Future Redbirds

I don’t think I’ve seen this posted before but Keith Law unveiled his top 60 prospects in the upcoming draft. He noted that it’s not a projection but simply who he thinks the best 60 players are.

Shane Robinson was the Texas League position player of the week. He was also discussed in Goldstein’s Monday Morning 10 Pack:

In 32 games, Robinson is hitting a back-to-college-esque .434/.469/.628, but he’ll have to keep it up for a while before scouts are able to look past the five-foot-nine, 160-pound frame, little power, and a weak arm.

David-Eckstein-in-the-outfield suffers from the same kind of skepticism that PJ Walters and his 85mph fastball shake off at every level.

Not a good night for the farm system although Memphis is currently tied so there’s still hope. . .

But there is no joy in Mudville — the system foes 0-for-4.

Memphis 4, Tuscon 7

• Colby Rasmus goes 0-for-4.
• Joe Mather goes 2-for-4 with a HR. He’s hitting a ridiculous .325/.430/.597 with more walks than strikeouts and a .272 ISO. Looks like last year’s breakout was legit.
• David Freese went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
• D’Angelo Jimenez was 1-for-3 with a walk. Given his .655 OPS and Brian Barden’s success at SS, maybe it’s time to cut bait and let Jarrett Hoffpauir play everyday. The Cardinals already have 4 MI at the major league level do they really need to stockpile depth in the form of Jimenez.
• Mitchell Boggs allowed 8 hits and 4 runs in 6 innings while striking out 2.
• Ron Flores allowed a 3-run HR to the opposition’s 1B during the 8th inning to take the loss.

Springfield 3, Arkansas 8

• Steve Hill was 2-for-4.
• Jose Martinez was 3-for-4 with a double. He’s hitting .246/.272/.341 this season and we haven’t really commented on his struggles much considering all the press he was getting after his half season power surge at Springfield in 2007. If you look at his 2007 line in Palm Beach and 2008 line in Springfield they look awfully similar. A dip in power coupled with a dip in line drives coupled with a dip in BABIP — all three of those things are inherently related but the general problem is he isn’t hitting the ball with hard contact. The result is that his batting average goes in the toilet and because he never walks, his offensive value plummets. When his only other offensive skill, power, declines at the same time, it’s just a nasty combination.
• Mark Shorey was 2-for-4.
• Cory Rauschenberger got absolutely lit up allowing 8 runs (7 earned) in 4 innings on 9 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5.
• The relief pitching was good — Adam Daniels threw a scoreless frame (he needs to stay in relief), Marco Gonzalez pitched a pair of perfect frames striking out 2 and Fernando Salas struck out 3 while walking 1 in a scoreless frame.

Palm Beach 3, Jupiter 4

• Jim Rapoport went 3-for-4.
• PB collected 8 hits and 3 walks but nothing for extra bases.
• The pitching was not bad but no one particularly stands out. Elvis Hernandez started out with 3 innings allowing 4 hits (double, triple) and 2 runs. He struck out 2 and walked 1.
• Josh Dew followed up with 2 scoreless innings allowing 2 hits and 1 K. He had 4 groundouts against 1 flyout.
• Kyle Sadlowski allowed one run from a gopherball over 2.1 innings striking out 3 and walking 1 with 4 hits.

Quad Citied 5, Peoria 7

• Tommy Pham didn’t wait long to show signs of life after his demotion. He went 2-for-5 with a HR but also struck out 3 times.
• Pete Kozma was 3-for-5 with a stolen base.
• Charkes Kingrey went 2-for-4.
• QC was sabotaged by their defense committing 5 errors.
• Chuck Fick allowed 5 hits, 2Ks and 1 walk. He also allowed 6 unearned runs in part because of 2 errors he committed himself.
• Blake King struck out 3 and walked 2 in 3 innings. He’s walked 21 in 25 innings. That’s just an absurdly high walk rate — in fact it’s his worst walk rate of his pro career.
• Wayne Daman allowed 1 hit and a walk in 2 innings striking out 4.