The meat is in the DFR tonight, folks. Time is not on my side today.
Speaking of time, the MLB draft and July 2nd international signing day are both sneaking up on us as well. As for July 2nd, I have no idea why I get so excited about the signings of 15 and 16 year old kids who I have never seen before and may never see ever, but I do. Love it!
Arquimedes Nieto continues to make me find new inventions online, Brian “Don’t call me Matthew” Broderick had a great outing, Casey Mulligan demands attention and Adam Ottavino existed.
Memphis 3, Reno 2 (12 innings) – UPDATED
- Adam Ottavino started for the Redbirds tonight. He went 5 innings and gave up 0 runs on 2 hits. He struck out 4, but walked 6. He had 7 groundouts to 3 flyouts. I will leave it to you to draw your own conclusion.
- Kat Maekawa gave up 1 run in his 1 inning of work.
- Matt Scherer pitched 2 shutout innings with zeroes across the board. He induced 4 ground outs and 2 flyouts.
- Jess Todd pitched a scoreless 9th and 10th.
- Charlie Manning pitched a scoreless 11th.
- Fernando Salas allowed 1 run on 2 hits and a walk in the 12th, but..
- To quote Memphis25, “Odd finish as a the ball was dropped by the Reno’s 2nd baseman Ruben Gotay trying to throw on a double play allowed Donovan Solano to score from 2nd on the force out.”
- Brett Wallace, 3B went 3-6 as he continues to convince people that his bat will play anywhere.
- Donovan Solano, SS went 3-5.
- Javier Brito, 1B standing in for Steve Hill went 2-5.
- Tyler Herron started the game and gave up 1 earned run over 5 innings, but gave up 5 hits and 2 walks vs. 1 strikeout.
- Pete Parise followed with 2 shutout innings allowing only 1 hit and 1 walk.
- Tyler Norrick pitched 1 shutout inning as well and struck out 2.
- Francisco Samuel got the win by pitching a shutout ninth. I like all these shutout 9th innings.
- Peter Kozma, SS was the hero with a walk off single in the bottom of the ninth. However, he almost gave the game away with an error in the top of the 9th. The error was on a throw after a line-out, so maybe Kozma was trying to be Albert Pujols-like aggressive with the baseball. It was 1 of 2 throwing errors for him. He also went 3-5 at the plate.
- Antonio DeJesus, RF went 2-4. Don’t mess with DeJesus.
- Tony Cruz, C went 1-3 with a double, walk and RBI. Not all on the same play, that would be a record. He allowed 1 SB, but also caught the same guy once as well.
- Brian Broderick had a good outing over 8 innings. He struck out 2 and walked 0. 10 of his outs were on the ground and 10 were in the air. It’s just more democratic that way. He gave up 1 run and 4 hits as well.
- Blake King finished up the game with 1 inning of zeroes.
- Shane Peterson in RF had half the Palm Beach RBIs as he went 2-4 with a double, a HR and a walk.
- Domnit Bolivar at 3B went 2-5 with a triple.
- Matt Arburr DH’ed and went 1-4 with a 2 run HR.
- Arquimedes Nieto invented a water clock before the game and calmly went out and pitched 5 good innings. He gave up 3 hits, but struck out 6 and walked 0. His one and only run came on a single, a wild pitch and a double, all in a row. I think my Nieto shirt is going to say “Arquimedes Nieto blinded me with science” …or something more creative.
- Scott McGregor vultured the win with 2.1 shutout innings. He struck out 3 and walked none.
- Casey Mulligan saved the day again. He stranded McGregor’s 2 base runners in the 8th and got the 5 out save with 3 Ks.
- Charles Cutler, C led the hitters by going 3-4 with a double and an RBI.
- Big Osvaldo Morales, 1B went 2-4 with a double and an RBI as well.
- Nico Vasquez, SS was the only other player with a hit and he also had the last RBI.
Entries (RSS)
Come on man, Ottavino deserves more praise than that. He was able to keep all those runners from scoring he gave free passes to.
Adam Ottavino is quickly becoming the next Blake Hawksworth (who was the next Jimmy Journell … although Hawk is making a case this season that he is no longer the ghost of Journell).
Casey Mulligan is the only reason I check the QC box score.
Memphis down 2-1 in the 12th but with the bases loaded for Jon Jay.
Jay jumps all over the first pitch and grounds into a certain double play, only to have Reno throw the ball away and 2 runs score ending the game.
I saw that they won 3-2 and I was hoping it was a walkoff shot by Wallace…oh well, a win is a win.
Arquimedes sounds like an intriguing pitcher. I must assume with that name he throws a screwball.
Brett Wallace is the man no doubt.
Shane Peterson is becoming a guy to keep an eye on. A line of .314/.392/.450 is pretty good, considering the FSL is pretty pitcher-friendly. SLG% is kinda low, but if the power continues to develop, watch out. Only 21 years old too.
Charles Cutler is quietly having a good year at QC. .337/.404/.461 – 11 BB, 11 K…Not showing a lot of power, but he’s an on-base machine. He could use a promotion to Pam Beach, IMO.
(Side Note: I’m reading Moneyball for the 2nd time, so I have On-Base% drilled into my brain right now. Damn you, Billy Beane!)
Any word on steve hill’s injury? I saw he had one but haven’t seen reports of what it is or how long he’s out for?
Another day of Memphis pitchers keeping earned runs off the board, With the 2 in 12 innings today the Redbirds lowered its PCL best ERA down to 3.36 with an 2.90 ERA at home where they are holding opposing batters to a .222 average.
Odd finish as a the ball was dropped by the Reno’s 2nd baseman Ruben Gotay trying to throw on a double play allowed Donovan Solano to score from 2nd on the force out, Ottavino was wild as can be with 6 walks in 5 innings but managed to escape all his jams, 4 strikes to end his day allowed him to get on the plus side finishing with 48 strikes and 47 balls of his 95 pitches.
Donovan Solano is holding his own in Triple-A after a slow start, batting 11-for-25 .314 in his last 11 games, with only 3 strike outs but is yet to draw a Triple-A walk, Jon Jay extended his hit streak to 6 game with five multi hit games, Javier Brito doing the job they got him for getting on base in all 5 games with the team, Fernando Salas picked up the win but gave up a run for the 3rd straight appearance.
Memphis picking up 15 hits in 2 of the last 3 games have closed the gap for the worst hitting team int he PCL down to .236 vs.234 behind the Portland Beavers who Memphis will see in the 2nd stop of its 8 game Pacific Northwest road trip that starts Thursday in Tacoma. Roster move made today with Mike Folli getting sent back to Springfield.
The VSL Cardinals won 8-4 in the season opener.
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&gid=2009_05_18_vcarok_vphrok_1&cid=651&t=g_box
Thanks all – I’ve updated the post with your information!
No VSL love? Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals are in first place!
Mike — this comes up every year but we simply don’t cover the VSL and the DSL clubs. The talent level of the team and competition is questionable. Frankly though, we don’t have the capacity to cover the 4 full season clubs, Batavia and Johnson City in addition to the VSL and DSL. When/if players graduate from those leagues they’ll get covered.
i might do a semi-regular update, but the thing is unless the player was a july 2 signing, we know less than nothing about the player.
Tom S., according to the Springfield paper, Steven Hill is day to day and wasn’t seriously injured. Same can’t be said for Andrew Brown who is out at least six weeks with a broken wrist.
Az, are you guys going to do a recap of the VSL and DSL this year? I think a monthly or weekly recap would fill that void somewhat. Also, I think the Cards need to consider promoting Amaury Antonio Cazana as long as he still is technically a member of their organization. The man has a 1.041 OPS currently in Mexico
Mexico is a sub AAA environment so I don’t know that I’d read too much into it. I suspect that the Cardinals have realized his defense is limited and that the bat just isn’t going to play in the majors. If we haven’t seen him yet given the state of our outfield, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Still not sure why Amaury Cazana Marti Antonio George Costanza Mark Martin Bischoff hasn’t gotten more of a look….you think the cardinals program has a name limit?
Az, I was thinking more about during interleague. People keep bringing up the “wallace to DH” arguments, which I think is absurd, but if Marti isn’t going to be worth that much to us in the long run, why not bring him up to DH for a bit then send him back?
I am a little surprised by how much success Mulligan has had on the mound to this point. I wonder if a little bit of it is because he’s still sneaking up on people. It looks like he’s only throwing 2 pitches, but he mixes up his arm slot. I’ve seen him throw off-speed pitches from straight over the top, side-arm and 3/4. He mainly throws his fastball from straight over the top, but last time I saw him I was trying to “cal” his pitches based on his windup and right when I thought I had him figured out he dropped down and threw a side-arm fastball that froze the batter and just caught the outside of the plate for strike 3. It also seems like he speeds up his motion when the fastball is coming. However, there is no doubt the guys he is facing are having trouble catching up to his fastball.
Just an idea for a post if any of the writers get bored, but it might be cool to do a “Where are they now” on the Batavia players from last season who won their league championship, and see how they’ve progressed this year. I think Curt Smith was on that team and he’s already in Springfield now. And Shane Peterson who skipped past Quad Cities and is now doing well in PB.
Any info on Osvaldo? It seems like every time I check the DFRs, he’s raking.
Here’s my thoughts on Ottavino.
I have never seen him pitch, but I am assuming he was a first round pick due to his velocity. Also didn’t he have some shoulder issues?
I am wondering if his walks are due to some changes made in his mechanics? In AAA he’s still working on his “stuff”, I’ll bet he has to throw a steady diet of FB, sliders (what the power guys have to do), inside and outside corners? In milb, you don’t get to throw your best pitch everyday, and wow does that mess you up bigtime if it isn’t working. Makes you look like a bad pitcher to those who don’t know that stuff either.
He’ll get it together, the most talented ones always do, it just may take more time than sone would like. I just don’t get the negative comments.
He did his job last night, he kept the other team scoreless. Pitchers may not always have a pretty outing, basball just doesn’t work that way. This game is not a sprint, but a marathon.
Also, I don’t think Broderick had a good night, he had a GREAT night.