St. Louis Cardinals: Stephen Piscotty’s Power Adjustment Could Become a Teaching Tool

The St. Louis Cardinals have added power to their system, but maybe the development of Stephen Piscotty’s power bodes well for the continued development of power where it doesn’t currently exist.

It has been about a year since the St. Louis Cardinals‘ brought up their top prospect in Stephen Piscotty. Piscotty was one of those prospects that before the unfortunate death of Oscar Tavares was on the outside looking in of the Cardinals outfield. That changed when the team asked him to make an adjustment to his swing to add more power prior to the 2015 season.

Much like the adjustment that Matt Carpenter made to add more power to his game, it worked and since the start of the 2015 season, Stephen Piscotty has clubbed 33 home runs and 53 doubles between AAA Memphis and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Piscotty went from posting a slugging percentage of .446 and .406 between in 2013 and 2014 (Springfield and Memphis) to posting a .475 (Memphis 2015), .494 (MLB 2015), and .478 (2016). That’s quite the adjustment, especially given the amount of time left in the season for Piscotty to continue to add to his totals.

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With this in mind, there are a few prospects in the St. Louis Cardinals’ system that could be capable of the same adjustment that Piscotty has made. The one prospect that this has been linked to over and over again is Magneuris Sierra. Sierra has had many scouts gushing at his ability for some time.

He’s a potential five-tool player, as he has a great hitting ability, great speed, can play center field well, and has a decent arm. However, that fifth tool has yet to really come about as of yet in his minor league career, as the 20-year-old player from the Dominican Republic has just nine homers in his three seasons in the organization.

However, the speedy Sierra has 47 doubles (20 this season) and twelve triples in his brief minor league career. So, Sierra has the ability to be a good gap hitter at this point in his career and a simple adjustment and maturation could lead to his power blossoming, much like Stephen Piscotty and Matt Carpenter.

One player that this adjustment has already worked on is Harrison Bader, a player who is much closer to the majors than Sierra. You could say that this adjustment was already made when he was drafted, as Bader clubbed 17 homers in his junior season at the University of Florida after only hitting three in his first two years with the Gators.

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Since then, Bader has amassed 25 homers in 162 professional games. So, it is clear that he has made some type of adjustment. So, with Sierra’s strength and the likelihood that he will grow into his body a bit more as he grows, and a potential swing adjustment as he moves through the minors, he is likely to develop the power that Piscotty, Carpenter, and Bader have found.