Adron Chambers Continues To Impress On And Off the Field
Posted on March 2nd, 2011 by Jeff in Adron ChambersDerrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch catches up with red-hot prospect Adron Chambers. Chambers is so red hot that even a professional curmudgeon like Joe Strauss is on board the Adron train. Goold covered Adron’s history and many other topics in the Q&A, including how he got discovered:
Back in 2007, Chambers paid $100 to buy a bus ticket from his home in Pensacola, Fla., to a tryout he heard about in Memphis with the Cardinals. He got the call 24 hours before he arrived — after a 23-hour bus trip that snaked its way north from the panhandle through Louisiana and Mississippi and into Memphis. When the Greyhound pulled up near the ballpark, Chamber said he barely had enough time to throw on some cleats before the workout started.
(Hit the link for the whole Q&A…)
So, Chambers got the word about the Cardinals tryout in Memphis and within an hour he was on a 23-hour bus trip. The time between when he heard about the tryout before getting on the bus and getting off the bus and the tryout in Memphis was only 1 hour. That is absolutely remarkable.
We looked in depth at Adron’s career here earlier this winter with video evidence of Chambers in the cage. Chambers is a player that I have been high on for a while and his performance has only improved as has his standing as he has impressed the Cardinals brass and everyone around the game.
Entries (RSS)
Read this article already, definately a good thing, he’s still semi new to baseball he’s improving alot still and he’s coachable.
That’s one of the reason I rank him highly – he’s still improving.
It sure would be nice to see the return of at least one guy with speed to the Cards active roster. I know it would create a lopsided bench in some ways, but if Craig proves he can play third to the teams satisfaction until the return of Nick Punto I wouldn’t mind seeing the Cards head north with a bench of Laird, Craig, Greene, Jay and Chambers. Craig could back up 1b/3b/lf/rf with Jay and Chambers versatility all over the of and Greene as the middle if and rh bat in cf when needed. Obviously Chambers would likely be the odd man out once Punto is back, then he could continue to refine his game at AAA with regular playing time, but I for one would like to see his speed off the bench in the meantime. Obviously that could change as spring rolls on, but I hope he keeps up with showing an ability to hit/get on base.
Jay and Chambers both hit left handed. Tony will never do it. I think Jay and Chambers are similar players so they probably leave him in AAA to used if and when injury hits. Joe Mather plays all three outfield positions and hits right handed with some power … oh, never mind.
Joe Mather? Really? I take Craig all day long.
Good point on too many lefties.
I would take Craig as well but he’s playing infield at present which opens a right handed hitting spot in the OF (preferably power bat), who prior to the Punto injury the Cardinals were trying to shove T. Greene into that spot. Recall Tony talking up T. Greene’s purported ability to play CF. With Punto down, Greene and Descalso seem to be in play for the reserve middle IF spot with the right handed outfield bench slot vacant.
I think Greene should still learn OF. He would become a more valuable utility player.
As for Mather, i was never impressed and I don’t really see him as a CF. I am not sure where they are at on the roster, but they will probably still be able to add somebody before the end of springtraining.
As things stand now, Stavi is probably the outfield righthanded bench bat … but things are in flux so who can say. Craig probably ends up back in the OF which settles that. Whatever you think of Mather, it difficult to conger a impression that leads one to believe that Stavi is a better OF option than Mather.
I doubt that Stavi is in that good a position unless he hits a ton this Spring. In addition to the fact they don’t have a 40 man roster spot readily available for him, the fact that they removed him this Winter from the 40 man roster has to say something about where he stands.
Stavi is also not on the roster either. I think Greene could aslo be a better outfielder than Mather as well.
“I think Greene could aslo be a better outfielder than Mather as well.”
By all means, let’s find out in the MLB whether the guy can play the outfield. Tony’s roster construct is getting old. I don’t like using Stavi but only brought him up to show how shallow we are in power bats from the right side in the outfield when Craig is removed from the equation.
Lack of power On the bench you mean?
What is wrong with the roster construct? I like the idea of a roster with a guy like Mark Derossa who can play multiple positions. Learning the outfield is not that hard. DeRossa did it as well.
Now let me caveat that its not that hard for shortstops like DeRossa and Greene. unathletic first baseman like Duncan and Dunn its a different story.
Also, Greene has shown some power in the minrors.
Really like Adron as he just seems to continue to show he is a decent outfield prospect, also gotta love his story of how he got selected by the Cards in the first place. He has made remarkable progress for someone that came in pretty raw as a baseball player, and I too wouldnt mind at all seeing him break with the big league club as he seems to have a knack to get on base and would offer us some much needed speed to our bench and lineup. As has been said, that on base speed is something that has been missing from the our lineup for sometime. However, wouldnt be totally dissapointed if he did return to Memphis and play everyday to hone his skills some more first either.
I actually think that Chambers and Jay aren’t very similar at all in terms of the type of player they currently are. Jon Jay is very polished, has pretty much reached his upside I believe, does everything well but nothing really outstanding. CHambers is still new to the sport and learning, i.e. his caught stealing percentage was very high last year but was perfect in AFL. This means he’s probably still learning and picking peoples brains. I think Chambers can be projected to be a leadoff guy that steals 30 bases, not sure if we can say the same with Jay. And this is coming from a Jon Jay fan.
I have made it no secret that I am higher on Chambers than most. Plenty project him to a 4th OF type but I see a legit starter and leadoff hitter with speed. He is an exciting player that could energize the lineup. Problem is we have no room for him in the OF…so he will most likely spend the year in AAA unless we have a few injuries to open up a spot. But next year might be different especially if he has a stellar year.
I agree he stays at AAA this year and it’s probably for the best. He can develop more. I’m expecting though if we keep Pujols next year that Holliday will be moved to RF and Chambers will be the opening day LF and leadoff batter.
This is where I differ than most when it comes to prospects. Right now, I just don’t see Chambers as being the better player.
Jay probably has the better arm, has more pop, gets on base at about the same clip and is a more polished hitter.
If the starting OF position comes from within, Jay should be the leading candidate.
I don’t think Chambers is the better player, and I definitely think he needs a year in AAA to become more polished, but I think he is better than people are giving him credit for. I saw him in AA last year and he was the most impressive player on the field IMO (that included Kozma, Sanchez, D. Jones, Cruz?? I think, etc. and also Moustakas and C. Robinson on the Royals farm team). At this point Adron doesn’t have much pop, but he is super athletic and built well so I don’t see why we can’t expect a little pop from him in the future, added to his already impressive approach at the plate and I see a guy who will hit as good or better than Jay in both power and average categories. Also, he obviously has more speed, but I really think people are undervaluing his arm because he has mainly played LF. To me, that is more an indication of how raw he is as a player, because I saw him make two VERY impressive throws from LF, including throwing a guy out at 2B from nearly the wall as he tried to leg out a double.
Don’t want to get ahead of myself, but based off the strides his making and his overall athletic profile, I could see Chambers as a guy who hits around .290 with 15 or so HR’s, 30 steals and great range/defense in either of the corner OF positions..
That is pretty much Carl Crawford.
I don’t think Chambers is the next Crawford.
This year Crawford was .307 BA, 19 HRs, 47 SBs. 90% of that, which is what jws is hoping for, is still a very useful player (assuming the number of walks still remains high).
Personally, I don’t care nearly as much about the HRs as I care about him keeping his BB% high. His OBP this year was quite a bit higher than Crawford’s, and that largely resulted from walks. If he can keep THAT up and have an OBP over .370, then suddenly we are talking about a first-rate leadoff man, regardless of how many home runs he hits.
I agree that 90% is very usefull. i just think its overly optomistic at this point.
i also don’t see that .370 being sustainable.
But i am happy with a .350-.360 lead off man. Its actually pretty good and would be one of the best in the league. But if he doesn’t have the HR power then you run into a problem because you middle infielders are usually not power threats either. So that leaves you with 3 lighter hitting players in your line up. While its great your #1 and #2 hitter are ob guys, have a #7 hitter with limited power is nto as usefull.
I have used the term a poor man’s Desmond Jennings when talking about Chambers. He hasn’t mastered the use of speed yet but he probably has nearly just as much. He is slightly behind Jennings in terms of age and level but if you consider baseball experience he may be level equivalent or better. Jennings most likely will end up better but I dont think that is a given until Chambers stops showing improvement.
Lord Marti with an outfield assist today against the Mets. Pity the fool who tried to run on a god. Fellow must have seen seen “Cazana” on the lineup card and didn’t realize who he was dealing with.
So adron could be closer to terms to 2009 Denard Span and he still would be valuable. I want to see him start on the bench, I have a fairly strong hunch Berkman won’t break camp healthy. Or at least 100%.
The profile on Chambers describes his best case comp as Shane Victorino, who is a very nice player. I don’t see Chambers developing that kind of power. But he is showing some ability to not make outs. He could be a pretty useful player.
Chambers lost his football scholarship owing to a he said/she said.
He could use 800 AAA at bats to show what he can do.