Future Redbirds

Go, go gadget bulletpoints.

Memphis 7, New Orleans 3

The Good

• Ankiel the unflagging prospect falls into the good category tonight, barely. He only went 1-for-4 but it was a homerun and he only struck out once. I’ll take that.
• Travis Hanson went 2-for-3 with a walk. He needs to start making some noise. He’s going to be 26 this year and if he wants to make the majors it will probably have to be with another team as he’s blocked by Scott Rolen. He had one good year at age 24 in AA. . . and that’s it. Clock’s a tickin’ Mr. Hanson.
• Chris Narveson, who is one of my favorites in the Cardinals minor league system, went seven strong innings, striking out 7, walking 4 and giving up just one hit (only 3 groundouts against 11 flyouts though). If he can pick up a little more of the velocity he showed pre-surgery a few years back, he could be a major league caliber starter. He’s probably good enough to be at the back end of someone’s rotation now (read: Nationals) but the Cardinals got him thru waivers in spring training.
• Falkenborg goes an inning and a third striking out 1.

The Bad

• Stavinoha went 0-for-4.
• Brendan Ryan went 0-for-4. Combined with his 0-for-5 last night and he seems to be in a bit of a slump.
• Cavazos struggled in two thirds of an inning giving up 3 hits and a run.

Springfield 3, Midland 4

The Good

• Rico Washington went 2-for-4 and Joe Mather provided the power for the runs tonight hitting 2HRs in 4 at bats.
• Matt Scherer pitched 2 and 1/3 scoreless innings.

The Bad

• Jon Jay, Reid Gorecki and Colby Rasmus combined to go 0-for-10 with 4 Ks.
• Chris Lambert went 4 and 2/3 innings. He managed to scrape by with just a single earned run but he gave up six hits walked 2 and only struck out 2. No pitch counts for the game but I’d guess it was more of the same from Lambert, i.e. control issues.
• Hugo Castenallos, ye of the amazing name, was bad as well. 2 innings, 2 runs and a blown save. Have no fear Hugo, your name still rocks. (It’s also the name of one of my favorite LOST characters — but that’s a different blog.)

Palm Beach 2, St. Lucie 5

The Good

• Shane Robinson goes 2-for-4 as the leadoff man.
• Adam Ottavino goes 5 innings and only gives up one earned run but was betrayed by 4 errors from his team — although he made one himself. Adam, if you want to make fielding errors, you need to be in the Tigers minor league system. Still a good outing with 4 Ks and 7 of 10 outs on balls in play coming via the ground. Two seam fastball?
• Nick Webber tossed two scoreless relief innings with two Ks.

The Bad

• The defense — 4 errors in the game (St. Lucie had three of their own).
• Dan Nelson and Allen Craig wore the collar tonight going 0-for-4 each.

Quad Cities 4, Peoria 0

Quad Cities 2, Peoria 1

The Double Header Goodness

• It was a team offense by the Swing in game one. Everyone does a little with 6 of the 9 hitters reaching base at least once.
• Elvis Hernandez pitches 5 innings of one hit ball with 7 Ks.
• The offense was a little more sparse in the second game but Brandon Buckman hit a homerun and Mark Shorey singled in Jim Rapoport for the other run.
• PJ Walters goes 4 innings striking out 5.
• Kyle Mura picks up the win with 2 scoreless innings in relief.

The Double Header Badness

• The first game doesn’t have anyone to single out and the second game only lets me point at the bottom of the lineup but the kids had already played a game earlier. We’ll cut them some slack.
• The pitching was good in both games (1 ER in 14 innings) so Quad Cities gets a congratulations on their double header sweep!