Latest news with #JJWetherholt
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Healthy Wetherholt sparking Cardinals
Hello everyone I'm Dan Lucy on the Ozarks First digital desk. The Springfield Cardinals have heated up in the month of May. And the Cardinals took a five game winning streak into the holiday weekend in Tulsa. Springfield has a roster full of prospects, and that includes the St. Louis Cardinals first pick from last June's draft, J.J. Wetherholt. Wetherholt has been getting used to life in the Texas League. He's hitting .291 with three homers and 32 hits. Wetherholt is from Mars, not the planet. But the town, Mars, Pennsylvania. He says the recent winning streak is a result of the team coming together. J.J. Wetherholt/Cardinals second baseman: (says the team never quits) The biggest key for any athlete is to stay healthy. And Wetherholt had to battle through some adversity in late April. It was not a injury to his body, but an illness that tapped his strength and tested his will. Wetherholt: (says he's never been that sick during a season) Now that he's feeling better, Wetherholt is starting to pick up his offense. The 22-year old had back to back homers in the Cardinals last home stand against Amarillo. And collected three hits and scored four runs in the first three games in Tulsa. And Wetherholt says Springfield and Hammons Field is a great place for him to be at this moment in his career. Wetherholt: (says its a great stadium and city) J.J. Wetherholt and the Springfield Cardinals will be back at Hammons Field the last week of May with Northwest Arkansas coming back to town. For more sports watch Ozarks First news at nine and ten. And I'll see you then. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Wetherholt heating up as Springfield stops the Soddies
SPRINGFIELD, Mo–The Springfield Cardinals wrapped up their home stand Sunday afternoon against Amarillo. This will be the last time these two teams play in the regular season. And the Cardinals were looking for their ninth win in the 12 games played between the two teams. J.J. Wetherholt would jump start the baby birds in the first. He rips this rocket to right, way over the fence and off the Mercy sign, oh mercy, a two run shot, it's 2-0. It was 3-0 Springfield in the fourth when Ramon Mendoza singles to left R.J. Yeager scores it's 4-0. The Sod Poodles get one back in the fifth, Ivan Melendez takes this deep to left, into the bullpen, a solo shot it's 4-1. But Chase Davis gets that back in the bottom half, this single to center scores Leonardo Bernal, 5-1. Springfield wins 6-1, afterwards I caught up with the St. Louis' top prospect who's hit two home runs in the last two games. 'It's been a lot of fun doing what I try to do. Control the zone, look for my certain spots, pitches that I want to be on. Just let everything else take care of itself in the box. We've been doing that pretty well. We've had some good plans. And just put some good swings on some balls. It's one of those things. There are so many ups and downs in a season, it's so long. You have to put it behind you and keep doing what you're doing. Create a plan each day and go to work,' said Wetherholt. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Springfield rallies late, tops Poodles 4-3
SPRINGFIELD, Mo–The Springfield Cardinals continued their home stand with Amarillo Saturday night. The Sod Poodles have won the last two games and were threatening to take the series. Springfield has lost four of its last six games. The Cards had lefty Brycen Mautz on the hill, he was looking for his first Springfield victory in his seventh start. He had his stuff early, the southpaw strikes out Kristian Robinson to start the game. Mautz would get some offensive help in the second, Brody Moore takes this deep to left, into the bullpen for a two run homer, it's 2-0 baby birds. But in the third, Mautz would get the grounder to first, the flip to the pitcher and Mautz injures his right ankle and had to leave the game. Springfield's Ricardo Velez takes over, he ends the inning with this strikeout here, still 2-0. Then in the fourth, it's J.J. Wetherholt with the shoestring catch at second to end the frame. Wetherholt hit a homer in the Cards two run eighth, and Springfield wins 4-3. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Poodle rally spoils Roby's pitching performance
SPRINGFIELD, Mo–Springfield continues its home stand against the Amarillo Sod Poodles. And the Springfield cardinals were looking to bounce back into the win column after blowing an ninth inning lead Tuesday night. It was only Amarillo's second win against Springfield this season. Tekoah Roby got the start for the Cardinals. And he was dealing, he opens the game by striking out Manuel Pena swinging. Roby would strike out Caleb Roberts in the second. Tekoah Roby struck out the first five Sod Poodles he saw. How about some defense? In the fourth, Gavin Conticello singles to right, Jean Walers tries to go first to third, but he is gunned out at third, nice tag by Ramon Mendoza. Roby ends the inning by striking out Ivan Melendez, Tekoah Roby pitches into the sixth inning with 11 strikeouts. Springfield gets him some offense in the fifth, two on for J.J Wetherholt, he singles to right, Darlin Moquete scores as does Nathan Church, it's 2-0 Cardinals. But for the second straight night, the Poodles come from behind to beat the Cardinals 3-2. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NBC Sports
17-04-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Stock Watch: Matt Shaw falling, JJ Wetherholt rising
Prospects are risky. Matt Shaw's early-season demotion to Triple-A Iowa after just 18 games further illustrates the Grand Canyon-sized gap between the big leagues and upper minors that even consensus top prospects struggle to traverse. The 23-year-old corner infielder entered the year positioned to make an immediate five-category impact as a potential 20-homer, 25-steal threat for fantasy managers after posting a .284/.379/.488 triple-slash line with 19 homers and 31 steals in 121 games last year in the upper minors. The surface stats don't tell the entire story, but they're impossible to ignore after Shaw compiled a disastrous .172 (10-for-58) with one homer and 18 strikeouts in 68 plate appearances. His underwhelming 82.7 percent average exit velocity ranked in the bottom-10 out of 279 qualified hitters, per Baseball Savant. Shaw's lightning-quick demotion doesn't come as a total shock given his calamitous performance, but it's extremely surprising from the standpoint that he was viewed by most fantasy analysts, including most of us here at Rotoworld, as one of the top prospects with the highest likelihood to succeed right away based on his combination of opportunity, immense talent and lengthy track record. Here's an oversimplification: Buy the dip. Nothing has fundamentally changed regarding Shaw's long-term outlook besides the fact that he'll spend the next couple weeks, if not longer, resetting and rebuilding his confidence at Triple-A Iowa. Early season results matter, and dynasty managers shouldn't completely dismiss Shaw's unexpected flop at the highest level, but it's such a small sample size that it shouldn't impact his long-term outlook. Rotoworld's Dynasty Stock Watch is a weekly podcast for your eyes that takes a deeper dive into trending prospects from a long-term perspective. We'll occasionally touch on notable developments with universally-regarded top prospects, but my colleague Chris Crawford does a phenomenal job each Monday breaking down the handful of top prospects on the verge of helping fantasy managers in re-draft formats. His latest installment Roman Anthony, Jordan Lawlar, Nick Kurtz, Coby Mayo and Bubba Chandler. This week's edition examines a handful of prospects on the rise including JJ Wetherholt, Ryan Sloan, Josue De Paula, Robby Snelling and Jesús Made. Last week's edition broke down strong early-season performances from Lazaro Montes, Felnin Celesten, Thomas White, Ryan Waldschmidt, Nolan McLean, Braylon Payne, Brandon Young and Manuel Rodriguez. Without further delay, let's dive in. JJ Wetherholt, SS, Cardinals The seventh-overall selection in the 2024 MLB Draft, Wetherholt managed to snap out of an ice-cold 0-for-14 start to the season at Double-A Springfield with five-multi-hit performances over his last six contests. The 22-year-old shortstop tallied three hits, including his first round-tripper of the season, on Wednesday evening, raising his full-season slash line to a robust .342/.429/.512 through 10 contests. JJ Wetherholt (MLB No. 21) swats an oppo 🌮 for his first Double-A homer! The @Cardinals' 2024 first-rounder is slashing .480/.517/.720 over his past six contests for the @Sgf_Cardinals. Wetherholt rarely strikes out, thanks an opposite field-oriented line-drive approach that's primarily geared towards driving the ball into the gaps. Just because he isn't hitting for over-the-fence power doesn't mean he's making weak contact as evidenced by a stratospheric 105.3 mph 90th percentile exit velocity last year in his pro debut at Low-A Palm Beach. It doesn't sound like the prototypical fantasy superstar recipe, but his combination of fantasy-relevant skills, which include above-average bat-to-ball ability and plus speed, make it easy to envision him as a strong batting average and steals source as a top-of-the-order sparkplug in St. Louis. He'll ascend to top-15 range dynasty prospect status in Rotoworld's next rankings update. Ryan Sloan, SP, Mariners Sloan was one of the handful of pitchers Baseball America's staff highlighted during spring training that generated a ton of buzz from scouts on the Arizona backfield. The 19-year-old right-hander was an over-slot second-round selection in the 2024 MLB Draft and is quickly blossoming into one of the top pitching prospects in baseball from a fantasy standpoint, thanks to his front-of-the-rotation starter kit. He looked un-hittable on Wednesday in his latest outing for Low-A Modesto, recording seven strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings, thanks to a mid-90's heater and a hard-biting slider combination. That offspeed stuff from @Mariners 2024 second-rounder Ryan Sloan 😯 3.2 IP | 2 H | 1 R | 1 BB | 7 K The top-ranked prep righty in last year's Draft class dominates in his second pro start for the Single-A @ModestoNuts: Seattle's track record of success developing homegrown talent in recent years provides further optimism that Sloan could become their next success story as he moves quickly through their system over the next few months. The fact that he's a pitcher amplifies the risk in his fantasy profile, but the stuff has looked borderline elite so far. He was a known commodity for dynasty managers entering spring training but isn't quite a household name yet outside of long-term formats. That's about to change, especially if he reaches the upper minors by the end of the year. He's the type of prospect that dynasty managers should prioritize targeting in trade discussions before his value skyrockets out of control. Josue De Paula, OF, Dodgers De Paula and teammate Zyhir Hope entered the year as borderline top-20 prospects from a dynasty perspective and they've done nothing to dampen enthusiasm with their respective early-season performances for High-A Great Lakes. The 19-year-old prodigy remains a work in progress, especially from a defensive standpoint, but he's hitting .243 (9-for-37) with six extra-base hits and two steals through 10 games this season. He launched his second round-tripper of the season on Wednesday night, crushing a gargantuan grand slam to right field. Josue De Paula (MLB No. 37) GRAND SLAM! Six of the @Dodgers prospect's nine knocks for the High-A @greatlakesloons this season have gone for extra bases. He's an extremely advanced hitter from a plate skills perspective considering his age and experience, which is one of the reasons dynasty managers can confidently forecast him taking a leap forward as he continues to mature physically. It seems strange to suggest that a 19-year-old bat-first corner outfield prospect is a high-floor fantasy prospect, but that's basically what we're looking at here. He'll be one of the youngest players in the Texas League once he reaches Double-A in a couple months, if not sooner. He's going to hit and has a real shot to arrive in the majors in a couple hyperspace jumps as a fully-formed five-category impact contributor. Robby Snelling, SP, Marlins Snelling's dynasty stock cratered in recent years when his command took a massive step backwards upon reaching Double-A when he was still a member of the Padres' system. The 21-year-old southpaw, who is still relatively raw as a pitcher relative to his peers, turned things around after being shipped to Miami at last year's trade deadline, providing further evidence that development isn't linear. He's gotten off to a phenomenal start this season at Double-A Pensacola, compiling a sparkling 2.20 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 20/2 K/BB ratio across 16 1/3 innings (three starts). He He's the type of pitching prospect that figures to rise significantly in dynasty rankings over the next few months if his control gains stick and he continues missing bats in the upper minors. Jesús Made, SS, Brewers Spoiler alert: Made will be making frequent appearances in this space over the next few months as he continues to ascend to elite dynasty prospect status. He's making serious early-season noise at Low-A Carolina, hitting .400 (8-for-20) with five extra-base hits and three steals over his last five games since April 11. Jesus Made looks right at home in Carolina, putting up a .412 OBP / .571 SLG / .983 OPS slash line with 5 XBH and 4 SB in his first 7 affiliated games 💪#ThisIsMyCrew It's not hyperbolic to suggest that he could be the top-overall prospect in the dynasty landscape at this time next year. The 17-year-old switch-hitting phenom's preternatural ability to hit for power without sacrificing anything from an approach standpoint at such a young age against competition nearly a presidential term older than him almost defies explanation. The usual long-term risk caveats apply to any prospect this far from the big leagues, but he's backing up the stratospheric hype and looks like a potential generational talent. Seriously.
