I’m pleased to announce the new Future Redbirds shop is open for biz. Now you can be the first kid on your block to sport a “Razzle” t-shirt jersey or “The Walrus” long sleeve tee. You can also be the first working stiff in your office to sip your morning joe out of a futureredbirds.net mug. There’s stuff for girls and boys, so be sure to check it out. Big thanks to BigJawnMize for all his hard work on the artwork.
More along the lines of self promotion- This past week I went from being the Q and A’er to the Q and A’ee for three different blogs: Bert Flex, Pitchers Hit Eighth, and the Baseball Zealot, which is a podcast. I admit I was feeling a little out of it while fighting a stomach bug so hopefully I don’t sound like a total doofus. I’m afraid I may have, but it was fun nonetheless. I’d love to have an FR podcast one day.
Allen Craig was ranked third on Baseball America’s weekly Hot Sheet after hitting for a blistering 536/.581/.786 this past week. Craig has been en fuego since the TL all-star break, hitting .368/.417/.641 in 117 at bats. Ben Badler also fielded a question about Craig in his weekly chat, with an encouraging report on his glove work.
Q: Brandon from Nashville, TN asks:
With David Freese (not a great prospect, but not doing too bad) blocking Allen Craig at 3B in AAA, would Craig be able to handle a move to 2B?
A: Ben Badler: He’s a below-average runner with limited range, so I don’t think he would make that move. But one manager in that league did call Craig the best defensive third baseman he’s seen this year.
Maybe the question rather should be can Freese could play 2B. There’s also your weekly “is the sky falling in Colby land?” question in there, which Badler for the thousandth time this year dismissed the notion.
Steve Batterson looks at Richard Castillo and the inroads the Cards have made in Latin America under Luhnow’s oversight.
The farm goes 2-for-6 tonight.
Brian Barton 1-for-4.
Chris Carpenter 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2 HBP.
Jaime Garcia 2.1, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K.
Memphis hitters had a grand total of 4 singles as they were held in check by soft-tossing Josh Geer. Obviously the big story of the night was Chris Carpenter making his second rehab start, and just judging by his line he was a little more under control than his last outing, he had only one walk but he did hit a couple of batters. 53 of his 78 pitches went for strikes and encouragingly, he had 10 ground-outs to just 2 flies. He also allowed a double against Will Venable, a pretty good hitter.
Tyler Greene 4-for-5.
Daryl Jones 0-for-4, 2 K.
Kyle Mura 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K.
Tyler Greene was the offense for Springfield tonight; he’s enjoying a 14 17-game hitting streak, a franchise record for the Springfield Cards. Jon Jay nearly hit a go ahead HR taking the ball the track for the final out of the game. And Kyle Mura continues to be surprisingly good.
Palm Beach 7, Brevard County 3
Matt Arburr 3-for-4, 2B, BB.
Brandon Buckman 2-for-5.
Daniel Descalso 2-for-3, HBP.
David DeJesus 1-for-4, 2B, BB.
Shaun Garceau 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 1 K.
Elvis Hernandez 2 IP, 1 H, 2 K.
Casey Mulligan 2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 K.
This lineup is a whole lot less interesting without Daryl Jones. The main guy I’m watching is Tyler Henley, whose offense has gone kaput since coming back from a broken finger. Before the injury he had a .902 OPS, since being activated from the DL: .567. It looks like the Casey Mulligan project hits it’s first little speed bump tonight.
Quad Cities 13, Lansing 4
Paul Vasquez 2-for-3, 2B, HR, BB, HBP.
Thomas Pham 2-for-5, HR.
Aaron Luna 2-for-5, HR.
Pete Kozma 2-for-3, 2B, 3 BB.
Brett Wallace 0-for-5, BB.
Ryan Kulik 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 9 groundouts.
Jared Bradford 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 K.
Who art thou, Paul Vasquez? It’s time to move him up; he’s hitting .328/.381/.507 and he’s 20-for-42 at catching basestealers. At 23, I’m not sure what else he has to prove in low-A. Earlier this week I pointed out that Kozma hasn’t been walking much lately and he responded by drawing three tonight. Thanks for reading, Pete. He’s now enjoying a nice little hit streak himself; reaching safely in 11 straight games.
Jose Garcia 1-for-4, 3B, SB.
Christian Rosa 1-for-3, 2B.
Xavier Scruggs 2-for-4.
George Brown 3.2 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 K, 7 ground-outs to one fly out.
Thomas Eager 3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 K.
Since being demoted to Batavia Eager has 2:1 K/BB ratio and an ERA of 2.17, a stark improvement on the way he was pitching in the QC. Maybe it’s time to bring him back up?
Alex Castellanos 2-for-4, 2 SB, 2 K.
Matthew North 4 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 HR
Brett Zawacki 2 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 1 BB.
Carlos Gonzalez 0.2 IP, 4 ER.
I hadn’t heard if he was injured, but this was Zawacki’s first game back since July 2. He’s sporting an ERA of 7.47.
GCL Update: Ryde Rodriguez, last year’s big July 2 signing, has come on strong as of late, hitting .378/.431/.444 in the month of July. He’s upped his season line to .329/.376/.400 over 85 at bats. Devin Shepherd is also looking pretty decent, with a .302/.393/.377 line over 53 at-bats. His purported power is still yet to show but he’s getting on base. 17 year-old C Juan Castillo hit pretty well last year for the DSL Cardinals last year, and he has a .812 OPS so far in 53 at-bats. He’s 8-for-22 on caught stealing attempts. Gary Daley disaster report: The former 3rd rounder has allowed 19 walks, 6 hit-batsmen, 12 wild pitches and has allowed 19 ER in 6.1 innings. Anthony Ferrara has 13 K’s in 9 innings. Eric Fornataro has 9 K’s and 5 walks in 12 innings pitched, with 1 earned run.
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Erik,
I hope you are wrong (for once ;).
The SCards website said Greene is on a 17-game hit streak, a club record. The way he is knocking the cover off the ball, I hope he gets a chance to play at Memphis when Barden leaves for the USA team.
Going through the boxscores, I thought for sure it was 14 but I guess I was wrong. That’s great for Greene, I think he could definitely be in line for a promotion to AAA. He’s certainly at a AAA age at 24. It would be exciting if he puts it all together. Even if he hit just .245 in the majors, if he could hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases a season while playing solid D he’d be a pretty valuable piece.
I posted this same thing over at Cardstalk…but if you worry about Kozma and look for where his progress should be, look at fellow 1st rounder Kevin Ahrens in the same boxscore.
One is supposedly a run producing 3B, the other at #2 style SS…..Kozma is more then holding his own.
Kozma is a full year older….so I need to add that to the mix, but still…..:)
Cool idea about the t-shirts, Erik. I’ve been thinking about making t-shirts for a while now. Still working on the designs. Let me know how it goes.
What would it take to get Reid Brignac from the Rays? Ludwick? Ludwick and Kozma?
I saw where Maddon said that he thinks they have a real shot this year and may have to sacrifice some of their prospects for another right-handed hitting OF. They’ve already got Bartlett and Zobrist at SS.
wow, FR gear; I think you can count me in. I was thinking about it too but the stuff on my blog is not good enough to draw as many loyal readers as FR and VEB. hey erik, can you please add my blog to your blogroll? thanks!
The organization just promoted catcher Ismael Cardona from QC to Palm Beach. Not sure why they passed on Vasquez.
I’m the one that asked the Craig question in the chat. I do like that follow-up on the Craig question. Which of the two of Craig and Freese would you rather take over for Glaus in 2010? Of course, I would rather Wallace can stay at 3B and take over for Glaus.
I’m one of the kool-aid drinkers who think Wallace can stick at 3b, but if not, I think Craig is the better prospect of the two. I’m not the best at making comparisons but Craig has Garrett Atkins/Kevin Kouzmanoff/Chad Tracy upside at his absolute peak; solid BA, good power, so-so defense, so-so OBP; but I wouldn’t necessarily bet the farm he gets there. I’d give him a 50/50 shot he reaches that level of production, one red flag to me is home/road splits, which are rather alarming.
Freese represents to me someone with Pedro Feliz upside, but with a little less glove and a little more OBP. He’s someone who can play defense well-better than Craig-but won’t give you as much offensive production. Craig has above average potential at his position while Freese I see more as fringe-average. That’s my 2 cents, take it fwiw.
Reyes traded to Cleveland for a minor league reliever. Perdomo? Anyone know anything about him?
edit for the Reyes trade:
traded to the Indians for AA RP Luis Perdomo, a power arm with a plus-plus fastball, a decent slider, and a work-in-progress changeup. he regularly hits 95-96 apparently. he’s 24, which might be a little high for AA, but he’s doing well there.
AAARRGHHH. Is THAT the most that could be got for Reyes?
Brandon I’m glad you asked that question because I’ve been hoping Craig can make the move to 2nd base for awhile. He did play SS at California for 4 years so you would think his range is decent, but maybe not.
When I saw Craig play, he kind of reminded me of Kevin Millar at the plate. His numbers could be slightly similar to Millar’s. Its wishful thinking, but just think about those numbers for a 2nd baseman. Oh yeah.
Today is a happy day for me. Reyes was out of options so he would have had to make the major league roster next season or pass through waivers. Someone would have picked him up. He is not a TLR or DD type pitcher. Getting something for him is better than nothing.
All things said, my dream infield would be Wallace at 3B, Vazquez at SS, Freese/Craig at 2B, Pujols at 1B. Very wishful thinking i know. I would also be happy to sub Vazquez for Kozma, but I think we need another year to know who is gonna be able to make the move up the ladder.
I had read a story in the NewsTribune out of La Salle, Illinois that said Zawacki had a right foot injury. They had a story a couple weeks ago, and I don’t remeber thinking it was anything serious.