Went and saw Angels & Demons at theaters today. I fell asleep during the movie twice (it was 4pm show). You know how sometimes if you fall asleep in unusual places you’ll wake up and your whole body will spasm rigid or jerk as you wake. Ya, I did that twice and kicked the persons chair in front of me hard. Anyway, for a movie review that I think hits it dead on read this. The book, as is often the case, was better at providing context to the events and characters. The ending in the book was far better as well.
Here’s the mock draft thread for the Cardinals’ over at Minor League Ball. Unclebuck44 is running the draft for the birds on the bat this year.
- Jon Jay was 2-for-5 with a double.
- Casey Rowlett went 2-for-4.
- Brett Wallace, determined to make me look foolish later this week when I disagree with his promotion, went 3-for-4 with a double.
- Allen Craig went 2-for-4.
- 1B Javier Brito went 2-for-4 with a double.
- PJ Walters pitched the best game we’ve seen out of the minors this season. He struck out 8 in a complete game effort allowing just 1 unearned run. He allowed just 3 hits and 1 walk. Kudos to Walters for a tremendous showing.
- Daniel Descalso was 2-for-4.
- Steve Hill left the game with an apparent injury.
- Curt Smith went 2-for-4.
- Mark Hamilton continues his tear through AA. He hit a HR and walked twice. He has a .941 OPS so far this season.
- Pete Kozma was 0-for-4 and is now hitting under .200 at AA.
- Brandon Dickson allowed 7 hits over 5 innings. There were just 2 ER but his defense accounted for another 3 unearned during his time on the mound.
- Brad Furnish allowed 3 runs retiring just 2 batters.
- Adron Chambers went 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Palm Beach collected just 5 hits and 1 walk.
- Richard Castillo had a good outing striking out 7 over 6 innings of work. He allowed 5 hits and 2 walks for 2 ER.
- Sam Freeman pitched a perfect inning — all zeros.
- Mark Diapoules walked 1, allowed a hit and struck out 1 over 2 innings.
Quad Cities 6, Kane County 5 (13 innings)
- Frederick Parejo was 2-for-6 with a double.
- Osvaldo Morales was 1-for-4 with a pair of walks and a HR.
- Niko Vasquez was 2-for-6 with a HR. HL is sad he didn’t get this DFR right now.
- Adam Veres struck out 5 in 4 innings. He allowed 5 hits and 2ER walking 2.
- Jonny Bravo‘s ERA = 21.94. That is all.
- Miguel Tapia stranded a lot of runners allowing 3 hits and 4 BBs but no runs. He struck out 2.
Entries (RSS)
Are all the guys who were playing at Batavia, JC, and GCL last year in Florida right now? I’m asking partly as a general curiosity and partly wondering what Bravo was doing before he was called up.
A lot of those players are at extended spring training. They aren’t being called into action cold if that’s what you are wondering.
Got back from the QC game a while ago (we left after the 11th inning). A handfull of observations:
* Oswaldo Morales swings the bat with authority.
* Watching Niko Vazquez fly out early in the game, I was rather surprised to see that he had zero HR on the year – he had a nice swing and seemed to drive the ball well. His next AB, he rewarded this train of thought.
* Travis Mitchell, the LF, had a spectacular bunt for a single. He seems like a bit of a one-dimensional speed player, though.
* Roberto Espinoza didn’t have an impressive night behind the plate – he had one passed ball and a wild pitch that struck me as borderline. (The other wild pitch went a few feet above his head, so that one almost certainly wasn’t his fault.) His instincts when going after those balls seemed a bit faulty as well – I think “tenative” is the best description I can come up with.
Mitchell and Jarred Bogany seem to have played a combined one game between them going into tonight, which struck me as odd. Checking their stats, they don’t seem to have played anywhere else in the minors this season either.
:(
What a night for the Memphis offense matching the season high with 15 hits with everyone including the Walters picking up a hit, Memphis lowered its home ERA down to 3.16 while holding opponents to a .226 BAA this year at AZP.
Walters has hasn’t allowed an ER at home in his last 17 IP since giving up a grand slam to Redbird killer Travis Metcalf who also had a 3 run HR off PJ in his first start back from St Louis this year.
Reno’s Brandon Watson had 3 Outfield assists tonight, Jon Jay now has 4 multi hit games in a row, and former Redbirds Mike McCoy .374 and Hector Luna .359 are 4th and 5th in the PCL in hitting.
Welcome back, Richard Castillo.
April: more than twice as many GB as FB, and just 2(!) K’s per 9 IP.
May: 50% more flies than grounders, and over 10 K’s per 9.
If Wallace hits extremely well in AAA, but shows so-so glovework, is he the Third Baseman Of The Future…or merely an outstanding trade chip come July (esp. to an A.L. team)? Me, I’d rather keep him.
I hope that Kozma figures it out at AA. I wasn’t and am not worried about Wallace. He’ll hit. He has a major league bat. The only question is whether he’ll field well enough to stay at 3b. From what I’ve read, his glove isn’t bad, but his range is bad. You can’t teach someone to have better range.
Great article in the Post today about Jose Martinez getting ready to rejoin Springfield this week…
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/B7FD3A187F992D50862575B900100168?OpenDocument
when I heard Wallace was moving up, I thought that maybe this would be one of those cases where a guy just didn’t get it together at one level, but did better higher up. I hope Wallace continues to hit at AAA. Again, he is not on the 40 man roster and I don’t forsee him coming up in September because of that. With Wallace at 3rd and Schu at 2nd, you would need an outstanding shortstop between them. someone with monster range. Ryan may earn that spot just because of his glove, or maybe that Ludwick/Escobar trade starts making more sense. Of course then you would have to flip Ankiel/Duncan for a RH outfielder. PJ seems to be a 4A guy, a trick pitch guy w/o enough stuff to make it in the majors.
Brett Wallace will more than likely be playing left field in the pro’s. The guy is just too thick in the legs which causes his quick respones range to basically be non-existent. His only defense at 3rd is to dive in front of the ball and hope he deflects it with his massive legs and arms.