Daily Farm Report - 5/7/2008
Posted on May 7, 2008 by roarke49
Kary Booher has an interesting story about Brandon Yarbrough, the man responsible for catching the up-and-coming pitching prospects in AA now that Bryan Anderson has moved up to Memphis. Yarbrough has aquitted himself well at the plate so far this season, putting up a .286/.375/.357 line in 80 plate appearances. It would be nice if he developed a little more pop in his bat, but as long as he continues to get on base at a decent clip and continues to play solid defense he provides value to the organization - even if his upside is as a backup catcher.
There were only three games for the system tonight, as Quad Cities was rained out. All the details are after the jump.
- Colby went 0-5, but he did throw out a runner at the plate.
- Joe Mather continued his tear, going 3-5 with a homerun, a double and a stolen base. He also had an outfield assist, throwing out a runner at second base.
- Nick Stavinoha went 3-5 with an rbi.
- David Freese went 1-3 with a double and two walks. The Jim Edmonds dump trade is really beginning to look like grand theft.
- Jarrett Hoffpauir went 2-4 with a double, a triple and three rbi, but he did commit an error in the field.
- Bryan Anderson seems to be adjusting to AAA, thank you very much. He went 2-4 with two rbi and he threw out a runner trying to steal second. I haven’t seen him play, but from the lack of passed balls and the decent percentage of runners caught stealing (he was at 41% while in Springfield) seems to have a much better upside as a defensive catcher than I gave him credit for before the season.Â
- Mitchell Boggs got the start and the win, going 6.1 innings and giving up four runs on nine hits and three walks. He also struck out three and threw a wild pitch. His line could have been much worse because the only man he retired in the seventh inning was on Rasmus’ assist on the play at the plate.Â
- Kelvin Jimenez cleaned up the mess in the seventh, allowing one inherited run to score on a groundout. Otherwise he only allowed two hits in his 1.2 innings.
- Chris Perez closed the door in the ninth, walking one and striking out a pair.
- Rain shortened this game to six and a half innings, but the storm held off long enough for Allen Craig to slam his second homer of the night in the top of the seventh. He finished the night 2-4 with three rbi.
- I know how flawed batting average is as an analytical metric, but it is still pretty amazing that Shane Robinson’s batting average is up to .422 after going 3-4 with an rbi and a stolen base on the night.
- Tyler Greene, Brandon Yarbrough, and AJ Van Slyke all went 1-3 with a run scored and an rbi. Greene’s hit was a double and Van Slyke also stole a base.
- Casey Rowlett went 2-3 with a triple and an rbi on the night.
- Jess Todd struck out six and worked around three walks and a wild pitch in his 3.1 scoreless innings.
- Nick Webber mopped up and was credited with the win for his 2.2 innings. He gave up an unearned run on two hits and two walks.
- Steve Hill hit is seventh homer of the season in going 1-4 on the night and Brandon Buckman finally hit his first homer of the season. He went 2-4.
- James Rapoport led off for Palm Beach and went 3-5 with a double, a triple and a stolen base.
- Arnoldi Cruz went 2-4 with a triple.
- Daryl Jones went 1-3 with a walk and a stolen base.
- Donovan Solano went 2-4 with two rbi.
- Kyle Sadlowski had a rough outing, giving up six runs on six hits, three walks, a hit batsman and a wild pitch in four innings. He did strike out five, so he’s got that going for him.
- Brandon Garner pitched two shutout innings with a strikeout.
- Elvis Hernandez made his Palm Beach debut and probably wishes that he hadn’t. He lasted 1.1 innings and gave up three runs on a hit, three walks and a hit batsman. Similarly, Fransicso Samuel gave up one hit, three walks and a wild pitch in his 1.2 innings, but he only gave up one run. Samuel did strike out three in his time (Hernandez did not record a strikeout).
Quad Cities at Dayton: Postponed due to rain
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
Sugar Shane is always going to hit for a high average (not .422 obviously) because dude never strikes out and he’s got some speed to to boost his BABIP a little. I can see him being a .290/.340/.390 guy in the bigs, which is pretty good is he’s used as a bench/platoon guy.
It’s good to see that, in case Izzy hits the DL, Perez is ready to step in.
From how Mather is playing, I expect to see Duncan+Reyes shipped sooner rather than later.
GO CARDS!!!
I am officially worried about Colby.
I love to hear that Mather is tearing it up in Memphis, I’m headed there soon, so hopefully I can give an insight into the game I see.
Hope to see Joe in STL soon…although you can’t help but be happy for what our platoon of outfielders have done so far.
I’m going to say Colby needs another 2-3 weeks and then he’ll be back to superstar status (it’s all about positive thinking!)
is it possible that he drops back to AA until he gets it together again.
erik,
I wouldn’t be. We forget how much the mental aspect of the game plays into things.
I’m sure no one remembers anymore when Wainwright was on the cusp of the majors in ‘05 coming out of ST, only to be blocked by a healthy & solid staff. He mentioned in some of his interviews that he was really bummed about not making the team. He went on to post a 4.40 ERA (or somewhere close to that) for the year. Everyone said “how can he pitch in the majors when he has a 4+ ERA in AAA?”
… He was just bored and frustrated. I kept telling everyone that was his problem, but few listened. Look at him now.
Colby’s doing the same thing. He has stated he had goals of making the majors (?before) by the time he was 21. He crushed AA last year and had a great ST this year, only to be kept in AAA. He is going through a mental slump, but he will be fine.
Hopefully a trade will open up a spot for him on the big club. Because, I would assure you, that if he does, he won’t slump for very long up there.
If Colby was 25, had 2 months in AAA last year where he struggled, and was struggling like he is now I’d be worried, but he’s 21, in his first stint in AAA, and from what I’ve heard he was desperate to make the team out of ST and crushed when he didn’t. I’d even be worried if he was 20 and struggling this much in AA from A+ but the jump to AAA isn’t even that significant, some teams don’t even think it’s a necessary step for their prospects. Colby didn’t just do okay in AA either, he lead the league in HR and had a 900+ OPS as a 20 year old. You don’t just go from that to being over matched at AAA. I know it stinks but I just can’t believe it’s a skills problem, it’s between his ears.
If Colby is preoccupied by trying to drive the ball the other way this year (apparently the dictum from Cardinal management), and preoccupied as well by his father’s instruction to never take a strike (”Gotta SWING your way to the majors, kiddo!”), then I’m not sure that he’ll ever get back to what he was–at least not in this organization.
What Colby is, is a great hitter who happens to be a patient, *pull* hitter. A pull hitter who mashes for plus, plus power while maintaining a very good batting average, that’s what he is. We saw it in AA, again with Team USA, and yet again in Spring Training. And the Cardinals have done him a grave disservice by trying to change him into a *perfect* hitter–one who hits with plus power to *all* fields.
If and when the organization (admits its error and) tells Colby to simply return to the approach that dominated AA, international pitching, and major leaguers down in ST, then we’ll see the real Rasmus again.
Oh, and it wouldn’t hurt if his dad kept his mouth shut, too–anyone who tells a kid hitting .300/.500/.600 (roughly what Colby hit in Spring Training) that he needs to change his approach ’cause he’s taking too many strikes…well, let’s just say that person is offering radically bad advice.
i totally agree with you bob….let the kid play
i say by this time next month, his avg will be up to around .265 and his ops will be up a lot
if not, then i will start worrying
I’m concerned for exactly the reasons Bob mentioned… that the organization may have pushed him away from his approach, then his Dad pushed him back towards his younger days, and now he’s caught and confused in some no man’s land in-between.
A demotion isn’t going to happen with his pattern of heating up as the season goes on. That said, if he’s still sitting at .200 when June hits, there’s gonna be some major re-evaluation going on and a lot of trying to figure out what changed between Spring Training and AAA.
Totally agree, Bob.
On a higher note, though, it’s great to see Craig start to heat up. For a while there I was pretty worried about him.
I’m still not very concerned. I agree with most of what Lassie said. He’s 21 and in AAA. Until Anderson came up the next youngest person in the lineup was 24.
He isn’t forcing his way up to the bigs like we may have hoped, but based off the magnitude of his season last year (after a slow start, nonetheless), I think eventually the adjustment will be made. Probably fairly soon.
I posted this yesterday, but it never showed up. I have noticed an odd occurence over the last couple of years regarding our minor league players.
Has anyone else noticed that our Memphis players that get promoted see very little, if any dropoff in their hitting post-promotion?
I know it really is a small sample size and all that jazz, but look at Duncan, Schumaker, Ankiel, Ludwick, Hart, JRod, etc…. All these guys saw almost 0 dropoff upon their promotion to the big show.
What is the explanation for this? Should the MLE’s be adjusted for Memphis players? How are these guys continuing to hit this well off of “better” pitchers?
Eckstreem —
The comments keep getting caught in the spam filter (someone else replied to yesterdays — Lou, I think) so there’s a delay between when we find them and when you post them.
Not sure why they are ending up in our filter.
I’ve always had an irrational love for Brandon Yarbrough, probably because he’s the Slick Hitting Catcher from the first draft I followed that we actually kept.
I would, of course, be willing to trade them.