Future Redbirds

(EDIT: Chart now added, and embarrassing gramatical errors mostly fixed.)

One last go ’round, this time the relievers. There’s a lot of guys I decided not to bother with, whether it was playing time, the player is now elsewhere as in the cases of Rich Scalamandre and Cory Doyne, or I just plain figured it was a waste of time. I probably could’ve done without Chris Russ, former Yankee farmhand turned journeyman arm for hire, but he had that 60% groundball rate so I figured what the hey. I wasn’t going to figure in any short season guys but I read a chat transcript at Fanhome with John Vuch, Director of Minor League Operations and he picked Luke Gregorson as a potential sleeper. Once I saw that 65% groundball rate coupled with that insanely high K rate I just had to mention him. And now for the usual bullet-pointy thoughts:

• Some of you may remember Kevin Ool was the PTBNL we got from Boston in the Mike Myers trade. He certainly doesn’t miss bats, and he doesn’t have a platoon split you’d expect from a lefty reliever. However, he sure does keep the ball on the ground and he doesn’t walk guys. He virtually has no room for error but he’s worth halfway watching considering his control and his ability to get ground outs.
• Josh Kinney. How can you not root for this guy? From River City Rascal to postseason hero, he showed great poise and a freakish slider that made Met hitters look like fools. Great sinker/slider combo.
• Mike Sillman saved 35 games for Palm Beach this season. He’s a submariner, I’m not sure what to make of him until he pitches in Springfield. Between the tougher park and the tougher competion his true ability should be revealed. After watching 2 dominant performances in ‘06 from sidearm/submariners Pat Neshek and Cla Meredith you sort of get excited about a player like Sillman, but he doesn’t have the resume the other two have and was quite old for his level. Still have to like the very high GB% and K per 9.
• Matt Scherer was another Palm Beach reliever who was very dominant at Palm Beach, but too old for his level. I worry about his fly ball tendencies and how that will effect what will happen to him in Springfield. He’s a huge guy at 6′5″, 230 and he struck out 106 while walking only 20 in 80 innings, he’s really thrived after being switched to relief. Scherer has a decent fastball with late life and a good slider that’s very tough on righties. He doesn’t throw from the windup and pitches at a 3/4 angle.
• Cairns was drafted in the 8th round of ‘05 out of Central Michigan. He throws from a low 3/4 angle and relies heavily on his sinker, which he throws in the 90-94 mph range. That explains the high GB%. He improved a lot on his control this past season.
• 16% of the balls put in play against Andy Cavazos were infield flies, those are about as good as a strikeout. It can be a repeatable skill to induce weak pop ups for some pitchers, which makes Cavazos that much more of an intriguing bullpen option then he already is.