Archive for May, 2009

Longtime VEB-er (he’s got a UID of 410 for those of us who remember UIDs) bgh was at the Iowa-Memphis game to see Clayton Mortensen’s start first hand.  What follows is his account of the game (and some notes from Friday and Saturday’s game as well).

Read the rest of this entry »

Some links in your non-Memphis games DFR:

Matt Baker’s writeup of Trey Hearne‘s record setting 13K game. Summary: Hearne:Hero::Samuel:Goat
Ben Badler of Baseball America recently chatted:

Dan (Tulsa OK): Is Clayton Mortenson a legit mid-rotation prospect for the Cards? After 5 starts, his opponent avg and era looks great, but the K/BB not so much.

Ben Badler: He looks like a 5th starter/long reliever type to me.

I disagree with Badler here. Mortensen’s starts have shown an improved changeup. He’s still generating a sick number of groundballs (53% prior to tonight’s game) even if he’s not striking out a ton of batters. His command has regressed back to college levels which is concerning but I think he’s more than just a swing man.

Brian Walton has the low down on the changes to the tandem pitching arrangement in Quad Cities.

Read the rest of this entry »

Life is conspiring against elongated DFRs this weekend. It’s 1:06AM and I’m getting back from a wedding that started at 2:00PM. Great reception party obviously.  I apologize in advance for typographical errors — I’m letting one eye rest while the other stays open to keep things running smoothly.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight I saw the new Star Trek movie. It was awesome. An absolutely spectacular display of everything that the action genre should and can be. JJ Abrams produces some of my favorite eye candy (Alias, Lost) and he comes through with a HR on this outing.

The downside to the awesomeness of the movie is that I’m now starting the DFR at 12:54 AM. Link roundup tomorrow – I’m givin’ ya all she’s got captain!

3 games to recap as the QC game was suspended due to spanking* in the second inning – QC was down by 7 already.

Read the rest of this entry »

Steve Hill is off to a pretty torrid start to the season. Through 91 plate appearances, he’s hitting .333/.391/.679.  Last year, in about the same span of time for Springfield, he hit .303/.330/.505.  While those are just “slash” lines, but from that we can glean that he might be figuring out this whole AA thing so far. 

Hill is 24, so he ought to be figuring out AA. His walk rate is up from 2.9% to 8.8%.  He’s also hitting the ball with more authority, as his groundball rate is down from 46% to 36%, and therefore the ball is clearing the yard – 1 in 5 balls he hits in the air ends up leaving the yard. Sure, it’s the Texas League, but still, that’s pretty darn good. 

The thing with Hill is he’s going to have to hit in order to prove he belongs in the big leagues, because he has no true position. The notion of having him catch is a good idea, but in just 33 games of catching so far he’s allowed 8 passed balls, 12 steals and 3 errors, leaving plenty of room for improvement. He’s not the rangiest outfielder, either. 

Hill’s also not the most selective of hitters. In 717 minor league plate appearances, he has just 40 walks to 163 strikeouts. Yet in spite of his wrinkles, Hill has been an above average hitter or better at each level and still probably has yet to tap all of his power potential. Patience also tends to (but not always) improve with age.

As long he keeps smacking around the baseball, he should find himself a major league gig. The only question is where. The system as we know it now doesn’t need any more outfielders or first baseman, so he’ll really have to keep powering away to distinguish himself.

It’s time for America’s mostly panned game, Guess That Future Redbird!

Tonight we saw a heroic comeback, a late game let down and two lopsided games. Let’s get on in there for the real thing!
Read the rest of this entry »

This article was written before confirmation from D. Goold.  As always, a tip o’ the hat to cardsfan1.

The breaking news from our scoop specialist is that Shane Robinson has been called up from Memphis — cardsfan1 has a long and accurate history of being a step ahead of the mainstream reporting on this so I’m expecting this to come to fruition.  This puts the 40-man roster at 39 and marks another debut (Rasmus, Freese, Walters) from the Cardinals’ farm system this year.  This is what Jeff Luhnow has been trying to build and the approach we’ve been advocating here for some time.  The farm supplements your needs as well (or better) than just a random scrap heap player in the best of circumstances.  But is this the best of circumstances?

Read the rest of this entry »

In honor of my favorite Arkansas team:

“Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south south-east, east . . . .”

Lots of runs were scored tonight, some by us, some by them. But above all, these runs did not go unscored. In this world we live in, we can not afford to waste runs. What?
Read the rest of this entry »

As of Tuesday May 5th, the Quad Cities River Bandits are 13-10 in 3rd place 2.5 games back from the division leader.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »