John Sickels compares a current Cardinal prospect to former Cardinal underrated hero, Ray Lankford:
Jones looks like a tools player who has developed his skills very well. His balance of tools and skills continues to remind me of Ray Lankford.
I’m not sure I see that much power in DJ’s future — he’s more of a .150 ISO where Lankford was over .200 for his career.
Memphis Game still in progress — writeup in the morning. Synopsis so far: Hawksworth struggles with command. Allen Craig continues to make a case why he should be in STL instead of Freese. Anderson picks up his first PB of the season.
- Tyler Greene was 3-for-5 with a double. He missed a golden opportunity this spring and is probably bound to stay in Memphis all year with Thurston and Barden backing up big Greene. All that aside, he’s making the most of Memphis so far hitting .342/.405/.579. The 11/3 K/BB ratio makes it look like he really hasn’t learned anything but we’ll have to see if he can sustain this.
- Joe Mather was 0-for-5 with 2 punchouts.
- Allen Craig was 2-for-2 with a double and 2 walks. I still regret not ranking him over Freese on my prospect list.
- Brian Barton was 0-for-2 with a pair of walks and a SB.
- Bryan Anderson was 1-for-4 with a double but allowed a passed ball.
- Blake Hawksworth struggled with his command allowing 5 walks in 5 IP. They only scored 2 ER with 4 additional hits and Hawk struck out 3.
- Marco Gonzalez allowed 4 ER in his 2 IP.
- Royce Ring allowed 2 runs (1 earned — a HR) in the 8th.
- Antonio DeJesus was 2-for-5.
- Brett Wallace was 0-for-4 dropping his average down to .242. This isn’t anything to be worried about yet since a) it’s only 33 ABs and b) his OPS is over .900.
- Steven Hill and Daniel Descalso both went 2-for-4.
- Tyler Henley was 1-for-2 with the only extra base hit (double). He was also hit by a pitch.
- Brad Furnish scattered 6 hits across 6.2 IP for 1 ER. He walked 1 and struck out 2. He recorded 13 outs in the air (normally a bad ratio) but didn’t allow any extra base hits so I’m guessing that batters weren’t squaring up well.
- Tyler Norrick allowed 1 hit and struck out 2 in 1.1 innings.
- Francisco Samuel walked 1 in his scoreless frame.
- Jermaine Curtis was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Curt Smith, back at 1B, was 3-for-4.
- Jose Garcia was 2-for-3 with a double.
- Mark Diapoules was (somewhat) effectively wild allowing 2 ER in 4 innings of work. He walked 4 allowing just 1 hit while striking out 2.
- Thomas Eager picked up the win pitching a 1-hit 5th with 3 Ks.
- Ryan Kulik gets the “save” with 4 innings of 4-hit, 5 strikeout ball.
- 2-for-4: Charles Cutler, Jon Edwards (double), Domnit Bolivar
- Fun fact: There were zero walks in this game for both teams.
- Curious George Brown allowed 5 hits for 4 runs (3 earned) in 3 innings of work. He struck out 2 according to the creepy man wearing all yellow with a 10 gallon yellow hat on his head. Where do you find a 10 gallon yellow hat? And why doesn’t that guy have a name? Is he in the witness protection program or something?
- Kevin Thomas came on in relief allowing 1 hit in 2IP w/ 2 Ks.
- Gary Daley wilted under the pressure of danup’s VEB scrutiny. He allowed 4 hits (3 HRs) for 4 ERs. On the plus side, he struck out 6 batters.
- David Carpenter struck out 2 to finish the game pitching the 9th.
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I have been following Daley with near morbid fascination since danup’s post. I died a little inside when I saw the three longballs. Looks like he’s adding the other true outcome….
Azru – what’s the dish on hill? Is he projected as a major leaguer? And as a catcher? Utility man?
And other than sickels, who are your favorite prospect analysts?
They’re working Hill in with Tony Cruz at catcher but if the organization doesn’t like Bryan Anderson’s defense behind the plate, I’d be shocked if either of Hill/Cruz stick there. For Hill, if he can’t make it at catcher, he’s going to be either a corner outfielder or a 1B. The offensive expectations for those positions are high and while he’s got a decent bat, I just don’t see it being good enough for those positions. He’s not a major leaguer for me.
For me, it’s more about credibility in reporting and analyzing than agreeing with an analyst. In addition to Sickels, I feel like Law, Goldstein and Baseball America have put themselves in a position where they’re consistent in what they are looking for and how they evaluate prospects. I don’t always agree with them (BA is obsessed with changeups for pitchers) but you reach a point where you know the tendencies of other analysts it helps to glean what you want from their evaluations. If Joe Schmo started posting detailed breakdowns of prospects that were consistently well articulated and accurate, I’d read those too.
I was thrilled to see Daley’s line – 0 walks! when one has struggled as he has, learning to throw thhe ball over the plate without fear of the outcome is the big challenge. He may have accomplished that last night. Now he can work on refining the placement of the pitches knowing that he can put the ball over the plate when he needs to.
The Memphis game was delayed over an hour, so that could have led to Hawksworth’s high number of walks. And from what I understand, he got squeezed by the ump quite a few times, and his line does not do justice to how well he pitched.
I actually think the Jones/Lankford comp is pretty spot on. Look at Ray’s minor league numbers, it would have been hard to imagine that kind of power for him as well…until he did it.