Joe Mather. How good is he? Can he bring some power to the outfield as a right handed hitter? We have Schumaker, Ankiel, Duncan all from the left side. Barton and Juan Gone from the right. Barton probably has the upper hand as a Rule 5 player.

Let’s look at what Future Redbirds write about his abilities:

•  Mather’s greatest strength is his power. His ability to hit for average is average based on his contact rates (around 83%) but he really broke out in AA, with contact rate of 88.5%. While he has only hit .254 over his career, some of that was overcoming the learning curve, some of that you can blame on ballpark, some of that has been low BABIPs, ie tough luck. He seems like a .270, .280ish type of hitter to me. His plate discipline was outstanding in AA with a 1.10 BB/K ratio, but when you look at the big picture he’s been so-so, with a .40 BB/K rate. Scouting reports I’ve read state that his arm is decent and he can play acceptably enough in the corners, though he’s not going to win any gold gloves.

I think he has some ability that we could use. Joe attended the Cardinal Caravan this winter and came across as a good guy that plans to work hard.

Let’s go Joe!

By: Tom on Feb 10th, 2008
Tagged as: GM Suggestions