I’m back late from a Cory Spinks-Ryan Latimore boxing match. I won’t spoil the outcome in case anyone reading the DFR has it DVR’d. We’ll do the full link round-up in Saturday’s DFR.
We’ve got winners with the exception of QC tonight.
Archive for April, 2009
Lots of DFR Entering this year the Oakland starters had a total of 64 career starts to their name: Dallas Braden: 24 I don’t think you’ll see a Cardinal rotation with that little experience in St. Louis anytime soon and you certainly won’t see that on a Tony LaRussa team. But there’s another aspect of these players that I think the Cardinals may take after.
With Springfield off tonight, let’s see if I managed the DFR more effectively than the Cardinals manage their 40 man roster. HEY-YOO! Pitch tracking his start on 4/19, below you’ll find the breakdown of Clayton Mortensen. It was a cold night, which likely led to more fastballs than usual. You’ll also note that I didn’t break out the sinkers against the four-seam fastball. It’s laziness on my part but I’d peg it around 80% sinkers and 20% pure fastballs. I don’t have much of a lead for today, but there is this: Steve Hill is ridiculous. He won’t stick at catcher, but can play there in the minors. He projects to be a first baseman or DH at major league level. It looks like he is a player that will play all over in the minors and let his bat decide the rest. And what a bat it is. You’ll have to read below to find out what he did today. Memphis got pounded and so did Palm Beach. Quad Cities won going away and Springfield won in regular style. It is all in the DFR!!! I found this horse the other day and I’m not sure if it’s quite dead, so I’m going to beat it some more. Boyer threw kinda hard in 2007 and was really good. He threw significantly harder in 2008 and wasn’t very good. Now he’s back down to 2007 velocity levels but he’s mixed in the 2008 results. Plenty of people have chronicled the trade and I don’t really care to rehash the positives and negatives of Boyer. What’s amazing to me, for all the kerfuffle that Perdomo’s claim by the Padres created, no one seems to blinked at the acquisition of Boyer. Whither Matt Scherer? Do the Cardinals believe they’ve acquired a legitimately better arm than the other in house options (Thompson, Scherer, Boggs, etc) represent out of the pen or are they going to wait out the season and make Scherer a casualty of a 40-man roster crunch? I’m still perplexed by this. If the Cardinals thought Scherer was worth protecting that would seem to imply that they view him as a major league caliber prospect. One has to wonder what the requirements are for him to finally make the major league team amidst a plethora of relievers who can’t seem to record outs. The trade, in and of itself, does little to excite or disappoint me. What it does do, is further illustrate the poor management of the 40-man roster this offseason. I’m also guessing that the Cardinals are missing this guy right about now. As everyone probably knows by now, Brian Barton, the outfielder has been dealt to Atlanta for relief pitcher Blaine Boyer. I did like Barton a lot and I think he’ll be a good player and I wish him the best of luck. However, at this point, I don’t have a huge problem with this deal. Barton was getting passed on the depth chart by other outfielders, and the Cardinals are dealing from their depth to solve problems with the big club. For Memphis, this cements the outfield as Jon Jay, Shane Robinson and Joe Mather. Memphis and Springfield were the only two teams in action tonight and the system went 2-0. DFR goodness after the jump! It took a while, but finally we are kicking off the college wrap. Every Monday from now until the draft either myself or Picklefork will provide you with a run down on how some of the top college prospects in the country performed over the weekend. This class isn’t nearly as strong as last year, but there is some talent especially at the top. Everyone knows the Cardinals’ preference for college players, so it is likely some of the top picks for the birds this year will come from players profiled in this update. Check them out after the jump. Baseball America ranked Memphis Autozone Park the best baseball park in the minor leagues. I know that I’ve really enjoyed my experiences there. If I had to describe it, I’d say that it has the look and feel of a major league park with a more relaxed and low-key atmosphere. In any event, I found this part of the article really interesting:
How disappointed would you have to be as the proprietor of this ballpark to watch the Grizzlies sweep in and scoop up your hard fought corporate dollars and a significant portion of the disposal income in the area? That has to be frustrating. Now for your weekly Brett Wallace defense update:
He’s slumping a bit with his offense right now but I’d still expect him to force his way into Memphis at some point this year. Matt Baker quick hits the problems with the Springfield bullpen. I’m going to have to disagree with him. I don’t see Samuel or Maiques being moved for another pitcher. Unless one of them is hurt, they’re going to be given every chance to work out their issues on the mound during games. They’re both good enough relief prospects to force that. Quad Cities, much like the big league club’s game, was rained out. |
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