ALERT: Tony LaRussa has informed the world that he is looking for a big bad bat to scare all those widdle pathetic pitchers into pitching to Albert Pujols. In order to do so, he has no qualms about breaking some of that Jeff guys ‘Faberge eggs’. So, please, enjoy these final days of whatever minor league prospects you hold dear to you as they too, may be gone soon. Just to avoid litigation, this is not an actual edict from Tony LaRussa and I am not now, nor have I ever been said Mr. LaRussa, esq.
The farm system took it on the chin tonight, so let’s not waste time with silly over-the-top knee jerk reactions to statements made by the MLB manager in the press. Ooops…
- Shane Robinson picked up the team’s only XBH. It was a double.
- Allen Craig, once again likely to be passed over for the 3B job, went 2-for-3. So did Mark Shorey, but I don’t know the team’s feelings about him playing 3B.
- Jarrett Hoffpauir, the forgotten 2B, was 2-for-4.
- In this space, I will tell you all how I knew Jess Todd was being called up. To be honest, last night I was down in Kilgore, Texas hanging out with my friend Matthew McConaughey. We were at a BBQ and a lot of chicks were starting to mingle around. Just as I was about to take off my shirt (because you get more chicks that way), someone walked up to us and informed us Jess got the call.
- Evan MacLane’s coming back to Earth a bit. He picked up the loss going 6.2 innings, giving up 6 Runs (5 earned) on 8 hits. He walked 2 and struckout 2.
- Ian Ostlund finished things up with 1.1 innings of scoreless ball. He walked 1 and struckout 2.
- Daryl Jones, so help me if they trade you for Matt Holliday or some other ‘seasoned protective bat’, I’ll burn this mother to the ground. Tools went 2-for-4 with a double and triple.
- Tyler Henley was 1-for-3 with a double.
- Matt Arburr stood tall like a mighty oak and smacked a double of his own.
- Curt Smith, not wanting to disappoint, drove in a run. Right back at ya, Curt!
- Brad Furnish only lasted 2 innings, giving up 6 runs (what, is this an organizational strategy?) on 4 hits and 5 walks. He struck out 2 and fell victim to the longball.
- Brandon Dickson went the next 4.2, yielding 2 ERs and striking out 2. He walked 3 and gave up 2 hits.
- Eduardo Sanchez was scoreless in his 1.1 innings with a hit, a walk and a strikeout times two!
- Francisco Samuel got the last inning. He struckout 1 and walked 1.
- Jermaine Curtis, Aaron Luna, Paul Vasquez, and Domnits are Bolivar all went 1-for-4. Vasquez had a double and Curtis went deep.
- Nick Derba was 1-for-3 with a double.
- Francisco Rivera totally copied off him.
- Chris Swauger still swings the big stick, going 2-for-4 with a double and a longball. He drove in 3.
- Mark Diapoules gave up 6 runs (alright, that’s it. Tin Foil Hat on!) in 3 innings. They had 7 hits and 3 walks against him.
- Elvis Hernandez pitched an inning and had a symmetrical 2:2 K:BB ratio.
- Chrysanthemum Linares gave up 3 runs in 2 innings on 4 hits and a walk. He struck out 2.
- Casey Mulligan would like those other 4 batters back to try again, but he did strikeout 3 in his 2 innings.
Quad Cities 4, Burlington Coat Factory 5
- Alex Castellanos was 3-for-5 and was caught stealing.
- Charles Cutler was 2-for-4.
- Travis Mitchell had the only XBH, a double, going 2-for-4.
- Niko gives a glimmer (1-for-2) but then brings more sad clouds with his 20th error.
- Hector Cardenas gave up only 4 runs in 3.2 innings, apparently not a ‘organizational team player’. He walked 2, gave up 6 hits and struckout none.
- Scott McGregor’s 1.1 inning only saw a hit. Oh, and a balk.
- Adam Veres ended up taking the loss because of the run he gave up in his 1.2 innings. Striking out 2, he gave up 1 hit and a walk.
- Jason Buursma was only in for 1 batter but managed a balk before striking the guy out.
- Andres Rosales struck out 1 in his solo inning.
With a bunch of guys in the organization struggling, if they somehow send Daryl Jones away, it’ll be just me and Curt Smith in those Springfield box scores. That is, of course, until Brett Wallace is back down in Springfield because of his current major slump.
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Watched the Memphis game tonight and the team looks filled with prospects. It would really be a shame to trade any of these guys. Think the best way to build is from within. For years the Memphis team was filled with cast offs and now there is a lot of tallent there. I still do not believe the club will trade any of these guys. I figure this baby Duncan, Ankiel, & Ludwig may not be here next year if someone offers them sizable contracts. The only one that I feel the team would want to resign is Ludwig. The other two can be replaced with Stav, Rasmus, Mather, Jay, Jones, Shorey, Robinson. Its amazing to think about it and see 7 guys in the wings just waiting to move up. With DJ being the only one at AA.
As far as pitching we have 6 starters at AAA with serval guys in the pen as well. Lets hope the organization doesn’t do anything stupid with the talent they have built up.
I like your source.
Redbird -
For the love of god, the man’s name is Ludwick.
Shorey, Jay, Robinson, Stavinoha, and probably even Mather are not Major league starters. Not now, Not ever. Period. Exclamation point.
By all means, trade any of these outfielders (excluding Jones) for anything that’s going to propel the Cardinals into the playoffs, whether that be pitching, a 3B, a SS, a 2B, or an OF.
The only players that are untouchable to me are Rasmus, Pujols, Carpenter, Wainwright, Franklin, Motte, McClellan, and Molina.
If Wallace or Jones can fetch a big fish like Peavy or Zimmerman, then I’m all for it. But keep them out of the Holliday/Beltre/DeRosa/Etc talks.
If the Nationals trade Zimmerman this year, you can choose my avatar picture for a month. Until then, no more Zimmerman trade talk because it’s not going to happen.
Hey Brett Anderson pitches 7 shut out innings for the Athletics tonight. What was Brad’s line again in AA? I do not understand how cardinal management sees Furnish>Herron. I am bitter about it to say the least.
Where are we getting the idea that the Nationals would be willing to trade Ryan Zimmerman?
I have no idea but for some reason that keeps popping up on VEB.
Idle daydreams.
For those that read Saber Scouting for its brief run one of its contributors, Kiley McDaniel, is now writing about the Latin American market for Baseball Prospectus.
I might be paritally to blame for the Zimmerman nonsense.
My trade hinged on using Wallace but Goold pointed out to me he can’t be traded this year so I let that pipe dream go, not that it matters if we could trade Wallace because the Nats GM would have to be liquored up and slipped some Ecstast ala Orange County the movie to make the deal.
Also I love the prospects but wouldn’t a starting outfield of Holliday/Rasmus/Ludwick look nice for a couple of years?
That should be ecstasty. And I love that movie. Jack Black is High-larious as a burn out junkie.
Nice game for Bryan Anderson Thursday night. 0 for 4 with a strikeout and hit into two DP’s, then had a throwing error and a passed ball for good measure.
Wallace can be traded this year … think it’s either 1 year after the date he signs or 1 year after the Aug 15 date. memory slips and busy right now so can’t look it up.
but i don’t want that to happen
The Zimmerman trade talks started when somebody on VEB wondered that with all the trouble the Nats were having keeping Nick Johnson healthy, would they have any interest in a left handed hitting 1st baseman.
Redbird … Ludwick is still in arbitration years (think he’s got two left), no reason to not re-sign him. Ankiel is out of arbitration. Duncan is still in arbitration years (think this offseason is his last one), no reason to not re-sign him if he isn’t traded. No one can offer Ludwick or Duncan contracts unless we release them.
Feel free to correct me if I am wrong on Ludwick and Duncan’s arbitration.
I get the distinct feeling that if Tony had his way, Ryan Ludwick would be traded for more seasoned protection.
I’ve found that seasoning my protection causes a rash.
HIIYOOOOOOOOOOOO!
What is wrong with trading our prospects to get better at the major league level? It seems as if the majority of readers on this site would be ok if we finished 3rd in the Central every year as long as we are a top 5 in BA’s minor league rankings.
I might consider trading DJ for Holliday or Zimmerman. I wouldn’t give away our top 5 prospects for those guys but we need a bat to protect Pujols. If this offense could score runs we would have a great, GREAT team.
Now one strategy is to come out and say frankly that our outfielders and catcher are absolutely sucking at the plate and we are waiting for a our 3rd baseman to heal.
The other strategy is to go out and fix it while we have a chance and try to maintain our first place in the standings and make a move to win this division.
If you have a Top 5 system by BA year after year, you likely aren’t going to finish 3rd in the division every year.
And that’s not the point. Zimmerman is a non-starter so I won’t argue that but Holliday is a Boras client FA. We’d be giving up 6 years of cost-controlled leadoff hitter in Jones for 4 months of Matt Holliday or 8 years of Matt Holliday at $18 M a year.
No thanks.
I think no one wants to see top prospects traded for a two month rental in Holliday. Zimmerman is not going to be traded … period. They’ve got him locked up and don’t have anyone else ready for 3B and we don’t have anyone to give them that’s ready for 3B.
I have a very hard time believing they’d dangle Daryl Jones for Holliday. That’s not going to happen. I think a Perez, Boggs, and Jay package would be an interesting offer.
Wade, I disagree. Freese could play third and has a little offensive upside. If you send them Wallace as well they would have the corners locked up for awhile with two talented cost controlled players.
They still won’t send us Zimmerman nor do I know if we can trade Wallace but if you threw in say Perez and a Boggs/Walters the Nats GM would have to have a hole in his head to not at least consider the trade before busting out in laughter at Mo.
Sounds great about Ludwick & Duncan arbitration but I still believe that if a trade came that the org would trade both of them. And I do not believe any of the guys I listed will be traded. Rasmus hit around .250 at Memphis last year. How can you say that a guy Stavinoha who hit .337 for a whole year at AAA is not capable of playing at the big leagues but a guy who hit .250 can? Not sure about the assessment there. Also Duncan spent 2 1/2 years at AAA and never hit more than around .270. How does that compare?
Because Colby Rasmus was the youngest player in AAA, was injured and hadn’t been in that league very long.
Nick Stavinoha is 27 years old, spent two full years in AAA and only shown marginal power.
I like Nick but I don’t know who started this idea that he could be a starting OF’er in the Major Leagues.
Blazer … maybe if he had shown something this season, but he’s been injured. Freese is also older than Zimmerman, so that might make him laugh a little. Zimmerman’s contract is below. Not a chance they’d trade him until 2012 and by then, they will probably be contenders if their draft is smart this year and next.
09:$3.325M,
10:$6.25M,
11:$8.925M,
12:$12M,
13:$14M
One of these years the Cards need to go “all in” to at least try to get back to the playoffs and possibly even win a championship. Last year they finished 4 games behind the Brewers in the WC race with Mo sitting on his hands while Milwaukee picks up CC Sabathia among others and the Cubs pick up Rich Harden for virtually nothing.
This year they are a very dangerous playoff team especially if Carpenter and Wainwright are at the top of their games going into the playoffs. However, they need help to get there.
As far as trading prospects, I still remember the then GM Dal Maxvill back in 1989 in response to questions about getting late season bullpen help asking Ron Jacober on KMOX “What do you want me to do trade Todd Zeile(who at that time was considered among the top prospects in the game)?” Well, to make a long story short, the Cards finished in last place the next year with Zeile, and he was eventually traded to the Cubs before they ever made it back to the playoffs.
I use a couple of other words than “idea” to describe it
Tomm – if you do get to replace the bender avatar, can I request the hair helmet photo up top? Thx.
Todd Zeile was one of the weakest 3rd baseman ever and if you had watched him play at AAA you should have realised that. I watch most all of Memphis’s games and the current players are better than Todd Zeile.
you can probably blame me for some of the zimmerman hysteria…i wrote a fanpost because i wanted to see what people would think it would take…and with a small hope that by writing it, it would happen
sorry
Redbird, You are right, I did not see Todd Zeile play 3B at AAA, but then again nobody did. Todd Zeile broke into the majors as a catcher, and spent most of the 1989 season in AAA at catcher in Louisville, not Memphis. He made his major league debut in 1989 in St. Louis as a catcher.
You also might want to look up Todd Zeile’s career stats as I seriously doubt that there are very few current Memphis Redbirds that will have a chance at approaching his career offensive numbers or games played at the major league level.
stevieville….touche, my good man, touche