Kary Booher reports that Colby Rasmus will be batting lead off from now to the rest of the season. Not a bad idea, IMO. Colby has the about the right speed in a typical lead-off hitter, and he’ll get a few more plate appearances that way. It should also help him focus on getting on base and less on just pulling the ball with authority. Not that he’ll stop hitting the ball with authority, mind you. That is just his nature. Small samples, but Colby is 9 for 14 with 3 doubles and 2 homers hitting lead off this year.
2 double headers coming at you. Joey Mather of his Domain strikes. Chris Perez gets shaky. P.J. Walters gets funky…in a good way. And Shane Robinson is alive and kicking. Let’s get into it.
- Joe Mather hit a 2 run homer in the top of the 10th to give the Redbirds the lead. He went 3 for 5 for the game.
- Chris Perez shut the door, but made it a little too interesting first. The first batter reached second on a fielding error and a throwing error by Edgar Gonzalez. (No wonder he hasn’t reached the bigs) He struck out the next batter. With one out, he threw a wild pitch, then walked Eric Patterson to put runners on the corners. He struck out the next batter, then loaded the bases on a walk. He then induced a fly out to end the game. It took him 24 pitches to get through the 9th.
- Skip Schumaker went 2 for 3 with 2 walks.
- P.J. Walters was brilliant, allowing a run on 6 hits while whiffing 10 over 7 innings.
- Jason Motte blew the save, allowing 3 runs in the 9th.
- Colby Rasmus homered and struck out twice. The homer was his 23rd of the season.
- Mark Mulder as I’m sure you heard, started the game. He threw 4 innings, allowed a run on 2 hits, while striking out 3.
- Brad Furnish allowed not hits while walking 1 over 3 innings, while striking out 3.
- Luke Gregerson walked 1, struck out 1 and picked up his 24th save.
- Luke Gorsett doubled twice.
- A.J. Van Slyke went 3 for 4 and stole a base.
- Altogether, the pitching held the Rays to 2 hits.
Quad Cities 3, Clinton 4 7 innings, Game 1
- Tyler Herron was perfect through 4, then allowed 2 runs in the 5th and 2 in the 6th. He struck out 6 and had 7 ground outs to 2 fly outs.
- Nicholas Derba went 2 for 3 with a double.
- Jose Garcia went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI and a stolen base.
Quad Cities 0, Clinton 2 7 innings, Game 2
- Not much fun to report here, the Swing were held to 2 hits.
- Kyle Mura gave up 2 hits and struck out 2 in 1 IP.
- Mike Schellinger allowed 2 earned runs on on 4 hits and 2 walks, striking out 2.
- Tyler Henley hit a triple and a sac fly, driving in 3 runs.
- Justin Roberson went 2 for 3 with a HR.
- William Groff went 2 for 3.
- Blake King allowed 3 runs on 6 hits while striking out 4. His normal piggyback partner Jesse Todd hasn’t started since August 10th. Er, what’s happening there?
- Pete Kozma went 2 for 4 with a double and was picked off.
- Nicholas Vera went 1 for 3 with 2 walks.
- Senger Peralta allowed a run on 4 hits, walked 1 and fanned 7.
GCL Cardinals 8, GCL Mets 0 7 innings, Game 1
- The Cardinals beat up on 2nd round pick Scott Moviel to the tune of 6 runs on 12 hits and a walk.
- Shane Robinson sighting. He went 2 for 3 with a walk.
- 38th round pick from 2006 Scott Thomas is rehabbing with the GCLers, and went 3 for 4 with a double.
- Edgar Lara went 2 for 4 with a triple and 2 RBI.
- D’ Marcus Ingram went 2 for 4 and stole his 15th base of the season.
GCL Cardinals 4, GCL Mets 1 7 innings, Game 2
- D’Marcus Ingram makes the DPR twice tonight, going 3 for 4 with his 16th steal. He has 18 walks to 15 strikeouts in 111 at bats.
- Jairo Martinez went 2 for 3 with a double and 2 RBI.
- Julio Sanchez picked up his 5th save, striking out 2 and walking 1. He’s 22 and was let go by the Braves org last year, I think.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
Walters might be for real. He seems to be adjusting nicely in AA.
Adam Daniels started out well at AA before the scouting report got out on him. Give it a while before drawing any conclusions.
It’s nice to see the Cardinals make a good effort in recent years to draft base stealers. I would like to see an infusion of speed into the big league lineup over the next several years, if these guys continue to progress.
Carlos Gonzalez has really caught my eye lately. He’s 17 going to be 18 in a couple weeks and has a really good era and records almost a strikeout an inning. Does anyone know how hard he throws and how good his secondary pitches are. Maybe he should be called up to johnson city since he’s been dominating the GCL.
The run against Mulder was unearned
yeah…i didn’t really want to get into mulder much. he’s not a prospect and you can read more details on his start elsewhere.
azru give walters a little credit , daniels hasnt struck out 10 in a game. walters did it against a team he faced a couple of weeks ago so i think the scouting report is out. anyone who has a clue knows walters best pitch is his changeup so im sure a AA team facing him the 2nd time as tulsa & san antonio have would know exactly how he throws. also the 10ks tied a springfield record.
The 2005 draft got all of the press with Greene Rasmus McKormick and Herron all taken. However, the 2006 edition keeps looking better and better. Walters, Hamilton, Perez, Ottavino, and Craig all might be among our top 10 prospects. Toss in Reyes, Jay, Furnish, and Norrick and the tools guys (Edwards, Pham) and we are looking pretty good. If Daley and Degerman can become productive, we have a great draft. Not to mention Buckman and Marti and a few possible steals (Shorey, Additon, Ingram).
colby in the leadoff spot … just strengthening the sizemore comp.
kernalfan - the point is we shouldn’t draw any serious conclusions from 1 game. or 2 or 3 games for that matter. The sample size just isn’t that large. 1 game shouldn’t change anyone’s opinion of Walters. He’s a fine prospect but I’m not going to get worked up over 1 outing.
The whole season does not equal small sample size. He dominated Low A, was great in High A, and now has a sub-3 ERA in AA. I think this is something to get excited about.
If Chris Perez keeps this up, he’s going to be a rubber Isringhausen mask away from being Izzy II.
Dave, another Izzy, without the heavy contract, would be great. Chris needs to get over this adjustment period, though, it’s frustrating.
i agree azru, we shouldnt get too excited but like paul said he has dominated all season, he doinated in college, he dominated at cape cod.he is doing something right. 1 good or bad game isnt anything to get overly excited about.as far as last nights game no other springfield pitcher has had 10ks in a game & if i remember correctly he had 10ks in his 1st outing at palm beach & no pitcher there has had 10. im just saying give him a little credit,if this was 1 of our top picks from last year doing this (ottavino,furnish,degerman, daley,norrick)some would be saying give em a september call up.
i think walters has had a fantastic season and deserves to be the organizational pitcher of the year, but i still am not sold on him. you just don’t see very many right handed starting pitchers in the majors with an 87 mph fastball that do a whole lot. obviously he is doing something right, but go check out kevin slowey’s minor league stats and then look at his big league stats. he is known as a guy that gets by on polish and fantastic control and he has dominated the minors but gets rocked in the majors and he throws 91. walters is a guy that is going to have to continue to prove himself. when you put up the kind of numbers he did in college there is only one reason you last as long as he did in the draft and that is b/c he lacks “stuff.” i hope he proves everyone wrong, but i’m not betting on it. at least not yet.
I wouldn’t say that walters lacks stuff. Too often we refer to stuff as a radar reading on the fastball or the break on a curveball. It sounds like this guy actually might have a plus plus change-up, thats stuff. If he can develop a servicable breaking pitch he might succeed.
Jesse Todd = PTBNL?
When do the PTBNL’s from the Detroit and Boston trades need to be named? Is it possible that Todd might be one of them?
fewgood, you are right but he also fell in the draft because of his 3 yr workload.he had over 100 IP all 3 yrs of college & over 200 after his soph yr that included the cape. there were scouts that said that he wasnt even on there draft board because of the excessive innings.maybe someone else can comment on this but being around college players alot, they have told me that there is no difference at all to hitting a fastball between 86-91 that 90% of pitchers are going to be in that range so its easy to adjust to.they say it doesnt get tough until you see the 92+.
bigjawn- walters has been told this year that he has a big league change up..last time i checked trevor hoffman has done quite well with just a change up.
BigJawn — Walters has never been reported as having plus stuff. He mixes his pitches well and keeps hitters off balance. He has several average to above-average offerings but nothing that’s been called plus. Obviously, that hasn’t hindered him so far but a lot of control artists really suffer at AA. Again, I’m not saying this happens to Walters, just that we should be wary.
kernalfan - I’m not one who would argue for his callup in september regardless of who was putting up his numbers. We don’t have an ace caliber pitcher in our system like Buccholz or Bailey or anyone who I think could make an easy jump from AA to the majors. Again, I like Walters and I like what he’s done but I’m just warning people away from assigning too much value to the 35 innings at AA (especially when the peripherals are all down from High-A).
3up3down25 - big-league change-up does not equal Trever Hoffman change-up.
Richard,
It is a rule that you can’t trade a prospect until he has been in your ogranization for a year. So Jesse Tood will not be the PTBNL since he was just recently drafted and signed. Thought that would help!
Clarification…..Not any prospect, but one that was drafted into your system.
AZ-
I have heard that his change is well above average and of course his fastball is below average. My point is that we often relate major league stuff with fastball velocity, which doesn’t matter as much as pitch movement. Really velocity for a pitcher can be related to one of the 5 tools for hitters–it is just a tool not a skill…Control is a skill…Deception is a skill.
Second, someone said that there are no scouting reports on Walters. Every team in the FSL had one and they shared that info with their TL affliates.
BJM — Control and movement (and to a lesser extent deception) are definitely good qualities for a pitcher. Mark Buerhle survives on movement. Jeff Suppan survives on control. I totally agree that PJ Walters looked legit through High-A. His peripherals are all down in AA — again, this is over 35 innings so it’s too early to make a big deal out of it. I will readily admit that I’m a velocity whore when it comes to prospects but I like Walters.
I think the second portion is referring to what I said earlier and it’s less a matter of not having any scouting reports than the pitcher being new to the league and the team not having their own scouting reports.
look at his #s the 1st time he faced tulsa & san antonio then look at the 2nd time he faced them , looks like walters is making the adjustments not the other way around.
Kernalfan — sample size. PJ has done nothing in AA that has significantly changed my opinion of him. Anecdotal evidence isn’t going to sway me.
I think P.J. Walters and Mark McCormick should become best friends…
azru-im not trying to sway you.just stating my opinion. you said you liked for prospects to have the velocity. well i like to see a kid that can actually pitch not just throw it up there 90+ & hope they hit it at somebody.this has been a great topic today, now we just have to sit back & let PJs pitching do the talking..time will tell.
The “sample size” statements are getting a little out of hand. I almost posted this yesterday, but bit my tongue…and then see it comes up what seems like 10 times in the Walters thread. Here goes a little Sample Size Manifesto:
Let’s remember what sample sizes are for. They are for testing hypotheses, whether it be that the data are representative of something (normality, for example), that two things differ, or other inquiries.
Now, sample size influences your confidence that what you are seeing is representative, or that a difference is really not due to chance, and so forth. But other things besides sample size also influence that confidence. For example, you might have a small absolute sample size but a large proportion of the overall population (e.g., Adam Kennedy has only made 8 errors all season, but he has only played in 8 games). Or you might have constructed your argument ahead of time (a one-tailed test) and need less sample to have confidence that the data support or don’t support it (Rick Ankiel strike out once per Major League game all season….and true to form, he has one in each of his first 20 games). Or - and this is lost on a lot of folks - you have so little variability in your data that you need less sample to support your hypothesis (PJ Walters always goes at least 6 innings and never allows less than 2 runs - after 8 such starts, you might have better confidence in his success than after 12 highly variable starts that yield the same peripherals).
What we are really discussing with Walters is whether his body of work in AA is (yet) a reasonable predictor of how he will perform the rest of the season (and eventually in the majors). And Azru is right that 3 starts is a small sample size…but Azru also cannot dismiss the optimism of other people if that small sample size comes with some other attributes. I see this “sample size caveat” from a lot of folks who got their stats training mainly from Sabermetrics, and they make me both happy (at increasing quantitative sophistacation in baseball) and sad (because real statisticians often make fun of sabermetricians) at the same time.
So Azru, we get that sample size matters - but, like the saying goes, it’s only a part of the package, and one size does not fit all. Go, PJ!
that change up moves like a screwball…i don’t know if it’s hoffman-esque but from what i understand it’s pretty freaking baffling. he’s kind of our own tyler clippard. personally i like soft-tossing tricky guys. you don’t normally see the right handed variety but from talking to him he is all about control, control, control and is a pretty confident guy. i won’t say he’s not a future big leaguer, but he is pretty enigmatic.