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BJRains The Cardinals have informed Robert Stock that he's being switched from a catcher to a pitcher. He did both at USC.

I know there's some here who felt he should've been a pitcher all along, but here ya go.

I have to wonder how well he's going to take to it, since he was pretty adamant in the draft that he wanted to catch and not pitch. There's also the fact that his velocity went backwards during college.

As a pitcher, he's really not a prospect, but he wasn't going to hit either, so maybe he'll surprise and develop secondary offerings that can allow him to be a reliever one day.

cpebbles wrote:I have to wonder how well he's going to take to it, since he was pretty adamant in the draft that he wanted to catch and not pitch. There's also the fact that his velocity went backwards during college.

Well I wonder if Molina resigning makes it a little easier for Stock to come to grips with the fact that he is being switched. When the long term opening is a backup catcher it makes sense to try realocate resources and develop players at positions that they may have some actual value.

If nothing else he should be able to get a few more years of playing time in the minor leagues as they try to devlop him as a pitcher. If he tried to stick with catching the Cards could've released him in a year or two with his only professional options being maybe independent ball.

I started following this guy on twitter, could be an interesting journey

Are they going to start him over in Rookie Ball?

Jason Motte started out as a catcher also.

JoeMcKim wrote:Are they going to start him over in Rookie Ball?

Jason Motte started out as a catcher also.

Except Robert Stock doesn't have a 98 mph fastball.

Well, he was 14 when he first started throwing 90 MPH and was clocked at 95 MPH as a 15 year old when he was BA's youth player of the year and again as a college freshman, but he did lose velocity in college and he needs to somehow get it back to be a real prospect.

Well if he wasn't switching to pitching his career would probably be over with already. At least now they'll give him a few seasons to try to develop as a pitcher before he has to go back to the real world and get a 9-5 job for the rest of his life.