Let’s work backwards in time beginning with yesterday 04/17/11:

It’s a common refrain: he’s working on a second pitch. Sometimes that’s a slider, sometimes a cutter . . . heck, he may be working on a gyroball for all I know. And probably for all he knows too.

[...]

Motte’s fastball is, well, fast regularly clocking in at 95+mph. It doesn’t have a lot of movement on it and tends to be straight.  What has made it effective in the past is the superb command he had of the pitch.

We’ll jump back now to just before he was graduating from the minors in 08/21/08:

Need a fastball in the high 90s? Motte’s your man. Need a breaking ball with sharp bite? Go look somewhere else. The slider is still sloppy with slow break. [...] I don’t think it’s getting any better and he’s probably ready to contribute at the major league level even with a below average slider. There’s not much left to find out in the minors — his fastball was sitting 97-98 mph. I don’t think he’ll ever be a closer but he can have a nice run as a setup guy out of the pen given the velocity.

A little before that on 07/21/08:

I will say that I wasn’t picking up on the [slider] as much before hand, which is an improvement. I’m just not sure it’s really a viable breaking pitch in the majors. It still looks well below average to me.

06/26/08:

Motte’s fastball is blazing fast but relatively straight. When he locates it down in the zone, it’s a plus-plus pitch. He has enough pure velocity to blow it by most minor leaguers but that will be harder to do at the next level. When he does miss it’s typically shoulder high and gets fouled out of play. He may have left 2-3 of the 30 above fastballs over the plate.

05/04/08:

The more I see Motte, the more I think he really needs to develop some kind of secondary pitch. His fastball doesn’t feature a lot of movement although he can locate it relatively well.

Three years ago, I was bemoaning the lack of a secondary pitch. Motte’s command with the fastball improved at the higher levels of the minors to the point that he was more effective than I would have predicted with just one pitch.  The idea that Jason Motte is going to develop a second effective pitch should be laid to rest though. The complaints about him from 2008 still apply almost word for word in 2011.

Jason Motte is a good reliever and he was a good relief prospect. He’s just not a reliever with more than one average or better pitch.

Mostly a one-pitch pitcher, there are some that feel Motte won’t be able to translate his minor league success to the major league level because you need more than one pitch to succeed in the majors, no matter how good that pitch is — and that pitch is really good: an upper 90′s fastball that explodes out of his hand. It’s straight as an arrow, but it’s sneaky and gets on hitters quick because he short-arms the ball, which dates back to his days as a catcher. When he’s able to command the pitch, it’s virtually unhittable.

Motte’s No. 2 pitch is a fringy slider that he’s able to use when hitters start cheating on his fastball or when he wants to throw off a hitter’s balance at the plate. By the way, I know there are some that suggested he develop a splitter partly because it would be easier for him to maintain a more consistent arm slot and I agree with that completely.

Now, I’m not here to give a traditional scouting report on Motte. That’s been done before by Azruavatar and you can read both of those excellent reports by clicking here and clicking here. You can also read Erik’s rundown of Motte’s pitch f/x data by clicking here.

I’m going to actually take a deeper look at Motte’s mechanics — how he generates his velocity and what changes he’s made between this year and last that I think has helped improve his overall command. My hope is that everybody will take away some knowledge about the velocity generating process and some of the more subtle changes a pitcher can make to improve themselves.

The big change Motte made this season was that he simplified his wind-up by lowering his hands and centering everything closer to his core. The 2008 version is on the top and the 2009 Motte is on the bottom:

This year, Motte is in a more athletic, more compact position. Instead of bringing his hands up by his head, he brings them closer to his upper chest area. This change took place partly because of the timing difference between Motte’s high leg kick from 2008 and his smaller leg kick in 2009.

Motte pauses once his knee reaches the pinnacle of its lift before punching the glove, which acts as his timing mechanics to unleash all hell. The difference between the two versions is that the 2008 version pauses for a longer period of time, while the 2009 version gets going much more quickly. This results in a wind-up with better flow — much smoother than before and without any pauses that have the potential to throw off his timing.

Now let’s talk velocity…Motte is obviously blessed with tremendous arm speed and the genetics to throw hard. But he’s also extremely efficient from a velocity standpoint and his arm action is excellent. He lets the elbow pick up the ball, meaning no hook in the wrist, like you see with Rich Harden. He also efficiently loads the scapula, which I’ll try to explain below:

The loading of the scapula is the pinching of the shoulder blades together. The arm is loaded horizontally rather than straight back toward second base. Might it put more stress on the shoulder? Perhaps…but it’s an essential component of velocity.

Watch how Motte’s chest sorta puffs out in the clips above…this is a symptom of the shoulder blades pinching together. Also take note of Motte’s hip/torso separation. I pause the graphic at the key frame. The belt buckle is pointed toward home plate, while the torso is facing the third base direction. Just before his front foot lands, the hips start to rotate and the torso is subsequently unloaded, bringing the arm with it.

The arm’s power is generated from the torso unloading. There is a kinetic chain of events and to generate the kind of velocity Motte does, you have to have a precisely efficient kinetic chain. It’s also important to throw with intent, which Motte certainly does.

One thing I quibble with are Motte’s front side mechanics. The glove generally should be kept firm out in front of the chest. While Motte does firm up to keep his front shoulder from flying open, he leaves the glove down by his side when it ideally should be left out in front of the chest. There are numerous reasons for why it should be kept firm out in front of the chest — lower injury risk, better control, more consistent release point, and better command of one’s breaking pitches to name a few.

Final Thoughts

Nobody should overreact to Motte’s Monday debacle. One game doesn’t make a player. Consider how dominant he was last season at the MLB level even though his dominance occurred in a limited amount of innings.

The jury’s still out on whether he’s a closer-level reliever. That’s probably a best case outcome unless he can develop a consistent secondary pitch that he can go to when the command of his fastball deserts him. Can he make it happen? Only time will tell.

This article is apart of Baseball-Intellect’s Cardinals top prospect list, which you can read below:

Prospects 1 – 5
Prospects 6 – 15

Alex breaks down major and minor league players by using sabermetric and video analysis at the website Baseball Intellect. He’s also done regular work for the Hardball Times and Baseball Digest Daily. You can contact him at baseballintellect@gmail.com

The conversion began in 2006 but Motte burst onto the scene in 2007 in Springfield.  I made a point of watching an excessive amount of video on Motte.Starting on May 4th, when I was scouting Walters, it’s hard to pass on noticing Motte:

The more I see Motte, the more I think he really needs to develop some kind of secondary pitch. His fastball doesn’t feature a lot of movement although he can locate it relatively well.

So the theme begins.  With the benefit of hindsight, I think I was underrating Motte’s fastball.  Motte’s shown increasingly impressive command but the fastball is still very straight.

At the end of June, I reviewed some more tape:

Motte’s fastball is blazing fast but relatively straight. When he locates it down in the zone, it’s a plus-plus pitch. He has enough pure velocity to blow it by most minor leaguers but that will be harder to do at the next level. When he does miss it’s typically shoulder high and gets fouled out of play. He may have left 2-3 of the 30 above fastballs over the plate. There’s not really any growth in the fastball itself unless he suddenly develops movement on the pitch, which is the only thing holding it back from being an 80.

The common association to make after last year is a Grant Balfour comparison but a) that was one season in isolation and b) that strikes me as a best case scenario.

The slider isn’t a myth but it is very much a work in progress. My biggest complaint is that it doesn’t break away from right-handers enough.

His slider is still a sloppy pitch that’s below average for me.  There’s a tendency to rationalize that it’s good enough to keep hitters honest on the fastball and, while that may be true, that doesn’t make the slider any better of a pitch inherently.  If hitters find a tip for his slider, they’ll hit it because the break isn’t sharp or severe enough.

The command issues extend to both pitches. He needs to locate his fastball down in the zone more often.

It’s easy to overlook the increased command that Motte has shown over the last year.  His walk rate dropped by a half a batter per nine from Springfield to Memphis and a full batter from Memphis to St. Louis.  What he’s done this spring has been remarkable.

Overall, I gave him a AOFP of 58.  I’m still expecting some bumps in the road for Motte as major league hitters see him for the second and third time.

I echoed the above statements again in July questioning the slider.  The splitter is something that’s been mentioned as an alternative that Motte might be better off using.  I’m not sure if that’s the case but I’d guess that any tinkering the club thought they might do with Motte is on hold until (and if) things unravel.  With Chris Perez being optioned, Motte is the owner of his own destiny and the Cardinals appear to have caught some lightning in a bottle.

From Josh Kalk’s Pitch F/X cards.

Kalk also runs similarity scores on his site for each pitcher and interestingly enough, Motte’s most comparable pitcher from 2008 was Grant Balfour. Balfour happened to lead the majors in K/9 with 12.65. Jason Motte led all of the minors in K/9 with 14.85. Both throw fastballs 90% of the time. So you tell me – can he get by with one pitch?

Cardinal70 recently asked me to participate in the latest “United Cardinal Blogger” collaboration, a project that I could not say no to. The project: Name your Top 7 Prospects, as inspired by our esteemed beat writer Mr. Derrick Goold. The regular minor league season just finished and it seems like it wasn’t long ago we were talking draft, and here we are already ranking players. Time flies.

NOTE: This is NOT our official list that we will be rolling out later. This is more or less my off the cuff rankings as things stand at the moment, and it’s still pretty fluid right now.

1. Colby Rasmus – Rough season or not, Colby’s tools have not gone anywhere. As rough as his start was, Colby finally started looking like the Razzle of old when he hit .333/.441/.535 for the month of June and was named to the Olympic national team, only to miss Beijing due to a sprained right knee. It was a rough season, but Colby still is a monstrous talent. As excited as I am about his offense, I am also pretty darn excited about his defense.

2. Brett Wallace – I’m getting about as sick about hearing about his defense (or lack thereof) as I am hearing the television talking heads gab about Sarah Palin. When you project to hit .300/.400/.520+ at the major league level, you can afford to be a minus ten at the hot corner. He is a lot more athletic than his pear shape dictates, and as I said, the fact that he can rake causes me to overlook the defensive liabilities.

3. Chris Perez -He’s had a few hiccups this year, but that’s not completely unexpected. Should continue to be a solid MLB closer…er, Duke of the Ninth.

4. Daryl Jones – If Jones played on an East Coast team, would prospect watchers be more excited about him? Think about how nuts people went over Austin Jackson last year when he turned his tantalizing tools into game usable skills. I’m not saying their breakouts are perfectly comparable, as Jones played mostly at the High A level, but Jones carried over his success in Double A. Hit a cumulative .316/.407/.483 line with 23 steals and profiles as a 20-20 outfielder in the majors.

5. Bryan Anderson – Young catchers can tire, and that is what I think happened to Anderson. He hit .388/.412/.525 in AA and was promoted in late April to Triple A. Before the all-star break in Memphis he hit .320/.396/.433; the second half: .212/.317/.282. Hopefully he grows in stamina and stops the trend of having second half swoons. What catches my eye is how Anderson considerably improved his defense. In 2006 he allowed 17 passed balls, in ’07 he allowed 15, this past season only ten.  He also caught 37.6% of would be basestealers, up from 26.8% last season. Matheny factor?

And here is where it gets dicey, at least for me, anyway. Garcia would have been my number five had it not been for him needing Tommy John. Now I’m not sure where to put him, being he will be of no use to the club until 2010.

6. Jason Motte – All I have seen so far is a pretty intimidating force on the mound, and from what little I’ve seen, his secondary stuff is not as bad as advertised, although I did read somewhere hearing that he had been developing a hard slider/cutter pitch. Secondary stuff or no, the man throws freakishly hard. He and Perez look to be a pretty nice 1-2 punch in the back of the bullpen, and it’s hard for me not to root for a guy who not long ago was struggling to hit as a catcher.

7. Niko Vasquez – It is interesting to see Vasquez leap over Kozma despite being picked in the third round and Kozma in the first last year. I sort of question myself putting Vasquez over Kozma here. Vasquez had a better pro debut than Kozma; for that matter he had a better pro debut than a lot of players drafted much higher than himself. I guess when I boil it all down, if you would ask me to take the less athletic SS with the power bat or the solid athlete with the ability to handle the bat but not hit for much power, I’d be a more apt to take the slugger.

Near misses: Todd, Kozma, Garcia. Todd is about as a near of a miss as I can think of given his great season.

Head on over to some of the other Cardinal blogs to read and discuss their rankings:

• Viva El Birdos
• Rockin’ the Red
• C70 at the Bat
• Pitchers Hit Eighth
• The Redbird Blog
• Cardinals GM

Be sure to tune into Bird Land later for his take on the project.

Jones hit .319/.441/.549 in 91 at-bats in August. He hit five home runs and stole five bases in six chances. He struck out 23 times but walked 19 times, showing some excellent plate discipline. For his all around efforts this season Jones will get plenty of Top 100 consideration, a vast improvement from going getting cut from the Cardinals Top 30 in Baseball America’s last Handbook. Jones is no longer tantalizing us with his tools, he’s flashing them on the ball diamond.

2. Brett Wallace – I personally voted Wally for the top spot, but he did have somewhat of an uneven month. Through 71 plate appearances for the Quad Cities Wallace had a power outage, hitting .306/.394/.387. But once promoted to Springfield, he went on an absolute tear, hitting .400/.471/.711. He did hit the ball on the ground a lot – 69%, but when he did hit the ball in the air, it usually went a long way. 27.3% of the balls he hit in the air cleared the fence.

3. David Freese – After a hot July, Freese showed no signs of slowing, hitting .349/.410/.632 for the month of August with seven homers.

As with the hitters, neither of us could decide who was in the top spot for the pitcher of the month. According to our system, Nick Additon is our pitcher of the month. Additon had a 3.21 ERA in 14 innings for QC with 24.1% K/PA rate and a 5.2% BB/PA rate. He had a 0.50 ERA with a 13/5 K/BB ratio over 18 innings and held batters to a .167 average.

2. T- Jason Motte and Richard Castillo – Motte held PCL hitters to a .163 average and struck out 22 of the 47 batters he faced, just showing utter dominance. Seeing him pitch yesterday all I have to say is wow…beware the goatee. Castillo posted a 1.99 ERA with a 23.2% K/PA ratio and a 4.5 K/BB rate. Pretty nice to see a converted catcher and an 18 year old pitcher both have terrific months.

It’s boring out here.

They don’t blow enough games in late innings at Memphis.

They’re still learning to be major leaguers. We’ve got it down already.

Matthew Scherer – He struck out 69 in 70 innings last year post a 3.52 FIP. His numbers this year aren’t as good but I was intrigued to see his arsenal. Obviously, there’s a grain of salt to be taken on a report based on 1 inning but color me unimpressed. His fastball sat in the upper 80s but didn’t touch 90. There was a scout there earlier to chart PJ Walters so I know the stadium gun was accurate as it was matching quite nicely with the scout’s readings. His secondary offering was a so-so slider that sat between 81 and 83 mph. His location was good but neither pitch looked like a major league offering. He’s an organizational pitcher along the lines of Brian Falkenborg or Andy Cavazos, imo. Someone who may come up and pick up a few innings but not someone you want on your roster long term.

I want shin guards too.

Mark Worrell – I can now confirm that he’s a side armer. It’s not hard to understand that a great deal of Worrell’s success is predicated on his being a deceptive pitcher. His fastball dives down and away from righthanders almost like a slider does from a normal pitcher. He also had a pitch that was slower but had a truer path to it. Maybe a cut fastball or splitter or something. It seemed too fast to be a changeup (low-mid 80s) but wasn’t the same velocity as his fastball which was in 89-91 range. He’s unorthodox but exceedingly effective. It’d be a nice pitcher to give hitters a different look out of the pen. (Video)

Jason Motte – Need a fastball in the high 90s? Motte’s your man. Need a breaking ball with sharp bite? Go look somewhere else. The slider is still sloppy with slow break. I’ve described it before and that all pretty much applies. The one thing that I haven’t noted previously was that it sits in the high 80s/low 90s. The scout was clocking it between 89-92mph. I’m not sure it’s a great pitch but it still comes in hard enough that it might be more effective than I initally thought. Maybe call it a 43 pitch rather than a 40. I don’t think it’s getting any better and he’s probably ready to contribute at the major league level even with a below average slider. There’s not much left to find out in the minors — his fastball was sitting 97-98 mph. I don’t think he’ll ever be a closer but he can have a nice run as a setup guy out of the pen given the velocity.

Ryan Franklin’s beard has nothing on me.

Mitchell Boggs – Boggs had his fastball working on Sunday. It was a very good pitch sitting between 91-93 throughout the entire game (he still hit 94 in the 6th inning). He located it where he wanted to moving it around the strike zone with ease. The curveball was also very good with hitters rolling over it and slamming it into the ground for easy outs. He threw a handful of sliders that just aren’t any good. He ought to just scrap that pitch; it’s garbage that doesn’t get out of the strikezone fast enough and is too easy to pick up. I’m still waiting for some kind of a third pitch but without one, Boggs has the profile of a power reliever with a plus breaking pitch.

PJ Walters – 45 Fasball, 60 changeup, 45 slider, 50 curveball. As FR commenter whopperman noted while we watched the game on Sunday, Walters pitches and you kind of forget what he’s doing until it’s the 6 inning, quality start and he’s still going. Walters mixes his pitches exceptionally well and has a real feel for pitching. His fastball sits 86-88 (per the scouts’ gun) and touches 90. The changeup doesn’t really cut away from lefties like a traditional changeup. If I didn’t know that Walters calls it a changeup, I don’t think I would. The bottom falls out of the pitch very late in the approach — maybe 5-10 feet from the hitter. It’s sudden and made more than a few hitters look like fools. The curveball and slider are so-so breaking pitches that play up because he’ll throw them at any point in the at bat. The fastball is not a good pitch though and if it’s anywhere near the middle of the zone it gets hit hard. If you want a best case scenario for Walters (and he’s a unique pitcher so this isn’t a great comp) think Bronson Arroyo. Someone who doesn’t throw hard but “pitches backwards” with their stuff. Unlike Boggs, Walters needs to succeed in the rotation because a move to the pen wouldn’t improve his chances of sticking. He’s not going to add velocity and what makes him dangerous now is mixing the pitches — there’s no fallback for Walters; he’s either a starter or a minor leaguer.

Derrick Goold has some notes about Colby Rasmus‘ rehab and Josh Kinney‘s intention to return to the team this season. Goold also posted this article about Rasmus and a whole lot of other minor league related notes.

Kevin Goldstein answered three Cardinals questions in his chat the other day. Since it isn’t a subscription piece, I don’t feel bad giving them to you here in their entirety (although you really should subscribe to BP and visit every day):

KCardinal (KC): With Daryl Jones turning his tools into performance this year, will he make your top 100?

Kevin Goldstein: I’m a big Daryl Jones supporter and he’s got a lot of tools, but Top 100 is pushing it.

MikeJordan23 (Brooklyn): I’ll keep asking until you answer: With Brett Wallace hitting abilities but lack of position should the Cardinals trade him to the AL when he’s eligible or find him a new position? And thoughts on Niko Vasquez?

Kevin Goldstein: Stop asking! You don’t really worry about any sort of logjam until you are forced to. The Cardinals right now have a valuable commodity in their minor league system, but there is no reason to start making any decisions on it. Thoughts on Vasquez? I’m a big, big fan.

Jason Motte (Memphis): Would my one-pitch repetoire hold up in the Majors right now?

Kevin Goldstein: Seriously, what’s up with all the Jason Motte questions? Is there a fan club or something? I love the guy, gotta give it up for any converted catcher who has 97 whiffs in 58.2 innings at Triple-A. That said, I think he’d get righties out right now, but his arm angle and lack of secondary stuff would give him trouble against lefties.

Action all over the system (and the globe) – all the details are after the jump.

Team USA 7, Netherlands 0 (8 innings)

• Brian Barden was moved up in the lineup to the #2 spot and promptly went 0-5.

Round Rock 3, Memphis 0

• Jon Jay was 1-1 and was pulled in the third inning. I have been unable to find out why at this point. does anyone have any inside information?
• Josh Phelps continues his hot streak, going 2-3 with two doubles. Unfortunately, Jays hit and Phelps’ doubles were the only hits the Redbirds got.
• PJ Walters gave up three runs on six hits and two walks over six innings. He struck out nine (!).
• The Flores brothers each threw a scoreless inning, as did Matthew Scherer.

San Antonio 5, Springfield 6

• Luis Perdomo and Fernando Salas almost conspired to blow a five run lead in the ninth inning, but Salas was able to close the game out. Perdomo pitched 1.2 innings and gave up three runs on two hits and a walk while striking out three. Salas got the final out of the game, but gave up a homerun (which scored two of Perdomo’s earned runs).
• Brad Furnish pitched five innings and only gave up one run despite walking six men. He struck out three.
• Luke Gregerson pitched two scoreless innings.
• Andrew Brown was 1-3 with a home run and a walk.
• Donovan Solano was 3-5 with a double.
• Brandon Buckman was 1-2 with three walks and a stolen base. He has turned into an absolute beast since his promotion.
• Jose Martinez was 3-4 with a double and Daryl Jones was 2-3 with a walk and a stolen base.

Brevard County 6, Palm Beach 4 (In 12 innings)

• Tyler Henley was 4-7 with two doubles.
• Pete Kozma continues to struggle to adjust to his new level – he went 0-5 with a walk.
• Daniel Descalso was 2-5 with a double and a walk.
• Matthrew Arburr was 2-6 with a double and a stolen base.
• Antonio DeJesus was 1-3 with three walks.
• Nick Additon had a nice outing: five innings, one run allowed on five hits and three walks, and three strikeouts.
• The bullpen was a bit erratic: Eddie Degerman gave up a run in one inning, the Casey Mulligan Experience gave up two runs over two innings, Davis Billardello pitched a scoreless 1.2 innings, Wayne Daman pitched a scoreless 1.1 innings and Francisco Samuel gave up two runs in his inning of work.

Quad Cities 1, Beloit 6

• Domnit Bolivar was the offensive star of the night, going 3-4 with a double (defensively, not so much, as he committed an error).
• Otherwise, the team only got three hits: Adron Chambers, Brett Wallace and Francisco Rivera each went 1-4.
• Chuckie Fick faltered today after a nice run of recent starts. He only lasted four innings and gave up six runs, although only four were earned (he committed two errors himself). He allowed nine hits and a walk and struck out five.
• JD Stambaugh pitched three scoreless innings and Matt Spade pitched a scoreless frame.

Batavia 1, Tri-City 2

• Only five hits for Batavia today: Colt Cedbrook was 2-4 and Jose Garcia, Christian Rosa and Xavier Scruggs each had a hit.
• George Brown got the start and took the loss, but he didn’t really pitch that poorly. He gave up two runs on five hits in five innings and struck out four.
• Thomas Eager followed up with three hitless innings.

Kingsport 6, Johnson City 4

• Alex Castellanos was 1-3 with a walk and his twentieth steal of the season.
• Paul Cruz was 2-4 with a double.
• Nico Vasquez was 1-4.
• There was a little trouble in the field, as the team committed three errors (Castellanos, Carpenter, Smith) and Jack Cawley had two passed balls.
• Michael Blazek pitched four innings and the errors hurt him, as he allowed four runs, but only three were earned. He gave up six hits and struck out seven.
• Jonny Bravo pitched four scoreless innings, giving up three hits and a walk and striking out five.
• David Carpenter was also betrayed a bit by the defense, as only one of his two runs allowed were earned. He gave up two hits and struck out one in his inning of work.

8th Inning:

• Meyer — 1-FB(CS) 2-FB(B) 3-FB(CS) 4-FB(SS)
• Metcalf — 1-FB(SS) 2-FB(foul out to 1st)
• Gold — 1-SL(CS) 2-SL(SS) 3-SL(B) 4-FB(SS)

9th Inning:

• Richardson — 1-FB(CS) 2-FB(B)-96mph 3-FB(SS) 4-FB(B) 5-FB(F) 6-FB(F) 7-FB(SS)-97mph
• Ellison — 1-FB(CS) 2-FB(SS) 3-FB(SS)
• Duran — 1-FB(B) 2-FB(SS) 3-FB(F) 4-SL(B) 5-FB(SS)

By my count Motte threw 4 sliders out of 25 pitches. When I watched Motte in the past, I made the following comment on his slider:

The slider isn’t a myth but it is very much a work in progress. My biggest complaint is that it doesn’t break away from right-handers enough. It’s got some decent vertical movement (which almost made me think it was a curve the first time I saw it) but the lateral break leaves a lot to be desired. I’d almost question if he’s even putting the right/enough torque on the ball when it leaves his hand. The other problem is that it’s pretty easy to recognize when he’s throwing the slider. The arm action slows a little and the arm slot just isn’t quite the same.

Most of that holds true. The pitch still doesn’t break away from right handers. The third slider that he threw to Gold (the ball) was the only one with any serious horizontal break and it was well outside the strike zone. I will say that I wasn’t picking up on the pitch as much before hand, which is an improvement. I’m just not sure it’s really a viable breaking pitch in the majors. It still looks well below average to me.

Sometimes when you watch hitters face a pitcher, you’ll comment on batters not being able to square up on the pitch. That was certainly the case with Motte’s fastball. There were 3 foul tips caught for strikeouts. I’m not sure if Motte should be applauded for this because his fastball is still very, very straight. He’s got wicked velocity but he loves to throw the fastball up in the zone (albeit around the shoulders) and mistakes with a straight fastball, up in the zone in the bigs are going to fly a long way when those hitters connect. His fastball is still a good pitch but he wasn’t even attempting to throw it down in the zone tonight. It’s possible that he can get away with pitching like that (see Zumaya, Farnsworth) but he’s still something of a diamond in the rough. Heavy on velocity & light on pitches that move.

The Cardinals have used the higher levels of their minor league system to store the veteran minor league/emergency big league injury replacement catchers, which is typical for all teams. We have seen a number of the Mike Rose/Cody McKay/Brian Esposito type of guys flow through Memphis the last few years. I suspect that Matt Pagnozzi and Brandon Yarbrough might have that type of career to look forward to. There is certainly nothing wrong with that career, there is a real chance for a guy to get hot for a couple of weeks or so in the majors when he is called upon in an emergency and earn a permanent backup catcher role in the big leagues.

Take a guy like Gary Bennett, for example. He bounced between AAA and the majors from 1995-2001, and then had a pretty solid run at the end of 2001 for Colorado and continued that pace throughout 2002 for the Rockies (.265/.314/.354 in 90 games in 2002 – admittedly this is only “solid” in terms of a backup catcher). Gary hasn’t been back to AAA since 2001, despite having a career line of .241/.302/.328.

Anyway, here are the catchers currently in the Cardinals system:

Bryan Anderson – One of the Cardinals top prospects and only 21 years old. He’s currently holding his own at AAA. I see his upside comparison being something like a lefthanded Paul LoDuca and his downside being similar to Gregg Zaun.

Brandon Yarbrough – Another lefty, but not nearly the hitter that Anderson is. He is supposed to be a good defensive player and is currently playing well for AA Springfield.

Matt Pagnozzi – I loved his [edit] Uncle, but unfortunately Matt hits in the minors the way his uncle hit in the majors: not that great. He is currently toiling as Anderson’s backup in Memphis [edit] as a backup in Springfield.

Gabe Johnson – Gabe is not really a prospect. He’s currently a AAA backup and will most likely remain so.

Steve Hill – Man, Myth and Legend. He is not really a catcher (he doesn’t have any other position either, though), having only caught five games this year and fifteen last season. He can really crush the ball, though.

Arnoldi Cruz – Ostensibly drafted as a third baseman, the Cardinals have been converting him to catcher this year (he has split time almost evenly between third and catcher). He hit well at multiple stops last season, but his bat hasn’t quite adapted to Palm Beach yet. He’s put up a .245/.274/.346 line in 45 games so far. His bat definitely plays better at catcher and his defense has been so-so (5 passed balls in 21 games behind the plate and 10 for 28 in throwing out runners).

Nick Derba – He has really struggled at the plate in Palm Beach and hasn’t shown that he has even the limited offensive upside of Cruz.

David Carpenter – Another catcher struggling to hit at Palm Beach (in limited time). It is difficult to assess what the Cardinals have here, but he is probably an organizational guy to be moved around where an extra catcher is needed until the numbers eventually push him out.

Luis De La Cruz – He’s very young (19) and the Cardinals are still finding out what they’ve got in him. He’s at Quad Cities this year and has thrown out 16 of 42 base stealers.

Casey Mulligan – Another youngster (20), he had a nice season last year at Johnson City last year and has only gotten a few starts at Palm Beach this season. I would imagine that he will get some run once the short season leagues start.

Paul Vasquez – He is splitting time at Quad Cities and not hitting well. At 23 years old, he looks like another organization soldier in the making.

Former Catching Prospects of Note

Yadier Molina – Probably the best defensive catcher in the game and a steadily improving hitter. Yadi was never a highly-regarded prospect, but has turned himself into a valuable major league player. I am hoping for an Ozzie Smith-like career (to a much lesser degree, of course) where his defense justified his presence early on, but later in his career he became a valuable offensive player, as well.

Daric Barton – Daric was never really any kind of catching prospect, but he has turned into a valuable major league player. In fact, I could really see some valid comparisons to Barton for Bryan Anderson. Barton will probably have a bit higher OBP and Anderson probably plays a bit better defense behind the plate, but they are both lefthanded doubles-power guys that were drafted out of high school and have hit for a high average at every stop.

Jason Motte – The Cardinals were smart enough to recognize that Motte had a dynamic throwing arm that could be valuable to the team even if he couldn’t hit his way out of a wet paper sack. I look forward to having him in the bullpen with Chris Perez for years to come at the major league level.