Update: Mulder to Palm Beach for tonight’s start per Strauss.
(Sorry for the late post. I’m getting used to the revised scheduling feature in WordPress. WordPress 1, Azru 0)
Let’s do a little DL roundup real quick:
- Joe Mather is going to be out another 7-10 days.
- As mentioned in the comments yesterday, Memphis pitcher and occasional knuckleball thrower, Joe Rogers goes down for Tommy John Surgery.
- Also, I missed this completely, Luke Gregerson hit the DL with “shoulder inflammation” when Rauschenberger was demoted to AA. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him miraculously recovered and Cory move up to replace Rogers.
Rasmus is looking to adjust to AAA pitching:
”It’s a little different,” Rasmus said. ”I’ve just got to figure out what these pitchers are trying to do and make the adjustments and get settled in. … The pitching is a little different. They don’t come at you as much. They’re a lot smarter.”
We know John Mozeliak reads VEB at times, is it possible that Jeff Luhnow reads Future Redbirds?
”You can’t really point to any parts of the club right now and say that’s a deficiency,” Luhnow said. ”We’re playing solid, fundamental baseball. We’re going to compete. I’m excited. And I think our fans in St. Louis are excited, too. I read the Web sites that follow us. There just seems to be genuine enthusiasm about what’s happening at Memphis this year and the players that are here that should be contributing to St. Louis in the not-too-far future.”
That article focuses on the transformation the Cardinals system has undergone in the last few seasons. Some if it is interesting, as they interview Joe Mather and Luhnow, but some of it is spin. Most notably the quotes about STL not having “a reputation that young players couldn’t play in St. Louis”. I don’t think the Cardinals have really shaken that reputation with the continued reliance on guys like Ryan Franklin, Kelvin Jimenez, Aaron Miles, etc. They’ve made improvements but they’ve also shown, on some level, a continued reluctance at the margins valuing experience at the major league level over talent and cost. I find it odd that the Cardinals are willing to continue to spend money on those players when Brendan Ryan, Jarrett Hoffpauir, Jason Motte, Mark Worrell, Chris Perez, etc. all would be cheaper and provide almost the same amount of production by most projection systems. But I digress. . .
With Palm Beach having the night off, the system goes 2-1 with Memphis taking the loss.
- Colby Rasmus was 1-for-4 and Jarrett Hoffpauir was 0-for-4.
- David Freese was the only player with a decent offensive showing for Memphis as he went 2-for-4 with a double.
- With a good not great outing, Mike Parisi continues to look like a very fringy player to me. He’s probably capable of playing in AAA for the next 10 odd years as a mercenary but I don’t think his stuff would hold up in the majors. He went 6 innings allowing 9 hits, 3 ER and 1 walk against 6 strikeouts.
- Ron Flores struck out 1 in 2 scoreless frames.
- Personally, I’ve seen more than enough of Kelvin Jimenez. I really hope the Cardinals consider calling up Motte or Worrell (both of whom are using an option this year anyway) next time they need another arm. Jimenez allowed 3 hits (including a HR) and struck out 1 in an inning of work.
Springfield 3, Midland 2 (10 innings)
- Bryan Anderson was 3-for-5 with the game winning HR. Is this the year that the projected power starts to show up?
- Luke Gorsett was 2-for-4 with a triple.
- The Eckstein-ian outfielder, Shane Robinson was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles.
- An excellent outing for P.J. Walters who threw 7 innings allowing just 4 hits. He struck out 5 against 2 walks and no runs.
- Fernando Salas blew the save (but was credited with the win) allowing 1 run on a solo shot in 1.1 innings striking out 2.
- Recently off the DL, Matthew Scherer came in to record the save. It was chancy as he also got bit by the longball while striking out 2.
- Be still my heart. Pete Kozma was 2-for-2 with a double and . . . wait for it . . . 3 walks. [faint]
- [recover and continue blogging] Catcher David Carpenter went 2-for-4 with a double.
- The River Bandits recorded 7 hits but walked an astonishing 9 times.
- Shaun Garceau went 4 innings allowing 3 hits and striking out 3.
- His piggyback partner, Jonathan Stambaugh, was shellacked for 5 runs in 3.2 innings. He allowed 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 2.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
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Pete Kozma cannot be stopped. . .he can only be contained.
I wanna believe in PJ Walters. I really wanna believe. It is all smoke and mirrors, though appears to work. My suspicions are that the Cardinals wouldn’t know what to do with him if he ever made to the big leagues and struggled a bit. It feels like his adjustment period for breaking into the next level is smaller than other pitchers because of his lack of heat.
I noticed Anderson seems to be doing a good job with throwing out baserunners. So far he appears to be 7 for 16 (7 CS vs 9 SB). That seems good. My math might be wrong so fee free to correct me. Also, I have not noticed any passed balls. (Again correct me if I am wrong.)
If he can improve slightly offensively and get better with the defensive side of the game…he should be very valuable.
What has happened to Amaury Marti? That was one of the best things about the DFR’s is the write up on him, but I haven’t seen his name anywhere for awhile. Is he hurt?
Zoot - Marti has been a victim of the crowded Memphis outfield and hasn’t been playing that often. And when he has played he hasn’t really done anything. (I don’t know if he was too busy saving the world or whatnot. . . )
There’s a scheduling feature in wordpress???
Hey Azru, among Kozma’s favourite things (that’s for u RB) are long walks on the beach. He also racewalks, and owns a tennessee walking horse.
PJ! It strikes me that the crafty pitchers that Colby mentions in AAA might well be the PJ Walters of the world. With an SP spot open in AAA is anyone more ready than PJ - He dominated 8 starts last year and has dominated his first 3 starts this year in AA. Call him up.
The downside would be from a trade value perspective. For example, coming out of AA a few years ago Yusmerio Petit appeared to have “good” trade value but that slipped quite a bit when AAA players showed that his “craftiness” might not translate.
Regardless, I am guessing PJ’s trade value is negligible but I have used my “bat phone” to call Jeff on this one - so it will be done! If he pitches well in AAA people will have to start to believe…
Please note - I realize this may be a gross overreaction to PJ’s 11 starts in AA - but I have made my decision nonetheless - move him up!
BTW - I live in Round Rock and will be watching the express vs. the Redbirds this coming weekend - will try my hand at an “amateur scounting report or two” let me know if anyone has any special interests….
I’d like to see PJ get the promotion too. It’s not an issue of polish with him, by all accounts. He’s got his pitches developed and has freakishly excellent control. So it’s just a matter of how it all will play at higher levels. At what point, if any, does he become very hittable? That’s the question now, but that will always be the question. Might as well get the answer now.
Here’s an opportunity to see how it plays in Memphis without affecting anyone elses development. I hope the organization takes it.
Gracias, Eckstreem. Always nice to be thought of.
RE - reluctance at the margins
That’s my concern as well. I think progress has been made. And I think a lot of that is because the system is doing a better job of providing solutions. So overall I think things are going in a positive direction, so I don’t want to sound like a complete sourpuss here….
BUT….
The margins, as Azru called it, is the best place to start for those that don’t have the superstar potential but can help you. Spending a million or 2 here or there on spare veteran parts adds up. You get more of a known quantity but pay for that. And, really, it’s quite possible in some cases that what you have in the system might produce the same results, or better, at a fraction of the cost. If they flame out, similar veteran options are still available as a fallback.
And then long term, occasionally you will find that kids from your system are able to fill a bigger role than anticipated and you get even greater long term savings from that.
I just wish that, generally speaking, the system was the first place to look for bench strength and that veteran stopgaps were the fallback. I still feel it’s the other way around.
But that might change still. This is the first time in a while that there are several prospects available in AAA. Generally Memphis has been heavy on quad A’s. So maybe they want to wait a year and build organizational depth top to bottom before using the Hoffpauir’s, Worrell’s, Motte’s, Mather’s, etc extensively.
lawless, if parisi, boggs or hawksworth are pitching let us know what you think.
Colby’s picture on the Raz Watch seems to be getting sadder the deeper he slumps.
When he’s hot, his photo looks like a tough guy who doesn’t take crap from nobody.
Now, it looks like a guy who knows he’s in trouble.
speaking of walks, brandon, the amish sports car buckman has nine walks on the season versus five strike outs. that’s more walks than he managed in the last fifty games with palm beach last year and makes for a nifty .469(!) OBP.
I’m starting to get very concerned about Colby, based on what I read in this thread at the Birdhouse.
Arch Support-
Maybe eric could find a photo of Rasmus to reflect his daily performance. Happy Rasmus would go 3-5 with a bomb. Sad Rasmus 0-3 with 2 K’s, etc…
Don’t worry about Colby he is still walking a good clip and also he is hitting .243 on balls in play (.299 last year) with a 55% groundballs rate and a 3% line drive rate(last year it was 28% on groundballs and 23% on line drives) but his ISOP is .082 which is almost 200 lower than last year. Maybe I am not looking at this right, but to me it seems that right now he still need to adjust to the level and the different style of pitching. I have been watching Colby the past two year and he is very streaky, but when he’s on he’s on, a lot like edmonds was.
On a side note, anyone else think that if we make a trade this summer PJ Walters will be included?
Does anybody know anything about Brett DeVall. He’s a left handed highschooler. A buddy of mine saw him pitch at some point and said he has a chance to be special. Just wondering if anyone had a take or a scouting report on him?
Looks from the link Sleepy attached that dad plays an active role in Colby’s development.
Really I think it’s probably not all that uncommon or unique, and probably isn’t that big a deal. Dads do that all the time, especially when they have kids at that level. And in this case, I believe dad probably has a good bit of knowledge.
Colby would project to take a good number of walks. Sounds like his dad believes he lets too many fat first pitches go by. Not having seen many games, I don’t know this to be true one way or the other. But I think the kid will be fine.