I have a confession to make. Towards the end of the season, say about August or so, when erik and I were doing DPR’s on 6 teams a night, I was burnt out. The DPR’s became a task rather than a pleasure. When erik and I conferred about doing these mini-DPR’s, I realized how much I missed that nightly recap. I missed trying to be pithy and pertinent on a nightly basis. I missed seeing if my favorite prospects had a big night or not. I’m glad for the reprieve of winter because I couldn’t have gone on doing the 6 teams a night gig for much longer but I’m glad that we’ve got a sprinkling of prospects to look at again.
I’ll lead off the night with a fascinating development for the Memphis Redbirds: Dyar Miller will not be returning for his eighth season as pitching coach.
He’s swapping roles with Mark Riggins and will be the Cardinals’ roving pitching instructor throughout the minor league system. Given how accurate reports from the media have been all year concerning the rifts between leading personalities within the organization, what Jim Masilik says at the end of the article just sounds accurate to me on an instinctual level:
Miller, who helped groom the likes of Dan Haren, Anthony Reyes and Adam Wainwright while in Memphis, dismissed suggestions that he had been at odds with Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan this season over how to handle Reyes.
“We won the World Series last year. I haven’t changed anything and he hasn’t changed anything,” Miller said. “I don’t think there was any problem.”
I recall during the year that there were some comments that seemed slightly askew from what the big league club was wanting from everyone’s favorite dividing line, Anthony Reyes. Namely that it would be hard to get him throwing a sinker. . . Maybe I’m reading too much between the proverbial lines but would it really surprise anyone at this point?
Before we get to the recap, Matt LaPorta is having a tremendous run in the AFL. I went back to draft day to see if I had said anything about him back then — I really didn’t, just made some jokes about Prince Fielder playing SS (which I still find to be a positively hilarious idea). My best suggestion for the Brewers would be to move Braun to RF and LaPorta in LF and then find the BEST defensive CF you can and stick him between the two. Hopefully that would minimize the defensive damage of both players while allowing you to get their bats in play. LaPorta’s bat looks damn near major league ready as he posts a .300/.364/.700/1.064 batting line with 2 HRs in 30 ABs and an acceptable 6 Ks.
- Jarrett Hoffpauir went 0-for-4 with a walk.
- Jason Motte got roughed up for 3 runs (1 earned) in .2 innings. He allowed 2 hits and 2 walks against 1 strikeout but got bit by a solo HR.
Aragua 1, Zulia 3 (Our players are on Aragua.)
- Jose Martinez went 1-for-3 with a BB.
- Juan Lucena went 0-for-2.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
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fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
Funny you bring up LaPorta and Braun. I just finished reading this BP article about Braun’s defense http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=609 (it is of the free variety too) at the end he talks about ways to improve their D and mentions LaPorta in each scenario as someone to think about when making moves.
Also Hoffpauir had 2 errors, and being the only errors his must have contributed to the 2 unearned runs that Motte received.
I wonder if Miller was the minor league coach that Bernie referred to in his Luhnow/jocketty rift column as the coach who didn’t know who to talk to. It would seem logical that he very well could be as it appears Jocketty was responsible for some players at Memphis and Luhnow others. I hope this isn’t punishment for that.
I don’t see this as punishment for Miller. He won’t be the Memphis coach but he will be the roving coach which allows him to see more of the organization. If anything this could be them giving him more power, allow Miller to start pushing his philosophies more. Though the opposite could be true too.
I noticed that the Post had an article on how the GM search is going. They mentioned that it was delayed until after the world series. Could this be an indication that they are really intersted in Antonetti but don’t have access to him until Cleveland is eliminated? I hate to say it because I want Cleveland to win, but go Sox!
I had the same thought about Antonetti being the top candidate.
However, I’m still rooting for Cleveland. If they win their first WS since 1948, that’ll pretty much leave the Cubs alone in the “half century of futility” category, won’t it?
And I’m glad to see the Rocks get into their first WS.
That leaves just four franchises w/o a WS appearance:
* Senators/Rangers, expansion class of ‘61
* Expos/Nationals, class of ‘69
* Mariners, class of ‘77
* D-Rays, class of ‘98
Sometimes we forget how lucky we are as fans. The ’70s and early ’90s blew, but we’re one of the few franchises that wins titles in every generation.
If Antonetti is our guy, you have to think our history makes the job both intriguing and intimidating. He knows going in that the fans expect championships. We’re patient, but our standards are pretty high.
And if Cleveland wins the WS this year, you have to think that bumps up the offer from DeWitt by a substantial amount. Which, of course, only adds to the pressure he’ll have coming in.
Ingram and Mortenson get some luv.
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071017&content_id=311298&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp
Antonetti is going to get to pick whatever GM job he wants in the next 5 years. He’s everyone’s top candidate. I don’t think I see him taking on a manager like TLR or a club like the Cardinals with a weak major league team and somewhat barren farm system.
Though if he is on board he will probably only have 1 year of Larussa. I am wondering what team with a likely GM opening you would deem as better than the Cardinals? In the NL West we have the Giants. AL west we have Seattle. NL Central we maybe have the Cubs position. He has already turned down the Royals AL Central, so that leaves the White Sox. The AL and NL East maybe the Mets, Nats, and Marlins. Out of that group what destinations are better than St.Louis? Mets and the Chicago teams maybe. It seems like none of the GM openings would come without their share of problems, that is the reason most of the GM positions are open. The organizations in the best shape this off-season have been promoting executives from within. Maybe Antonetti can predict the future better than I can.
Yes, TLR may be an issue for Antonneli or it could be positive - we don’t know what he thinks of LARussa do we?
If I’m a GM candidate, I’d be licking my chops over all the money that comes off the books after next year giving you a lot of flexibility in what would be really your 1st year (since you’re coming in late this year and Mozliak has already spent your wad for this year.) You’d also be looking at taking over just as the farm is on the up swing. We’re probably still in the bottom half farm wise overall still but if you were to remove the AAA void which should go away after this year, we’re probably a little higher (12-15?).
The big question for Antonneli or any candidate I think is the issue of whether they will truly have control over Luhnow. Is he going to really work for you (and not just on paper) and not for DeWitt?
Another significant aspect has to be the loyalty DeWitt has shown in the past. He hasn’t knee jerked over weak seasons in the past. He fired Walt after this season but I think it was less about the actual results than overall direction, internal fighting, and Walt embarrassing him by leaking his unhappiness to the press.
I think there are very few jobs that can compete with the STL one.
I’m wondering who “reassigned” Miller. Did this come from our interim GM? It surely wasn’t Luhnow, was it? Could it have come from Lamping? I doubt it.
Is he being punished for the stuff b/t him and Duncan re: Reyes? Reyes won’t be back at Memphis as he’s out of options so there’s no reason to expect that to continue. Is this a condition of LaRussa’s returning to the club? A lot of questions that generally reflect the overall direction of the organization (or lack thereof)!
Strauss broke this news last week.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/04BC59AAB91BE699862573730012DFEE?OpenDocument
Mark Riggins is The Cubs Roving Pitching Coach Now. Can’t find that on the Redbirds Sites.