No photo quiz today. Rick Porcello day went about as well as could be expected. If you consider losing ‘expected’. Porcello wasn’t Fernando Valenzuela but he did continue is his awesome run in the wins and ERA department.
I’m not one of those people that seriously begrudges DeWitt for telling Lunhow he couldn’t draft him but I will always keep an eye on the kids career because of how easily he could have been starting for the Birds on the Bats tonight.
It’s an interesting conversation to have as to whether he would have found himself with the same fate as Anthony Reyes and PJ Walters, two former Cardinals Pitchers of the Year who were told to ditch their great changeups when they reached the MLB level. Would Porcello have been told to do the same?
On to the farm!
- Jarrett Hoffpauir, in probably his final season as a Cardinal property, went deep.
- Allen Craig was 2-for-4 with a longball.
- I..I..I…Coo Ca Choo, the Walrus is back. Brett Wallace went went Big Fly.
- Shane Robinson was 2-for-3 with a double.
- Clayton Mortensen. Shakes head. 3.1 innings, giving up 9 runs (8 ER) on 8 hits and 4 walks.
- Kat Maekawa limited Iowa to 2 hits in 2.2 innings.
- Charlie Manning pitched a perfect innings and Jess Todd gave up a hit and struck out a batter in his inning.
Springfield 5, Directionally Challenged Team 6
- Daryl Jones seems to be bouncing back from that knee injury. 3-for-5.
- The Kozmanian Devil went 2-for-5 without any XBH. Yeah, cut him. Oh, he had an error? Ask him to pay back his bonus money, too.
- Mark Hamilton was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
- Mike Folli drove in 3 runs with a homerun.
- Lance Lynn was serviceable, giving up 4 ER in 6 innings. He walked 3 and struckout 2.
- Marco Gonzalez was perfect in the 7th with 2 strikeouts.
- Tyler Norrick put up all zeros in his inning.
- For the second day in a row, Springfield lost in the 9th. Fransisco Samuel gave up 3 hits and 2 ERs, not only giving away the lead but putting the team in a hole.
Palm Beach 5, Tampa 1 (Game #1)
- Adron Chambers (double) and Colt Sedbrook were 2-for-4.
- Aaron Luna was 1-for-3 with a double.
- Charlie Swauger (1 RBI) and Jermaine Curtis (2 RBI) both went 1-for-3 with a run scored.
- George Brown pitched 4 solid innings, giving up 3 hits, striking out 2 and being tagged for run.
- Blake King gave up a hit and struck out a guy in his 2 inning win.
- Adam Reifer blazed through his 1 inning with one big, long, deep hit. He was able to exhale when that runner didn’t score.
Palm Beach 3, Tampa 2 (Game #2)
- Whenever I type ‘Tampa 2’, Tony Dungy gets royalties.
- Adron Chambers was 2-for-3 with a triple.
- Curt Smith and me got this thing goin’ on. He took Olbrychowski deep, going 2-for-3.
- Thems be the hits.
- Jorge Rondon only pitched 1 inning. 2 ER, 3 Hits and 1 BB.
- Nick Additon added 2 baserunners with hits and subtracted 2 hitters with strikeouts, leaving a sum of zero runs.
- Thomas Eager struck out 5 in 3 innings.
- Casey Mulligan walked 1 and struck out 1 in an inning.
- Osvaldo was an agent of Khrushchev Morales and Roberto Espinoza went 1-for-4.
- Guillermo Toribio was 1-for-2 with a triple.
- Brett Lilley was 3-for-3. Have yourself a day, kid.
- Kevin Thomas took the no-decision 5.2 innings of 5 hit, 2 run ball. He walked 1 and struck out 6.
- Scott McGregor wore the loss giving up the winning run in his 2.1 innings.
Allen Craig had been in a bit of a funk but hopefully this gets him back on track. It must be tough for the kid, realizing he has no real future in the organization other than a possible super-utility player. He and Bryan Anderson have to be sad that Walt Jocketty isn’t around to send them to some team for the likes of Brian Giles.
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I attended my first springfield cardinals game tonight. I was lucky to see all the top position players start and get to see the best starting and relief pitcher. Overall i came away most impressed with daryl jones and Fransico Samuel (yes he blew the save)
Lynn had trouble commanding his fastball in the first inning. Especially when trying to go inside. Very rarely did he hit his spot when cruz set up inside. He was bailed a little in the first when the runner tripped after rounding third and was thrown out. After the first inning he started commanding his fastball a lot better. The whole night he showed a good curve and had good command of it. I did see the stadium gun until the fifth inning but he sat 89-92 with the fastball and around 76 with the curve.
Jones showed off his tools tonight. He singled to every outfield position starting from left to right. He has a smooth stride in the outfield and made a great play on the track as he jumped to catch the ball over his head and crashed into the wall. He also showed off his speed scoring easily from second base on a liner that landed in front of the left fielder. He also went from first to third on a slowly hit ball that was mishandled by the shortstop. He was running on the pitch.
Kozma hit the ball hard in 3 of his 5 at bats. He did not seem over matched. He did not see much action in the field tonight. The ball he made an error on was smoked at him and he got an in between hop. Im not trying to make excuses for pete, the play should have been made, but it was a tough play.
The average leaders Descalso/Henley did not show up tonight. Descalso had the only hit between them and it was a blooper.
First glance at steve hill i wondered where the power comes from.
Cruz did not impress me with his defense tonight. He was unable to throw out a runner on a pitch out, throwing the ball too high. He did not help out fransisco samuel out tonight either. More on that later.
Norrick sat at 93 with the fastball and topped out at 97. He hit 95 more than once.
I was really glad i got to see samuel tonight. Hes got an easy delivery and the ball just explodes out of his hand. His slider his a major league pitch. Its hard, its sharp, its just filthy. His fastball was at 95-98. His slider was 85-87. His only strike came with the batter looking at an 89 mph slider.
Here is how his inning went: Soft Liner. Bloop. Then two wild pitches both which could have been handled by cruz. Then a swinging bunt. Instead of cruz throwing it to first he threw the ball(in between his legs) to samuel at the plate where there was no play.
I can see why other teams are always asking the cards about samuel. If the cards trade him away and he can harness his control, the cards will be kicking themselves.
Funny Side Note: Jim Rapoport had a perfect bunt that stayed fair just inside the third base line. The opposing pitcher got on all four and was crawling with the ball trying to blow it foul. After it stayed fair he picked up the ball and threw it to his dug out. The next batter, Foli hit a 3 run homer, the longest hit ball of the night.
Great write up. Thanks for sharing.
excellent job. love hearing these on hand reports.
Kyle nice writ up as well.
Kozma is hitting .368 in his last 10 games.
Kozma also has raised his June OPS to a respectable .842.
Thanks for the account Kyle. I’ve never heard of Norrick getting his fastball up that high. Good news no doubt…. Anyone have a prediction on which of the AA guys head to Memphis at the all star break?
-K
Can anyone explain what the weird organizational bias is against the change-up. Hell, PJ Walters couldn’t get a high school line-up out without his…it is like telling Motte just to throw “sliders”.
I do understand that the change-up is a mistake prone pitch and when you make mistakes with it you are going to get killed, but the same is true hanging sliders. I always thought the hung slider was the worst mistake to throw, it doesn’t have a high difference in velocity from the fastball and it is just floating up there straight. Might as well sit a ball on a tee.
BigJawn:
I don’t know if its an organizational bias. Some guys throw it (Gorgen comes to mind) and some don’t (Ottavino). Usually, its a more important pitch for LHPs in order to move through a system. It will be interesting to see if/when Shelby Miller develops one.
Duncan bias against the change up has to do with his basic ground ball philosophy. His idea is pretty simple; if you get the hitter to hit the ball on the ground their are 4 defenders instead of three and only two spot they can hit it for extra bases. Once they get the ball in the air there are all kinds of opportunities for extra base hits. The idea of the change up is to get a hitter off balance and the result is usually a strike out or flyball/pop up. Duncan doesn’t like those options. Most change up pitchers are fly ball pitchers. Their are exceptions to the rule, Tom Glavine comes to mind as a guy that got a ton of ground balls but his change up was of another world. Duncan would have probably made him throw a two seamer though.
Kozma started getting hot when he visited Tulsa last week. A little return to the hometown and the ballpark where he won a couple of state championships seemed to get him going.
Good game summary. I was likewise surprised to hear Norrick touching 95+. I had similar feelings on Samuel…great stuff…every outing an adventure.
For the record, I would have lost big money if I had to wager who had more homeruns at this point…Hoffpauir or Craig…
Wouldn’t Monte Kiffin get the royalties??
@LDC:
Someone should remind this mental-Duncan-projection that fly balls turn into outs more often than groundballs, offsetting some of the damage done by the fly ball’s increased odds of going for extra bases.
Additionally, a good changeup can be a great pitch for strikeouts…which, remember straw-man-Duncan, are even better than groundballs.
Busch is by no means a heavy pitcher’s park, but it certainly favors pitchers over hitters. As long as C. Duncan’s not starting in left every night, there’s not much of a reason for the Cards to act allergic to fly ball/strikeout pitchers.
I know, I know. This is Dave Duncan we’re talking about here. But really, while LaRussa and Duncan may be the best manager/pitching coach combo the team has ever had, I find myself more and more getting frustrated by what seems to be stubborn behavior, immune to criticism on account of the perpetrator’s reputation (e.g. a 13 man pitching staff).
Great account Kyle.
HL I disagree about Craig. If he hits in the bigs even close to the way he hit in ST then I think they will find a semi regular spot for him (This is a TLR team so nobody plays the same position every day unless you are Albert or Yadi).
I love the story of a throw between the legs and pitcher on all fours trying to blow a ball foul. Definitely the minors.
I’ve never seen Norrick at that velocity. At first, I thought I was watching Freeman pitch, after all there aren’t a whole lot of hard throwing lefties in the system, I’m not sure where his speed came from last night.
I’d just like to point out that 2 days in a row now, I’ve put a pic in the DFR and VEB has used the same pic.
GET YOUR OWN MATERIAL, YA HOSERS!
man…i hope norrick has found something…would not mind have two hard throwing leftie relievers in the system
if shelby miller really does develop the changeup that some people think he can…and dave duncan makes him scrap it…i’m done with him…of course laduncan probably won’t be in the STL once shelby hits the majors(unless he has a porcellian rise)
Take the Hammons Field gun with a grain of salt. Subtract 2-3 mph and that’s what they’re really throwing.
@Allen–thats kind of what i figured…still he was at least in the mid 90s a few times its seems
ugh..so does that mean lynn was siting between 86-89? thats not gonna cut it in the majors methinks