GatewayRedbirds.com

It would be kinda goofy to give up on a player because of 174 bad PAs in his age-22 season.

I concur, and as Molina gets older and more run down, the more likely Anderson will get a shot at starting for an extended period of time. I'd say at a minimum, when LaRue's contract is up Anderson will be brought up as the #2 and get a decent amount of playing time

Oh I agree completely. I wasn't saying completely give up on him based on last year - I was just giving my opinion as to why he was no longer ranked as a top prospect.

Future Redbirds did a study on our minor league catchers and their MLE's. The ultimate conclusion was that Anderson, at his worst with him hitting like he did last year, was still worth 1-1.5 WAR IIRC.

As long as Anderson is able to stay healthy this year, he should be the de facto backup next year rather than Mr. Mustachio, and he should be the first catcher called up if Molina is injured for an extended period of time.

Absolutely. However, a lot of his high ranking had to do with projection. Projection based on both the fact that he was always young for his level, and projection for power and improved defense due to his athleticism behind the plate.

As the young for his age label starts to fade, and the projection due to athleticism winds down, his star starts to dim as well. I'm not saying he doesn't have every chance to develop further (power with catchers is usually the last skill to be refined), but when a catcher with mediocre defense already, hurts his shoulder and doesn't have it repaired, it dims their star quite a bit.

When that same catcher is now starting to be the same age as his peers, isn't progressing further, plus has the arm and power questions continue, you can see how his star has faded immensely. Personally, I think we missed our window on trading the guy as a valuable commodity, A lot of his value was tied to the age, and his offensive value is tied to continuing a solid batting average. Those players tend to fluctuate. He'd be a wonderful backup catcher, who would give great value when the starter is resting once or twice a week, with the potential to develop further as he gets to the bigs. I just think he had a little more value to the team as trade bait when his stock was at its' peak (as if knowing when a player has peaked is easy).

To think, I once advocated for Yadi getting traded, and this guy being our catcher of the future. Ooooops.

Rock Hard Penis?