Daily Farm Report 4/18/08
A reader who goes by Mookie sent me a few videos from the other night’s Springfield slugfest. It includes Bryan Anderson’s HR, a single by Brendan Ryan and (briefly) Clayton Mortensen throwing a strike. First of all, it’s cool to go by the name Mookie. Secondly, it’s always very cool to send me videos of live action at the games so we can all get a peep of the players. I ask those of you who go to games to do so if at all possible.
Skyking162 does some Evan Longoria math in light of the rookie’s new contract, and finds some sense in the dollars. Longoria will be getting paid as if he’s a 2 win player per year throughout his arbitration years. There’s a huge chance he’ll be a lot better then that right now. So why am I talking about this? It’s possible the Cardinals consider something similar with Colby once he gets up, judging by what the Cardinals did by locking up Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina. Dave Cameron thinks some of the players will regret their decisions down the road.
Speaking of da Razzle Finazzle, both the Bryan Brasher and Derrick Goold look at Colby’s slow start. Goold looks at the 2 Colby’s–the slow starter and the fast finisher. Brasher reports Colby’s put a bit of pressure on himself, but it sounds like he’s lost none of his confidence.
Josh Dew was sent up to AA to help out a pretty funky Springfield bullpen. Dew had allowed only a run on 5 hits and a walk in 7.2 innings for Palm Beach, while striking out 9.
The system goes for a big, fat 0-fer tonight as all of the teams were pretty rotten in department. The best starter of the night is a career reliever, to give you an indication.
- Colby went 2 for 4, including a double and a walk. Yay.
- Cody Haerther also went 2 for 4 including a double.
- Hugo Castellanos was the surprise starter. He’s only started 2 other games in the minors (excluding the Mexican League, which I’m unsure of.) He didn’t embarrass himself, throwing 5 innings of shutout ball. He allowed just 2 hits, but had 4 walks to 4 K’s.
- Cliff Politte was wretched. He allowed all 5 of the Isotopes runs in his lone inning of work.
- Jason Motte walked a batter and struck out 2 in his 1 inning. He hasn’t allowed an earned run thus far in 7.2 innings of work. Be sure to check out his mug at his official player page for a laugh, he sort of looks like Goby from Jarrett’s Room. “Wake-n-bake, dude!” Whatever happened to Horacio Sanz, anyway?
- Adam Ottavino got knocked around yet again. I’m trying to stay upbeat about Ott, I really am. On the upside, he struck out 5 over 5.2 and only walked 1. The downside: 4 of the 6 hits he allowed were for extra bases, which led to his 5 runs allowed. He hit 2 batters and threw a wild pitch. It took him 97 pitches to record his 17 outs. His ERA now stands at 7.42.
- Brendan Ryan went 0 for 5 with 2 K’s leading off and playing 3B. Allen Craig went 1 for 4 playing LF.
- Bryan Anderson continues to hit, going 2 for 5. Passed ball alert: He allowed his 2nd passed ball of the season.
- Mark Hamilton went 1 for 3 with a BB. Hamilton’s hitting a respectable .298/.377/.511 so far.
- Luke Gorsett recorded Springfield’s only extra base hit; a double.
- Matthew Scherer allowed 1 hit and struck out two in his one inning.
- Tyler Henley seems to be cooling off a bit, going 0 for 4 with a fielding error.
- Brandon Buckman went 2 for 4.
- Steve Hill, Lord Emperor of Palm Beach, went 1 for 3 with a double and a walk.
- The pitching was horrendous. Brad Furnish was touched for 2 homers. He gave up 4 runs total on 6 hits and 2 walks over 4 innings, with 3 K’s.
- Mark McCormick allowed a couple of runs on 4 hits and 2 walks over 3 hits.
- Gary Daley makes Rick Vaughn look like Greg Maddux. Facing 5 batters, Daley threw 2 wild pitches, walked 4 batters and allowed 2 runs. No hits, and 1 K.
- Pete Kozma went 2 for 5, hitting his first professional HR of the year…playing third base. AZ already ranted about this. I’m not sure why you want to groom your 1st round pick (who happens to be a good fielding SS) to be your utility man of the future. Xanadu. Kozma also had 2 K’s. He’s now hitting .327/.441/.469. Just please, no more moving him around the diamond.
- Matt Arburr went 2 for 4 and threw out a runner at home playing LF.
- Ateo Folli also went 2 for 4 with a double, but also managed to ground into 2 double plays.
- Charlie Kingrey went 2 for 5 with a double.
- Thomas Eager continues to be more Cal Poly poo, allowing 3 runs over 3 innings on 4 hits and 3 walks. He had 3 K’s.
- Matthew Spade worked 2 scoreless frames, with a walk and a K.
- Cardoza Tucker was the goat, walking 4 batters, allowing 4 hits (including a HR) while striking out 2. He gave up 4 runs in 3 innings pitched.
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erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
I was listening to the memphis game and in the early innings Colby robbed a home run and in his second at-bat hit a ball to the warning track. I hope this is the beginning of things to come…
Fun with numbers…
Daley has a whip of 1.88. But if we add HBP the number becomes 3.76.
WHHBPIP?
The Daley Ratio?
Actually that wasn’t much fun at all. I feel bad for Gary. I think I feel a little more bad for whoever has to step into the batters box against him though.
Was Anderson’s passed ball more from the lack of control exhibited by the starting pitcher all night long? 2 HBP and a WP, and if that PB was while he was still pitching, it makes you wonder if it was really Bryan’s fault.
Hugo,
You are correct on Anderson’s PB. In fact I couldn’t believe the scorer gave him a pass ball. Ottavino was all over the place. I will say that Ottavino did look better this game than the first one I saw. He really looked good for 3 of the innings. Also that was Craig’s first start in LF since college. He is starting to hit the ball better and I think Pop wanted to keep him in the lineup. Springfield is play Tulsa(Rockies) so there is no DH.
The left hander for Tulsa (Cedeno) was real good last night. He is just 21. We have Walters going today and Mulder Sunday so hopefully we some good pitching in both games.
On the Kozma position thing…
I don’t think that you guys should get so worried about an occassional start at 3B. They aren’t grooming him to be a utility man. Bolivar likely profiles much better at SS and they want to get him some playing time in a full-season league. He would make much better trade bait as a SS, than a power-challenged (relative to the position) 3B.
It’s really no big deal over all. And tell me how much of a genius is Luhnow going to look like if Kozma continues to develop in this direction and Mortensen keeps eating up AA? Wow!
Bolivar profiles as a career minor leaguer. He shouldn’t be taking valuable game experience away from anyone. If they want to give him PT, have him play 3rd, not Kozma
i don’t know if you meant kozma hit his first professional homer as a 3rd baseman or his first professional homer period b/c he did hit 2 homers last year.
as for the kozma thing, i don’t think it is a big deal if he plays third once a week or so. i saw nick noonan of the giants play left field the other day. as long as he isn’t playing over there 2 or 3 times a week i think it is ok.
I’m curious about Criag playing in LF - has anyone seen him at 3B this year? How has he looked defensively? I’ve only heard positive things about David Freese’s defense at third so far, but I’d be interested in hearing any first-hand accounts for him, as well.
I know it was only one start in LF for Craig and it may mean nothing, but these guys aren’t too far apart developmentally and eventually a decision is going to have to be made.
erik, I couldn’t agree with you more. with the wretchedness that is out middle infield up at he big club, i would expect kozma to keep getting work at ss so that he can develop quicker. It makes no sense whatsoever to me to have him playing third. Unless LaRussa is going to lobby for izturis to get a 4 year extension.
Adam-
Please don’t even joke about that. We know perfectly well how much LaRussa loves replacement level, vertically challenged, hustling middle infielders. The only thing we have going for us is that Izturis doesn’t happen to be of the, shall we say, vanilla flavour? If he were, we’d really be screwed.
But don’t invite disaster by asking it to look your way. You stare into the abyss, and the abyss stares back.
Craig played left last night because Ryan is rehabbing with them and they wanted to keep Craig’s bat in the line-up.
erik,
While I’m not upset about it in any way, I don’t see how you are already labeling Bolivar a “career minor leaguer”? He is an 18-yr-old playing full season ball for the first time. First hand reviews had him as very good defensively with excellent range (with albeit some error issues last year, but still very young). He also has quite a bit of power in his bat (shown much more so in the Latin American leagues I will admit), his walk:strikeout ratio has improved substantially since last year, even if his batting average hasn’t reflected it yet.
In addition, Luhnow has been on the record touting this guy as an exciting prospect. Given his age, tools, and level, I think it is a little early to label him as a total non-prospect. I agree that he shouldn’t hinder Kozma’s development, who obviously should have the priority, but I doubt that this does.
I respect your opinion, but I’ve seen Bolivar and whatever positive ideas I had about him were ruined. He’s a nice looking athlete, good power and decent range. BUT, his swing is LOOOOOOOOONG and he has no plate discipline whatsoever, not in my estimation. Unless he makes a huge adjustment, I can’t see him cracking .220 in AA. But I suppose he has youth on his side, so perhaps my remarks are premature. I’d be shocked to see him succeed, though.
I got to agree with erik. Bolivar looked good in the field, but has a long way to go offensively. I’m still keeping him on my prospect list because of his age, defense, and history of power, but I was not impressed at all with the 6-7 at-bats that I saw.
KCardinal,
While I agree that if Kozma and Mortensen pan out, Luhnow will be praised for the way he finds under the radar players, I’m afraid for the recurring effects it could have on the organization. I fear that ownership will start taking the cheap route and say “Well, we could draft person A here who is the best player available right now with really high draft bonus demands, or go for person B who everyone thinks is a major overdraft with this pick but who we think will pan out to end up being a pretty good overall player.”
In a sense, it’s like someone else mentioned earlier (either here or GRB, I can’t remember) with the “Dave Duncan Factor.” You can have Free Agent A asking for a lot of money who is pretty good, or have Free Agent B who is asking for a lot less money but has been a career underachiever. If Duncan thinks he can resurrect Free Agent B, ownership will sign him (or trade for him) in a heartbeat. See: Wells, Kip; Suppan, Jeff; Pineiro, Joel; Weaver, Jeff; etc.
I will have a lot more faith in the direction of the organization when they start drafting the best player available at their position, and saving the “overdrafts” for the rounds where they will still be available. Mortensen could have been available in the 2nd or 3rd round - that would have left their supplemental pick for someone else.
Thanks erik and waltdub. Good to know where you guys are coming from, having seem Bolivar live.
Swirls, I agree with your premises and those are very good points. Hopefully they will go a slightly different route this year in the draft.
I did hear quite a few times though, that Mortensen was set to be picked by other teams (the Giants, IIRC, among others) shortly after we took him - the same went for Kozma (with the Twins). So I don’t think they were necessarily huge overdrafts as some of the general concensus seems to be.