Matt Adams Continues To Mash, Shame He Isn’t A Pirate

UPDATE:

We talked about our homeboy Matt Adams last year.  He went to Slippery Rock.  This season Adams was jumped to AA Springfield by the St. Louis Cardinals.  Nothing changed.  The mashing continues.  14 bombs leads the Texas League.  An OPS of .933 against lefties, 1.084 against right handers.  Sigh.

ORIGINAL POST:

There is a sleepy little town in central Pennsylvania where a 22-year old ball player in the St. Louis Cardinals system grew up. He loved the New York Yankees.  Matt Adams attended Slippery Rock University and was the 699th pick in the 2009 June Amateur draft. It really pissed

me off at the time that the Pittsburgh Pirates, and to be fair, every other team in MLB, allowed Adams to slip that far. My homeboy can play.

Apparently being slighted by MLB has had little impact on Adams. Or if it did bother him, Adams has simply taken it out on a large portion of the baseballs that have been pitched to him in the minors. Adams hit 22 HR and 41 doubles to go with an .896 OPS for the Quad Cities River Bandits. He helped the team reach the playoffs.

Another key factor in his performance is his ability to kill both left handed and right handed pitchers. His splits were strong. The 6’3, 230 pound, left handed stick had a .926 OPS against lefties and an .884 against righties.

Adams’ performance earned him a postseason selection in the Midwest League All-Star game, but an elbow injury ended his season early. Yeh, the numbers would have been even better.

We always liked his ability because of the legendary stories we heard about his ability to mash. Repeatedly. At Slippery Rock, he had a school-record .495 average, the best in NCAA Division II in 2009. His rookie year in the minors he hit .355 with ten homers and 52 RBI. Makes you sick too huh?

My little hometown of Philipsburg will stay sleepy. But Matt Adams won’t.

The former P-O Mountie will be tried at LF in Cardinals spring training because the Cards have a pretty good 1B in Albert Pujols (he hit two homers this afternoon against the Bucs.) It’s a shame the Bucs missed on Adams, especially when he was available in the 23rd round and he is from our backyard. Well literally my back yard, but the Pirates ‘general’ backyard.

Get well Matt. Those Cardinals look like shit without you.

Awards:

Midwest League Post-Season All-Star: 2010
Midwest League All-Star: 2010
TCN/Scout.com Cardinals Top Prospect 2010: #38
Scout.com/The Cardinal Nation Rookie Player of the Year: 2009

RumBunter: Adams Is Going To Do Great Things….

CDT: Adams Bat Has Cards Attention