Future Redbirds

I have to say I feel like a bit of a loser posting on a Friday night, but my wife rented and is watching the movie Atonement, and I’m more of a “Gene Pick” guy myself. Yes, it was nominated for an Academy Award. I was rooting for Juno (me being the snowflake that I am) but was happy to see No Country win. I haven’t seen it yet, but you gotta love the Coen Brothers. My favorite Coen Brothers movie would probably be O Brother Where Art Thou?, although most of you probably like the Big Lebowski or Fargo more. Like I said, I’m more of a Gene Pick guy. I also loved Raising Arizona.

OK, enough digression. First of all, some of you may notice the name change from “Daily Prospect Report” to “Daily Farm Report”. That name is possibly subject to change, but the reason behind the change is simple. Not everyone who shows up in these are prospects, so it would be stupid to call it a daily prospect report. These are the highlights (and lowlights) of the happenings in the minors, with an emphasis on those who are considered real prospects. Guys who keep showing up here for the right reasons will of course become prospects, of course, but not everyone who gets mentioned here is one now, to be sure. Honestly, I feel kinda dumb for not thinking of it before.

I wanted to remind all of you that the “One for the Birds” contest will be open for just a couple more days. I’m kind of bummed, because of the miserable weather here in Iowa there has been little to no college baseball that I could’ve went to even if I wanted to.

While we’re talking draft, I don’t want to cut into fewgood’s College Monday reports, but Aaron Crow dominated Texas Tech tonight, K’ing 9. I’ve been crowing about Crow, but apparently there are some serious concerns about his mechanics. The guys at saberscouting.com also take an in depth look at Reese Havens and like what they see, although they don’t expect the power he is hitting for right now to carry over into the big leagues. But he should definitely hit. That blog has quickly jumped up to one of my daily “must reads”.

• SI has an interesting article about the astounding 2005 draft, which of course includes Colby.
• PECOTA looks at 1B prospects, and isn’t a big fan of Mark Hamilton. Not at all.
• Matthew Leach reports that Rico Washington will make the big club, at least temporarily while Brendan Ryan’s minor injury heals. Makes sense, he has options and he plays a decent 3B.
• I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while, but Roarke has his own blog on baseball in general, with lots of great pics he nabbed from spring training.
• Jim Callis has the draft order.

Just a couple of abbreviated inter-squad games today in Jupiter, both ended in ties. Or as Mr. Vuch called them, “sister kissers”. Thanks again go out to John for providing the scores and interesting tidbits on a daily basis. The MLB club played the AA team in the crisp Springfield weather tonight and almost had a sister kisser on their hands as well.

St. Louis 3, Springfield 2

• The guys with the gloves up the middle made some serious noise with their bats. Jose Martinez went 3 for 3 with a double off of Wellemeyer and an RBI.
• Tyler Greene doubled off of Wellemeyer and went yard against Russ Springer.
• Jon Jay went 2 for 4 with a walk.
• Bryan Anderson went 0 for 4 with 2 passed balls allowed. Time for a Matheny butt kickin’.
• Jaime Garcia got knocked around mostly by Albert Pujols. The big man doubled and homered against him. Ankiel also doubled against him and would’ve homered if the wind wasn’t blowing in. His final line was rather ugly, 3 innings, 3 runs, 2 earned, 7 hits, 1 walk, 1 K. His K was against Troy Glaus. Don’t feel bad kid, Albert’s done it to the best of them.
• Cory Rauschenberger, recently converted to relief, allowed 1 hit over 2 innings, walked 2 and struck out 2.
• Matthew Scherer hit a batter, allowed a hit, walked 2 and allowed no runs over 3 innings.
• LOOGY Zach Zuercher walked 1 and struck out 1 in his lone inning of work.

Memphis 3, Palm Beach 3 (6 innings)

• Stu Pomeranz, a player I thought would’ve left with the Springfield roster, went 3 innings. He allowed 2 runs, 1 earned on 4 hits, with no walks and 1 strikeout.
• Kris Honel, who will be on loan to the Mexican league, went 2.1 innings, allowing 2 hits, 1 ER, 3 BB, with 1 K.
• For the Memphis offense, Memphis offense, Colby Rasmus went 1-for-3 with a double.
• Josh Phelps doubled.
• Donovan Solano tripled.
• Mark Johnson and Nick Stavinoha both went 1-for-2 with an RBI.
• For Springfield, Trey Hearne, who also is headed for Mexico, lasted 3.2 innings, allowing 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, 0 BB, with 2 K’s.
• Mark McCormick threw 2 scoreless innings, allowing just a hit and striking out 1. The key stat: No walks.
• Tony “don’t call me Arnoldi” Cruz smacked a couple of doubles. In case you haven’t heard, he’s been getting doing some catching this spring.
• Oliver Marmol singled, walked, scored two runs in two plate appearances.

QC Team One, 2, QC Team Two, 2

• Thomas Eager lasted 3.1 innings, allowed 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, with 3 walks to 1 K. What is with Cal Poly pitchers and control?
• Mystery man Cardoza Tucker threw 3 innings, allowed 2 hits and no runs.
• Francisco Samuel allowed walked three in his lone inning of work but was able to come out unscathed, striking out 2.
• For Quad Cities One offense, Travis Mitchell went 2 for 4.
• Matthew Arburr is having a heck of a spring, his name seems to come up every day. He doubled and scored a run.
• Justin Roberson, Peter Kozma and Charlie Pelt had the other QC#1 hits.
• Tyler Herron allowed a run over 3 innings. He gave up 2 hits, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K.
• Former indy leaguer Pete Parise went 1, gave up 1 hit, 0 runs, 0 BB, w/2 K’s.
• Brandon Garner threw 4 innings, allowed 3 hits, 1 ER, 0 BB with 1 K.
• Chris Gibson, son of HOF’er Bob Gibson, went 1-for-3 with an RBI.
• Carlos Pupo doubled and walked twice.