It’s been a while since our last edition of Three Up, Three Down. Sorry about that, pre-draft, draft and post-draft had me a little preoccupied. Let’s take a look at who’s up and who’s down lately in this early part of June.
Three Up
David Freese, 3B, Memphis - The return on the charred remains of Jimmy Edmonds is looking pretty good right now. After a crummy May, Freese has gotten after it as of late. For the month of June, Freese is hitting .385/.429/.731. His groundball rates have been dropping with each month, and now that he’s elevating the ball more he’s finding more of his flies are clearing the fence. For the season, Freese is hitting .279/.329/.480 in 204 at bats. Considering he skipped AA, that’s not shabby. His Davenport Translations knock him down quite a bit for his age—His peak EqA is a middling .244. They love his glove, however: +7 runs worth. It’s hard not to root for Freese, a guy who grew up a die-hard Cardinal fan and is just a step away from realizing a life long dream.
Jon Jay, CF, Springfield - Like Freese, Jay has really come on strong as of late. After posting a paltry .652 OPS for the month of May, the June version Jay has been on another planet, hitting .483 and slugging .793 through 33 plate appearances. He can’t keep a .480 BABIP up for too long, but he is hitting a lot of line drives, at a 25% clip to be exact. He’s only struck out 1 time while smashing some extra base hits. Also like Freese, his DT’s remain less than exciting, but not bad considering his position. They have him at a peak line of .285/.339/.438, or a .266 EqA. They also love his glove, a +10. I think of Coco Crisp when I think about Jay, only with a little more batting average and a little less leather.
Jaime Garcia, LHP, Memphis - Given the current flurry of injuries to the pitching staff, I would have to think Garcia has worked his way into at least consideration for a big league call up. The young lefty keeps getting better no matter the challenge. In his two starts this month, he’s struck out 26.8% of the batters he has faced and has an ERA of 1.98.
Three Down
PJ Walters, RHP, Memphis - Is it an early AAA speed bump, or has he been exposed for what he really is? It’s been long thought that Walters was really a borderline prospect whose guile would only carry him so far in the minors. I’m not sure if I’m willing to concede that quite yet, but after being a statistical wonder, Walters is now a statistical mess. His walk rate has been uncharacteristically high-he’s walking over 4 batters per 9 after basically walking no one his minor league career. His homerun rate is 2 per 9. His strikeout rate is dipping and he’s been extremely hittable. I hope he proves a lot of people wrong, but he’s making traditional scouting folks right, at the moment.
Thomas Pham, OF, Quad Cities - 12 strikeouts in 21 at bats this month, and is hitting .457 OPS for June. I keep banging the drum for him to be moved to the mound. The strikeouts just aren’t going away. No matter how many tools he has, unless he can make some contact on a consistent basis he’s going nowhere but down. He threw 92-93 in high school, why not just let him throw a bullpen just to see how it goes?
Eddie Degerman, RHP, Palm Beach - Now 24 years old, Degerman was held in extended spring training again to iron out control issues. Now in a relief role, Degerman has gotten pounded-11 earned runs in 13 innings, with 10 walks and 17 hits. When he’s right, he’s interesting as a “different look out of the bullpen” guy. Right now, he’s a trainwreck. You wanna look away, but you just can’t.
Honorable mention: Colby Rasmus, who’s seems to finally abandoned his funk for good. He’s hitting .267/.389/.533 in the month of June. He’s walking even more while cutting down the K’s and hitting for power.
Filed under: three up, three down | Tagged: Colby Rasmus, David Freese, Eddie Degerman, Jaime Garcia, Jon Jay, P.J. Walters, Tommy Pham
erik
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fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
I think that Walters is in fact getting exposed. I love the guy, but just don’t see him translating. I remember a while back when the discussion of other successful soft tossing RHP came up a lot of people mentioned a few successful starters. I’ve only seen him pitch a couple of times, but the impression I got from him is that he can’t pitch inside and his mistakes get whacked. I think his BB rate is spiking because he has so little room for error that he has to be really fine and paint the low outside of the plate. The couple times I saw him pitch anything middle up or when he tried to go inside really hard contact was made. I hate to say it, but if he gets to the majors once through any lineup he would be hit really really hard.
The fun thing about Freese is that he tends to hit the McGwire-type homers when he hits them.
He’s hit the YMCA building twice this year that I know of — one was announced at 470, the other at 442.
For a guy who skipped AA, he’s really adjusted to AAA pretty well.
I really doubt that Pham will make it past Low-A as a hitter. His swing doesn’t work well with offspeed pitches. It starts early and gets the hips and wieght over the front foot too soon.
Per Derrick Goold, the Cards have signed the following:
1a. Michael Lynn RHP; 2. Shane Peterson OF; 5. Jermaine Curtis; 6. Eric Fornataro RHP; 7. Anthony Ferrara LHP; 10. Alejandro Castellanos 2B; 11. Devin Shepherd OF; 14. Charles Cutler C; 16. Miguel Flores RHP; 17. Joshua Hester RHP; 20. Luis Mateo SS; 21. Matt Rigoli 1B; 23. Jonny Bravo LHP; 24. Zachary Pitts RHP; 25. Jason Buursma RHP; 26. Christopher Swauger OF; 27. George Brown LHP; 28. Matthew Frevert RHP; 29. Brett Lilley 2B; 32. Samuel Freeman LHP; 33. Kevin Thomas RHP; 34. Jack Cawley C; 36. Chris Notti RHP; 38. Daniel Richardson RHP; 39. Curt Smith 1B; 40. Paul Cruz OF; 42. Blake Murphy C; 43. Joe Babick OF; 44. Santo Maertz RHP; 49. Adam Veres RHP.
Jonny Bravo, what a name!
Weren’t Ferrara and Shepherd considered really tough signs?
Shepher was a fifth rounder a couple seasons ago but opted to go to Oklahoma. . .I was surprised to see how easily we signed him. Must have been a pre-arranged deal.
Of our draftees, I think X. Scruggs is going to be a tough one. . .he has leverage and is disappointed in the round where he was drafted (11 I believe).
Ferrara i thought was going to be difficult. If he is the HS lefty im thinking of.
I’m wanting to see the SS from the 4th round get signed
Niko will sign…..I dont think that is one of the tougher signs.
There is still a question if he is even academically elig. for college anyway.
3rd round is about 325K to 350K…that is nice change.
How about a post draft Lunhow Q&A?
I’ll ask, not sure what his schedule is like, esp. considering July 2 is coming fast.
How soon can we some of those guys playing at Quad?
It is too early to write off Pham as a hitter. High school players take time. Fans want instant results. Last season, many were down on Jones. He got stepped up to PB and is now doing fine. Pham slugs well. He just needs a few hundred more at bats. The Cards have been pushing him. He could have spent a second summer at JC, but the Cards pushed him up to Batavia. Team assignment influences results.
Walters should figure out AAA batters, in time. He is just 2 years past college. Lets give him at least another year, before dispairing.
Isnt Pham younger then Kozma?
I was doing some research on the Veres kid we drafted late, his name came up in the Perfect Game notes and Pham’s name was everywhere.
On the mound, at SS, in the batters box…kid has so much talent.
I think he is the kind of kid you might not see figure it out till he is 22 or 23, but if he ever does..watch out.
Worst case…he is 23 and still a mess at the plate…you try him on the mound.
Pham can run, he loves to hit, and he has a strong arm. The Cards pushed him up to Batavia last summer, pushed him up to PB for a while this year. Jumping Jeff is committed to pushing or pulling Pham to St Louis.
Tommy Pham punched your three down in the face tonight as he went yard twice. Its time to start doing 2 up/ 8 down, and then hopefully 3-4 of the 8 down players will respond and the farm system will go BANG!
[...] Pham went yard twice, making me look like a fool for saying they should move him to the mound. The first one was to the opposite field in right center, a no [...]
I believe that the main value Walters has is in his brain. He’ll adjust fine, and will develop the correct strategy to exploit his abilities at AAA.
GO CARDS!!!
Just wondering is #49 Adam Veres any relation to former Cardinal Dave Veres?