I’m really happy to be able to do the DFR tonight. All the talk here is flood, flood, flood, which is totally understandable, but it can get a little overwhelming after a while. I don’t mind the occasional update, but in between those I would rather either help out somehow or just try and do normal stuff.
Jon Jay made the BA Hot Sheet this week after hitting .536/.581/.821 this week. Blurbage:
Being the center fielder one step behind Colby Rasmus on the organizational depth chart isn’t an ideal situation for any player. That’s the reality that Jay faces, but he’s making the most of his time with Springfield. Jay ripped off a streak of four consecutive multi-hit games this week, including a stretch of three straight three-hit games. Jay struggled in May (.241/.300/.352 in 120 plate appearances), but his season line of .310/.367/.478 in 245 at-bats still make him an above-average center fielder in the Texas League. Neither Jay’s tools nor his performance project for big league stardom, but he has the potential to be an average or above-average big league center fielder.
Mitch Harris has been ordered to report, but not to Jupiter. He’s been ordered to report to his ship. That must be a tough pill for him to swallow, but it’s not really surprising.
Kevin Goldstein takes a look at the recaps the NL Central’s draft. He finds the Cardinals’ draft very Moneyball. I thought Kevin was done talking about Moneyball. 
It is true, the joke of the day was it wasn’t a jeans-selling draft. This site also recaps the Cards’ draft, and the writer really likes OF Chris Swauger.
If you’re watching the College World Series this weekend, there will be a couple Cardinal draftees to pay attention to-Aaron Luna is the Cards’ 9th round pick, and RHP Jared Bradford of LSU and the Cards’ 18th rounder and I believe their 2nd starter, or Saturday starter (whatever you wanna call it).
Only two games tonight.
- Colby Rasmus went 2 for 5 with a HR. He’s back, folks.
- Brian Barden went 3 for 4 with a BB.
- Cody Haerther went 2 for 4.
- Rico Washington went 2 for 4 with a double.
- Clayton Mortensen was charged for 3 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks and 7 K’s over 5.1 innings. He labored a little bit to get as far as he did, having thrown 103 pitches.
- John Wasdin allowed 4 runs over 1.1.
Springfield’s game was postponed.
Palm Beach was off.
- Charlie Kingrey, Francisco Rivera and Paul Vasquez all went 2 for 4 with a double.
- Ateo Folli tripled.
- Nick Additon struck out 5 over 4.2 innings, allowed just 3 hits and 2 walks.
- Mark Diapoules allowed 4 ER over 1.2.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
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roarke49
theredbaaron
Would someone explain to me why John Wasdin is still at Memphis? He was clearly one of those break-glass-in-case-of-emergency signings, and enough actual prospects have made it to the Show successfully that the emergency isn’t going to happen. Time to cut ties to this guy and continue letting the young guys grow.
Good to hear you’re doing OK, Erik.
hey, i know this mite sound stupid, but what does the term ‘moneyball’ refer to? i hear it alot and I’m not sure what it means
Wasdin hasn’t been that bad in relief for Memphis, its just when he is bad he is really bad, 14 runs in 30.1 IP in relief, with 11 of those are in 3 bad games where he gives up the long ball.
Wasdin is a fly ball pitcher in a league full of good hitters parks, witch tends not to work out well, but he should be gone after guys get healthy.
You can tell the Memphis BP is then when Nick Webber and his 23 walks to 7 Strike outs in AA gets a promotion.
But back to the game, the key play tonight, was in the 9th after hitting a GR double to lead off the inning, Rico Washington decides to tag up on a fly ball to CF that was the first out of the inning. in a 9-7 game!
He was shot down at 3rd for the second out and then the next two guys proceed to reach base, before Mark Johnson makes the last out.
wasdin is a veteran. that is what they are looking for in helping the younger players adjust to the triple-a level along with preparing them for a possible call to the majors.
Am I the only person that can’t stand the fact that Bryan Anderson is basically splitting catching time with the Johnson guys? I guess it’s not as bad as it was 2 weeks ago when he was getting every other night off, but I’d like to see them play Anderson at least 5 games out of every 7.
Anderson faded badly down the stretch last year. If this keeps him hitting and healthy (and his trade value high) then I’m all for it.
One other note about the Quad Cities game…
Even thought Tommie Pham went 0-4 with 2 K’s, he made the play of the game…
Trailing 5-4 in the top of the 9th, Beloit got the lead runner to 2nd on a bunt single and a throwing error by the pitcher. The runner moved to 3rd on a flyout. Two batters later, Pham nailed the runner at the plate after a lineout to end the game on an outfield DP.
It sure would be nice if this guy could get more than one tool working on a consistent basis.
So,
How about Barden for 2B with the Big league club?
I was searching for an answer and he would be the most low risk move in my opinion outside of going after Belliard again…
Thanks for the news on Tommy Pham, Pundit! The kid has his warts as a hitter, but it sounds like he’ll be OK in Center.
Regarding 2nd base, I’d like to see a blockbuster deal for Ian Kinsler. Say, Anderson & Garcia for I.K.
Colby Rasmus in June: .340, with a cool 1.000 OPS. I still prefer him to Jay Bruce…or anybody else currently in the minors.
Nick Additon, by the by, has allowed just 14 hits in his last 34 innings. Time for a promotion?
Bob, do NOT propose a trade involving Jaime Garcia. Guys like that don’t grow on trees, and the big team will need him soon enough.
Will, “Moneyball” was a 2003 book about how the Oakland A’s succeeded for many, many years despite a preposterously low budget. The key points, and I grossly oversummarize here, are:
* When deciding who to draft, retain, and trade, use all the information at your disposal, and that includes (but, contrary to some of “Moneyball”’s critics, is not limited to) careful statistical analysis.
* Among position players, on-base percentage is life; life is on-base percentage.
* The most valuable thing a front office can do is to notice mistakes that other front offices make — “market inefficiencies” — and exploit them.
* It’s OK to take risks as long as they are consistent with the other points, and a great deal better than overpaying for mediocrity.
Does this help?
Oh, one other “Moneyball” axiom: ALL information must be interpreted IN CONTEXT. Seeing Joe Muscles mash college pitching, when Joe is 3 years older than the people he’s mashing, doesn’t tell you much about Joe, because experience counts. “Moneyball” says you pay attention to things like age, rather than just to the fact that he’s mashing.
For all the hype that “Moneyball” gets, that draft wasn’t very good for Oakland. Jeremy Brown anyone?
I don’t think that draft gets “hype,” it just happened to be the draft that Michael Lewis wrote about.
And Brown did reach the majors at age 26 and probably could’ve served as a backup, which is pretty great considering that absolutely nobody was going to draft him.
The first thing I notice, especially with the top 12 to 13 picks is all but 1 or 2 of them have shown success during the summer with Wood.
At either the Cape, Team USA or in the HS kids instance..the Area Code Game games and other wood bat all-star circuits.
Cards seem to put a heavy, heavy weight into those summer performances…almost to the point where the actual season stats were secondary.
If you go and look at the players picked from the 1st to the 14th..you will find a tie to wood bat success with everyone but Fornato, Kulik and Castellanos.
Moneyball..probably not…statistically based…probably.
But the value the Cards put on wood bat performance is huge.
lassie01, that wasn’t a horrid draft- They got Joe Blanton and Nick Swisher. Mark Teahen hasn’t turned out so bad, I suppose. They also drafted Jon Papelbon and JR Towles in that draft, they just were unable to sign them.
They were able to flip Teahen for Dotel, which ain’t much. But also consider the haul they got for Swisher recently.
hey erik … im glad to here everything is a lil better over there….
just wanted to let you guys know that there is going to be a lil shake up in the quad infield very soon! especially in the left side
after there days off expect to see a change
I never understood the Brown pick. Why waste your first round supplemental pick (I believe this is where he was picked) on a guy nobody else knows about and won’t draft for many more rounds? This is just very very weak use of game theory in the draft room. Some people want to use it to point out Beane’s genius, however to me it always seemed like a weakness.
Bob. I like your idea I was thinking the same thing meaning a combo of Garcia for Kinsler.
Someone else suggested that wouldn’t get it done and it would probably take a Wainwright which I would still consider for Kinsler although ultimately I might pass.
Also not sure about Anderson considering they have two talented younger Catchers right now.
Kinsler outside of the HR haven in TEX posts a line of .276/.323/.483
Respectable…but that ballpark in Arlington tends to skew a bunch of offensive numbers
A very nice player though…but I would rather try Ryan at 2B and keep Garcia then package for Kinsler
I think Garcia has the chance to be very, very good.
LHP sinkerballers with a strikeout pitch dont grow on tree’s..he keeps his B/9 under 3.5 and he should do well in STL.
Garcia has to be on the untouchable list. Kinsler is a nice player, but garcia is starting to remind me of another lefty the cardinals had back in the day who was traded to the phillies.
In the supposed Moneyball draft, Swisher was NOT a moneyball pick; he was a very athletic guy. Blanton was a predictable, safe pick. Teahan maybe too.
Oakland had a lot of high picks that year. Some of the As choices were poor, and clearly evident to be at the time. You can look up pre-draft descriptions, on line, at Baseball America’s draft archive and read what was said about each Oakland choice (before the draft).
Michael Lewis called Oakland’s hodge-podge of draft picks Moneyball, to market his book. You do not want to read his book to evaluate Oakland’s draft, because there are so few facts in this book. Instead, just go back to the information available to teams on the eve of the draft.
A reason Beane chose to trade Haren and Swisher was poor drafting by the As for years.
Thanks Bill, that really helps
In the Moneyball draft, Swisher had both great stats and scouts loved him. It was both.
Loyal reader, first time commenter. I just have to agree with picklefork and NASA, Garcia should be untouchable. Kinsler is a fine player, but a career .244 .317 .389 .706 away from Arlington. You need to get back much more than that kind of production if you are even gonna think about moving Garcia. If we wouldn’t trade Rasmus for someone, we shoudn”t trade Garcia for them either.
“This is just very very weak use of game theory in the draft room. Some people want to use it to point out Beane’s genius, however to me it always seemed like a weakness.”
The A’s had (I believe) $9 million to spend on their draft picks. They chose Brown because they believed him in that much, and he was only written off because he was fat. They had to take guys who would accept lower signing bonuses.
“Michael Lewis called Oakland’s hodge-podge of draft picks Moneyball, to market his book”
No, he called it “Moneyball” because that’s the name of the process of what the A’s were doing. The draft is only an aspect of it.
I won’t disagree that the A’s made some poor choices, but it’s silly to disparage their draft when poor choices are made hundreds and hundreds of times in the draft every year. For a team wth a low signing bonus budget to produce an All-Star caliber OF, a #2-3 starter and a capable backup catcher (who retired), that’s not a bad haul. Compare that to the Yankees, who came out with Brad Halsey.
Supposedly, John Vuch is reporting teen sensation Niko V. has signed with the Cards:)
And that Wallace is very close to a deal.
Yes!! Where’d you here that, p’fork?
Cardstalk in the draft thread…
I didnt hear it myself..sorry…but I do know that Vuch was on for quite a long time on the 550 KTRS talking about draft/minors and everything Cards during the 7pm hour.
I dont think KTRS achieves their shows….so I until I hear it I cant say for 100% sure its true.
But I doubt someone would lie and its not like Niko hasnt mentioned he wanted to turn pro.
If true, great news and congrats to the Cards for being aggressive and getting these guys signed!
picklefork- Kinsler has 7 HR on the road and 2 HR at home this year. Arlington has helped his batting average, but his power is real.
I am very surprised that Harris was forced to report. He definitely needs to do his service time, but just last year bonuses were being offered to ensigns and LT’s to get out early to save money…
I like Kinsler…but over the next 5 years I think I would rather have Garica then Kinsler.
That is just me, Kinsler is a good ballplayer, no doubt.
But in my mind a #2 potential LH starter is more valuable and harder to find then a good offensive 2B.
That is just my way of looking at things…which is usually the wrong way:)
I emailed the host of the 550 sports show and asked him about the Vuch interview.
Said the interview will re-air today on the post game.
He also confirmed the Vuch said Niko Vazquez has signed.
So Cards fans rejoice!
Its out to lunch to think the As spent $9M on their lousy Moneyball draft. What a hoot.