Daily Farm Report 8/25/08
Posted on August 25th, 2008 by azruavatar in Brett Wallace, Daily Farm Reports, Daryl JonesKevin Goldstein has either read some comments on this site or you’ve been e-mailing him. Two Cardinals make his Monday Ten Pack. The first is Daryl Jones whom Goldstein says will get plenty of top-100 consideration. I have a hard time picking on Kevin for dropping Jones off his top 10 list last year. I barely kept him on my top 25 list. . . he was almost a throw in down at the bottom. I’m sure we’ll have some post-mortems of the top-25 list once the season is over but Jones is definitely one I’d like a do-over on.
Brett Wallace also makes the ten pack:
I don’t think anyone is all that surprised that Wallace has an overall batting line of .341/.430/.549 in his first 46 pro games. The guy can hit—nobody questions that at all—although many still wonder where the defensive liability fits in with the Cardinals big-league roster, and at this rate, they’ll need to come up with an answer more quickly than expected.
Goldstein’s spot on and I’m not sure the Cardinals have answer all their questions about Allen Craig’s defense much less Wallace’s. (PS – Kevin’s been stepping his game up lately, imo, after a bit of a slump in his writing. He remains one of the foremost reasons that I subscribe to BP.)
Memphis Redbirds are officially eliminated from playoffs.
Jose Martinez out for the season on foot injury.
That comfort level is what has kept Kinney out of commission for so long. He could throw fastballs as early as spring training but has only recently been able to throw breaking balls without pain.
“The doctors told me it would take a little while to heal, and they were right,” he said. “I’ve been throwing really well the last three weeks, and here I am.”
Todd, Craig and Salas all named to the All-Star team.
Daryl Jones was the Texas League player of the week. Nick Additon was the FSL pitcher of the week.
Sorry for the delayed DFR. This is Erik..I’m willing to bet $100 that AZ unexpectedly lost his power or his internet, as the post was just a few lines away from being complete and then suddenly was cut off mid-sentence. Anywho, the farm goes 2-for-5 tonight.
Memphis was postponed.
- Andrew Brown was 1-for-2 with a HR and a pair of walks.
- Adam Ottavino’s struggles continue. I wonder how much damage he’s done to his prospect status this year? He’s certainly out of the top 10. Top 25. . . I dunno. He lasted 5.2 innings but that included 9 hits and 4 ER. He struck out 4 and walked 1. Something just isn’t working this season.
- Luke Gregerson picked up the win with 2 perfect frames striking out 4.
Palm Beach 3, Brevard County 7
- Antonio DeJesus was 4-for-4 with a walk.
- Tyler Henley was 2-for-5 with a HR. If you neutralize his stats for park and luck, he’s got an OPS of .867 — Henley is having a heck of a year even with the injury interruption. Yet another outfielder that the Cardinals have coming up.
- Charles Kingrey was 2-for-4.
- Not a good pitching night as Shaun Garceau was touched up for 5 runs on 5 hits while walking 5 batters.
- Adron Chambers and Francisco Rivera were both 2-for-4.
- Curt Smith was 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles.
- Jon Edwards was 2-for-5.
- D’Marcus Ingram went yard.
- Chuckie Fick had a so-so outing allowing 7 hits over 7 innings. He walked 2 and struck out 4 while allowing 2 runs on a home run.
- Scott McGregor allowed 1 hit and struck out 1 in his inning of work.
- Jose Garcia and Colt Sedbrook both collected a pair of hits with a double.
- Shane Peterson was 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles.
- Charles Swauger was 3-for-5 with a triple.
- Jason Buursma pitched a scoreless 1 hit, 1 K 9th. DO NOT LOOK AT THE OTHER PITCHING LINES!!!!11!!!!1 MAY CAUSE BLINDNESS AND/OR NAUSEA!!!!!111!!!11
- Jose Mateo and Guillermo Toribio were 2-for-4.
- Jack Cawley was 0-for-1 with 3 walks.
- Michael Blazek struck out 4 in 4 innings with a run allowed on 4 hits. No walks.
- Reynier Gonzalez allowed 3 runs and retired only one man.
- The other Gonzalez, Carlos struck out 3 in 3.1 IP.
Down in the GCL, Colby goes yard. He went 3-4. And Gary Daley still can’t throw strikes.
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Ottavino has had a tough year. The First half he had it really bad…the second half hasn’t been too bad…he has a 4.20 in 11 starts or 60 innings…better than Mortensen had. Also a bapip of 345…i don’t know what to make of it but I think hell be fine. First half killed him and who knows how hurt he was…not many walks for him lately…i expect him to bounce back next year
No GCL update?
Rasmus: 3-4 with a HR and 2 RBI
The site cut out on me last night at 11:00pm — and I was tired. I had a GCL update in the last few lines. . .
Henley’s having a good season, but he’s at the back of a pretty long line of outfielders with similar skill sets. At 23, he’s the same age as Jay, who’s two levels ahead. He’s 14 months older than Colby and two years older than Jones.
That said, I’d love to see what he could do in a full season without injuries.
Quad Cities – Promoted P Scott McGregor from Johnson City.
Brett Wallace turned 22 today.
Happy birthday, “defensive liability”! (Goldstein’s words, not mine.) Where, if anywhere, can we get Wallace’s defensive numbers from college?
For the sake of argument, let’s say BW is way below average but not a true disaster defensively. Let’s say he costs 15 runs a year at 3rd base. That’s worth about 50-60 points of OPS. Therefore…if he can put up an annual OPS of .850, he’s an average MLB 3rd baseman. And I think everyone expects much more than .850–and heavy on the OBP. I’d love to see him stick at third.
I was able to catch last weeks Springfield/NW Arkansas game. Without sugar coating it, Wally has some range issues. He’s a little “stiff” around the bag and he looked pretty bad going to his right. That being said, I’ve watched Glaus all year and in my not at all pro scout opinion I don’t see him costing them any more runs than Glaus does. He’s sure handed when he gets to balls and he has more than enough arm for the position.
Sure Wallace can hit, but the thing that stood out the most to me about him, seeing him live, was his atheticism. He’s a big guy no doubt, but he kind of reminded me of Brian Giles, kind of an akward frame but he runs and throws really smooth, really kind of nimble around the bases, always running hard, kind of struck me as a hardnose kinda guy. It was seriously impressive to see him run, dare I say he’s actually kind of quick for his size.
Wallace was described as (paraphrasing from yesterdays post) as being able to get the balls he should get by his manager. I think Erik suggested that this is a manager’s way of saying – ‘meh, not that great’. But this is also how Gluas was described defensively in a recent StL PD article – and Glaus is having what has to be considered an above average year defensively. I have never watched wallace play, but it seems to me that he doesn’t have to be a defensive wizard with a bat like he has, and I think people are spending way too much time and effort trying to find another position for him already. Let him hit the hell out of the ball for a year, potentially improve his defense, and worry about the where when it comes time for that.
I think one thing that gets overlooked about Wallace is that this is his first year at third base. He played first base for his first two years at Arizona State, people need to give him time to grow into the position. I think what speaks volumes about him is that even as he has been asked to learn a new position his hitting has not suffered. Think about what might happen with his bat when he does settle in and get comfortable at third!
1. Even though Glaus is “average”, he is leading the majors in fielding percentage at 3rd base.
2. Brett Wallace is surprisingly light on his feet on the basepaths. He has tree trunks for legs but the boy can move on the basepaths.
3. I believe in Daryl Jones
As of Jul. 15, Glaus was a +16 in John Dewan’s system. That was second to Scott Rolen. So Glaus is being seriously underrated in this comment section.
Want to talk about defensive liability? Pete Kozma booted another ball last night. His error totals are starting to be of concern.
Per BA Prospect Blog:
“Cardinals catcher Juan Castillo, 18, tested positive for metabolites of Stanozolol. He was playing in the U.S., in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League, where he was batting .293/.384/.400 in 75 at-bats.”
If you need steroids to slug .400 in the GCL, that’s God’s way of telling you a big-league career isn’t going to happen.
Allen Craig is off the DL. Playing LF tonight. Jones moves to RF. Wallace at 3B. Zuercher was released.
Wow. They moved fast on Zuercher. Does this continue my run of getting sub-par relievers booted? Because I called that like 2 days ago (if not quite as fast).
I am secretly Jeff Luhnow.