What Grade Would JJ Wetherholt Give Himself? It Might Surprise Cards Fans
JJ Wetherholt has had several spectacular moments so far in his rookie season for the St. Louis Cardinals. However, the dynamic second baseman is far from satisfied and feels he has plenty more to offer.
Video Transcript
Most baseball writers across Major League Baseball so far have JJ Wetherholt as their pick to win Rookie of the Year in the National League.
And why not?
The kid's been incredible so far.
He's been, you know, the Cardinals' best defender.
He's played an excellent second base.
And, you know, he got all-- he got his career started with about as good a way as you possibly could do it.
I'm John Denton with Roundtable Sports.
JJ Wetherholt homered in his first Major League Baseball game.
He had an RBI, sac fly in that game also that was almost a second home run.
And then in his second Major League Baseball game, he, had a walk-off single to a walk-off winner in his second game.
He had a two home run game against the Guardians to lead a big comeback.
He even had a Little League grand slam against the Padres when, when Fernando Tatis Jr. misplayed a single that went all the way to the wall.
so JJ's had a lot of big moments already this season.
you know, I talked to JJ recently.
I asked him how would he grade himself so far?
And, you know, he said in this game you can, you can kinda compare yourself to others too much.
You can overanalyze things, and it kinda takes over your life.
He doesn't wanna be a guy that allows the game to, to dominate his life away from the diamond.
So when I asked JJ that, he said, you know, there have been some good things.
He likes the way he's run the bases.
He likes the way he's played defense.
He says he hasn't gotten nearly enough barrels.
a-and he's kinda in a, in a funk right now.
I mean, let's go to the numbers.
you know, in this month, this month of May, JJ's hitting 202, and he has 19 strikeouts this month.
So he had a great start to this season, start to his career really.
In March, carried that through April with some really high moments.
May has been a tough time.
you know, the, the 162 game season is, is unrelenting.
he's in the lineup every day.
That wasn't always the case when he was at Double-A Springfield or Triple-A Memphis.
They would sprinkle in off days for him.
So the grind of the season is probably wearing on the, the young 23-year-old second baseman so far.
But, you know, JJ said-- I asked him how would he grade this season so far.
He said maybe a B. you know, he, he said he wants to hold himself to a very high standard, so you know, it's, it's admirable that the kid, you know, has not patted himself on the back.
He's definitely not satisfied.
He thinks there's a lot more to come over the second half of the season, especially with his bat.
he likes the way he ran the bases.
He likes the way he's played defense.
He's been amazing defensively.
But he thinks he can square up a lot more balls, get his feet back under him, get, get over this rough stretch that he's having in May.
And, you know, I look for the kid to have a, a big, June, July, and then second half of the season.
But, you know, the grind of the season is, is gonna wear out even the best of players.
So, we all know now that JJ's the real deal.
We saw that in Pittsburgh, his first time going back close to where he grew up.
He hits a game-tying home run in the ninth inning in game one there that the Cardinals came back and won.
The last game of the four-game series, he leads off the game with a home run against Paul Skenes.
So there's definitely been more pluses than minuses so far for, for JJ Wetherholt, a guy who gives himself a B so far.
Even though every-- just about everybody in baseball has him winning the Rookie of the Year, he gives himself a B.
So that makes you think that there's a lot more coming from the, the Cardinals' hotshot, second baseman.
I'm John Denton with Roundtable Sports.
