Daily Farm Report 5/9/08
This is an Izzy free zone. Happy thoughts. (I do feel for the guy, though. As much as we get riled up over these sorts of things as fans, I don’t think anyone on the team who feels worse over failure then Izzy. No matter what happens to him between now and when he hangs it up, I’ll have more fond memories of him than bad.)
Don’t miss my Q+A with Jeff Luhnow.
Our Springfield tipster who goes by the simple moniker cardsfan1 says Tyler Henley and Isa Garcia are on their way up to AA. Van Slyke, Dew and Luke Gorsett are headed down to PB. They haven’t been wrong yet. Henley=Helium. [Azru update: Correction not Henley but Hill. Henley is still on the DL, I believe.]
Baseball America has it’s latest edition of their Prospect Hot Sheet, and they were not too kind to the slumping Colby Rasmus.
NOT HOT–Avert your eyes if you’re squeamish. The Cardinals’ top prospect—who’s still just 21, we should note—struggled to a 4-for-23 (.174) week with a Bocock-ian .217 slugging percentage. He rapped a double, drew one intentional walk, stole one base in two attempts, but canceled all that out with nine strikeouts. Rasmus now has his work cut out for him: His averages for Triple-A Memphis stand at .198/.291/.336.
Has Brian Bocock officially become the Mario Mendoza of slugging %’s? Wake up, Colby. WAKE UP!!! Later in the chat that followed, Ben Badler allays any fears we have that our favorite prospect has fallen off the deep end.
Q: Tim from MO asks:What is wrong with Colby Rasmus?
A: Ben Badler: Nothing, really. Guys go through five-week stretches like this all the time, especially when they’re young for their level. I talked to a scout the other day who said he was far and away the best player on the field and that he looked like a Steve Finley-Grady Sizemore hybrid.
That makes me feel a little better, but I’d feel a lot better if he’d actually start to hit again. Our friend Picklefork got a little into BA’s grill for omitting Shane Robinson off of their list, in true Picklefork fashion-
Q: Picklefork from St.Louis asks:
No Shane Robinson…what does he have to do…solve World Hunger first? .429 on the year, .447 the past 10 games
A: Ben Badler: Any minor leaguer who solves either world hunger or world peace, or even if they just find the cure for restless leg syndrome, is guaranteed a spot on Hot Sheet from now on… or at least a mention in the team photo. Robinson really struggled last year, showed some selectivity at the plate, but a stretch of 30 good games in the Texas League aren’t going to catapult a guy that far.
I suppose the emphasis is “Prospect” Hot Sheet, and BA doesn’t consider Robinson a prospect. They do think Jaime Garcia is a pretty nice prospect, however.
Andy W. from Iowa City asks:
How about Cardinals LHP Jaime Garcia making the jump from AA with a great performance for AAA Memphis last night? Is Garcia back to being a great prospect?
A: Ben Badler: I think so, since Garcia has long been a favorite pitching prospect of mine, though his elbow injury that he suffered in the middle of last year still lingers in my mind.
- You know he’s on the cusp when even Fantasy baseball GM’s are starting to think about Jaime Garcia in terms of the near future.
- Kevin Goldstein is getting close to going into the FR doghouse for not recognizing the great months had by Jaime and Jess Todd. Yes, I am being biased, if you’re reading KG. Kinda. Sorta.
- Mike Parisi likes the taste of the big leagues a lot better than the taste of the Waffle House.
- Keith Law thinks the Cardinals will likely end up drafting Christian Friedrich, leaving Tim Melville still on the board. I tend to agree, but not by his reasoning. Law says it’s because Melville’s a HS P, but I think it’s because Friedrich’s much more sound mechanically. Watching his draft video, he just looks right up their alley.
OK, so I lied. This really isn’t a happy place, not for the farm. They go a collective 0 for 4 tonight.
- Just judging strictly by his line, Anthony Reyes didn’t really help his audition as trade bait. He allowed just a run but allowed 4 hits and 3 walks in 3 innings before he got pulled in 4th, throwing 51 pitches total. I think the Cardinals do eventually find a trade partner, but they will have to eventually come down on their asking price. A sad tale, Flat Hat is.
- O Colby, where art thou? 0 for 5, 3 K’s. Whaaaa..? Hrmmph. Oof. Narf. Zak.
- D’Angelo Jimenez, AKA Junior Spivey the 2nd went 2 for 4 with a double.
- Joe Mather goes 0 for 4, but throws out a runner at home.
- Hugo Castellanos throws 2 scoreless innings, recording 5 of his 6 outs on the ground and allowing 1 hit.
- Ron Flores allows 2 runs on 4 hits to blow the save.
- Mark Worrell allowed a 2 run HR and a single, striking out 2 in his 1 inning.
- Tyler Herron allowed 2 runs on 9 hits and a walk, striking out 3. It’s not really surprising to see him struggle a little in the early goings of his time at AA. Herron doesn’t throw with a ton of velocity, so I think his strike throwing ways are resulting in a lot of hits.
- Mr. “non-prospect” Shane Robinson went 2 for 4 with a double.
- Allen Craig went 2 for 4 with a SB and a CS.
- Luke Gregerson pitched a perfect inning, striking out 1.
- Mark Hamilton was removed from the game after one at bat. Hope he’s OK.
- Steve Hill went 2 for 4 with a double. Hitting for a .955 OPS in a pitcher’s league, Hill will be on his way to Springfield if indeed Hamilton is hurt.
- James Rapoport went 2 for 5 with a stolen base.
- Daryl Jones doubled, struck out three times and had an outfield assist, throwing a runner out at home.
- Daniel Descalso doubled, going 1 for 4.
- Mark McCormick went 4 innings, striking out a batter per inning. He allowed 2 earned runs on 2 hits and 2 walks. He got a little wild (really? McCormick wild?) by hitting two batsmen and throwing a wild pitch. Brad Furnish on the other hand got bombed. He allowed 4 earned runs on 6 hits, including 2 HR’s, and walked one. He struck out 4. Jon Mikrut pitched a perfect inning, striking out 1.
- After such a hot April, Kozma is starting to cool. He’s 0 for his last 14, and he struck out twice tonight.
- Andrew Brown smacked two doubles, going 2 for 4.
- Charlie Kingrey went 2 for 4 with a triple.
- Luis De La Cruz went 0 for 4, dropping his average to .167. He allowed his seventh passed ball and a steal.
- Osvaldo Morales got himself a
- Brian Broderick and Josh Wilson allowed 2 ER apiece. Broderick went 4 innings, allowed 3 hits and walked 1 to 1 K. Wilson lasted 3 IP, struck out 3, walked 2 and allowed 2 hits.
- Cardoza Tucker struck out 2 and walked 1 in his 1 inning. Ditto for Pete Parise.
What a depressing night for Cardinal baseball.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
Wow. I come here for hope, and this is what you give me? This is the Farm Report equivalent of a Joy Division record.
I’m a little surprised to see Craig with the SB. From what little I’ve seen from Mr. Craig, he seems like a little bit of a lumberer. Maybe he’s deceptively fast, like Glaus. What? Glaus isn’t..? Um, hrm, well, obviously, you…
Jaime Grcia is vastly overrated, everybody. There, now THAT’S how you create a diversion.
I wonder how long before we see McCormick complete his Kerry Wood impression by moving to the bullpen? I keep expecting it to happen, and I continue to be surprised.
I need more Shane Robinson like Bruce Dickinson needs more cowbell.
For the past two weeks in mt morning email on former Seminoles in the minors, Shane has been POTD or first runner up. Could we just start calling him little Brett Butler?
http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/butlebr01.shtml
Skip Joy Division; try Brotherhood by New Order!
How about a few positives? Even with his O-fer last night, Joe Mather has a current MLB translation of a .979 OPS, with a peak of 1.001. (Any power hitter with more XBH’s than K’s is gonna have a whopper translation, and rightly so.) Let’s hope Joltin’ Joe is in the Cardinal outfield soon, rather than part of a blockbuster trade.
Allen Craig is hitting roughly .400/.400/.800 so far in May. Gotta love that, walks or no walks.
Herron allowing just 2 runs in 6 IP, with only one base on balls, is a step in the right direction, too. I’m beginning to think Tyler is our best starting pitching prospect this side of Jaime Garcia–he’s certainly leapfrogged the erratic Ottovino, at least.
And a slightly belated thanks for the surprisingly informative Luhnow interview! Great to hear the 17-year-old Freddy Parejo is showing well in Extended Spring Training. Although he was overmatched there, the mere fact the Cards felt Parejo could play in the Gulf Coast League last year at age 16 shows how much they like the kid. Let’s hope Freddy’s fine Winterball season carries over to the GCL (or maybe even the Appy?) this season.
I didn’t think Reyes’ start was that bad. I would think they were trying to keep his pitch count relatively low after not starting in some while, and when he walked a batter that was the end of it in the fourth. He’ll go deeper in his next outing… I was more disappointed in Colby Rasmus last night. I’m a little concerned for him.
I thought that Josh Dew was starting to make the turn at SPR, who is going to take his place?
sorry, forgot that Ottavino was going to come off of the DL this weekend.
I made a mistake. It is Steven Hill that got called up, not Henley, sorry about that.
Chris Perez was also called up to the big league.
I guess I could be a bit more diplomatic sometimes
I think the passing of Brett Anderson to take Brad Furnish is the biggest complaint I have had with Luhnow and his drafts.
Even passing on Porcello isnt as glaring as passing on Brett Anderson a 18 yr old LHP who was a over slot sign…but even at age 18 was a more polished version with higher upside then the 21 yr old Furnish.
If they were so worried about slot, they could have taken Anderson at #30 instead of Ottavino.
Oh well…the Cards and their low 90’s sinker/slider combo lovefest…really makes it hard to draft LHP’s who profile as anything more then relievers.
i got a laugh out of it, p’fork. badler was snappy with his comeback, too. it was all pretty entertaining.
i figured it was hill since luhnow said the other day on the radio that he had mastered A-ball and would be getting a promotion soon and henley is on the DL.
great news on perez, let’s see what he can do.
Ya props to Badler I chuckled with his response, but I do see bit in chink in the armor when they tell us the hotsheet has nothing to with rankings, just which prospects are the hottest.
I guess we will from now on get to call him Shane “Non-Prospect” Robinson.
A little long, but catchy
Erik, I hope you dont mind I linked this on Cards Talk.
Everyone is on the Chris Perez being called up, wasnt sure if Cardsfan1 was legit, but after reading back thru his posts….he is to legit to quit.
So give the man his props for being cool enough to break news here!
More Cards fans need to realize how good this website is anyway.
Aww..now I feel like a hallmark card
Hug it out, [erik edit] Dwight Schrute!
Thanks for the heads up on Perez. You are right picklefork, this is a nice site. I’ll have to check it out more frequently.
Son of a [erik edit] biscuiteater..
Chris Perez!
Hope he can do the job…
That Cardsfan1 guy rocks.
cardsfan1 may or may not be a dude, so i edited the profanity. this thread-ha…has been cleansed-ha
Chris Perez… nice!
somebody on cards talk posted something saying they changed their mind, and its been a while now and we haven’t heard anything from goold, strauss, leach, or bernie. unfortunately it might not be happening.
Whoops.
I usually refrain from profanity but this is Chris F*&%$n Perez were talking about coming up to the show!
That Scott_Rolen dude on cardstalk brought me down though saying it was going to happen but now it’s not…
I hope he is full of apples…
i guess we’ll all know sooner or later. if it happens, it’s no discredit to cardsfan1. if it does, well yippee for chris. i still don’t think he’s going to take over the CL role all at once. probably CL by committee for a while.
Just throwing speculation out there, but couldn’t it be a matter of logistics? Decided too late and can’t get in on time? Maybe the move is being made just after the game.
Calling up Perez makes good sense. Between poor Izzy’s troubles and Springer’s apparently limited availability, this is a perfect opportunity to get some of those quality young arms their first taste in the bigs.
I’m wondering what would be done to free up the roster space though. Perez isn’t on the 40 man, right?
If Scott_Rolen has any insight, it would be the first time. I’m sticking with what makes sense… Perez should be on the way up.
I agree. Tony and Dunc took a long look at Perez in the Spring.
He should just step in and start closing games. I would feel a lot better if he blew a save instead of Izzy.
I mean at least you know Perez is going to improve.
Izzy unfortunately seems to be rapidly declining.
there are plenty of ways to get him on the 40 man. kinney or clement could easily go on the 60-day DL.
Oh, good point Few. Out of sight, out of mind with those two I guess.
I hope this turns out to be true.
+1
well it sounds like the chickened out on bringing up perez. that’s too bad, it looks like we have to watch springer and izzy continue to throw gas on the fire.
FGC- Chris Perez got the call, but then a half hour later got another call saying he would be staying put.
Erik- I was going to post before that I may or may not be a guy lol.
i trusted your info and figured something like that happened. wow, that had to be a terrible night for perez. imagine finding out you just accomplished your goal of playing in the major leagues and then a little bit later they call you back and say never mind. i would have been steaming.
Erik….Sorry about my HBO language…
Inexcusable on the Cards part to call a guy for his first call up and then cal back and cancel.
One small correction to your comment about Reyes (”He allowed just a run…”). He didn’t actually allow a run, earned or otherwise. Although, with 4 hits and 3 walks in 3 innings, it’s hard to see HOW he didn’t allow a run…
cardsfan1—sure, thanks again for the info. I’m surprised they called him back, I’d love to know whether it was something Mo wanted and TLR protested, or what.
P’Fork–No problem. My general rule of thumb here is to not say anything you wouldn’t say around my 1 and 1/2 yr old son.
It doesn’t always happen, but I’d like to keep it that way if I can. I knew what you were referring to, it is one of my all time fave Office episodes.
I was at the Redbirds game last night, just wanted to clarify a couple things:
First, Mather didn’t really throw out a runner at home. He was credited with an assist (he also had one Thursday) but here’s what happened: with runners on first and second, the batter (Terry Tiffee) hit a grounder to the right side - first baseman Rico Washington couldn’t reach it and it went through to Mather in short right, both runners advancing. The third base coach held up the runner from second (Luis Maza), he was not trying to score. But Tiffee had gone too far around first, and was hung up - he couldn’t try for second because there was already a runner there. Washington got the ball and was on his way to tag Tiffee; meanwhile the crowd was still cheering for the hit. Amid the confusion Maza must have thought he could sneak home. But Washington saw Maza leave third and threw him out easily at home.
Second, How did Reyes manage to keep the 51s off the board? The baserunning blunders by Tiffee and Maza saved at least a run; other than that Reyes buckled down and made pitches when he had to. In the first inning, there were runners on 1st and 3rd with nobody out - Reyes struck out the next batter and then got a couple popups to end the inning with no damage.
Man I create messes wherever I go….just tried to pub this site and give credit to a solid poster who is nice enough to share information…and I turn Cards talk into Beirut.
And my Hug it Out comment comes from Ari Gold from Entourage.
The best show on TV,…the best, its like a fact..says Ron Burgandy!
Izzy was going to go on the DL and thats why they called up Perez, but I guess there was some sort of miscommunication and Izzy isn’t going on the DL.
I really think that its terrible that they did that to him, but I’m sure its going to be sooner rather than later that he gets the call up.
I guess I got ahead of myself when I posted that he got called up. Sorry about that.
For the first time in years (since the advent of the buttons) I read a thread at CardsTalk. Quite the collection of bedwetters over there.
I just finished reading cards talk, and found it quite comical. I appreciate the people coming to my defense.
Half way down this article Joe Strauss mentions the possiblity of Izzy going on the DL yesterday, and Chris getting the call up.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/BE66ABEFB463E94B86257446000FE72E?OpenDocument