Because KLaw’s comments went over so well, let’s toss some more fuel on the fire:
psugator01 (Coral Springs, Fla.): Is there anything about Jason Motte‘s mechanics that would prevent the Cardinals from naming him their closer?
Kevin Goldstein: I’m not sure I have something against his mechanics, it’s just a bit weird because the second he throws, you KNOW he’s a converted catcher. I think the bigger concern is his secondary stuff, but he really can bring it and he’s worth a look.
If you take Jason Motte‘s slider in isolation, I don’t think it’s an average pitch. The movement is ok but not great. It’s not particularly deceptive and he’s really using it to give the hitter a different look, not get an out. The pitch works because he’s got such a straight, high velocity fastball. I’ve seen him toss a couple truly good sliders this spring but they’re erratic. Any professional level pitcher is going to whip off a good slider on occasion but not all of them can do it consistently. Motte’s been working on this pitch for quite some time now and I haven’t seen enough to make me think he’s really taken that next step forward with it.
Matt (St. Louis): Possible Memphis rotation of Boggs, Hawksworth, Todd, Walters, Mortenson – who has the best chance to stick in the majors?
Kevin Goldstein: More to come again next week on some spring training scouting reports, but Todd has definitely opened some eyes this spring.
That’s a solid AAA rotation but it has little in the way of upside for the majors. Maybe two of those guys become backend pitchers. Perhaps you have higher hopes for Todd.
Reassigned to AAA: Tyler Greene, Blake Hawksworth, Jon Jay, Fernando Salas, Bryan Anderson
None of those should be terribly surprising although the Anderson assignment is a bit worrisome. We’ve seen a couple of notes in the paper and heard comments on the radio about how everyone loves Matt Pagnozzi‘s skills behind the plate. Unfortunately, he sucks fiercely at the plate unlike Mr. Anderson. Anderson isn’t likely to be a world beater but you’ve got an opposite handed catcher who can hit well to platoon or spell your starter . . . and you go with Pagnozzi. Bryan Anderson is shaping up to be a controversy in the next year or so.
Be sure to check out Brian Walton’s notes from the day here (bottom of post). He’s got some great photos as well.
Onto John Vuch’s notes for the day:
Memphis 11, Buffalo 3
- Jess Todd got the start and went 3 innings. He had a rough start giving up 3 in the first but settled down allowing 6 hits, 3 run (2 earned) walking 1 and K’ing 1.
- Charlie Manning, Tyler Norrick, Matt Scherer and Marco Gonzalez combined to finish off the Mets affiliate for the latter 6 innings.
- The hitters were where it was at though. Allen Craig went 3-for-5 with a double and a HR. The Cardinals must really have doubts about his glove because he’s raked this whole spring and still wound up behind Mather and Freese at 3rd. I don’t get it.
- Catcher Justin Knoedler went 2-for-4 with a 2-run bomb.
- Brian Barton was 2-for-3 with a HR and 2 BBs. He made a “nice sliding catch in CF” defensively.
- Amaury Marti went 2-for-4. Speaking with the official scorer after the game, his line was changed to 4-for-2. Because he’s Amaury Marti. And he can do that.
- Casey Rowlett was on base three times with a pair of hits and a walk.
- Shane Robinson, before pulling double duty today, went 1-for-4.
- Nick Stavinoha and Mark Hamilton collected a hit and a walk each.
Springfield 9, Binghamton 5
- Brad Furnish had a nice outing. He went 3 innings allowing 2 hits a walk and 2 Ks. He could move up rapidly in the organization due to the lack of viable lefties.
- Kyle Mura tossed two perfect innings.
- Kenny Maiques continues to struggle allowing 3 runs in 1 IP.
- Elvis Hernandez was also hit hard for 2 runs in 1/3 IP.
- 1 H, 1 K, 1 IP: Jon Mikrut, Sam Freeman
- Brett Wallace was 3-for-5 with a double.
- Daryl Jones was 2-for-5 with a double.
- Jim Rapoport had a triple.
- Mike Folli was 3-for-4 with a double.
- Paul Vazquez had a double.
Palm Beach 6, St. Lucie 0
- David Kopp threw two hitless innings walking 1 and striking out 1. Good to see him pitching after the shoulder injury.
- Brian Broderick allowed 2 hits and struck out 2 in 2 IP.
- JD Stambaugh picked up the win with a pair of perfect frames.
- Scoreless frames: Davis Bilardello, Matt Spade, Eduardo Sanchez
- Curt Smith was 2-for-3 with a double.
- Aaron Luna was 2-for-3.
- Jon Edwards, Tommy Pham and Charlie Cutler all singled.
QC Team #1 5, Savannah 5
- The pitching started off well holding Savannah scoreless into the 8th. Deryk Hooker struck out 2 in 2 perfect innings.
- Ramon Delgado (2 IP), Zach Pitts (2 IP), Gary Daley (1 IP) all had scoreless efforts as well.
- Miguel Tapia allowed 2 runs on 2 hits and a walk in 1 IP.
- Matt Frevery allowed the remaining 3 runs on 2 hits and a walk.
- Beau Riportella had a solo shot and a walk.
- 2 hits: Domnit Bolivar, Alex Castellanos, Ryde Rodriguez
- Singled: D’Marcus Ingram, Travis Mitchell
QC Team #2 3, WFAST 11
- I have no idea what WFAST stands for. I do know it’s a band of remaining free agents that have formed up a team to play these minor league scrimmages when possible. Let’s get some suggestions for the acronym in the comments. (Must make some semblance of sense and not be vulgar.)
- Randy Santos was saddled with the loss allowing 4 ER on 4 BBs and a hit in 1.1IP.
- Kevin Siegrist struck out 2 allowing 2 hits and an unearned run in 1.2 IP.
- Miguel Flores allowed 3 hits and a walk in his inning of work.
- Reynier Gonzalez was tagged for 2 runs (1 earned) on 4 hits in 2 IP.
- Daniel Richardson allowed 3 unearned runs in an inning.
- Jason Buursma struck out 2 in a scoreless inning.
- Paul Cruz was 2-for-4.
- Edgar Lara had a long HR to CF.
- Jairo Martinez and Kevin Moscatel mustered the only other hits for the QC team.
As always, thanks to Mr. Vuch for the reports and insight into the minor leagues during Spring Training.
Entries (RSS)
The Pagnozzi thing is disturbing, as a I said at VEB. The fact that Hungo is already ‘staying on message’ with Pagz(s?) makes it seem that there is indeed some fire behind this smoke. If a guy that couldn’t hit AA pitching and struck out as often as he recorded a hit has already moved to #3 in the organization on the catching depth chart, I hope Yadi and LaRue sleep in hyperbolic chambers and travel in the PopeMobile in every venture of their life.
Buster Olney put out a “10 Players to Watch in ’09″ list today. At the top, our guy Jason Motte. Here’s what he wrote:
1. Jason Motte, Cardinals: He has the aggressive makeup to be a closer, he has the stuff to be a closer, and St. Louis — which was taken down by its bullpen failures last year — has the need. He’s looked good this spring, and his performance during the regular season could be pivotal.
Also, in yesterday’s (was it yesterday’s) DFR, someone asked where Pete Kozma and Niko “I don’t have to hit off you, you have to PITCH TO ME!” Vasquez were. Pete played for Palm Beach in a ST game on March 18th and Niko witnessed events so tiny and fast that they can hardly be said to have occurred at all in a ST game for Quad Cities.
I’m not sure if that is where both will end up once the season starts, but that is where both ended their seasons last campaign.
The Nico/Niko debate still rages on. John Vuch used Niko in his report, baseball-reference uses Nico. The MiLB draft site has it as Niko, for what it is worth.
Enigma indeed.
WFAST – Wandering Free Agents Spring Team/Training.
Just a guess
Jon Jay was impressive, he is just in an odd numbers game. I gotta think in most org’s he is on the 25 man roster to start the season. Heck, he could probably be the starting CF’ers in a couple of MLB teams, maybe even the Cubs?
For future reference can we just call Brad Furnish by his given name? Brad “I should have been Brett Anderson” Furnish?
:)
Picklefork, good call on Furnish. Every time I see Brett Anderson’s name I think of how he could have been a Cardinal. And then I die a little inside.
WFAST seems to stand for the “World Free Agent Spring Training club.”
See below(last year’s Birdhouse article):
http://stlcardinals.scout.com/2/741005.html
Killjoy
So are you going with Marti or Cazana I know the legend is strong enough to warrant 2 names but I think I remember Lunhow saying that Cazana was what he went by.
As for Bryan Anderson, I have to hope that they are sending him to Memphis to get regular playing time while they don’t mind having Pags wasting away on the bench during ST. To me this is much like sending Freese down to get some ABs while not competing with Mather.
Anyone have ST stats for Craig, Freese and Mather readily available? I would like to see their slash lines and counting stats to draw a true comparison. Everyone keeps talking about Craig hitting like crazy but I thought Mather and Freese have been doing pretty good too but I have been relying on game reports and haven’t had a good look at stats yet.
Sorry. I was thoughtless…
Amaury has gone by “Cazana” for at least a year but it’s a tough switch for some bloggers, established media, or the statistical Web sites. Most people go with the first name they were given on a guy and run with it. I doubt all of those sites will ever line up on a guy like Cazana. It has to be a big player like Albert (Joey) Belle before it catches on everywhere.
Tony Cruz gets listed as “Arnoldi Cruz” too much too, but most writers didn’t know he went by Tony until he reported to Florida.
Hopefully, both will break out enough for people to make the switch.
As for Anderson, I would imagine the company line is that he needs to get more at-bats.
“These guys, every one of them, [need to play every day],” said manager Tony La Russa. “Anderson’s got to play. Greene’s got to play. Jay’s got to play. They’ve got to get out there and play every day in Triple-A.”
http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090322&content_id=4048684&vkey=news_stl&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl
My opinion on the Anderson thing is that Tony really doesn’t like guys with flat billed hats.
“WFAST” = “Waiting, former athletes suck terribly.” (That’s not unacceptably vulgar, is it? If so, feel free to redact.)
Saw Allen Craig all last year in Springfield. Really dont understand why this guy isnt gettting more of a look. I know there are real concerns about his glove but that is the case with his competition as well.