I knew they would since it would only make sense to keep Perez in AA.

Nice backup pickup

Yeah. I agree.

He's a good defender. At least if there's a need for him to play for the big club he won't cost the team runs on defense.

Thoughts on signing and inviting both Johnson and Towles?

I think it will benefit the young arms at Memphis to have catchers with major league experience to throw to.

Defensively this is a significant upgrade over Anderson at the catchers position in Memphis. This pending move means Perez will stick in Springfield for the third season.

I am familiar with this guy from Houston and all i can say is wow! A career .187 hitter and an absolutely horrible defender. This is almost laughable and makes the Wiggington signing look like the Beltran pickup in comparision. If this guy sees any time in St.Louis we have big trouble. At least Wiggy used to be good once upon a time, Towles has never belonged in MLB. Just awful!

mbusapp wrote: I think it will benefit the young arms at Memphis to have catchers with major league experience to throw to.

These guys most likely dont guaranteed contracts.   Very possible the Cards only keep one of them (and Perez does end up at AAA).

blingboy wrote: Thoughts on signing and inviting both Johnson and Towles?

I thought that they needed to sign another catcher.  Don't know what to think of this one in particular, but he should provide the depth they need for 2013.

cardinalnationhouston wrote: I am familiar with this guy from Houston and all i can say is wow! A career .187 hitter and an absolutely horrible defender. This is almost laughable and makes the Wiggington signing look like the Beltran pickup in comparision. If this guy sees any time in St.Louis we have big trouble. At least Wiggy used to be good once upon a time, Towles has never belonged in MLB. Just awful!

Granted he's not much of a hitter, but his defensive numbers don'r bear out "absolutely horrible".  His career CS% is 23% which is around league average so "absolutely horrible defender" is a vast overstatement.

crdswmn wrote:
 . . . his defensive numbers don'r bear out "absolutely horrible".  His career CS% is 23% which is around league average so "absolutely horrible defender" is a vast overstatement.

Agreed.  I haven't looked at 'his defensive numbers' but he hung around the majors for parts of 5 seasons, hitting below .200 for 4 of them, so he must be able to do something.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... jr01.shtml

Here's his minor-league record:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minor ... wles001jus

Looks like he was either injured or just a backup at AAA Rochester in 2012.

crdswmn wrote:

cardinalnationhouston wrote: I am familiar with this guy from Houston and all i can say is wow! A career .187 hitter and an absolutely horrible defender. This is almost laughable and makes the Wiggington signing look like the Beltran pickup in comparision. If this guy sees any time in St.Louis we have big trouble. At least Wiggy used to be good once upon a time, Towles has never belonged in MLB. Just awful!

Granted he's not much of a hitter, but his defensive numbers don'r bear out "absolutely horrible".  His career CS% is 23% which is around league average so "absolutely horrible defender" is a vast overstatement.

The stat sheet mafia strikes again. Well as long as he threw out a league aveerage runners. T.J is an undersized poor defensive catcher and always has been. Oddly enough his forte was supposed to be his bat when he came up amongst pretty good hype for a catcher. My scouting report would be poor defensive catcher as far as calling pitches, blocking the plate and base recognition. Strong armed but is rarely in the proper position to throw. Guy can't hit a lick either. Good athalete that is pretty fast for a catcher. I always thought he played out of position. My guess is he backs up Johnson at Memphis but i fear even that is a reach. Nothing to see here folks, keep moving.

Boy after reading CardinalNation's take on our new catcher, I'd have no problem with this guy getting 5-10 years in the Big House...without parole. Especially disturbing to me is the "poor base recognition" part. Even if I blew like 4 times over the legal limit and someone pointed out to 3rd base and asked me "whats that"?, I think I could still answer the question with perfection. Now before replying I might stumble and stagger way out over near the 2nd base bag before answering, but certainly no points should be deducted for that.

Jmodene1 wrote:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... jr01.shtml

Here's his minor-league record:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minor ... wles001jus

Looks like he was either injured or just a backup at AAA Rochester in 2012.

My article notes he was a reserve in 2012. The Red Wings' starting catcher was Rene Rivera.

With Joe Mauer under contract through 2018, being a catcher in the Twins system may offer less chance at a starting future in the majors than the Cardinals.

Domeboys wrote:

Jmodene1 wrote:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... jr01.shtml

Here's his minor-league record:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minor ... wles001jus

Looks like he was either injured or just a backup at AAA Rochester in 2012.

My article notes he was a reserve in 2012. The Red Wings' starting catcher was Rene Rivera.

With Joe Mauer under contract through 2018, being a catcher in the Twins system may offer less chance at a starting future in the majors than the Cardinals.

Of course, with Yadi under contract too, his situation isn't much improved.

Oh well - at least Memphis has another guy behind the plate.  As Casey Stengel used to say, "You gotta have a catcher or you're gonna have a lot of passed balls."

And at least it's not like we traded Matt Holliday to get the guy. ;-)

Without yet looking at the comparison myself, and assuming this is Anderson's replacement, is it really any better or worse than what we had before?

DMENS wrote: Without yet looking at the comparison myself, and assuming this is Anderson's replacement, is it really any better or worse than what we had before?

My own unpopular opinion is that Anderson didn't get a fair chance with the Cards. I can't explain his 2012 numbers at Memphis, but he did fine for a MLB back up catcher role before that in AAA as well as outhitting Cruz in 2012 ST.  It could well be related to him knowing he wasn't going to get a chance here. 

The White Sox didn't have a back up to speak of last year and I'm not sure if they have signed a starter for next year as of yet. I would not be the least surprised to see Anderson in the bigs in some capacity.  Their 'staff' will probably like him just fine, as I consider that explaination for Anderson's failure a bunch of bunk (only my hunch).  Time will tell.

blingboy wrote:

DMENS wrote: Without yet looking at the comparison myself, and assuming this is Anderson's replacement, is it really any better or worse than what we had before?

My own unpopular opinion is that Anderson didn't get a fair chance with the Cards. I can't explain his 2012 numbers at Memphis, but he did fine for a MLB back up catcher role before that in AAA as well as outhitting Cruz in 2012 ST.  It could well be related to him knowing he wasn't going to get a chance here. 

The White Sox didn't have a back up to speak of last year and I'm not sure if they have signed a starter for next year as of yet. I would not be the least surprised to see Anderson in the bigs in some capacity.  Their 'staff' will probably like him just fine, as I consider that explaination for Anderson's failure a bunch of bunk (only my hunch).  Time will tell.

I would agree with this. seems like they never wanted Anderson in St.Louis. Management thought it was time he moved on despite Matheny praising Andersons defensive improvement. You would think that MM would know if a guy could catch or not. I suspect they did not like how he went about his business b/c he was hyped as a player then forgotten. Towles is horrible but will play hard. No ??? about J.R's work ethic. Not a fact but certainly a possible explanation.