Archive for the “Bryan Anderson” Category

Small sample size ahoy! Just looking at who was started out of the gates quickly at each affiliate and who has well… not.

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I have a feeling this will become a yearly missive.  I’ll keep this short as I attempt to round up all the prospect list links.

ZiPS projects Bryan Anderson as a .261/.319/.387 hitter in the majors for 2011. No great shakes by most interpretations. That translates to something around a .310 wOBA or about 8 runs worse than average over 600 PAs. That’s not actually terrible for a catcher.

Gerald Laird projects as a .240/.302/.342 hitter in 2011 or roughly a .285 wOBA.

Arguments for Gerald Laird to be the 2011 backup catcher have to include a rational discussion as to how he is 15 runs better (over a full season; prorate accordingly) defensively relative to Bryan Anderson.  That is to say you’d have to believe Gerald Laird is a little better than average and Bryan Anderson is well below average behind the plate.  It’s the minimum hurdle that has to be overcome and only serves as a starting point for potential discussions regarding platooning, age, injury risk, etc.

Succinctly, this looks like a bad decision to me. It’s more runs lost at the margins of the team.  Eventually, those add up.

ZiPS Projection

With the recent news that the Cardinals outrighted Matt Pagnozzi and made him a minor league free agent and AZ’s article about the place of Bryan Anderson on the big club, it seems like as good of a time as ever to look at the catcher depth and depth chart in the minor leagues.  Assuming that Bryan Anderson makes the Cardinals as the left-handed, slick hitting backup catcher, that leaves us with an interesting group.

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Bryan Anderson was drafted in 2005. He was a much hyped offensive potential for a backstop who others thought would develop power down the road. When that power projection didn’t come to fruition, Anderson took a big hit in the eyes of analysts. Each year, it seems like I make an obligatory “Bryan Anderson is still good/useful/prospecty” post regarding his value.

Acknowledging that Bryan Anderson is a valuable commodity or future MLB backstop didn’t always translate to advocating him in the majors. It did always advocate for him being ahead of Matt Pagnozzi on any proverbial depth chart though. It seems like the Cardinals have firmly committed to that decision — whether that was always the internal ranking or if all parties involved believed in that assessment is a different story and not one I’ve been privy to — with their release of Matt Pagnozzi, per Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

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I found myself faced with an unexpected question this past Saturday at VEB day. The topic of the conversation was Bryan Anderson, longtime prospect and martyr of the “Veteran Backup Catcher” philosophy. He’d become something of an afterthought this year after seemingly falling by the wayside to one Matt Pagnozzi. So what has the erstwhile 2005 prospect sidekick been up to.

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In a fairly surprise move, Memphis catcher Bryan Anderson has been called up to the majors to make his major league debut.

He was called up over Matt Pagnozzi who was the last catcher to be moved down from major league spring training.

Backup catcher Jason LaRue is headed to the DL.

What do you think of the move?  Good move? Or should Anderson stay in Memphis and get regular ABs?

Alternate Title: Why the Cardinals re-signed Jason LaRue

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I think Jeff Luhnow has done tremendous things with the farm system and bringing the Cardinals forward into the statistical age of baseball.  I have a very strong suspicion that the Cardinals (and other clubs) have reliable, advanced metrics on catcher’s defense that simply are beyond what has been developed in the public domain.  That said. . . oooff! . . .

Great to see Matt Pagnozzi with a strong game at Busch. He’s a perfect example of why the organization values strong catch and throw skills

I think Pagnozzi’s defense is largely overrated.  He’s got a good arm but he struggles with balls in the dirt from what I’ve seen.  He’s an average defender; more importantly, he’s a terrible hitter even for a catcher.  Unless his bat takes a quantum leap forward, he shouldn’t be anywhere near the big club, today’s effort notwithstanding.  Part of Luhnow’s job is to be positive about the minors in the press and while I appreciate the opportunity to praise an individual, I’m perturbed by reading what appears to be organizational philosophy that results in bad players coming up at certain positions.

Poor Bryan Anderson.

Ben Badler takes a look at catchers in the minors who best controlled the running game. The good news is out of the 55 catchers on his list, 3 Cardinals are in the top twenty in caught stealing percentage.

• Nick Derba caught 34 out of 78 attempts (43.6%) and came in 5th on Badler’s list.
• Luis De La Cruz caught 20 out of 52 (38.5%), coming in 13th.
• Bryan Anderson was much improved from last year, catching 41 out of 109 attempts (37.6%), good for 19th. Last year his CS% was 26.8%. Hopefully that will squelch some of this nonsensical talk that he should be moved to another position.

Badler only looked at players whose names were in one of their handbooks so I figured I may as well could look around and see how well our other catchers controlled the running game. Onward bullet points, ho!

• Arnoldi Cruz:  15-for-55, good for 27.2%.
• Blake Murphy:  20-for-53, 37.7%.
• Paul Vasquez:  31-for-74, 41.9%
• Brandon Yarbrough: 26-for-75, 34.6%
• Kevin Moscatel: 12-for-35, 34.2%.
• Steve Hill: 1-f0r-4, I don’t have is AFL #’s, unfortunately.

Some quick thoughts:

• The reverse-Inge experiment with Cruz is probably still worth exploring, but he has some work to do. That percentage would put him well in the bottom third of Badler’s list.
• Nick Derba fooled us into thinking he could hit, posting a .377 wOBA for the Quad Cities last season. This season at Palm Beach his wOBA .274, but he dominated the running game. Another Jason Motte experiment in line?
• Murphy was my favorite late round pick last season, and here is another reason why. The 42 round pick completely dominated college ball both on offense and defense, then he hit pretty well in Batavia before struggling a bit at the QC. We’ll see what he can do over a full season before I get really interested.
• Paul Vasquez came from the independent leagues to hit for a .394 wOBA in the Quad Cities. He struggled in under 70 plate appearances at Palm Beach. Maybe he’s a hidden gem.

The handlebar mustache ain’t going anywhere, Bryan Anderson fans gnash your teeth! AZ already found more pros then cons in using Anderson as Yadier’s backup, but for one reason or another the Cards do not see that it as Anderson’s proper role, at least for the near future. His days in the Cardinal organization are probably numbered, me thinks.

Anderson will however be backing up Molina in the Puerto Rican Winter League, which starts on Election Day.

Speaking of voting, Derrick Goold is polling the fans on who should be the Cards minor league player of the year. There is a great case for Freese, but where is the love for Daryl Jones? I just am not sure the real organizational player of the year should be trailing by so much.

Arizona Fall League

• Shane Robinson went 1-3 with an intentional walk. Who is the manager that would intentionally walk Shane Robinson? He stole his sixth base of the AFL season and also had a sac fly.
• Brett Wallace went 0-4 with a walk. A .644 OPS wasn’t what we were hoping to see out of Wallace in fall ball; I’ll have to look at his batted ball types to see if it is just a matter of tough luck.
• Adam Ottavino with another less than stellar performance- 3 IP, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR.
• Justin Fiske threw a scoreless inning, pitching around a couple of hits. He recently updated his blog, found here. Box.

Hawaii Winter Baseball

• Tony Cruz went 1-4.
• Blake King allowed two hits over two innings and struck out five.

Dominican Winter League

• For Halloween, Albert Pujols dresses up as Amaury Marti. Marti doubled and walked in four at bats. Box.

Venezuelan Winter League

• David Freese drove in a pair of runs, one on a sac fly and another on a solo jack. He struck out twice in his other two at bats. Box.