Baseball Prospectus continued its ‘PECOTA Takes On…’ series with third base prospects today. This article is probably for subscribers only, but I think I can go so far as to mention that David Freese made the list as a “Very Good Prospect” (which is odd, because that list actually ranks below the list of “Good Prospects”). Allen Craig did not make the list at all. Both Freese (.284/.336/.480) and Craig (.284/.342/.493) are off to solid starts to the season and probably deserve a little more respect than PECOTA gave them based on their careers prior to this season. I imagine that Freese was downgraded in PECOTA because he had never played above high A before this season and he is 25 years old, but after skipping AA and mainting a solid performance in AAA I would imagine that criticism would fade. It is a little harder to understand why Craig would be overlooked by PECOTA, since he has hit at every stop and has been fairly age-appropriate for each level. Regardless, I think Freese and Craig are emblematic of the newfound depth in the system. The outfield isn’t the only position that is getting crowded with solid prospects in the upper levels.

This is a few days old, so I might have missed mention of it elsewhere, but here is a nice story/interview with the Cardinals minor league pitcher of the month for April, Jess Todd.

The system played four games tonight and all the details are after the jump.

Memphis 4,  Las Vegas 3 – 12 innings

• Jaime Garcia pitched very well in his first outing at AAA.  He went 6 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on six hits and no walks.  He struck out six and nine of the other twelve outs he recorded came via the groundball. 
• Colby continues to struggle, going 1-6 last night with three strikeouts.  He stole a base but was also picked off once.
• Joe Mather went 2-5 with a double and had an outfield assist.
• Bryan Anderson continues his smooth adjustment to AAA, going 2-5 with two doubles and an rbi.  Jason Repko did manage to steal second against him.
• Ron Flores, Hugo Castellanos and John Wasdin each pitched a scoreless inning.
• Jason Motte threw two scoreless innings, giving up two hits and an intentional walk while striking out two.
• Chris Perez gave up a run in his inning of work, getting the blown save in the 11th, which also gave him the win when Memphis scored in the top of the 12th.  He gave up two hits and struck out one.
• Garcia, Jarrett Hoffpauir and David Freese all had errors in the game.

Springfield 2, NW Arkansas 6

• Well, let’s get the bad news out of the way first: Clayton Mortensen got smacked around again. He only lasted 3.2 innings and gave up five runs (four earned) on six hits and two walks. He did strike out six and he had three groundouts to only one flyout, so his peripherals aren’t terrible. He gave up a walk and a homerun in the first inning and then cruised through the next two innings before the wheels came off in the fourth. An error by Allen Craig and a wild pitch compounded Mortensen’s problems in the inning.
• On the good side of the ledger, Shane Robinson continued to impress, going 2-3 with a walk.
• The relief corps pitched relatively well, aside from a run given up by Zach Zuercher in his 0.2 innings. Josh Dew pitched 1.1 scoreless with a strikeout, Bob Zimmerman struck out a pair in 1.1 scoreless innings, and Fernando Salas struck out two in his scoreless inning.

Dunedin 1, Palm Beach 5

• Arnoldi Cruz was behind the plate this afternoon and he went 2-4 with a homerun, a double and two rbi.
• Isaias Garcia, Nathan Southard and Antonio DeJesus each went 2-4. Southard and Garcia doubled and Garcia also had a stolen base.
• Oliver Marmol went 1-3 with a double and an rbi, but also committed an error in the field.
• Shaun Garceau pitched five scoreless innings, giving up three hits and three walks while striking out three.
• Brandon Dickson pitched the final four innings, giving up two hits – one a solo homerun – and no walks and striking out one.

Kane County 11, Quad Cities 1

• Not much went right for the River Bandits as they were held to two hits, singles by Mike Folli and Paul Vasquez. The best offensive highlight I can come up with is that Pete Kozma went 0-2 with a walk, a HBP and a stolen base. The team struck out fourteen times (including the golden sombrero for Matthew Aburr).
• Eduardo Sanchez took the loss in going 2.2 innings and giving up three runs (one earned) on three hits, a hit batter and three walks while striking out three, but the ugliest line of the night goes to Thomas Eager. Eager lasted three innings and gave up eight runs, only six were earned though. He allowed four hits, gave up four walks and two homeruns while striking out one.
• Matt Spade struck out three in his 1.1 scoreless innings of work.
• Wayne Daman and Cardoza Tucker each pitched a scoreless inning, with Daman striking out one and giving up a hit and Tucker striking out two and walking one.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 10:41 pm and is filed under Allen Craig, Daily Farm Reports, David Freese, Jess Todd. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.