for both. Greene backup SS in STL. Bynum plane ticket back up to Wilson, NC.
If that’s the model, it’s pretty well an admission that Peter Kozma has gone about as far as he’s going to go. This would be neither unexpected nor unreasonable; however, it’s curiously at odds with putting him on the 40-man to avoid loss in the rule-5 draft.
I’m with Jeff: I don’t understand this one.
Kozma should start the season back at AA and if he tears it up and his fielding doesn’t suck he should be up to Memphis by midyear. He’s still young, turns 23 in April so it’s not like he’s washed out.
The thing to remember about Kozma is that he was pushed way, way too fast early in his development, and he’s going to be age-appropriate for Double AA next year. Kozma did not have a good year in Springfield by any real definition, and pushing him into a role at Memphis simply because you think he should be there by now is ignoring the issues he’s still working on. He was never an elite prospect that had tools that would allow him to jump through the system; treating him as ready when he’s not is not good player development. It’s like a one-size fits all approach.
The Cardinals are probably going to St. Louis with one of Punto and Greene, who are are the now-filled 40-man. Descalso–also on the 40-man–probably will spend his days in Memphis playing multiple infield positions to be the depth utility guy in case one of Punto or Greene go down (or 3rd base, where he played mostly in St. Louis last year). That still leaves Solano and Bynum–neither of which is on the 40-man– as your Memphis middle infield, especially if Descalso actually makes it to St. Louis.
Vazquez is a warm body for Memphis until players from the lower levels push their way up.
Yeah, he’s young, but I honestly wonder what more he’s going to learn from a third year at AA. I repeat: I wonder. I do not know that the answer to that is “nothing,” nor do I even opine that it is. Still, what’s to be gained from an instructional point of view from a third year there? It’s not like he’s a pitcher and physical maturation is still going on at a significant level (e.g. the “injury nexus” at age 25 doesn’t seem to apply to position players).
I’d love to get an informed answer on this one. Any FR readers who actually played in the minors, or who know someone who did? I’m not convinced we wannabes can ever understand the world that Koz is now living in… but I’d like to try.
I may not have any major league experience, but I am captivated of the Pete Kozma Saga. I would like to dive with you further into… The Redbird Zone (See what I did there… Twilight Zone … Redbi- Anyways)
Pete Kozma is a repeater at the AA season for his third stint, Yes. But Pete Kozma has had only two seasons before 2010 with over 375 at bats in one league. That was when he was 20 in 2008 at A ball. In his first year with solid stability, he batted a .284 with a career high .368 OBP and an OPS of .760 (A year most seem to forget). Not to shabby. His second year he started his AA career, but it was a bad one. His OBP plummetted to a .288, his slugging percentage fell .080 points, and his OPS dropped .160. Keep in mind, before he was moved to AA that year, he had quite a nice set of games in A+ ball. So in a matter of 4 years, we have given a 22 year old kid only three real chances to get comfortable out of high school to pro and learn from the coaches in each league.
So going in to 2010, we have a YOUNG player that we’ve tossed around like a rag doll and has never settled into an honest role with any team. Shelby Miller entered baseball the same age as Kozma and has not moved up or down a level yet. That’s two years of ball so far.
In 2010, Pete Kozma hit a .243 avg, but I dont believe that is a good snap shot of his year. Kozma had 43% more hits than he did in 2009 with with less than 100 extra at bats (403 to 507). He matched his career numbers in HRs, which may also attest for the spike in his strike out ratio (111 Ks). His SLG. returned to normal levels(also due to the power), his OBP increased, but not to his career high numbers, his OPS went up .100 points. He had career highs in RBIs, runs, walks (Totalled among each year between leagues), SBs, 2Bs. So offensively, I believe it’s a little naive to ignore the actual improvement he has made in the past year.
On the defensive side of things, Kozma had !34!, I repeat 34 errors. HOWEVER, the first basemen during that same year had close to 20 errors combined. Additionally, Kozma turned 100 Double Plays. I’m guessing that means he threw 100 DPs. Thats’ a lot of DPs. Jose Garcia threw the next amount which was 48. DPs are hard to turn in my book and 100 DPs seems pretty high for a SS. Just glancing at other leagues, only Brett Lawrie had near the DP turns (89) and that led to 25 errors. (PS Castro had a fielding percentage of .953 in AA before the MLB. In conclusion on Defense, I believe the 34 errors to be inflated by the amount of DPs he turned, let alone attempted. Take it or leave it.
To sum this up, I see Kozma as a player reletive to Brenden Ryan. Ryan never had anymore than 350 at bats in one league at a time for his entire minor league career, which I feel lead to inconsistency and a weak baseball foundation. Kozma started down the same path, but the Cardinals are attempting to rectify this by stopping him and letting him learn at an appriopriate level for his age. I believe Kozma has fell to the unfortunate tag as an uninspiring, not Porcello, draft pick while he still has a relatively decent chance at improving his game. He won’t burn down the city of St. Louis with his play, but we all never expected it from him anyhow. I like the guy.
Castro – .953 flding %
I’m going to assume that you’re right and that noone in the FO thinks that Bynum and Vasquez are not in the picture for the big club this year. Even with a torrent of MI injuries they would be able to pick up better players than them on the spot.
You have to sympathize with Kozma, reviled when drafted and then handled so poorly. I agree that he’s got to get comnfortable and succeed somewhere before he can move forward. Would love to see him do it.
All these replacement middle infielders would appear to be the practice of the age-old adage: “throw enough **** at the wall and something is likely to stick.”
and I suppose some circles might call that “depth.”
He was singed before punto. Not sure if Descalso can play ss. when he signed, the cards had no backup shortstops outside of greene and Theriot isn’t a great ss. I, nor anybody else really see Solano as being a real option.
I doubt he makes the team or sticks around during the season.