I was trying to come up with something to write, as it has been a while, and I struggled. I read an article by Mark Saxon, the ESPN writer who’s been assigned to the Cards after covering the Dodgers for a while. He talked about Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty.
This flashed me back to last year. I’d been highly anticipating Piscotty. When we acquired Jason Heyward, it left me wondering. Not that I didn’t like Heyward, I did. I felt he was undervalued. (Not anymore)
No, the reason it left e wondering was Piscotty. He was one of our most talented and heralded minor league prospects, and as soon as we acquired Heyward, there was talk of re-signing him. We didn’t of course, but not for lack of trying.
So what does that make Piscotty? A once highly touted prospect is now a fallback option?
If he was so good, why did we sign a guy with the intent of keeping him?
Many of people are probably going to say Matt Holliday. And while I agree that when Holliday comes off the books, that might have been a good landing spot for Piscotty, but that also confuses me.
If we kept Heyward, that means Piscotty would’ve likely been the 4th outfielder, giving him time to eventually grow into the role of being the starting left fielder.
Now, suddenly, we are comfortable with him as our starting right fielder.
If we were so comfortable with him as a starter, why offer to extend Heyward in the first place? (Yes, I know he’s supremely talented and and everybody would love to have him, but that’s not the point of this article.)
And yes, I realize we have other guys like Tommy Pham, but that adds to it. if we were so happy with our less experienced guys like Piscotty and Pham, why offer to Heyward.
To me, the front office has sent a mixed message. Perhaps I’m thinking about this too much, as I tend to do, but it shows me that they weren’t 100% confident in Pham and Piscotty, and that worries me. What flaws did they see, other than youth and lack of big league experience?
I hope I’m wrong, and just blowing smoke, but you have to agree the shift from pursuing Heyward to trusting Piscotty and Pham is a dramatic one.
As always, thanks for reading, and sorry for the long delay between posts.
Don’t be sorry for the long delay…. really there hasn’t been too much to write about the Cards. (Anything written about the farm system would be great for me). I’ve taken in all I can on all the organizational teams.
OK, confused about the Heyward offer? I believe the pitch was made to pacify the Card’s fanbase. Perhaps, Mozeliak knew of JH’s intent all along. Count me among the faithful that wanted Heyward out of the way of both Piscotty and Grichuk, good riddance. It seemed strange that Mo was throwing out there an offer that didn’t fit his mo.
Maybe we’ll never know the motive but as for the ’16 Cards, I’m very pleased to see what the team can do with RG and SP as starters right out of camp. I got a feeling that both of their #s will be better than the Cubs new CF.