Let’s get quickly to the DFR tonight.
Pitchers Casey Mulligan and Clayton Mortensen both stay hot. Chris Swauger is the hero in Quad Cities.
You can read more about Swauger in erik’s interview from November, 2008 here.
About Mulligan- He throws a 91-92 MPH plus fastball and his off speed pitch of choice is a curveball that has been trouble for hitters because of the change of pace between the two. His curveball is still developing, but he has great command of both pitches as you can see in his low walk numbers. He’s certainly is aggressive in attacking hitters at witnessed by his gaudy strikeout numbers. He has 23 strikeouts vs. 2 walks in 11 innings. Those are like Nintendo numbers.
The organization went 1-2 tonight as Springfield was rained out.
- Clayton Mortensen started and was fantastic. He went 7 innings giving up 1 run on a solo home run. He only allowed 1 other hit. He walked 3, but struck out 7. He got 11 outs on the ground and 4 in the air. His ERA sits at 1.44 on the year. It looks like he has found his groove at AAA after the quick promotion last year.
- Charlie Manning had a good shutout 8th, but allowed a single on the first batter he faced in the ninth. It was because of that single that Manning took the loss.
- Matthew Scherer did not get anyone out after coming in for Manning by allowing a walk, single and a single to end the game.
- Bryan Anderson, C, was 3-4 with 2 doubles and a run scored.
- Donovan Solano, SS, was 1-3 with 1 RBI.
- Nick Stavinoha, 1B was 2-4.
- Breakout candidate Richard Castillo has been well…broken. He pitched 5.2 innings and gave up 3 runs. It could have been worse as he gave up 9 hits and 2 walks. He did strikeout 5, however.
- Thomas Eager stranded 1 runner for Castillo, but in the next inning he gave up 3 walks and 1 hit which resulted in 2 runs.
- Blake King stranded Eager’s 2 runners and walked 2 and struck out 2 over 1.2 innings.
- Curt Smith, LF, Shane Peterson, RF, Paul Vasquez, C, Domnit Bolivar, SS and Francisco Rivera, DH all had 1 hit a piece.
- Jose Garcia, 2B, did not have a hit, but had 2 walks and 2 stolen bases.
- Gary Daley was very bad in his 1.2 innings of work. He gave up 7 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks. But, at least 3 of his 4 outs came via the strikeout.
- Arquimedes Nieto was able to prevent further damage but producing a line out. He probably used his “Claw” to create such defense. Nieto went another 3 shutout innings scattering 2 hits and 2 walks with 2 strikeouts.
- Adam Veres continued his strong start to the season with 2 shutout innings.
- Ramon Delgado got the win with 1 inning stranding 1 hit and 1 walk.
- Casey Mulligan got the save by striking out the side again. Mr. Mulligan, Palm Beach is on line 2. Seriously, what else does he need to do to earn a promotion?
- Chris Swauger, 1B led the hitters by going 4-5 with 3 RBIs. He had the game-winning hit in the top of the 9th to plate two runs. He also had a stolen base.
- Osvaldo Morales, DH, went 3-5 with 1 RBI.
- Charles Cutler, C, went 1-3, but had 3 RBIs. He also allowed 4 stolen based, but caught one guy.
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Crazy @ Mulligan striking out the side again w/ no walks and hits. In his past 7 appearances in 7 innings, he hasn’t allowed a hit or a walk and has struck out 14 batters.
Great to see Mortensen with 2 hits, 3 walks, 7 K’s, and a GO:FO ratio of 11:4. Hopefully this is his breakout year in the upper levels.
Mulligan has already succeeded at Palm Beach…which is why it was a bit weird to start him a level *lower* in 2009.
Richard Castillo’s struggles can probably be traced to his shift from highly effective flyball/strikeout pitcher to mediocre groundball/run allowing pitcher. According to minorleaguesplits.com, last year Castillo had 38% grounders, 42% flies, and a stunning 19% infield popouts. This year? Just 7% infield pops, only 23% flyballs, and 52% grounders. Whether he’s doing this on his own or was directed to change, it definitely ain’t working so far.
If someone told Castillo there’s no such thing as a successful flyball pitcher with an 89-90 fastball, I would refer them to Woody Williams’ first 40 or so starts with the Cardinals, when he had an ERA+ in the 175 range.
Maybe Castillo is young & talented enough to eventually complete the “Duncan Transformation”, but I say leave ‘em the hell alone as long as he’s succeeding spectacularly. But that’s just me.
yeah, but I’m not month’s worth of data doesn’t seem to be enough to safely infer the Cardinals are forcing the two-seamer on him.
and the dude did give up quite a few homers, especially for a MWL pitcher, so it’s not a terrible idea even if they are pushing the sinker on him.
You guys might be interested in a video on our site of Pete Kozma getting a little rookie hazing up in Springfield: http://www.news-leader.com/section/VideoNetwork&pid=ef2a0df9ad8d96bac465075615df4c1ba9edf875&videoid=1115052649
I need to add a “like” button to the comments.
You know what would be very cool? If a story could be done comparing Lance Lynn and Clayton Mortensen. I think these 2 have established themselves as our top 2 pitching prospects and seem to be Dave Duncan kind of guys.
Way too early to start with the “Duncan Transformation” conspiracy theories on Castillo. His best pitch is a curve ball, I think, so that could explain why he’s getting more groundballs if the fastball if FSL hitters are not missing as often on the fastball.
@PJ: you mean top two starters? Even then I am not sure. Todd, Salas, Samuel, Reifer can all contend from the Releif side, and Todd (again) and Garcia could from the starting side. In the top 5 maybe, but I wouldn’t go as far as top 2 just yet.
Yes starters. Todd I count as a reliever and Garcia is injured. By default, these are the best starters we have. I also think they work well in our particular system. Our system improves their upside. Garcia has similar upside, but being lefthanded has a different projection to me.