Pop Warner lets his batters swing at 3-0 pitches without reaming them once they get to the dugout.
Couple of posts from Matthew Leach, the Cardinals beat reporter for their mlb.com website. The first is that there’s apparently no rush to get Mather up to the big leagues, in part because they’re having trouble getting Brian Barton at-bats. I think that people like to cite this as a convincing reason to wait on Mather; to a degree, they are right. This all goes back, imo, to spring training when we waited for Mozeliak to deal from a strength and move some outfielders. We had Colby Rasmus hitting extremely well (.302/.464/.605) and Joe Mather was raking too (.289/.386/.529). Instead the Cardinals felt compelled to keep all of Schumaker, Duncan and Ludwick (we know they aren’t going to move Rick Ankiel) and we’ve got a log jam in the outfield. Now the Cardinals are in contention, so they can make a seemingly convincing argument to not want to mess with what’s working. Setting aside that sending Rasmus down seemed to have some profound reverberations, the team continues to hoard their glut of outfielders when they could address other weaknesses of the club.
Also, TLR says there’s no reason to hand the closer’s reins to Chris Perez. I mean it’s not like he’s been a great closer for the last 3 years in the minors. It’s not like he was drafted to be our future closer or anything. It’s not like he has electric, lights-out stuff. Nope — no reason for him to close.
Keith Law has some draft notes including an interesting one at the end: maybe Tanner Scheppers doesn’t have a stress fracture.
The org goes 1-for-4 as we see some familiar names go deep and some standout pitching performances in the high minors. It’s all in your Daily Farm Report.
Memphis 7, Nashville 8 (12 innings)
- There’s simply no containing Joe Mather. He goes 3-for-6 with a pair of doubles and his 12th HR. He’s hitting .315/.406/.669 on the season. After scuffling in Memphis last season, Mather’s been on a tear. It’s easy to forget but he even spent some time on the DL at the beginning of the season.
- Josh Phelps went 1-for-4 with a home run and a pair of walks.
- Jarrett Hoffpauir is wasting a golden opportunity with Adam Kennedy tanking. He went 1-for-3 with a walk but still hasn’t shown the power he had at Springfield last year.
- Anthony Reyes was the starter but he also hit a homerun in one of his 2 ABs. He also had a great start allowing 2 hits and 1 ER over 6 innings. He struck out 6 and walked 3 while getting 8 groundouts and 2 flyouts. I’m still waiting for the organization to decide what they want to do with him.
- Ron Flores gets the blown save allowing 2 runs while retiring just 1 batter. Mark Worrell bailed him out stranding two inhereited runners and striking out 4 over 1.2 innings while walking 1.
- Kelvin Jimenez struck out 1 during a perfect inning.
- The clubs went tit-for-tat in the 10th each scoring a run. John Wasdin was the goat allowing that run as well as 4 in the 12th. The Redbirds rally just couldn’t quite come to fruition as they only scored 3.
Springfield 4, Corpus Christi 1
- Jon Jay went 3-for-5 with a double.
- Allen Craig just likes to hit. He was 2-for-5 with a HR.
- Steve Hill was 3-for-5.
- Casey Rowlett was 2-for-2 with a double and 2 walks.
- Tyler Greene was 2-for-4 but was caught stealing and committed his 13th error of the season.
- Clayton Mortensen was efficient and dominant on the mound for the Cardinals. He went 8 innings needing only 90 pitches. He struck out 5 allowing 3 hits and walking 1. As is his calling card, he recorded 14 outs on the ground versus just 5 in the air.
- Jon Mikrut allowed a solo HR in the 9th while closing out the game.
- Palm Beach recorded 4 hits — Donovan Solano’s 2 singles, Andrew Brown’s double and Luke Gorsett’s single.
- The pitching was pretty much awful. Brad Furnish got beat up for 2 innings and Eddie Degermen was wild and ineffective for 3 innings afterward. They combined to allow all 10 runs (8 earned).
- Justin Fiske struck out 2 in 2 scoreless and Francisco Samuel pitched a scoreless 8th.
- Charles Kingrey was 3-for-4.
- Francisco Rivera was 2-for-3 with a walk.
- Add Blake King to the list of pitchers with command problems that the Cardinals haven’t been able to fix. In 3.1 innings of work, he allowed 3 hits, 1 ER but walked 5 while striking out 4.
- Chuckie Fick went 4 innings allowing 5 hits, 3 ER, 2 walks and 3 Ks.
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Mather numbers with runners on and RISP are odd, He is 8-for-38 .211 with RISP and 14-for-59 .237 with runners on base.
But he is batting 385 with 17 of 22 XBH coming with nobody on base good for a 1.413 OPS.
Josh Phelps also has a odd streak going right now over the last 5 games he has alternated having a HR and 3 RBI in games followed by a hitless game.
Palm Beach’s fielding wasn’t really great either. We have a new scorekeeper however, and I’m not sure he knows what an error is.
I am sure Mr. Valencia is very sorry for blasting a ball into Mr. Furnish, and we all hope he feels better soon.
I have to wonder, if LaRussa hadn’t been brought back by the organization…would we be having this problem with the OF glut?
It would seem that LaRussa doesn’t believe in allowing the transition to actually take place WHILE the team contends. Also, part of the problem is the Schumaker/Barton dynamic. Barton is in an awful slump right now (more than likely attributed to having no ABs for almost a month) while LaRussa is in love with the idea of Skippy as the leadoff hitter. He seemingly can’t grasp putting someone else competent there, so we are treated to guys like Kennedy leading off.
They can make the argument that the OF deserves to be the way it is because we are contending, and that’s fine. But I’d like to also hear them argue that adding Joe Mather and replacing Chris Duncan wouldn’t also make the team better.
This team seems to be serving two masters: Win now or transition to the future. You can have both, but not the way the team is currently trying to do it.
Since he came off the DL, I’ve been watching Mather hit thanks to the Redbirds internet broadcasts. I can’t imagine this kid not hitting in the big leagues. He is a physical specimen with a great approach at the plate. He is the anti-Chris Duncan. He actually looks like he fits into his body, moves well for his size and seems to know where he is going when he moves on the ball.
It’d be a shame for the team to waste his hot streak, or him get injured and not see time this season.
To be fair, that isn’t what TLR said. Just that it isn’t time yet, which is defensible. Unless Leach revised his entry at some point.
Well….Terry Evans begot Jeff Weaver a couple years back…eventually Mather should do equal/better…..though of course Weaver was worth a sack of baseballs when we got him.
Been thinking a little bit about Bryan Anderson…..it seems as though the best option is to trade him once he earns scouts’ acknowledgement that his defense is up to everyday standards….Yadi is here to stay (and should be) and it’s so difficult to develop a catcher….I got to think Anderson will fetch something out there.
Don’t look now, but Mark Worrell is dominating Memphis, despite a fairly high BABIP. We shouldn’t be having any bullpen problems with the amount of depth we have in the minors.
I don’t think there’s a rush to get Mather up either. There’s probably a very long list of forgotten outfielders who’ve put up his stats, at his age in two months of AAA ball. I’m starting to think he’s for real but not convinced. He also doesn’t solve an immediate position problem. Brian Barden, however, may. He was supposed to have been a defensive whiz at 3b, is apparently playing well at ss and has seen time at 2b. He’s also hitting great. Now I know that there is also a long list of forgotten infielders who have done this well at age 27 too but he intrigues me. They also have nothing to lose in letting Kennedy go. If he can play a good 2b he could add some offense to the club’s weakest position as well as add some defensive versatility that neither Kennedy nor Miles have.
>>They also have nothing to lose in letting Kennedy go.<<
Just more dead wood from the Walt Jocketty tree. It needs to be pruned. I had hoped Jarrett Hoffpauir would take the bull by the horns this season making a play for MLB time but he has not. I agree that Barden seems like a reasonable alternative. Also, he can play 3B. B. Ryan has had troubles with throws from 3B. Miles @ 3B is a joke. Why don’t we just set a chair out there?
Don’t look now but Colby may be heating up, 1-2 HR, K, BB 2RBI so far
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Today was bizarro day, Joe Mather bunts for a base hit, Colby Rasmus hits a HR.
Does anyone want an outfielder we have, that we could trade? We seem to have a lot of decent outfielders but no everyday person. All our guys are decent but have problems. I imagine lots of teams have decent players like this in their minors. We just haven’t had this problem in a while at St. Louis.