Archive for the “Matt Scherer” Category

I found this horse the other day and I’m not sure if it’s quite dead, so I’m going to beat it some more.

Boyer threw kinda hard in 2007 and was really good.  He threw significantly harder in 2008 and wasn’t very good.  Now he’s back down to 2007 velocity levels but he’s mixed in the 2008 results.  Plenty of people have chronicled the trade and I don’t really care to rehash the positives and negatives of Boyer.

What’s amazing to me, for all the kerfuffle that Perdomo’s claim by the Padres created, no one seems to blinked at the acquisition of Boyer.  Whither Matt Scherer?  Do the Cardinals believe they’ve acquired a legitimately better arm than the other in house options (Thompson, Scherer, Boggs, etc) represent out of the pen or are they going to wait out the season and make Scherer a casualty of a 40-man roster crunch?

I’m still perplexed by this.  If the Cardinals thought Scherer was worth protecting that would seem to imply that they view him as a major league caliber prospect.  One has to wonder what the requirements are for him to finally make the major league team amidst a plethora of relievers who can’t seem to record outs.

The trade, in and of itself, does little to excite or disappoint me.  What it does do, is further illustrate the poor management of the 40-man roster this offseason.  I’m also guessing that the Cardinals are missing this guy right about now.

Sounds like he’s out about a month. That addition to the 40-man roster continues to look foolish.

The Cardinals adding Matt Scherer to the forty man roster was something I certainly didn’t see coming. Is he really worth a roster spot?

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It is to no great surprise that Tyler Greene was added to the forty man roster. While he does have his deficiencies in terms of making contact, he’s hit well enough in the Arizona Fall League to be taken in the Rule 5 draft if he was left unprotected. A .905 OPS from a middle infielder is impressive, even if it includes 28 strikeouts in 83 at bats.

Scherer comes a bit as a surprise. He’s 25, was a 16th rounder from a small school who went on to put up some monster numbers a couple of seasons ago. He struck out 106 in 80.1 innings in Palm Beach but was old for his league and never closed. Last year for Springfield he pitched OK in middle relief, striking out around a batter per inning. This year, his strikeout rate was way down (13.91%, and only 8.2% swinging strikes) and he had a really low ground ball rate of 34.4%. From the accounts I have read, he throws an 86-89 MPH fastball, a slurvy breaking ball and a nice splitter. You just typically don’t see middle relievers protected like this, unless they are a specialist of some sort, and Scherer is not. Maybe I’m undervaluing him, the club obviously sees something I don’t.

Mark McCormick and Luis Perdomo were the notable names left off, I’m surprised Perdomo was not protected given he has higher upside than Scherer and is all that remains of Flat Hat. McCormick has never been able to stay healthy or throw strikes, but some club may want to gamble on his upside with hopes of making him a reliever.

The pitching was more impressive than the hitting in Memphis. I got a chance to watch several relievers (Motte, Scherer, Worrell) as well as a couple starters (Walters, Boggs) that could play roles in the future for the big league club. I also saw my two nemeses far too often.

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.

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