Ron Warner is hammering a point home with Jaime Garcia, and that point is simple: Establish the fastball. Trust the fastball. Don’t be so quick to abandon the fastball.
“This game is a fastball game,” Warner continued. “It’s the hardest pitch (to hit) in the game, if you can locate it. There are so many different areas you can attack with a fastball, and it’s the pitch you can control the best.”
Garcia all too often falls in love with his curveball, trying too hard to get batters to chase. It’s led to walks, and it’s led to predictability. Kudos to Pop.
(Speaking of Warner, nice interview with him at VEB today.)
While Jaime’s getting a good education in pitching, Colby Rasmus appears to be getting Dusty Bakered by his own dad. I’m trying understand some of the points being made, but discouraging Colby from taking a patient approach at the plate is a slap in the face of common sense, particularly for someone being groomed to hit leadoff. I’m not saying his dad isn’t a smart baseball person; that’s hard to say considering his sons and the success of the high school program he’s coached. So if you’re reading Mr. Rasmus, we still like ya, but we also like Colby’s patience. Please don’t discourage him along that line!
QC catcher David Carpenter discusses his first big league camp experience. De La Cruz and Carpenter for a pretty nice defensive duo behind the plate.
Here’s your DPR, jumbled around for no particular reason. Tyler Henley goes boom. Twice. Blake Hawksworth gets boomed on. Twice. Garcia dominates. And the QC were essentially handed a free W.
- I’m sure we’ll hear some sort of positive spin on how Mark Mulder still has promise, he’s improving, he’s moving in the right direction. Yada yada. He’s still Swamp Gas. 5 innings, 6 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, no walks, 1 K, 1 HR.
- Tyler Henley is hitting like a man possessed. He went 3 for 4 with a double, 2 homers and 4 RBI. The early returns on Henley are pretty amazing: In 46 at bats, he’s hitting .370/.442/.674. He has 4 doubles, 2 triples and now 2 HR, while taking 6 BB to 3 K’s.
- Brendan Ryan, 0 for 4 with a K.
- Thomas Pham and Daryl Jones left the game mysteriously after just 1 AB. Hopefully it’s not anything injury related. [Update 11:32pm]: The HR off of Mulder was an inside the parker. Jones and Pham collided in the 4th inning. Pham was pulled immediately. Jones was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the inning. Hopefully both are OK.
- Daniel Descalso went 1 for 3 with a double.
- Arnoldi Cruz, catching, went 1 for 3 with a steal. He also allowed a stolen base.
- Josh Dew struck out 2 in his 1 inning, walking 1.
- Kenny Maiques has been wild, and lucky. He eventually walked the bases full (not in order), threw a wild pitch and struck out the final batter. In 6 innings he has 11 walks to 3 K’s, yet still has a 1.50 ERA.
- The Clinton pitchers were charged with only 3 earned runs. QC benefited by their opponent’s defense being charged with 7 (!!!) errors. Their starting pitcher also walked 5 batters and allowed a run to score on a balk, yet in 3 innings he didn’t allow an official hit.
- Pete Kozma went 1 for 4 with a BB. Nothing to me has been more encouraging then Pete’s early success so far this season. The stat I get most excited about is his 18% walk rate. I’m also pretty happy about his 23% line drive rate. It’s early, but I’d love to be served a nice fat helping of crow when it comes to his selection. Another few months of anything close to this, and I’ll be reaching for a fork and knife.
- Luis De La Cruz went 2 for 4 with a double and a walk. Behind the plate he was 1 for 2 in throwing out basestealers and had a throwing error.
- Brian Broderick got lit up for 10 hits, including a HR. He allowed 5 runs in 4.1 innings.
- Nick Additon pitched 4 innings, had 4 K’s and gave up 4 hits. He’s off to a great start-13 innings, 8 hits, 19 K to 1 BB.
- The advice Ron Warner is giving Garcia seems to be working. Jaime Garcia allowed a run on 3 hits over 6 innings, striking out 8. He had just one walk and get this-10 ground outs to 0 fly outs. So all of his 18 outs came via K or grounder. That’s dominance, my friends. So far-19 K’s in 16 innings.
- Shane Robinson went yard for his only hit out of 2 AB’s, walking once. He also had a sac fly.
- Jose Martinez went 2 for 5 with a double.
- Jon Jay went 2 for 3 with a double and a BB.
- Bryan Anderson went 2 for 6. He’s he allowed a passed ball yet? I keep looking for them in the boxscores, and I’m not seeing them.
- Tyler Greene doubled for his only hit in 5 at bats. He also drew a walk, stole a base and had another error.
- Jon Mikrut and Zach Zuercher combined for 2 perfect innings. Mikrut had 2 K’s, Zuercher had 1.
- Colby Rasmus went 0 for 3 with 2 walks. That should elicit a phone call from home. We’ve seen Colby slump before, but what’s worrisome is his high groundball rates, and a lowly line drive rate of 3%. He’s just not getting good wood on the ball. The Raz watch is getting pretty depressing, it may be time to take it down. Last time we had to take it down, he went nuts at the plate.
- Jarrett Hoffpauir doubled but also struck out 3 times in his 5 at bats.
- Amaury Marti went 2 for 3 with a double and walk, using a rubber chicken for a bat.
- Blake Hawksworth is just homer prone, and I’m looking for an explanation but maybe it’s not important. He had a mixed line. 5 runs, 4 earned over 6 innings, 10 strikeouts, 2 walks, 2 homers. He was doing really great, up until the 6th.
- Mark Worrell was perfect over 2 innings, striking out 2.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
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Pham and Jones collided going for what turned into an inside-the-park HR. They replaced Pham on the spot, but Jones stayed in and caught the final out of the inning in center. They lifted him for a PH next half inning.
While I certainly don’t think Mulder will ever reclaim the success of his heyday at Oakland, I think you’re judging him a little harshly based on this one rehab start. As I said, the HR was an inside-the-park job and the runner would have ended the inning on second or third had Pham and Jones not run into each other, leaving the ball to roll to the track and bounce around for awhile.
He was throwing all fastballs early (I heard he was up around 89) and getting mostly grounders. They started getting the ball up on him as he progressed, though he did induce a ground out with “a big looping curve”. My enthusiasm is appropriately contained, but let’s see how he does in his next outing.
Mulder’s homer was an inside the park job. Pham and Jones collided with each other one it. Thats what knocked them out. No idea the extent of any injuries.
As for Mr. Rasmus. I don’t know how often Colby takes a first pitch strike. I like patience at the plate too, but for all I know he is letting them groove one in there first pitch every time. If so, then I can see a case for going after a first pitch every so often if it’s a fat one. If pitchers are feeling at ease laying one down the middle, taking a few rips at it might change the pitchers approach and help draw more walks down the line. His dad may have a point. I don’t see his kid all that often yet. I don’t know. Wonder if anyone that sees him play regularly has an opinion?
thanks for the update guys, hopefully it’s not anything serious for either player.
As for Mulder, it’s not his fault but he’s just an ugly reminder of one of the worst trades in Cardinal history. It’s hard for me to look beyond that. Also, at the official site it says-
Still sounds like he’s still a long ways off. I have zero confidence he’ll ever return to form, but that’s just me.
The box score I’m looking at has a more impressive 4 strikeouts for Additon, not 4 walks…
Fixed. Thanks.
Addition has been quite a revelation, at least to me. I believe I read here that he works off of a fastball in the high 80’s. He must be getting nice movement off of it to get the K’s like he has been.
In my mind, he’d have to be the surprise so far this year. Henley might be a close second on that list.
Springfield’s start would probably have to be the negative surprise so far. Looks like they may have found their hitting shoes now though. Let’s hope so.
Erik, I’m with you on Mulder. 1 K in High A just isn’t a great sign. The hitters are only going to get better and the contact is going to get harder.
Mulder has proven he can’t pitch in the majors throwing 85-87 mph.
I loved the Tyler Henley pick at the time; I had no idea his hitting prowess would put our entire world in jeopardy. Lord, pleas protect us from his awesome wrath.
Additon is starting to freak me out a little bit. He seems to have decent stuff for a lefty, but nothing in his scouting report really seems to jibe with the numbers we’re seeing him put up. How in the world is he doing it? And more importantly, is it at all sustainable?
I think that’s a fantastic lesson for Garcia to learn. He has plenty more than enough fastball to get the job done; if he learns to trust his stuff in toto, he will dominate, mark my words.
I guess Colby’s dad may know something about baseball, but I’m sorry, I can’t take a man seriously who uses that many face icons. Not even a little bit.
Anderson was DHing tonight fwiw in regards to your past ball comment.
i think walks are good too, but i can see where mr. rasmus is coming from. i have watched almost every memphis game that has been on milb.tv and colby is taking some fastballs right down the middle. now i know it is good to be patient and all, but if you have a pitch to hit go after it. don’t take pitches just to “work the count.”
Man.. its looking like we might have some fantastic pitching depth.
Is it so bad for Raz to be taking fastballs down the middle right now? He’s a level up from last year and has a history of starting slowly at a new level — possibly because he’s figuring out what new stuff he has to learn to hit. Studying the opposition while it’s cheap to do so isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If he’s still doing this in June, I’ll be a lot more worried, but for now, let the minors play their instructional role.
Sounds like it might be getting to be time for Blake Hawksworth to try a bullpen gig. Maybe he can be more effective in shorter stints.
So, did Hoffpauir and Kennedy mysteriously switch places last night?
Good to see Garcia dominate like that again…I guess the arm’s okay.
What? No Steven Hill report? Half Man/Half Cyborg went 0 for 1 but scored a run. . .dropping his average to .357. He also sold some propane accessories in-between innings.
Re: Tyler Henley — I didn’t realize he turns 23 this June. He’s only three months younger than Jay.
Also, I wonder what happened his junior year at Rice?
He was taken by Houston in the 50th round after his sophomore year, didn’t sign, and had a huge summer in the Cape Cod League (.552 SLG with wood bats).
Then he hit just .313 as a junior.
Final thing: He had two monster postseasons for Rice — .he hit 385/.500/.615 in the playoffs his soph year, then had a .400 postseason BA his junior year.
Small sample size, but still, that’s a pretty interesting 9th-round pick.
How long before Henley is leading off for Springfield? I don’t think Gorsett/Robinson/Shorey can hold him off that much longer.
henley was seen as a top 3 round talent going into last spring, but as you noted he didn’t have a very good offensive season. obviously he is playing like people thought he could a couple of years ago.
Rice is a very tough hitters park. 89 PF per Boyds World. I’m sure that had to play a factor in Henley’s woes last year. He’d be an interesting guy to interview, unfortunately I only have contacts at the QC and Springfield.
+1 on being interested in seeing what the Hawk would do in the bullpen. I wouldn’t move him quite yet as no one is “taking” his spot away, but if McClellan ends up coming back and Garcia and PJ make a play for AAA in the near term I think Hawk could follow the Wainright/McClellan path and rebuild confidence in the pen.
Would anyone else bite on a Bryan Anderson for Jed Lowrie trade? Might need to send A Franklin or similar to even it out, but I would definitely be interested. Wonder if the Socks would consider it…
Aside from all the smiley faces, I can’t point to anything that Colby’s father said that’s wrong or at odds with what I imagine most of us think about hitting. He’s not telling him to avoid walks, just that he needs to be more aggressive with going after the strikes that he can drive.
i think its time to take down the rasmus watch. he is 0-4 again today, and we need to try and do what we can to get him going.
Few we can leave the Colby Tracker up just add his new color Memphis pic rather than the B&W sad one!
I say NO to the Lowrie for Anderson trade. Lowrie did not have a good Arizona fall league and has struggled out of the gate this season. He is 24 and what I have seen has nothing on Hoffpauir. Why is everyone in such a hurry to trade Anderson. He is barely 21 and so far this year he does look better behind the plate. Also his bat has come around. Lets see what some of our guys can do this year. As long as Mr LaRussa is running the show you will see mainly veterans in the middle infield.
Much of Henley’s lack of production at the plate last year could be attributed to a lower leg injury he faced early in the season. He battled through it and played the entire time but with a bum leg it was hard for him to get his lower body into his swing. The kid is a long way from reaching his potential.
As I said last year Cardinal fans will continue to fall in love with the way he plays the game. If you get the chance to watch him he’s much like a modern day Dykstra. I only wish the best for one of my favorite kids to coach all time.
PJ, Few, and Eric, thanks for the info on Henley. It’s exciting to think of the impact he might have. The power he’s showing is a very nice surprise.