Future Redbirds

In case you’re not much of a weekend blog reader, here’s more obsessions over the draft regarding Kozma, the ground ball tendencies of the day one pitchers, and the players a look at some of the players selected on day 2. A veritable barrage of content. And yes, I’m warming up to some of the picks, sorta. You can voice your opinion regarding the draft on the side poll or click here.  AZ looks at which players could be promoted and which players need to stay put in AA.

Derrick Goold reports the team has already signed 6th rounder Oliver Marmol and is very close with signing supplemental 1st round pick Clayton Mortenson. As many as 16 of their picks are expected to report to Jupiter. [updated] Missed this earlier, but Saturday David Kopp didn’t help Clemson, who was eliminated in that game. His line-1.2 innings. 5 H, 5R, 3ER, 2BB, 0K. 

Memphis 15, Albuquerque 7

Football scores happen in Isotope Park.

• Rick Ankiel went 4 for 5 and hit his 15th homer of the season.
• Skip Schumaker went 4 for 6 with a couple of doubles.
• Brendan Ryan went 3 for 6 and was a homer shy of hitting for the cycle.
• John Rodriguez went 1 for 3 and drew a couple of walks.
• Starter Randy Keisler gave up 2 homers. He gave up 5 runs, 4 earned on 5 hits and a walk. He had 11 ground ball outs.
• Mark Worrell gave up 1 run on 3 hits and a walk, while striking out 2 in 2 innings pitched.

Springfield 4, Arkansas 3

• I’ll get to the fun stuff after I tell you Colby Rasmus went 0 for 4 with a walk. He’s hitting just .194 in his last 10 games. His averages are down across the board as of late.
• Sean Danielson was the hero of tonight’s game. He drove in 2 runs in the 9th to put the Cardinals ahead. He finished 2 for 5 for the game and is now hitting .346.
• Mike Ferris went 3 for 4.
• Bryan Anderson allowed his 8th passed ball of the season. He went 1 for 3 at the plate. He allowed a steal and also gunned down a would be stealer.
• Mitch Boggs went 7 strong, allowing 1 run on 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 6.
• Matt Scherer was only able to record one out and was tabbed for 2 earned runs in the 8th.
• Jason Motte could not save the lead and the runs were attributed to Scherer, but Motte was credited for the win as worked 1.2 innings, striking out 3 while allowing a couple of walks and a couple of hits.

Palm Beach 4, Brevard County Manatees Sea Cows 7

• Adam Ottavino allowed 4 runs on 5 hits and a walk, while striking out 4. His ground out to fly out ratio was 7 to 10 and he allowed a 2 run home run.
• They tied the game in the 9th in a crazy inning. Brandon Yarbrough walked, James Rapoport sac-bunted to move him over to 2nd. Shane Robinson reached on a fielding error by the Manatee 3rd baseman. Dan Nelson struck out looking. Finally, Allen Craig reached on an error by the other team’s RF to score Yarbrough and take the game to extras.
• Luke Gregerson then had a rare blow up. He only got one out and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and walk.
• Kyle McClellan was a bright spot out of the bullpen, he struck out 2 in a hitless inning. The Florissant native is a bit old for A ball as he’ll be turning 23 this Tuesday, but he’s struck out 20 in 25 innings pitched, while walking just 1.
• At the plate, Ian Church went 2 for 5 with a double and 3 RBI. He was the only Cardinal player with multiple hits. Brewer pitching prospect Will Inman was pretty dominant. He struck out 7 in 5 innings while allowing just 1 hit and 3 walks.
• Shane Robinson, Dan Nelson and Allen Craig all drew a pair of walks.

I was planning on attending this game, as a matter of fact I headed out to the ball park with my wife and child, fully ready to take pictures, scribble out notes and enjoy a bratwurst. Well, there was no ballgame in Cedar Rapids today. The Kernels were playing at the Swing and somehow I thought that it was the other way around. So as you can imagine, I felt a bit like a horse’s behind. The Swing just were playing the Kernels here, but I had some other engagements and thought to myself I had all weekend. Silly me. Luckily for me, they televised the replay of the game on cable here, which made it a little easier for me get another look at the players. First the recap:

Quad Cities 2, Cedar Rapids 0

• Tyler Herron hogged up the innings today. He went 6 innings and only allowed 3 hits while striking out 3. He also got 8 ground ball outs.
• Brad Furnish struck out 4 in 3 innings while only allowing a hit.
• Daryl Jones went 3 for 4 with 2 stolen bases and scored a run.
• Brandon Buckman went 0 for 2 but drew 2 walks.
• Luke Gorsett went 2 for 4 with a double. He’s hitting .344 over his last 10 games.
• Chris Grossman and Will Sandoval drove in the two runs.

Now, my thoughts on the players:

First of all, I was real eager to see Tyler Herron and I wasn’t disappointed. He didn’t throw particularly hard, about 89-91 but he had good movement on his sinker which of course explains his 56% ground ball rate. He was able to locate his fastball on both sides of the plate. His curveball I would grade out as average to slightly above average. It would occasionally come out loopy and he didn’t always command it. When he did snap off a good one, it had a good 12-6 drop and had hitters whiffing. He also showed at times a 76 MPH change that I’d say was an above average offering. He did seem pretty slow to the plate.

The other starter was Brad Furnish, and he looked a lot better then I expected. I seem to remember reports of him throwing 88 or so last year. Maybe it was fatigue from throwing a lot of innings for TCU, because he was throwing a good bit harder then that, 91-93. He also threw a cut fastball that had a good bit of movement but he was having trouble locating it. He also flashed a pretty good curve ball that was in the low 80’s. He was a quick worker and had a real fast but fluid delivery.

I only caught the 4th through the 9th inning, so I didn’t get the greatest look at the hitters. I will say that Daryl Jones looked different. I’ve seen him play for the third time now, he just appeared to be more confident. He had a nice swing and laced a line drive. He also seems to be getting more acquainted with his speed, as he swiped 2 bags can fly as reported. Brandon Buckman is a tall guy, wiry guy. He reminded me a bit of Derrek Lee, not just for his size, but the way he was agile around the bag. Hitting wise, he’s a free swinger with a relatively quick trigger, but as you can see he drew a couple of walks so it’s not that he doesn’t have a decent batting eye. He was taking some pretty close pitches.