Kevin Goldstein chatted on Baseball Prospectus today (sorry, it is subscription only - UPDATE: I was wrong, it is not subscription only - it is free to all). He only answered one question that was directly about the Cardinals (offering no insight into Rasums’ struggles other than that he thinks Cardinals fans should be concerned), but there is a lot of interesting discussion about the draft and many of the players that could be targets for the Cardinals in the first round.
The system went 3-2 on the night. All the details are after the jump.
- Colby got the start and batted eighth - he went 0-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Big Joe Mather did it again, hitting another homerun while going 1-3 with a pair of walks. Josh Phelps also went yard.
- Cody Haerther and David Freese each went 2-4. One of Freese’s hits was a double.
- Bryan Anderson went 1-4 at the plate and had a passed ball. He was also stolen against twice and was credited with a pickoff/caught stealing of a runner at third base. The recap reads as though the runner strayed too far from the bag after a pitch and Anderson was able to get him in a rundown. I suspect that perhaps the pitch was in the dirt and temporarily got away from him, but it is difficult to tell. Could someone that was watching the game fill us in with the details of this play, please?
- P.J. Walters struck out a pair and gave up four runs (three earned) over six innings on six hits and four walks. With his underpowering (that’s the proper antonym for overpowering, right?) stuff, Walters is living dangerously with the free passes.
- Jason Motte had a tough game, giving up two runs on four hits in only a third of an inning.
- Shane Robinson went 2-5 and is still over .400 nearly two months into the season. He also threw a runner out a second base.
- Allen Craig, back at thirdbase, and Steve Hill, getting a start at catcher, each went 1-4.
- Tyler Herron got the start and pitched a solid six innings, giving up a run and striking out five. He allowed four hits and two walks.
- Jon Mikrut pitched two scoreless innings and Fernando Salas struck out the side in a perfect ninth inning.
- The wind was blowing out to rightfield at a 17 mph clip, which may account for the seven homeruns hit in this game.
- James Rapoport and Luke Gorsett each went 3-6 with a homerun and Daniel Descalso also went deep; he was 1-5 on the night.
- Andrew Brown trumped them all, though, hitting two blasts in going 2-5.
- Antonio DeJesus and Daryl Jones each went 3-5; one of Jones’ hits was a double.
- Brian Cartie continued his hot hitting, going 2-5 with a double and a walk.
- Palm Beach did some of its damage against heralded prospect Rick Porcello, who gave up four runs on nine hits in five innings. Brown’s first homer came against Porcello.
- Kyle Mura started for Palm Beach and got smacked around a bit. He lasted 3.2 innings and gave up nine runs on nine hits, two hit batsmen and a walk. He did manage to strike out seven.
- Pete Kozma went 2-4 and was picked off of first base; Charles Kingrey went 1-4 with a homerun that provided all of the Quad Cities scoring.
- There were no other extra base hits by the team, but D’Marcus Ingram did manage to go 2-3 with a stolen base.
- Charlie Fick got the start and lasted five innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits and a walk. He struck out a pair.
- Blake King pitched three innings in relief and somehow managed to not give up a run even though he walked five and gave up a hit. Striking out four helped.
VSL Phillies 7, VSL Cardinals 9
- The offensive line of the night goes to centerfielder Alberto Rivero, who went 2-3 with a triple and a walk. Gerardo Mannbel gets an honorable mention for going 1-3 with a triple and two walks.
- There really weren’t any outstanding pitching lines, but I’ll give the pitcher of the night to Yonathan Gonzalez, who pitched a scoreless ninth inning, striking out one and allowing a hit.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
I vote for not even mentioning Colby period, until he comes around. Its too depressing to read this site every day.
Colby could tank this entire year and it would mean almost nothing in terms of his prospect status. We’ve seen the tools in action and there’s no reasonable explanation as to why they would have suddenly disappeared.
He’s 21 in AAA. He’s a gifted athlete. He’s still the Cardinals CF of the future and he still projects as an all-star CF.
For clarification, Goldstein simply says we should be concerned. That’s it. Because he (as in Goldstein) hasn’t heard a good explanation of why Rasmus is performing poorly (even though several plausible rumors abound), he thinks that it’s time to be concerned. That’s not a valid reason, imo. He doesn’t back it up with any logic as to why we should believe that the last 2 months are more indicative of Colby as a player than the last 2 years. I’ll save any serious concern for Rasmus until the year is over — then we’ll see.
Goldstein says to be worried about Rasmus, yet Baseball America guy says the exact opposite. I like Baseball America guy better
roarke, the Goldstein chat isn’t subscription. I don’t think BP chats ever are.
Well that’s even better, then.
My concern about Rasmus is that it limits the Cards’ options with their current outfielders. Isn’t Ankiel eligible for free agency this off-season?
If Colby doesn’t look like he’ll be ready to take over in ‘09, then the Cards have to offer Rick something long-term, don’t they?
That may be something the Cards wanted to do anyway — we could win with an outfield of Ankiel, Rasmus, and Ludwick, with Mather and Duncan off the bench. But if Colby continues to baffle I think it takes away whatever bargaining power the Cards had with Ankiel.
I think Ankiel still has one arbitration year left and then will be a free agent after the 2009 season.
If the Cards could pull someting like the Reds did with Volquez/Hamilton, using Ankiel as their side of the trade, that would be fantastic, taking into account the options coming from the minors.
GO CARDS!!!
Why can’t we keep Ankiel???
If it’s possible for a guy to fly under the radar while having a K/9 of 15!!!!! in AA with a K/BB of 5.6 then Fernando Salas is doing it, anybody around here seen this guy in person at Springfield yet?
According to Kary Booher, Adam Daniel is Mexico bound and Bob Zimmerman has been released, after he declined an assignment south of the border. Jon Mikrut, who pitched last night for Springfield, and Kyle Sadlowski have replaced them.
Booher didn’t say anything about who was being sent to Palm Beach.
Colby needs to go back and work with Darrick May in Springfield. He seems to be good at getting hitters on track.
Agree with Red Blazer. Why trade Ankiel? After all this time and money we’ve spent on him, I don’t he’ll be leaving St. Louis…
re: Neil.. cleaning house prior to the draft?
Per Scout.com: Davis Bilardello has been assigned from EST to Palm Beach. He pitched in relief for them last night.
>>Colby needs to go back and work with Darrick May in Springfield. He seems to be good at getting hitters on track.<<
Agree completely. If they wish to avoid Colby having to endure the embarrassment of demotion to AA, then temporarily assign May to Springfield as a special instructor assigned to one hitter–Colby. This kid is that important to the future of the franchise.
Agreed on May, seems like just what the doctor ordered.
Just looked at BA’s list of transactions. Some of these I hadn’t seen yet, like Stu Pomeranz being released and Uncle Rico to the DL:
St. Louis Cardinals
Released: RHP Fabian Marquez, RHP Gustavo Martinez, RHP Stuart Pomeranz, LHP Wladimir Mendoza, 1B Chris Gibson, OF Mateo Marquez, OF Justin Roberson
Placed on restricted list: RHP Cory Rauschenberger
Added to 40-man roster: RHP Chris Perez
Placed on 7-day DL: LHP Justin Fiske, 1B Brandon Buckman, 3B Rico Washington, OF Adron Chambers
Reinstated from DL: RHP Adam Ottavino, RHP Pete Parise, RHP Matt Scherer, LHP Justin Fiske, C Gabriel Johnson
Reinstated from inactive list: RHP Kenny Maiques
Does anyone have an idea of how far Scheppers is going to slide in the draft?
Tom–
That is the million dollar question, isn’t it? I think he won’t slide out of the supplemental round given this class, but that’s just a guess.
So it’s still a possibility the Cards could “steal” him in the supp round? Or do you see them going in a more safe route? Thanks
Looking at Hugo’s recent transaction list, I’m saddened to see that Wlad the Wmpaler was released.
Scouts think the shoulder is more of a problem then its being reported to be.
Havent heard of a pitcher suffering a stress fracture while pitching..so either he hurt it doing something else, hurt while pitching and has some serious structual issues in the shoulder or he has another shoulder injury that the college team doesnt want to share.
Either way, a shoulder injury in any form is a HUGE RED FLAG to me.
Just look around at pitchers careers basically come to an end when they have a shoulder surgery (Mulder).
Scheppers is a nice talent, but its not like he was the Mark Prior of college pitchers coming out.
He has a nice arm, but before this year was a relative unknown and his only year of being at the top of his game he couldnt finish b/c of injury.
Drafting is a risky business to begin with….adding injury to the mix makes it even more of a gamble.
I wouldnt be shocked to see Scheppers go the entire first day of the draft..undrafted.
He might be better off just going back to Fresno for a SR year.
RE: Matt
I didn’t take it as cleaning house so much as cleaning out ineffective pitchers. Mikrut rewarded the Sp. Cards with an excellent first outing, upton his return to AA last night.
aw but c’mon picklefork… his name is just too fun to say… SCHEPpers.
Someone will likely take a chance on him….maybe a team with multiple early picks…MIN or MILW.
If he is healthy or can be 100% healthy by the start of 2009..then he is worthy of a top 50 pick.
Personally….I dont mess with Shoulders…elbows, knee’s are fine…shoulders are a coin flip for me.
There are some good names this year…Cutter Dykstra, Shooter Hunt, Yonder, Zeke Spruill…some classics!
Funny that it was Mather and Co. beating up on Jeff Weaver last night. I didn’t notice until checking the boxscores again.