What about Piscotty?

One of the things I was looking forward to next season was seeing what Stephen Piscotty could do in the big leagues. Well, unless he comes up and plays off the bench, that won’t happen as we just acquired Jason Heyward.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Jason Heyward. I love his glove, and I think his bat has untapped potential, but I was really looking forward to seeing Piscotty grab the RF role. (Nothing against Randal Grichuk, but I think RF was there for Piscotty to take.)

Now, if we don’t re-sign Heyward, then this simply buys time for Piscotty to fine tune his approach and slot into RF next year.

But what if we do re-sign Heyward? After all, he’s the reigning Gold Glove OF-er at his position, isn’t that somebody you’d try to keep around?

Part of me is drooling at the prospect of Peter Bourjos playing next to Heyward. A *ton* of fly balls will die in between the two of them. Plus, Heyward will help cover up Jon Jay‘s average glove when plays.

And for the record: Bourjos’ should be our starting CF next year, no ifs, ands, or buts. He complements Heyward perfectly in the field.

But we’ve put so much time and money into developing players like Piscotty (ditto for Shelby Miller, which is why I’m sad to see him go.) Shouldn’t we at least give him a chance?

I can already hear your rebuttal: “Doug, baseball is a business like anything else. You can’t get sentimental.” Maybe that’s true, but I want to see our kids get a chance. Especially Piscotty. Unlike many people, I don’t care about his power. Give me a guy who can hit for average and get on base at a good clip and I’m happy. That’s what Piscotty does, which is why I’m excited to see him.

As you can tell, I’m torn. Perhaps Heyward does leave and this all resolves itself, but if he stays, I’ll be happy to have him, but wonder what could’ve been.

As always, thanks for reading.

  • Buddhasillegitimatechild38 November 17, 2014, 3:45 pm

    Eh, Piscotty is a decent prospect but he’s nothing special. Terrific arm, above average contact, below average defense and power. His value only comes in lack of expense, he’s nobody to worry about losing playing time and as his power maybe develops Holliday will soon need replacement from him, Grichuck or whatever other option appears

    • janrayewilliams November 18, 2014, 7:51 am

      Are you going by stats on a page? Probably. In fact, you’re not even interpreting those correctly.

      You obviously haven’t watched Stephen Piscotty play RF in 221 games over the past two seasons or you wouldn’t say he has below average defense. He OWNS RF when he’s there. Long stride, long reaches and ABOVE average jumps and paths to the ball. Putting out a runner to HP from far into right field is also ABOVE average defense.

      • Buddhasillegitimatechild38 November 18, 2014, 8:36 am

        Um, I haven’t seen him in person but I’ve been following him since the draft, talking with the future redbirds and other VEB users a lot and looking at his numbers for offense not defense. Lots of others giving the eye test said bellow average defense though some said maybe better than we think after watching a few good plays. Also even with above average defense everything I said holds true. I really like Piscotty and liked him shooting through the system before last spring but since last spring many have had him badly overrated and some great answer or middle of the order slugger ready to break out instead of the good high floor/low ceiling prospect he is

        • janrayewilliams November 18, 2014, 9:49 am

          Geez, Bud, you don’t really enjoy just watching good players play the game, do you?

          • Buddhasillegitimatechild38 November 18, 2014, 5:25 pm

            What, of course I do, I can still enjoy it without buying into hype (Also I bought into hype badly with Wick last year, that wound up disappointingly)

          • janrayewilliams November 19, 2014, 9:47 am

            Please see my latest post above. Thank you.

  • John Smith November 19, 2014, 4:19 pm

    Piscotty has possibly one the best right field arms the Cards system has seen in a while. Granted, I haven’t seen him play in Memphis, and maybe his arm has fallen off.

  • NedGirl November 30, 2014, 7:14 pm

    I’m right with the writer of the article, was really looking forward to what Piscotty could do in the big leagues. I’ve seen him play when Memphis plays here in Colorado, and I think he is definitely a plus defender. He reminds me very much of Matt Carpenter at the plate, takes very intelligent at bats. He also seems like a really good guy to have in the clubhouse. Did you see this article on him? http://redbirdrants.com/2014/11/09/dawn-stephen-piscotty-era-right-field/. I think he’s going to have a terrific spring training and hit well in AAA this year and prove all the doubters wrong.

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