Sorry I’ve been absent at the blog as of late, last week I was on vacation and this week has been a little more hectic then usual.
Derrick Goold has the scoop on the happenings down in the instructional league, with several interesting tidbits.
- The duo of Clayton Mortensen and Jess Todd continue to dominate. It’s easy for me to envision both making up a strong 1-2 punch in Palm Beach next year. More likely, Todd will start his season for the QC.
- Nick Additon had a strong showing, striking out 13 batters in 11 IP to just 1 walk. Command is Additon’s strong suite, he had a 5.5 K to BB ratio this past season. And he’s a lefty. I’d like to know what sort of stuff he has, he’s put up great numbers thus far. Ingram and Additon have been two solid draft and follows.
- Richard Castillo also was solid. The young Venezuelan had a 1.72 ERA for the VSL team last season, striking out a quarter of the batters he faced.
- Albert Pujols has buddied up with Ryde Rodriguez, the Cuban “fugee”. Hopefully Pujols is helping his swing, as he was previously dubbed by one scout as “the king of jamshots”. Ryde hit .273/.319/.432 in 44 at bats. The dude is pretty buff and I’m intrigued to see what he does. The Cardinals had to like what they saw from him to sign him for half a mil.
- D’Marcus Ingram flashed some power, making him an even more interesting prospect then he already was.
- Pete Kozma had a bone bruise, so most of the time he worked on his fielding. That’s a good thing.
- On the negative-David Kopp and Deryk Hooker got torched, Oliver Marmol went 2 for 24, and Daryl Jones still stinks.
For complete instructional league stats, The Birdhouse has them posted for free.
Oh, and speaking of Goold, sorry for the delay on the Q and A, it has not been on his end. It’s on mine. Feel free to post another question or two in the comments and I’ll send off the email this weekend.
Look for a prospect profile on one of the AFL’ers this weekend, either McClellan or perhaps Boggs.
Feel free to give me some feedback on what you all would like to see around here the next week or so.
Filed under: Instructional league, Ryde Rodriguez
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
How long do we give Jones?
Ingram and Rodriguez bring some excitement to the organization.
Jess Todd - is it 100% certain he’ll be used as a starter in 2008?
sidd–i don’t see why not. he was used mostly as a starter for u of ark and was used as one last year. sure, he may profile as a future reliever but the same was said about mitch boggs. nick webber was a college closer, and he was given the opportunity to start until he proved he couldn’t. i suspect todd will be given the same, with better results.
Until a future closer is close to being ready he is often left as a starter just to get in more innings and allow him more opportunity to get experience and perfect his pitches. Perez was an exception becuase he was close to being ready and it was believed his delivery was so forceful that he might injure himself if he went more than a few innings at a time.
In scanning the stats for the Instr. league, Todd and Ingram’s are the ones that just leap out as head and shoulders above everyone else’s.
I’m interested in why Todd keeps getting mentioned as a future MR (more so than other guys), when his numbers are reliably so dominant in the different settings we’ve had him in so far. Yes, ALL minor league pitchers could end up as MRs…but why do we hear it so much more about Todd? Or is this just one original thought that has been amplified forward to the point of typecasting?
Nice to see Ingram’s numbers. Especially the 3 HRs.
we hear it because he’s primarily a fastball/slider guy. it’s not his results, it’s his scouting report. he throws low nineties and has a decent fastball, but i’ve heard his velo has been inconsistent. it’s his slider that’s his bread and butter.
i think he should have every shot to be a SP.
i vote for boggs
My vote is also for boggs
Speaking of Ryde Rodriguez, Brian Walton at scout.com just put up an excellent article about him, including an interview with Luhnow: http://stlcardinals.scout.com/2/692545.html
Might be $$, not sure; most of the articles there are. The guy looks like a pro wrestler…
I vote for Boggs in the rotation by July….
Jones - I still think that if the tools are there what are we losing by giving this guy an extended shot? Sure he has no business being in anybody’s prospect list based on results, but out of the 8 everyday at the QC can we honestly say we’d rather all of them get at bats before Jones? Not me, seems to me that Jones is on the Chris Duncan development path and should repeat Low A. Hopefully third time’s a charm… Again, if so, he ends next year at High A as a 21 year old… Seems like a decent progression to me…
Then again, I am a died in the wool Jones apologist…
I HAD THE PLEASURE OF MEETING MR. RODRIGUEZ RECENTLY HERE IN SOUTH FLORIDA WHERE HE IS CURRENTLY RESIDING AND SPRING TRAINING 4 THE ARIZONA CARDINALS, AND I MUST ADMIT HE IS A PHENOM! CAN’T WAIT 2 OBSERVE HIM IN ACTION. I’LL KEEP U POSTED!
hola
quisiera estar en contacto con ryde pues somos amigos desde cuba estudiamos en la misma escuela, como podria por aqui encotrarlo, saludos desde alemania yaima