I sort of wished I covered the winter season a little better then I did, but I just wasn’t sure how great the interest was. I mean, it’s not like the Cardinals top prospects were a big part of it all. There was one top prospect that was part of it-Jose Martinez and briefly Mark Worrell. The rest of the winter ball players were more of your minor league foot soldiers led by their general Amaury Cazana Marti. I don’t think their competition compares to what they have faced at their respective levels, but here’s how they did:
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Jose Martinez SS/UTIL, Aragua Tigers of the Venezuelan League: 96 at bats, .260/.295/.460. 36% extra base hit rate, 5 walks, and 9 strikeouts. He also represented Venezuela in the Caribbean Series, hitting .227/.250/.364 in 22 at bats. He was the hero of the game facing the Dominican Team 1 on 2/6, going 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and 2 runs scored. Somewhat typical performance for Martinez-He showed a little bit of pop, didn’t walk, didn’t strike out. He drew some praise from scouts for his defense.
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Jose Arredondo, RHP Aguilas of the Dominican League: Jose played with Johnson City last season. He had a 1.42 ERA in 6.1 IP with 4 K’s and no walks. At 20 years old, he was the team’s youngest player.
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D’Angelo Jimenez IF, Licey Tigers of the Dominican League: He was awful. In 100 at bats, he hit .220/.333/.310. At least he is still walking. He was 1 for 3 in the Caribbean World Series.
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Hugo Castellanos RP, Obregon of the Mexican League: The sidearmer shined in his native Mexico, striking out 31 in 30.1 innings, walking 14 and allowed no homeruns. His ERA was a sterling 0.89 and his ground out to fly out ratio was 2.26. He’s coming to camp and we could see him in the show at some point this year. In the Caribbean series he gave up 3 runs in 2.2 innings.
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Rico Washington 1B/3B, Caribes of the Venezuelan League: Uncle Rico hit .305/.422/.497 with 8 homers in 197 at bats. He’s another NRI we’ll see in the spring.
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Dan Nelson, IF, Cartagena Bulls of the Colombian League: Nelson stuck to his MO and got on base, at a .425 clip. He hit .304 and slugged .478 in 138 at bats.
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Shane Robinson, CF, Cartagena Bulls: Sugar Shane hit .292/.381/.424 in 144 at bats with a team leading 11 steals.
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Donovan Solano, IF, Caimanes of the Colombian League: Solano led the team in average, hitting .328 in 180 at bats. He also posted a nifty .405 OBP and a lowly .389 SLG.
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Amaury Marti, OF for the Boer Indians of the Nicaraguan League: Amaury “the Body” hit .393/.446/.589 w/ 5 HR in 107 at bats using a bat made completely of his chest hair.
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Luke Gorsett, OF for the Chinandega Tigers of the Nicaraguan League: Gorsett led his team with 6 homers, but hit for a poopy .220/.284/.362 line in 117 at bats.
There are others-Matt Scherer, Kelvin Jimenez and the aforementioned Worrell both pitched, but didn’t stay to throw more then 12 innings so I’m not going to bother posting their #’s. Sorry. Some former Cardinal farmhands of note did pretty well. Chris Narveson had a 3.16 ERA in 42.2 IP for Hermasillo. He struck out 38, walked 13 and gave up 5 HR. He’s now in the Brewer system. John Rodriguez was a beast for 17 games, hitting .386/.550/.636 in 44 at bats for Caribes. Our new SS Cesar Izturis hit .333/.348/.413 in 63 at bats for the Lara Cardinals. If there are others I missed, let me know and I’ll update.
Filed under: Amaury Marti, Jose Martinez, Winter ball
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
Thinking about J-Rod not making the team in ‘07 still raises my blood pressure at least 30 points…
You know, I’m getting sick of all these stupid attempts at jokes for Amaury. I mean, come on, erik? A bat made from his chest hair? Everyone with any kind of intelligence knows that Marti has to use a bat made from kryptonite in order to contain his power; when he swings an ordinary bat, it moves so quickly that it travels through time, leaving Amaury batless. Jeez. Get with the program.
Great to see Robinson healthy and productive, was a big fan of his pick b/c of his all around game. He has that Ryan Freel thing going on…I hope he can stay healthy in 2008…he could end up being a nice 4/5th OF’er who can run and play CF/LF.
Red Baron. That was pretty damn funny.
Maybe that new movie called “Jumper” is really about Amaurys chest hair bat traveling through time.
I LOOOOVE Cesar’s line: .333/348. Does that about translate to eleven walks for 500 PAs?
i don’t know what i was thinking, RB. I was going to say nose hairs, thank God i didn’t, then you would’ve really grilled me.
Michael by my calcs that’s 166 hits in 500 AB’s and 8 walks. Hope this cheers you up, I know I’m elated about that line. (All the while dipping this post in a 55 gallon drum of sarcasm)
Hey erik, who is that in your avatar? I don’t recognise him. (Gotta get around to making one of those.).
that ugly dude is me
I figure most of you have read this by now but here’s an article from Matthew Leach at the official site about Bryan Anderson:
http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080207&content_id=2368019&vkey=news_stl&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl
ps: Sorry for the long link.
I’m going to continue to hold out hope that Solano will be a better Aaron Miles at the very least…..I’m the lone human being with any enthusiasm for the kid (outside of any relatives)….but I think he’s going to make it
You are you aren’t excited about Solano because of the “better than Renteria at the same age” hype sluhser.
Solano has zero power…I’m pretty sure he just swings leftover pasta when he’s at the plate.