Been out for a while, but has anyone noticed that Brett Wallace’s player page at milb.com has him listed as a 3B? I guess the webmaster over there must fancy himself to be some kind of scout.

-I was sitting right behind home plate, about six rows up. There were about six or seven scouts in the pair of rows in front of me. I recognized scouts from the Royals, Rays, Yankees and Phillies. Frank White was sitting about three rows in front of me. The Yankees’ scout loved the movement on Garcia’s curveball, but I saw some notes from previous games and it appears he hated Mark Worrell. Wrote down in big bold letters that Clement still isn’t healthy. A scout whose team I wasn’t sure wrote that Garcia was a #3 starter, then changed it to 2-3 about midway through the game (this was before his awful 5th inning).

-Brian Barden, on this particular day, looked like the best player. He was hitting ropes everywhere. His homer lead off the game, and it was a bullet that had just enough height to clear the wall. He also started a nice DP on a soft grounder where he had to charge hard. I thought he only had a play at first; once he got the out at second, the turn was the easy part.

-The line on Garcia isn’t deceptive at all. He fell behind just about every batter and started off I think the first three innings with leadoff walks. He consistently missed inside to left-handed batters and outside to righties. The stadium gun had his fastball topping out at 94 MPH, but by sneaking a peak at the scouts’ guns, I saw he was sitting in the 89-92 MPH range, with one reaching 93. Every ball hit out of the infield was clobbered. Haerther made a nice diving play that kept a run from scoring. The curve looked great in warmups. Yankees scout said “That just isn’t fair.” He couldn’t get it over for a strike though, but none of his pitches were working today.

-Phelps is a big, big man. It felt like he took a lot of pitches in every single AB. It kind of reminded me of Edmonds. His home run was a light tower shot that cleared everything in CF. I don’t know the exact distance, but I wouldn’t doubt that it went at least 440 feet. It’s one of the longest homers I’ve seen in person.

-On the flip side, Shane Robinson can’t be any bigger than 5′5″. He almost decapitated Matt Wright (the Royals SP) in his first AB. He made a strong throw from deep center that one-hopped to third and got an assist by throwing the runner out. He was also caught stealing on a pitchout. It really wasn’t close though, and I guess that’s a little disappointing.

-Bryan Anderson had a mixed bag. I don’t worry about the 0-for-4, but he was moving extremely slow yesterday (like almost Yadi slow). He walked in the 1st, but he couldn’t even get to 2nd when Stavinoha hit a liner to right-center that wasn’t cut off until it was deep in the gap. He also hit a grounder up the middle that was bobbled by the shortstop, but he was thrown out handily. His defense behind the plate was strong, made some very nice blocks for Garcia and Hugo Castellanos. He also picked a guy off at first with a nice read and good arm.

-Motte looked very nice today. The scout guns had him all the way up to 97, consistently in the 94-95 range. His slider was forgettable.

-Stavinoha’s triple was a gift. With Barden on 3rd and two outs, Stavy hit a sinking liner. Shane Costa (the Royals RF) dove for it to try and end the game, but he wasn’t close at all. It went to the wall and Stavinoha got to 3rd. Frank White thought it was a bonehead play, and it proved to be the difference when Phelps came up after him and doubled him home.

All in all, a good game, despite the humidity. I didn’t think Memphis had enough in them to comeback, but I’m glad they proved me wrong.

Also, might we test the strength of the player tracker curse and put it up for Nico?

I posted this question on VEB…but considering it’s minorleague players I thought there might be more knowledge here. What does anyone know about these two guys in the Phillies system: Jason Donald (SS) and Adrien Cardenas (2B)? Phuture Phillies rates them as their 4th and 2nd best prospects respectively.

I didn’t realize Jones had dropped entirely out of BA’s Cardinal top 30 before the season. (Hard to blame BA for that, though.) What a transformation Daryl has undergone: if his road numbers this year were his *overall* line, he’d be a serious candidate for next year’s pre-season top 50. Or even top 25, if he can cut down on the K’s a bit.

Elsewhere on Palm Beach’s squad, Tony Cruz is still under the radar–but check out his month-to-month progress in the FSL this season:
April OPS .611
May .731
June .837
July .874

If Cruz can stick at catcher, the 21-year-old has a legit chance at being an above-average MLB starter. Gotta work on that BB/K/AB ratio a bit, though.

Has there been a profile done on Josh Wilson? I know very little about him but starts like that are very exciting!!! Especially given his control coming back from surgery. Can somebody enlighten me on him — thanks