He’s only 21, so it’s great to see him holding his own at the plate in AA.

Plus, since he’s the marquee player in the first wave of the Cards’ rejuvenated Latin American program, his success should be encouraging to the guys who followed him into the org.

It’s too early to pigeon-hole him as a 2B. The organization doesn’t consider him a 2B and given the lack of defensive metrics for the minors, there’s little evidence as to why he can’t play SS. He is an intriguing prospect who boasts fantastic contact rates although he doesn’t offer many secondary offensive skills.

whatever colby is doing, it needs fixing. may is credited with helping hoffpauir and mather, i think he knows what he is doing.

About the only strength in our org right now is middle-of-the-lineup, corner-outfield types, starting with Dunc and Ludwick on the varsity and Ankiel at Memphis. Then you have a crowd of potential power hitters from Springfield down to the Gulf Coast League.

And that’s not counting Hamilton and the rest of the first-base types who’re already blocked by Albert.

Russell may turn out to be better than any of the guys who aren’t Albert, and if he is it’s too bad we couldn’t get him signed and into the mix (if indeed it turns out that way). But given his strikeout propensity, there’s really no telling if he’s better than Ankiel or the other options, who’re cheaper and closer to the majors.

I’d be a lot more concerned if we had failed to get our first-round middle infielder signed, since that’s the weakest part of our system. For all our signings in Latin America, not to mention the million-dollar bonus given to Tyler Greene, Brendan Ryan might still be our best middle-infield prospect. And that’s just not good enough for a team that wants to rebuild from within.

The last thing I wanted to come in and see today is that they are monkeying with Colby’s swing…

I’m used to a sidearmer slinging it at 88, so seeing a Redbirds pitcher blowing hitters away with 96-mph heat was nice.