This might be hard to relate to for a lot of people but I’ve never identified with a single Cardinal player as the titular point of my love of baseball. I don’t have a specific attachment to Stan Musial or Albert Pujols or Bob Gibson or Chris Carpenter. I’ve liked the Cardinals as a team and when players where the Birds on the Bat, I root for them — without reservation. It’s an odd situation in which I find myself when the player I most look forward to seeing/reading/hearing about is someone still in the minor league system. Now I find out that Colby Rasmus has signed a deal with Louisville Slugger and I’m looking forward to purchasing that piece of memorabilia some day.
Pete Kozma gets mentioned in Kevin Goldstein’s Monday Morning Ten Pack:
The reason Kozma may be underrated is that he lacks that one plus-plus tool to get excited about, but at the same time, he’s one of those players whose greatest strength is a lack of weaknesses. He’s a good hitter, a good fielder, and he has a good arm and runs well. It’s hard to see superstar potential in him, but at the same time, if you’re starting a pool of current 2007 high school draftees who will turn into everyday big league starters, take Kozma early.
I understand everything that Goldstein is saying here. In fact, I agree with it. I think Kozma is a pretty good prospect for the most part. The comparison that came to mind for me (statistically) was Marcus Giles as a SS (pre-decline). That’s not a bad player at all. But comments like this continue to reinforce my dislike for the selection at #18.
Kary Booher has a follow-up on Mulder’s rehab start. Nothing new info wise; more of a quote/interview piece.
After being named in BA’s Hot Sheet last week, Bryan Anderson garnered player of the week considerations for the Texas League. Take a look who got the honors for the PCL.
C David Carpenter and RP Francisco Samuel moved up from QC to PB and replaced by players from extended spring training.
1-for-3 in the system tonight but there are some positives. Follow along in today’s Daily Farm Report.
- Colby Rasmus goes deep in the 8th inning. We’re seeing some brief flashes of life out of him but he hasn’t caught fire yet.
- Jarrett Hoffpauir goes 1-for-4 with a walk.
- Amaury Marti went 3-for-4 with a HR. [insert Amaury Marti fact]
- Memphis trotted out three of the four least interesting pitchers tonight in John Wasdin (6IP, 5ER), Kelvin Jimenez (1IP, 1ER) and Hugo Castellanos (1IP, 1ER). Where’s Cliff Politte when you need him?
- Brendan Ryan was 1-for-4 with a walk.
- Bryan Anderson was 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Shane Robinson and Tyler Greene both went 2-for-3 with a walk.
- The Springfield offense collected 7 hits and 5 walks but had zero balls for extra bases contributing towards the shutout.
- All of which is unfortunate because Jaime Garcia was DOMINANT. Yes, I’m actually screaming that word. I know it’s in all caps. Scream it with me: DOMINANT. He threw 8 innings allowing just 3 hits and 1 R (correction: unearned). He walked 4 but struck out 10 batters in a complete game losing effort. It took him 99 pitches (62 strikes) to go 8 innings but it’s this type of potential that, despite the elbow strain/sprain last year, had him ranked so high on the prospect lists.
- Tyler Henley was 1-for-2 with a double. Not sure if he was standing over the plate but he was also hit by 2 pitches. He was also caught stealing.
- Isaias Garcia was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Daniel Descalso was 2-for-3.
- Tyler Herron had a great outing throwing 5 innings allowing 3 hits and 1 ER while striking out 6. Herron seems to be acclimating to PB well as the superb command continues. In 18 IP he’s struck out 17 and walked just 2.
- The collapse of Kenny Maiques continues as he retires just 1 batter while allowing 2 ER. It would not surprise me at all to see him hit the DL in the very near future. Something is not right. Both he and Luke Gregerson had fantastic years in relief last season but have started out rough this year.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
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Az-
Who would you have been happier with at 18 other than Porcello? I am dissapointed that they didn’t select him, but our consolation prize looks like he is a legit SS that will hit at the top of the order.
Of course this is all projection and Koz might totally flame out, but Porcello could fall apart at any moment.
BJM
jaime’s run was actually unearned.
What KG had to say is nothing we haven’t heard. While I trust the wisdom of the crowds, I’d like to see what KG thinks of him after he sees him for himself.
Did any one here how Carpenters session went yesterday? I could be wrong but I belive he was throwing BP and haven’t been able to find anything.
Garcia made a throwing error in the 8th for the unearned run. i was at the game and his curve was out of this world. i’m not sure that pitch was ever put in play. fastball sat 92-94.
Henley found a way to get hit a lot in College and was hit 6 times in a 100 or so PA last year.
i’ll try to get some pics at tonights springfield game but me and computers don’t get along. ie, don’t know how to post pics.
Az - I actually do know what you mean about not having an “all time favorite” Cardinal. I grew up in St. Louis in the 80’s, so you would think that mine would be Ozzie or Willie McGee, but I never felt that way about either of those guys. I sort of felt that way about Matt Morris (who I blogged about this morning - sorry for the self promotion), but not to the extent that I went out and bought a Morris jersery or anything like that.
(Jaime Garcia run is corrected.)
BJM - I’d have liked Matt Weiters or David Price at #18. JK, I’ll play fair.
Michael Main probably would have been my pick at #18 outside of Porcello. I liked Arencibia’s defense a lot but with Anderson in the organization, I probably would have passed. (JP is hitting like crap right now so I probably would have been mad at myself if we had made that pick). Joe Savery was another arm I liked but not quite as much as Main and I’m an admitted Brackman supporter although there’s no way the Cardinals could have taken a risk on him.
The other pitcher I liked was Smoker but I probably would have looked at him for 36 (he was taken by WAS at 31) or gone for one of the lesser SS’s (Jackson, try and convert Todd Frazier) at 36. If Kozma had been on the board at 36, and it seems that he wouldn’t have been, than I probably would have taken him there.
Basically there were a couple arms I would have preferred at 18. I think they offer more upside and the Cardinals lack a true power pitcher with #1 potential in the system. I really do need to make an effort to move on but comments like that feel (to me) like they come from this evaluator group think that I simply don’t completely agree with in this instance.
I hate when people do this, it’s one of my biggest pet peeves (the whole I know a guy who knows a guy) but it’s pretty reliable so I’m going to share. I grew up with a guy who’s Dad is an area youth coach and still coaches in a lot of the elite youth traveling teams and things and I was BS’ing with this guy a couple days ago and he says “did the Cardinals draft some kid from Owasso (I live in Northwest Arkansas so it’s fairly close), OK? And I was like “Oh yeah Pete Kozma.”
Anyway to make a long story short this guy’s Dad had recently met one of Pete’s youth coaches and he talked on and on about what a great kid he was and how even though the game came really natrually to him he always worked so hard, and he was such a great teammate even for such a young kid. I just thought it was cool that this guy talked about the character of Kozma a lot more than his physical skills. Hey, maybe that’s his plus plus skill to get excited about.
Az-
I don’t disagree with anything you said there, but my opinion on #1 starters is that they are really rare and they are aquired in such a variety of ways that it is crazy to draft a guy with that role in mind.
I think I accepted the Kozma pick a little easier than most just because the swing in the videos that Gomez picked for his draft analysis were so bad that I didn’t really believe that was his swing. I was thinking that any little bit of improvement would reap huge rewards in outcome. It is the contrarian in me.
I have started looking at the management (Mo, Luhnow) of the Cards like I look at the president–I didn’t vote for him but it is un-American for me to root for him to fail. I want him to suceed despite me disbeilf that he will. Personally Brackman was my choice, but it would be un-Cardinal fanatic for me to root against Kozma. In fact it would be un-Cardianl fanatic not to pull hard for him to suceed…
If Palm Beach is gaining players from QC, they must be sending players somewhere. Anyone know who and where?
After what the Yankees had to give Brackman I just don’t see how that would have been a good pick for the Cardinals. He’s taking up a 40 man spot because of the Major League deal and he’s rehabing his Tommy John Surgery. He has to be up and producing in a coulpe years and with the injury I just don’t see it happening. The Yankees must REALLY believe he’s for real because he hit the scary trifecta coming into the draft: under performed, signability concerns, and he was injured. The Yankees have the luxury of eating a pick like that, the Cardinals don’t.
If Kozma turns out to be a bit above MLB average at SS with both the bat & glove, and steals a handful of bases, that pretty much makes him Edgar Renteria–and that’s good enough, I think, to justify the #18 pick.
Pete is good sized for a middle infielder, with some room to add more strength (and apparently the necessary work ethic to do so), so a slightly better version of Edgar certainly doesn’t seem out of the question, either. As long as Pete is hitting around .300 with excellent BB/K/AB numbers, I’ll remain bullish on the kid.
As far as #1 starters go, I really don’t know why anyone would think Jamie Garcia *doesn’t* have #1 potential. Severe groundball/strikeout pitcher with a track record of success despite being young (or very young) for his league–and a solidly above average fastball for a southpaw. That’s a recipe for, well, greatness. Jamie’s not a junkballer by any stretch, and at 21 there may be more velocity to come….
By the by, Garcia and Mortensen may be the most extreme K/GB starters in all the minors. If they stay healthy (always the big IF, of course), anything less than a pair of #2/3 starters is not an option.
Good post Bob, after some of the drafts picks the Cardinals have just thrown away in the last several years you would think people would be happy if Kozma would turn out to be a solid above average across the board, everyday player at a premium position like SS. I mean, seriously, Shaun Boyd, Blake Williams, Justin Pope, Chance Caple, Chris Lambert, Mike Ferris, give me an Aaron Hill type hitter who can stay at SS and I’ll do cartwheels down my street.
Jeez, I gotta get to work, damn you guys for making such a good site to come and talk about Cardinals Prospects!!!
I gotta say, when I saw that two players were called out of extended for the Muckdogs, it got my hopes up.
If any of you are in contact with Vuch, any chance you could ask about how Jameson Maj’s elbow is coming along?
Is anyone else concerned about Garcia throwing 100 pitches this early in the season after being shut down last year with elbow pain?
I’m not too concerned about pitch count if he wasn’t laboring. If his mechanics were holding up and he wasn’t straining too hard to get guys out, let the kid pitch. I really don’t think we are hurting guys to let them get their pitch counts up a bit, as long as they aren’t falling apart. That’s my one beef with TLR with the big club. He lets guys run too long on fumes sometimes. That’s where the injuries happen.
I can’t believe some people only think it would be “good enough” if Kozma turns into a “a bit above MLB average at SS.”
Think about the value over replacement level for that kind of player. How many players in all of baseball are capable of being ‘average’ major league shortstops in any given season? 20? Think about what a significant upgrade “a bit above MLB average SS” would be for the current Cardinals team.
I’m like anyone else, I want the top picks to all turn into All Stars and Ace starters and if the Cardinals had some better success with their recent first round draft picks (sans Colby of course) I’d say sure, take the guy who is rough but has the all the potential in the world to be a stud, but sadly we all know how the Cards drafts have turned out more times than not so if you’re telling me Kozma could turn out to be a solid everyday SS, capable of starting rallies, coming up with some big hits every now and then, and just generally being a good player/teammate, that’s something I’m excited about.
Has anybody heard any confirmation that Mulder is pitching on Friday in Tulsa for Springfield? If so, I’ll most likely head up to catch the game.
I thought you guys changed the name of this things from Daily Prospect Report to Daily Farm Report?
my bad — reflex.
I like Kozma okay; I still would have preferred Tim Alderson.
On Mulder pitching Friday in Tulsa. He was interviewed on the radio Sunday after the game and he said his next outing would be in Tulsa friday. Also on the Springfield Cardinals web site under game notes it shows Mulder pitching Friday as well.
Carpenter called to PB as Derba was hurt when he was plowed over the other night and there are several pitchers on the 7 day DL, see roster.
I see Steve Hill caught Monday night…
Shane - nice catch (haha — get it. it’s a pun). Good to see that they are at least using him on occasion behind the plate. He probably won’t ever be more than an emergency option behind the plate but he’s a better prospect for at least the appearance of being capable back there.