It’s been nearly two weeks since I last did a DFR as I was unavailable last weekend. I think something important happened recently. . . like some draft or something. Anywho, I’m just going to let you in on a few quick thoughts:
- I feel like I should be more excited about Wallace than I am. But I have a hard time getting revved up about guys who are stuck on the wrong end of the defensive spectrum before they’ve even made their pro debut.
- I will make a concerted effort to not be bitter about “Kozma at 18″ moving forward. He’s now officially just another player in our system. Unless, of course, he fails Chris Lambert style and then I am fully prepared to dust the cobwebs off of that particular pitchfork and torch. But in the meantime, I’ve severed that emotional connection — I think it’s best for all parties involved.
- I will probably be forced to update periodically on Jemile Weeks since those a–holes in Oakland stole him from the Cardinals. (Please do not interrupt my delusions.) Kind of how I have to update on how great Jack Cassel is doing in AAA. Some of these players just steal a little piece of my heart. . .well, they would if you replaced my quad-core processor with a heart.
- On balance, I was relatively pleased by the Cardinals draft. I wonder, though, if we aren’t setting ourselves up for a Bonds-in-SF type of team where the offense is essentially built around one player (Pujols). I still have faith that Rasmus is going to be an impact type of player offensively but I don’t see a whole lot else in the pipeline that screams offensive force to me.
The club goes 1-for-3 as Springfield keeps on winning. Remember when they were on a double digit losing streak. Gotta love baseball.
- Doesn’t that just tie in nicely with Cassel shutting down the Redbirds and all. I remember all the clamoring about Brad Thompson and the screw job he got over the last few seasons being bounced around from pen to rotation to minors. I wonder if there’s an Astros blog somewhere who is harping on Cassel because he’s as least as good as Brad Thompson (and he probably has more than one pitch).
- David Freese did get to Cassel for his 8th HR of the year, though. Freese was hitless in his other two at bats but it’s nice to see a little power in his box score. That said, his OPS is just shy of .800 so he’s not really an option for the big leagues in the near future.
- Bryan Anderson was 0-for-2 with a pair of walks.
- Clayton Mortensen took the loss in his AAA debut going 5.1 innings. He allowed 7 hits, walked 4 and struck out 3 for 2 ER. I’m pretty shocked at how aggressive the Cardinals have been with Mortensen. I remember being a little critical in the past about how slowly they moved some of their prospects (Hoffpaiur) but this seems to be the other side of the spectrum. There wasn’t much indication that he had really mastered the finer points of AA since his peripherals were all in the wrong direction (fewer Ks, twice as many walks, fewer groundballs). I don’t think there’s a chance he sees any serious action in the bigs (maybe a September callup, maybe) but the speed with which he went through the system is somewhat baffling and unnerving.
- Jon Jay went 3-for-4 with a walk. A lot of his value at this point is dependent on his CF defense. If he can’t stick at center, his bat is more of a 4th outfielder type.
- Steve Hill went 1-for-4 with a double and a walk.
- Isaias Garcia went 2-for-5 with a double and a HR playing 3rd. He’s kind of quietly moved up the system posting good numbers in limited action this year after flopping in QC last year.
- Adam Ottavino was roughed up again lasting just 3.1 innings. My guess is that either a) he’s still injured and will need surgery before the calendar year is out or b) his mechanics are a disaster after pitching while injured. I feel bad for the guy in a situation that has to be difficult but he’s kind of messing up a lot of preseason prospect lists. He has no control over the ball as he hit two batters and walked three — keep an eye out for any “Ottavino to the DL” articles.
- After Marco Gonzales blew a lead in the 7th, Luke Gregerson and Fernando Salas came in to finish the game off. Gregerson pitched a scoreless frame while Salas was touched up for a run. Gregerson gets a little overlooked in the system but with McCellan, Worrell and Perez all in the bigs, you could call Gregerson anywhere from the best to the third best reliever in the minors right now.
- Donovan Solano was 0-for-1 with a Bondsian 4 walks.
- Andrew Brown and Daryl Jones both went 2-for-4. Brown had a double. Jones also stole his 9th base and is now 9-for-10 on the season in attempts — he has 20/20 potential.
- Luke Gorsett doubled for his only hit in 4 ABs.
- The starting pitching was pretty bad as Elvis Hernandez and Davis Billardello both gave up 3 runs. Billardello only had 1 earned as his defense betrayed him. (PS — can’t wait for the end of the piggyback this year.)
- Richard Castillo (no, I do not really know who this is) allowed 1 unearned run over 3 innings striking out three while walking 1 and allowing 2 hits.
- Cardoza Tucker walked 2 and struck out 1 in a scoreless 9th.
The Quad Cities game is suspended in the 4th to be completed tomorrow. The Bandits were winning 6-1 and you’ll have a full recap of the game in Sunday’s DFR.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
Freese’s homer should count twice…they announced 442, as it one-hopped the YMCA building about halfway back towards center. Absolute monster shot.
Rasmus was 1-5 but very easily could have been 3-5. His single took a very fortunate bounce in the RF corner for the RF to hold him to one, normally it’d be a double. Then he got robbed by a diving stop by the 2B and then had the always-common 3-4-1 groundout on a rocket that the 1B deflected.
Anderson had a nice 14-pitch walk in the 9th.
Mortensen dind’t have an exceptional line, but I thought he pitched a good game. Most of the hits he gave up were flares or bloopers. He had a 39-pitch first inning thanks largely to an 11-pitch strikeout, with 10 strikes. There was also an 8-pitch AB in the inning with a single and a 7-pitch AB with a walk.
His control was fair — not great, but not bad, but he did run out of gas in the sixth once he got around a hundred pitches. That loss is on the offense…speaking of which, Mortensen was lost when he tried to bunt but runs very, very well.
Dont forget Salas hit a two run single even though the only credited him with 1 rbi.
Richard Castillo was the best SP on the Venezuelan Summer League team last season. He’s only 18, and seems to be pitching well so far at Palm Beach. Definitely a guy to keep an eye on.
A quad core processor? Really? Hmm…see, I always pictured you more as one of those big two story jobs, like a Univac/HAL 9000 hybrid or something. Not sure why, but that was the impression I had.
I agree with you on Wallace, Az. Hopefully, of course, he proves us both wrong, but I just don’t like drafting players who are already so limited in certain facets of the game.
Whopperman you left out Colby struck out on 3 pitches with the bases loaded and one down in a 1 run game in the 9th
Its crazy Rasmus is only hitting .178 at home this year and .198 vs RHP overall.
And Azru, why were you critical of how they moved Hoffpauir? It has seemed more than fair to me!
Gregerson is barely the 3rd best reliever on his own team right now after his Kenny Maiques like breakdown the past few weeks. Definately behind Marco Gonzalez (even if he did give up a run last night) and Fernando Salas on the Springfield roster.
If he picks it back up, then maybe can put him back into organizational top 3. Current top 3…
#1 Fernando Salas
#2 Francisco Samuel
#3 Debateable, but will go with Josh Dew as he’s been lights out for Palm Beach. His knock is that he got lit during his time in Springfield. But so did Worrell in his first few games there.
Richard Castillo is absolutely a guy to keep an eye on. 18 years old and pitching that amazingly for High-A, wow!
Wallace had good at bats every time up last night. He went 3-5, all singles, but all hit very hard. Even legged out an infield hit to the SS. In his other two at bats he had a fly that would have fallen in with wood, and the other was a DP ball, but did drive in the first run of the night. Unfortunately he had an error.
I guess if updating Wallace, should have talked about the other draftees…
Aaron Luna - Rice - hit 0-3 with a run scored, but had at least 1 sacrifice. He played LF in the game, but hope he plays 2b when in the system.
Colt Sedbrook - Arizona - hit 1 - 4, but that 1 was a 2 out rbi. He also had a sacrifice. Plays a hard nose 2b, works counts, takes walks, and leads team in HBP.
Tony Asaro - UC Irvine - 1 -3 with 2 rbi and a sacrifice bunt to help start a big inning. He was pulled later due to team being way up and the coach wanting to get other players in.
Scott Gorgen - UC Irvine - The star of the night. Went into Baton Rouge and shut down a LSU team that was on a 23 game winning streak.
Line: 6.2 ip, 6h, 2r, 1 er, 8k, 4bb, pitch count - 116/68
The walks were near the end when he got tired. The heat and humidity started to get to him near the end when he had to sit in the dugout for long periods due to his offense hitting and scoring alot. Of those 6 hits, at least 2 of them were weak hits that guys were fooled on, but stuck their bat out in the right place. His change up was as amazing as advertised and had most of the LSU hitters off balance all night.
With the way Detroit’s pitching staff is collapsing, Lambert’s going to get some innings in the majors this year.
The reason I loved the Wallace pick was addressed in your opening thoughts. This farm system is low on “impact” offensive players. I include Rasmus in this group, despite his head-scratching performance at AAA, but beyond that there’s not much. Wallace projects as a middle of the order hitter, a high-OBP guy with power. Exactly the type of prospect the Cardinals need.
Of course I would love it if he was a sure bet to stay at 3B, but if he were, he wouldn’t have been available to the Cardinals.
Memphis25 - Last year I thought the team kind of drug their feet with Hoffpauir despite not having anything remotely like a prospect ahead of him at AAA.
baseballatc - Not at all what my top 3 would look like. It would be some combination of Gregerson, Motte and Salas — any order seems justifiable for those three. Gregerson puts up some great groundball numbers while striking out a significant number of batters. It’s easy to overlook the GBs in a reliever but even with his rough start, I think his current skillset puts him in the top 3. I’m not terribly enamored of Francisco Samuel walking almost a batter an inning.
azru, just look at the progress samuel has made. last year he couldn’t pitch a lick in the GCL and now he is dominating the FSL. he is also starting to throw a lot of strikes as he hasn’t walked anyone in 9 of his last 10 appearances. that is an encouraging trend. you also have to factor in the stuff, as he clearly has the best stuff out of any of these guys with a 97 mph fastball and an 89 mph slider.
Good gracious - now Duncan can’t even get at-bats everyday in Memphis?
azru,
With bullpen guys, I’m in a what have you done with me lately mood with them. Not always been like that, probably due to the big league guys blowing 13 of 34 save opportunities.
And the last couple weeks, Gregerson and Motte have been just as bad in that regard. Although Gregerson is showing signs of life as his last 2 chances have been good. Motte though has been so bad that Flores has been named the Memphis closer. Had he been taking a page from Worrell and Perez, he might have gotten the call up instead of Boggs. Would have been a temperary one until a starter was needed (assuming it happened at all) but a breif call up is better than no call up. Now he’s not going to be up until September.
Having a Bonds-in-SF roster construction problem is inevitable when your top guy is as good as Pujols. As Buzz Bissinger put it, guys like Pujols don’t come along once every ten years; they never come along. Having a comparable talent to protect him is an unrealistic hope. Even in MV3 days, one of the three was clearly a much bigger gun than the other two.
That said, my (only) problem with the Wallace selection is that the awesome presence of Pujols in front of him means that his main value to the team going forward is as trade bait (unless, horror of horrors, AP loses it or leaves via free agency). Trading your #1 draft choice is not necessarily a bad thing — like any other player, he’s an “asset” and it is up to the front office and field staff to extract maximum value from that asset, which may be best done by trading him. But with everyone else in baseball knowing that he’s blocked big time, Mo’s capacity to extract full value from him in trade is diminished.
Bernie said that Duncan hurt himself a bit running into a wall–that’s why he’s sitting out.
Thought you guys would be interested in this article on BTBS about small colleges. Shows the success that the fan draft program had this year. The 3rd most D2,D3 and NAIA players were drafted by the Cards (NYM 9, BOS 7, PIT 6, STL 6).
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2008/6/8/548114/small-colleges-in-the-draf
Ah - thanks Liam. I don’t envision Dunc making his way back to St Louis anytime soon.
Hugo, there is no way to prove that the Cards didn’t already know about all the guys they drafted before the contest. So I think it’s entirely too early to say it’s a success. Guys like Hester, Kulik, and Castellanos put up great numbers so I’m sure they knew about them There were 2 players drafted from Pace, one of which was a scouts son. So I’m sure they already knew about them. And Jon Bravo plays at one of the best NAIA programs there is, so I’m sure scouts knew about him. The only way to know if it was a success is a member of the front office comes out and says thats how they heard of them.
Looks like UC Irvine will advance
Shhh, true but there is also no way to prove that they didn’t learn about them from the program.
Your probably right that the scout didn’t know about his own son. Just messing with you. But I think the evidence I pointed to strongly suggests that these players were already known by the Cardinals. Although I sure as hell could be wrong.
Very true that those two were probably known about, but the purpose of the program was to find the best D2-NAIA players. Even if no player picked was a fan pointed player it doesn’t mean that their recommendations didn’t influence them. It does show their commitment to scouting is pretty broad too.
Tyler Greene’s my hero.