Weekly Link Dump:
Need a Venezualan Summer League fix? Josh Jones has details over at The Cardinal Nation. It’s important to remember that stats from the VSL and DSL are going to be highly variable due to the quality of competition from a year to year basis. The league is probably on par with one of the short season clubs but not low-A ball.
Blake Hawksworth is having quite a run.
“It feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve had a stretch like this, but at the same time I’m trying not to make too much of a big deal out of it, just keep working,” said the 26-year-old Hawksworth (4-3).
I’m still not sold on Hawksworth being a major league caliber starter. He’s always been noted for his changeup but injuries robbed him of his velocity on his fastball.
Jon Jay just isn’t getting the hits to fall.
“I don’t worry about Jon Jay. He’s is a .300 hitter everywhere he’s gone, and he is still technically in his first trip around this league,” said St. Louis Cardinals’ minor league hitting coordinator Dan Radison, who was finishing up a weekend with the Redbirds on Monday.
“He’s also getting back to the things he does best, going to the gaps, hitting line drives. He’s a Wade Boggs-type hitter.”
That’s something of a tall comparison but I don’t think Jay’s slump is really a downfall yet. He’s got a .304 BABIP with 21% line drive rate, which speaks towards some bad luck.
Matt Baker has some updates on roster moves:
- Joe Williams release ends the brief Mike Marshall flirtation.
- Matt Arburr replaces Mark Hamilton who landed on the DL with a groin injury. If I ever feel a ‘pop’ down there, I think I’d cry like a little girl. It’s a tough break for Hamilton who was batting over .300, getting on base 45% of the time and slugging nearly .600.
- Jon Jay was 2-for-4 with a HR.
- Allen Craig was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Mark Shorey was 3-for-4 with a HR.
- Evan MacLane went 6.1 innings allowing 8 hits. He struck out 5 and walked 2. Most of the damage (3 ER) came on a 2-run HR.
- Josh Kinney pitched a scoreless frame striking out 1.
- The Destroyer, Jess Todd, was less than effective at gobbling up worlds this time. He takes the blown save allowing a Izzy-esque 3 runs while retiring just 2 batters. He’s still having a great season having struck out 27 in 21 innings. He’s walked a measly 7 and given up just 1 HR. If the Cardinals didn’t already have a gaggle of major league relievers and 40 man roster problems, Todd might be in the majors already. That said, if the Cardinals are committed to Todd in the bullpen then they shouldn’t hesitate to trade someone like Chris Perez or Jason Motte given the right circumstances.
Springfield 3, Tulsa 4 (10 innings)
- Daryl Jones was 2-for-5 witha walk.
- Steven Hill wears the golden somebrero for the week going 0-for-5 with 4 strikeouts.
- Tyler Henley was 3-for-4 with a triple and a walk. Quick guess who has the higher OPS between Henley & Jones. If you guessed Jones, you’re wrong.
- Trey Hearne allowed 2 solo HRs in 6 innings for the only scoring while he was on the mound. He allowed 1 other hit, walked 4 and struck out 2. I’m going to guess that it was a tight strikezone since QC batters drew 9 walks and Tulsa drew 6.
- Pop Warner went all Tony La Russa on us with a parade of relievers. Pete Parise pitched a scoreless inning. Tyler Norrick allowed a run to tie the game in his inning of work. Francisco Samuel allowed an earned run walking 2 and striking out 2. Eduardo Sanchez retired one batter and Brad Furnish retired a batter. 4 innings, 6 relievers.
- Colt Sedbrook was hit by a pitch and walked twice.
- Mark Diapoules had a Scott McGregor outing. One out, walking 3, hitting 1 and 1 hit all allowing 4 ER.
- Blake King struck out 4 in 2.2 innings of work. He walked just 1.
- Chuckie Fick pitched 2 scoreless innings.
- Sam Freeman pitched a scoreless frame.
- Osvaldo Morales, Jairo Martinez and Alex Castellanos all recorded 2 hits.
- Adam Veres struck out 3 in 4.2 innings. He allowed 1 walk and 5 hits for 2 runs (1 earned).
- Kevin Thomas allowed 3 walks and 4 hits in 1.2 IP. He was tagged for 3 runs.
- Casey Mulligan struck out 1 in 4 outs.
Entries (RSS)
Matt Arburr getting promoted is really surpising. The guy only strikes out nearly 50% of the time. You would think after 3 years in the system you would see some improvement, but none so far. Big guy 6-4 260, but not a very good hitter.
Tyler Greene is heading back to Memphis thanks to K Greene’s 6.5M salary. This move has BS writen all over it. If K Greene didn’t have a 6.5M salary he would be getting released or designated for assignment. After all, were do you get off sending down a guy that has been improving more and more with playing time hiting .263 for a guy hitting .210. I though the idea was to put the best team on the field or big club. K Greene is not a better field or even hitter at this point that Tyler Greene. Too bad mgmt can’t just dump 6.5M. But thier too cheap to do that. Looks like they eat Kennedy’s 4.0m only to make a trade for a guy 6.5M even worse than Kennedy. 10.5M what a big mistake.
Hey, I’ve been looking for scouting reports, but I can’t find anything on Todd while in the bullpen. How hard does he throw while in the bullpen? Is he going max-effort while in the ‘pen or is he still throwing low 90s?
I was at the Springfield game this afternoon. The strikezone might have been a little tight, but none of the pitchers could complain. All of the walks were definitely walks. There wasnt any borderline pitches that could of changed the outcome. Also, Springfields defense has been below average for a AA team. They had 3 errors today and 2 yesterday, and there should have been more. Kozma missed a broken bat bloop in the eighth that honestly should have went down as an error, and if he would have made the routine play the run wouldnt have scored and Springfield would have won. The only great defense has come from Descalso who has made some AMAZING diving plays.
Todd got the first two batters today before handing out back to back walks, He then struck out former Redbird Prentice Redman who reached first on a WP, before Todd gave up the double that would probably been caught in most parks.
All series long both teams collected cheap XBH by taking advantage of the short 350 foot alleys, Its wild how a park that never gives up HR’s to CF where its 425 with a super high wall has yielded 49 longballs in 19 games.
Allen Craig picked up 2 hits in each game of the series, Javier Brito has reached in all 10 games with Memphis, Royce Ring is on fire and Tyler Johnson made his 09 debut today getting a clean inning vs his old team.
Its going to be interesting to see what happens with Donovan Solano with Greene coming back down, Solano is hitting .289 with 6 doubles and is swinging a hot bat after a slow start with Memphis, I wouldn’t mind him moving to 2nd replacing Hoffpauir or go down to Double-A and play 2nd with DD moving up to Memphis since he is older and still keep Kozma in Double-A.
Memphis moved out of last place in hitting thanks to the trip to Tacoma passing Portland who they play next, a series that will feature the 2 worst Hitting and 2 best Pitching clubs in the Pacific Coast League.
@Redbird,
No. Tyler Greene is heading back to Memphis thanks to 13-man pitching staff. Demote WonderBrad and you can have both Tyler & Khalil on the active roster. Our starting pitchers are pitching well now. I have no idea why we should carry 8 relievers.
Stantheman6 is correct. Kozma just blew a routine pop up. He didn’t even touch it so no error. I have watched him every game this week and he just struggles at times.
The game had a 1 hour 20 minute rain delay in the 10th. This is why Sanchez only faced 1 batter which was a double but Springfield threw a guy out at the plate. Then the rain came.
Descalso is just really good so far this year. I agree he should be in Memphis and Solano back to Springfield. I saw Hoffpauir here and Descalso is just better with a better chance to get to St. Louis.
i’m shocked that delasco hasn’t been moved up yet…with as fast as the organization has been pushing prospects, it seems like delasco to memphis is a move that should have happened two weeks ago
francisco samuel’s newfound love affair with the base on balls reminds me of another hard throwing righty who had a similar dive into the abyss last season
I agree, LaRussa is in love with a 13 man pitching staff, should have kept Green. Casey Mulligan finally gets his well deserved promotion. It will be interestin gto see how he does in Palm Beach. I wonder who the new closer will be at QC.
In regards to T Greene being sent down. I’d have to agree the 8 man reliever thing is one issue. Brad Thompson is pretty much a none factor because the guy rarely pitches. Kinda weird to keep a guy around for just the what if situation comes around. He’s pitches in mop up roles were the other team has bombed our starter and they have to leave the game early.
Redbird, I agree that 8 relievers at this point seems to many but it really sucks getting burned and having to throw two or three relievers to cover those mopup innings, and it increases their chances of getting hurt. It’s kind of like Jason LaRue. Yeah, LaRue does get a start every now and then and Yadi would wear down without a few days off, but mainly without LaRue on the roster you have a what if situation in which Stavinoha is catching if Yadi gets hurt.
I get that Thompson is not sexy but having a mopup guy can be crucial.
Okay, so it’s super duper important to have a mop up guy just hanging around,in case things blow up. What, then, is the point of having Blaine Boyer around? He isn’t good enough to pitch late in high-leverage situations, but we also can’t send him down, and there’s already a mop up guy on the roster. So what is he, exactly?
This whole roster makes me want to scream.