Hi Everyone. I hope you all don’t have a case of the Mondays, because the farm system did tonight. It wasn’t smiles times for the Cards affiliates.
So let’s talk about some 16 year old kids in Latin America!
We all know about the Cards interest in OF Wagner Mateo, covered here and by dgoold. The Cardinals recently worked out (as covered by AZ) the bell of the ball SS Miguel Angel Sano, who is all over the internet as of late.
Here’s a few more names of players that are linked to the Cardinals, however tenuous of a link.
- LHP Victor Payano from the DR is 6′ 4″ at 15 years old, he throws 85-88 with standard slider and change. He’s strongly linked to Colorado and may cost more than $600k.
- LHP Edgar Ferrera from the DR who recently hit 94 mph and is angling for a greater than $600k bonus.
- 3B Chesler Cuthbert from Nicaragua is a big strong power hitting 3Bman who is looking for a bonus greater than $600k as well.
Keep it here for all your July 2nd International Signing Day coverage.
The organization went 2-3 with QC playin’ two.
- Evan MacLane started for the Redbirds and gave up 3 runs on 8 hits and 0 walks. He struck out 3.
- Pete Parise continued his good work in AAA with 2 no-hit innings with 1 strikeout.
- Royce Ring struck out 2 in his inning of work.
- After a furious comeback by the patchwork Memphis lineup, Jess Todd closed the door in the 9th for the save.
- Allen Craig, LF went 3-4 with 2 RBIs.
- Khalil Greene, rehabbin’ at 3B went 2-4 with 2 RBIs.
- Matt Pagnozzi, C went 2-4 with 2 RBIs as well, but got picked off and caught stealing when he got on base.
- Jarett Hoffpauir went 1-2 with 2 walks. He also committed an error.
Springfield 2, Arkansas 7
Whoa, good gracious, 4 errors for the Cardinals.
- Brad Furnish pitched only 1 inning and gave up 3 runs.
- Brandon Dickson gave up no earned runs (2 unearned) in 4 innings.
- Eduardo Sanchez pitched a shutout inning.
- Marco Gonzalez did the same.
- Francisco Samuel gave up 2 unearned runs in the 9th with 1 walk and 1 strikeout.
- Tyler Henley, RF had a 2-run HR on the way to 1-4.
- Tony Cruz, 3B and Daryl Jones, LF each had 1 hit.
- Young Richard Castillo finally got off the shined with the help from his offense. He pitched 5 innings and gave up 3 runs on 5 hits and 4 walks. He only struck out 3.
- Thomas Eager walked 2 in his one inning of work.
- Blake King ran the gamut in his 2.2 innings of work with 1 run and 4 strikeouts, 3 hits and 2 walks and left the bases loaded for…
- Casey Mulligan who got the last out of the save.
- Adron Chambers, CF went 3-6 with a double and 2 RBIs.
- Shane Peterson, RF read AZ’s comment about his ISO slugging and hit a double and a triple with 2 RBIs.
- Colt Sedbrook, SS and Jermaine Curtis, 3B each had a hit and 2 walks.
Quad Cities 0, Peoria 8 (7 innings, Game 1)
- Brett Zawacki didn’t have what I’d call a good start. He gave up 6 runs in the first and only inning of work.
- Andres Rosales gave up 2 runs on 4 hits and 0 walks over 3 innings. He struck out 2.
- Joel Pichardo continues to impress in QC with 2 shutout innings.
- Travis Mitchell, CF had 2 of the River Bandits 3 hits.
- Charles Cutler, C had the other.
- Arquimedes was not blinding them with science tonight as he was touched for 4 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks. He did strike out 5 however in 5 innings. How’s that for silver lining?
- Scott McGregor took the loss with 1 unearned run over 1.2 innings.
- Jose Garcia, SS went 2-2 with a triple and a HR. He also had 2 errors. What’s up with the fielding at short for the Bandits?
- Jarred Bogany, RF went 2-3 with an RBI, a SB and a caught stealing.
- Brett Lilley, 3B and Guillermo Toribio, 2B had the other two hits.
Entries (RSS)
I actually *like* Shane Peterson’s power so far. Away from the Hitter’s Graveyard of Palm Beach, he’s got an iso. slg. of nearly .200 (all 5 of his HR’s have come on the road). Considering Peterson popped just one homer in more than 200 AB’s of short-season ball last year, this is a big step in the right direction.
If Shane gets a bit stronger over the next 2-3 years, I could see him becoming a 20-HR guy; if he does that, hits around .300, and continues stealing bases at a nice clip, that’s a pretty valuable player.
Congrats to Richard Castillo for his first win of the season!
Rasmus, age 20, had a .150 ISOP at Palm Beach.
Descalso, age 21, had a .130 ISOP at Palm Beach.
I think Peterson’s power production has been OK in that context.
I’ve gone to all three games of the QC Peoria series so far and have not been impressed all at. On Sunday Bogany looked like Duncan in the outfield…stepping in on ones that ended up way over his head. Last night Zawacki struggled big time but was also getting pinched pretty bad by the home plate ump. The Chiefs version of Chris Carpenter through a complete game 3 hitter and only threw 60 some pitches in 7 IP.
Second game started OK, by that I mean QC didn’t give up a run in the 1st…they waited til the 2nd this time!!! But to their credit they came back with two in the top of the 3rd and clawed all the way back with Garcias HR. But that 7 inning was horrible. three consecutive errors by two by Garcia and one by Toribio. The game really changed in the 7th when QC had runners on 1st and 2nd and they tryied bunting them over. Great bunt, pitcher picks it up tries to tag him, knows he missed so he throws to first but by that time the runner had already hit the bag. But the ump called him out on the tag (gotta love those MWL umps!). You could just see that deflate the team. Needless to say…our low A club did NOT look promising at all!!
Ditto Cameron’s comments; it wasn’t a very pleasant evening of baseball in Peoria (although the kettle corn was, as usual, quite good).
Looking for positives, I came up with a couple. Travis Mitchell looks the part of a centerfielder. He’s more strongly built than I expected, but it’s a lean, muscular strong, not a chunky build at all. He can really cover ground in CF (as advertised in the previous two years). Mitchell had a couple of singles in Game 1. Perhaps he has a chance to advance.
Garcia, though horrible defensively in the 7th inning of Game 2, showed an impressive bat. He hit a homer to deep left center that just jumped out of the park.
Why Toribio is on the team is beyond my comprehension. Pitchers just knock the bat out of his hands.
Question: What’s up with Castellanos? In a doubleheader he only appeared as a pinch runner in the 7th inning of the second game. Does he have an arm injury?
Was looking at Wallace’s First Inning stats. Has anyone else noticed his home/away splits?
Here is his away line in AAA: .169/.194/.237. Home: .327/.404/.408. Now look at this, from Springfield last year: Away SLG=.435; Home SLG=.846(!).
Obviously there are small sample sizes to be concerned about, but it looks like he may have a comfort zone problem. Boy needs a good shrink. Maybe he can see if Khalil’s doctor is available.
Castellanos was hit by a fastball on his left hand at his first time at bat on Friday game. Later read on qc times Dillard said He continued 2 play ball that night in pain. Some kids ask for his autograph and notice his hand was swollen. Must of been a bad hit. So that’s properly why he hasn’t been playing lately. They surely can use him. Garcia did great last night but the infield has serious case of bad luck with errors. Doesn’t matter who’s playing Niko, Garcia, Lilley, Castellanos or Morales. The infield is haunted for QC. Outfielders are a little better but have aloud some dropped balls too.
Since they could not score LHP early in the draft, the Cardinals should be on both those DR LHP’s.
$600K+ is equivalent of 1st round supplemental money. Can we assume these guys are 1S talents?? Mortenson signed for $650K in the 2nd round 2007. So are the DR LHP’s 1S to 2nd round equivalents?
If so, then book ‘em and the Kelley/Bittle picks lose their red flags.
How important is July 2nd to the system?
Cuban defector, LHP Noel Arguellez is worth taking a run at too. Probably 19 yrs old. Tall and lanky. FB sits at 90MPH with sink. Touches 93MPH. Liriano comps.
A VEB poster (http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2009/6/13/908680/cuban-defectors-include-shortstop) pointed to thes BA articles:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=4798
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=1457