Mickey Gasper and the Danger of Being Labeled a Quad-A Player

25 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Don't we have coaches for that? All he needs to do is beat out Camargo and Winkel to get a year long 26 man spot. I don't even know what Gasper actually does bad behind the plate? LOL. I do know he was pushed down the depth chart by the NYY who had top catching prospects rising through their system past Gasper, but I haven't seen anything to suggest he's terrible or anything. Giving Gasper some time behind the plate in St. Paul might be a good thing. I do know his arm is considered pretty weak so maybe the Twins, who don't care about stopping the run game, are concerned he won't be able to control the run game? 

https://soxprospects.com/players/gasper-mickey.htm

 

He can't throw and he's really rough to watch blocking pitches. He's not an MLB catcher.

17 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Have a source for that?

Caught 17% of base runners last year (same as Winkel). Agreed, there's too many passed balls, but same rate as Cartaya last year, and better than Camargo. It feels like... we've got some coaches for that as well.

My eyeballs. I watch the minor league games.

Yeah, we have coaches. And so did NY and Boston. Both of which played him in other positions and never gave him MLB run at catcher. Not sure why this is controversial. A backup catcher who is passable behind the plate putting up the numbers he did in the minors gets some opportunity. This is now the third organization saying they don't think he can catch. Coaches can't magically make everyone good at everything.

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

Seems like the Twins are revisiting Gasper at catcher now. I know he hadn't had a single game there at St. Paul through the first few weeks of the season, but I see there giving him 1-2 starts a week now.

Mickey Gasper wasn't with St Paul through the first few weeks of the season so I have no idea what point you're trying to make with that statement. His first stint with them was 4 games. Now he's caught 3 games in his 10 games hes been back there at the same time as Julien who's taken the 2B reps he was getting in his first 4 game stint.

They're getting him playing time. They don't have any catching prospects they care about at AAA so they plug him in there from time to time. Catching a game or 2 a week isn't exactly a strong indication that they're getting him ready to be their catcher.

Have you ever watched him catch?

22 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

I haven't. Could be that he's terrible, but I haven't had a lot of opportunity to watch him, either. I'm only evaluating him based on stats, and it's hard to pull a ton of info from that.

Of course, you, having 'watched the MiLB games' know all about Gasper behind the dish. I'm not sure when that happened since you'd never seen him play according to your comments back in January, and he's only played a couple games behind the dish with St. Paul.

I've watched all 3 of his games behind the plate for the Saints. That's obviously not a lot, but it doesn't take long to see that he's not an MLB catcher. Which is the statement I made here. 

His arm is not strong. If you watched him play 2B you could see that. So, that shouldn't be a shocking statement to you. And he doesn't block the ball well. Maybe I saw his 3 worst games ever and hes actually much better than that, but the odds of that being true are pretty low. The odds are better that the guy with a .400 OBP (sorry, .395) in the minors who wasn't given any chance at all by his 2 previous teams to be a backup catcher in the bigs is probably not an MLB catcher. Because backup catchers who can get on base at any sort of decent clip are pretty sought after players. Yet two other teams decided to play him more at positions with significantly higher offensive expectations. But, you're probably right, hes probably pretty good behind the plate and all 3 of these teams are passing on an MLB worthy defender behind the plate in order to make the 5'10" non-slugger a first baseman instead.

38 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

I honestly have no idea how good / bad he is. I had previously noted his arm is poor. He was adequate at controlling the run game in the minors, but it's certainly not a strength.

The topic was about the danger of being labeled AAAA, and I think your comments are especially on point here. You determined he was not MLB caliber after watching 3 games and pointing to how other teams have deployed him. Gasper has that AAAA reputation.

My interest in Gasper as a potential backup catcher is for 3 reasons.
1. Vazquez is one of the worst players in MLB. Even if Gasper is poor, how much worse can he be?
2. Camargo, Cartaya and Winkel all look like busts so if Vazquez or Jeffers gets hurt...
3. Ricardo Olivar is the best catching prospect in the Twins' system.

In no way shape or form do I believe Gasper has a future as a starting MLB catcher, but the Twins have virtually no depth at the position, and the backup they do have is terrible.

How many games of watching Julien at 2B did it take you to figure out he couldn't play the position at a major league level? I'm guessing it was less than 3. Being bad at 2B is less than ideal, but it's not like being bad at catcher. That's how obvious it is that Gasper can't catch at an MLB level.

If any of these teams thought he was a legitimate option as a backup catcher he'd have been getting far more reps at catcher. I understand why you're interested in the possibility.

My statements aren't "AAAA" related. Defensive skills are far easier to judge than whether or not a guy can hit at the MLB level. When people talk about as guy being "AAAA" they're talking about his bat. They didn't need to call Julien up to see if his glove would play in the majors, and they don't need to call Gasper up as the backup catcher to know if his glove will play. That isn't at all even remotely close to how it works when it comes to defense. You having never seen him play doesn't make my comments "especially on point" about him being "AAAA" because you can tell the difference between Andrelton Simmons at SS and Jorge Polanco at SS well before they reach the majors. Nobody is calling up a AAA player to see if their glove plays. If he can't block Andrew Morris' breaking ball you don't need to call him up to see if he can block Pablo Lopez's.

If Vazquez or Jeffers goes down for 2 weeks, Gasper can serve as the call-up to catch a couple games until they're back. But as a legit, months or season long backup catcher he would be a disaster behind the plate.