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Why do minor leaguers play rehab games?

In the case of Taveras, I'd say to save roster moves. He was out, came back for one game on 7/15, then was shut down again. The 2 PA he took at Memphis this month, if they had activated him back from the DL, would have required someone being moved off the AAA roster or cut. Putting him in Rookie ball eliminates that need. Though when he and Pham both get healthy, hopefully soon, there will probably be some organizational shakeup, with Memphis carrying 5 active OF now.

33anda3rd wrote:In the case of Taveras, I'd say to save roster moves. He was out, came back for one game on 7/15, then was shut down again. The 2 PA he took at Memphis this month, if they had activated him back from the DL, would have required someone being moved off the AAA roster or cut. Putting him in Rookie ball eliminates that need. Though when he and Pham both get healthy, hopefully soon, there will probably be some organizational shakeup, with Memphis carrying 5 active OF now.

lukethedrifter wrote:Tommy Pham undergoing surgery again

http://blogs.news-leader.com/cardinals/ ... ards-pham/

Don't think Pham will be back too soon, so that "solves" that problem.

They're still carrying Chambers, Swauger, Christian, Huffman, Romak.

When Taveras returns to Memphis, they have to either promote one of them to MLB, demote one of them to AA and make corresponding moves, or give one of them a pink slip. Arguably all five of those guys are pink-slip-worthy, but you don't want to bring Taveras to Memphis, cut Swauger, and then have Taveras not be 100%.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball ... ce746.html

Asked whether or not Taveras will join the Cardinals in September, Mozeliak said, “Answering that question isn’t going to do anybody any good right now. We’re not going to bring up an injured player.

"I’ll say this: ‘If healthy, yes' " he will be in St. Louis in September.

So much for that

https://twitter.com/LangoschMLB/status/ ... 0629826561

Oscar Taveras to have season-ending surgical procedure on his right ankle next week. Cards expect him to be ready fully for 2014.

This is odd.

Taveras has now changed agencies a remarkable four times since January and, strangely, is back with Roman for the third time in 2013 alone. Taveras left MDR for Plummer back in January but switched back less than a month later. He remained with MDR through mid-August when he joined Greg Genske's Legacy Agency. The Cardinals outfielder ranked second on the Midseason Top 50 Prospect lists of Baseball America, ESPN's Keith Law (Insider subscription req'd) and MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo despite an injury-shortened season. The 21-year-old Taveras hit a solid .306/.361/.462 with five homers in 46 games for Triple-A Memphis but missed most of the season due to ankle surgery.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/09/o ... um=twitter

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/stl/pip ... y=news_stl

Nice write-up about OT. This however, stood out:

Earlier in his career, Taveras had a reputation for caring almost solely about hitting and not enough about the other aspects of his game. He has shed that tag, working hard on his defense to the point where he can play a solid center field. An average runner who won't steal much but isn't a liability on the basepaths, Taveras profiles best as a right fielder and has the arm strength for the position.

letsgocards89 wrote:http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/stl/pip ... y=news_stl

Nice write-up about OT. This however, stood out:

Earlier in his career, Taveras had a reputation for caring almost solely about hitting and not enough about the other aspects of his game. He has shed that tag, working hard on his defense to the point where he can play a solid center field. An average runner who won't steal much but isn't a liability on the basepaths, Taveras profiles best as a right fielder and has the arm strength for the position.

Right. That was a big thing going around 15 months ago. OT came to Jupiter in 2011 and Mo (or Vuch, I forget which) sat him down and said "see the big organizational board of where we have players penciled in to begin this year? See how your name is not on there? We don't know where to put you after low-A. Your bat is clearly ready for AA, but we have so many questions about your defense, baserunning, and want, we just don't know what to do with you." So Taveras went out and did the first-guy-to-show-up/last-guy-to-leave, taking extra fly balls thing and showed them some want and he opened 2011 in AA and utterly destroyed it, going from the bottom of peoples' top-100s to top-3 in a year.

The kid can work, he's shown that. He has some want.

So you're saying he's wanting.