Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - St. Pierre gets to the Show

Minor league catching stalwart, Maxim St. Pierre (Quebec City, PQ) has been called up by the Tigers and will very likely make his major league debut after 978 minor league games, all but 10 in the Tigers' organization.

Max is a terrific defensive catcher, at least he was when I saw him play for Erie in 2004, but he's always struggled at the plate. Nevertheless, his hitting has slowly improved:

2002	AA	0.673
2003	AA	0.657
2004	AA	0.697
2005	AA	0.690
2006	AAA	0.558
2007	AA(milwaukee)	37 PA
2008	AA/AAA	0.638
2009	AAA/AA	0.715
2010	AAA/AA	0.832

How much better or worse is St. Pierre than Kevin Cash, a catcher who has played parts of 8 seasons and 238 games in the big leagues, largely on the basis of his defensive skills/reputation? Cash's big league OPS is .528, undoubtedly making him one of the worst major league hitters over that span. Over roughly the same period of time, Cash has put up a .692 OPS in AAA in 374 games.

Posted by robertdudek on Thursday, September 02 2010 @ 08:18 AM EDT.

St. Pierre gets to the Show | 8 comments | Create New Account

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Thomas - Thursday, September 02 2010 @ 09:51 AM EDT (#221898) #

Congrats to Max.

Former Blue Jays prospect Justin James, who was out of professional baseball at the beginning of the year, was among Oakland's call-ups yesterday. He will also make his major league debut this month.

Jonny German - Thursday, September 02 2010 @ 10:05 AM EDT (#221899) #

I think you can find much bigger 'injustices' among minor leaguers not getting a shot. Cash looked like a pretty decent hitter through age-25 in the minors. He never hit a lick in the majors, but it wasn't until his age-28 season that his minor league numbers started looking bad.

I wish him all the best but St. Pierre's minor league numbers never screamed "this guy is being held back".

(If anybody else is trying to look him up on BB-Ref, there's something squirrelly with their search for him. He doesn't come up for St. Pierre or Maxim or Pierre or Max. "St." works)

#2JBrumfield - Thursday, September 02 2010 @ 10:11 AM EDT (#221900) #

I saw Justin James pitch in my only trip to Dunedin back in 2004. He did not have a great game but at least that is two major leaguers I saw then. The other would be Ryan Roberts. I think James was a top 20 prospect according to Baseball America in the Jays system. I believe he spent some time in Indy ball as well. Congrats to him and thanks for the heads up, Thomas.

robertdudek - Thursday, September 02 2010 @ 10:11 AM EDT (#221901) #

I wasn't thinking that Max was held back, just that there are so many backup catchers in the majors who can't hit much that it seems strange that a guy like him never got a cup of coffee or September call-up before. Cash, though never able to hit in the majors, got called up again and again when there was a catching hole to fill. The difference between them is probably only down to Cash being an "early bloomer" and Max being a "late bloomer" - that, and simple dumb luck.

Gerry - Thursday, September 02 2010 @ 12:49 PM EDT (#221903) #

Da Box interviewed St. Pierre back in 2004.

Jim - Thursday, September 02 2010 @ 07:55 PM EDT (#221906) #

That Cash carved out a major league career is a minor miracle. I wish I could remember the exact story without going through my bookcase, but he was playing 3b on the Cape and a random scout realized that he would be served by a move behind the plate.

rtcaino - Thursday, September 02 2010 @ 10:36 PM EDT (#221907) #

There's come mention of Cash being converted after being noticed at the Cape Cod League from a 2004 BBox 2004 interview.

Interestingly, the article concludes with the following paragraph:

Most organizations in baseball envy Toronto's young talent behind the plate. Hard-hitting prospect Guillermo Quiroz, no slouch defensively, has advanced through the system to AAA, and is expected to reach the majors by next year. With the continued development of Kevin Cash into a top-flight big-league receiver, it looks like the Jays� catching for the next several years will be in excellent hands.

Tinstaacp, as they say. Hopefully the Jay's current batch of catching prospects bring the team a bit more success.

(http://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20040414094519999)

scottt - Friday, September 03 2010 @ 07:41 AM EDT (#221913) #

(If anybody else is trying to look him up on BB-Ref, there's something squirrelly with their search for him. He doesn't come up for St. Pierre or Maxim or Pierre or Max. "St." works)

In French, it's abbreviated St-Pierre, so it looks weird to me.

Checked BB and you're absolutely right, although Google found it on the first try.

Saw some articles on him. He did not speak a word of English when he was signed and struggled for 4 years to learn the language. He said he had difficulties communicating with his pitchers who though he was dumb. In 2007, he caught only 9 games. Health was not a factor, the Brewers were trying to convert him to a reliever. Did not go very well. As far as I can tell he never through 1 official pitch in his minor career and was back with Detroit the next year.

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