Future Redbirds

The Cardinals made a few roster moves, waiving bub-bye to Larry Bigbie and Carmen Cali, and adding Blake Hawksworth,Cody Haerther, Dennis Dove and Troy Cate to the 40 man roster.

One of the names of that list that really intrigued me is 26 year old Troy Cate. Cate was a 6th round draft pick in Seattle’s system as left handed starter and was switched to relieving mid career. He posted high strikeout ratios but had struggles with his command. He also was suspended for steroid use in ‘05. Since coming over to the Cardinals, Cate’s been a dominant lefty reliever, with a 4:1 strikeout ratio and holding batters to a .127/.214/.206 line in 2006 between Palm Beach and Springfield. He has a decent fastball, but his curveball is his out pitch. He’s likely to start the season in AA, but if he continues to pitch this well he could be a September call up.

Another name of interest is Dennis Dove. Dove is 25, old to have been pitching in most of his season in A ball. Drafted in ‘03, he was switched from starting to relieving and has really taken to it, striking out 56 and walking 13 in 52 innings for Palm Beach. He was called up late July to AA, where he struggled with his command, walking 8 in just 14 innings, but still struck a batter an inning (15). He allowed 6 homeruns in that short time, awful. He then went on the the AFL and posted a 1.93 ERA in 6 appearances. In a free article at Scout.com, Ray Mileur recounts of seeing Dove hit 103 mph on the generous Springfield radar gun. With that type of velocity, you can see why the Cards protected him from the Rule 5 draft.