Well, it’s July. Despite Former Future Redbird Colby Rasmus starting the month off with a bang, the rest of the farm system either had the day off or took some tough losses.
Jess Todd, as you know, has been named a PCL All-Star. This time last year, The Destroyer of Worlds was preparing to appear in Yankee Stadium for the Futures Game. This time this year, err..something, Jess finds himself the RH closer at AAA in an organization that believes they’ve cornered the market on RH relievers. What they don’t have, despite Wainwright’s magnificent performance last night, is pitchers 3 thru 5 of their 5 man rotation. Lohse’s injury has shown how thin they are in this department. Since he went to the DL, Wellemeyer, Boggs and Walters have all seemed to find themselves in a tailspin. Todd very well may have found himself in the same type of overmatched situation but I can’t help but wonder how he’d look taking the mound tomorrow instead of Wellemeyer.
It is with both joy and sadness that this DFR will carry on without J-Ho to appear in some form. I will do my best to carry on without him.
- Shane Robinson and Casey Rowlett both had doubles. Sugar Shane picked up 2 RBIs.
- Wither Jarrett Hoffpauier? Jon Jay, Brett Wallace and Nick Stavinoha all were 1-for-4. Stavinoha’s hit was a longball.
- Donovan Solano was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
- Matt Pagnozzi, just because, was 2-for-3 with a walk and 2 runs scored.
- PJ Walters still isn’t righting the ship. In 5.2 innings, he gave up 6 ERs on 9 hits. He walked 3 and struck out 3. I’m beginning to worry that there may be something either structurally wrong with his arm or mechanically wrong with his pitching motion.
- Charlie Manning got 1 out and gave up 1 ER on 2 hits. One of those hits was a homerun.
- Pete Parise also was charged with an earned run, also giving up 2 hits, one of which was a HR. Helping his ERA, it was over an entire inning.
- Kat Maekawa didn’t want to feel left out so he too gave up a HR in his inning. He walked a batter and struck out a batter.
Palm Beach 1, Clearwater 2 (Game 1)
- Adron Chambers was 1-for-2
- Shane Peterson had the only multi-hit game going 2-for-3, along with a stolen base.
- And, Domnit Bolivar had the other tally in the hit column for the Beach’ers. No one had an XBH.
- George Brown, unfortunate Gameday photo aside, was the tough luck loser tonight. He pitched a great game, 5 innings with 7 strikeouts. He gave up 5 hits and the 2 ERs came in the first inning.
- Jason Buursma gave up 2 hits and a walk in 1 inning, yet somehow managed not to give up a run. If you get some free time, try that at home. It’s not as easy as it sounds.
- Adam Reifer locked down the 9th 7th, striking out 1.
Palm Beach 1, Clearwater 7 (Game 2 – Rain)
- Second verse, same as the first. 5 hits in game 2.
- Shane Peterson, Curt Smith and Paul Vasquez all went 1-for-3.
- Chris Swauger was 1-for-2 and Francisco Rodriguez had the only XBH of the day, a double.
- Chuckie Fick was probably doing a little number hoping for that rain a little sooner. In 3 innings, he struck out none. He was tagged for 6 hits and 5 ERs.
- Yonathan Gonzalez gave up 2 more runs (1 ER) on 3 hits in his 3 innings. A longball, a strikeout and a walk filled out the rest of his linescore.
- D’Marcus Ingram, Devin Goodwin, Ryde Rodriguez (no thanks!) and Luis De La Cruz were all 1-for-4 with singles.
- Poor, wayward Niko Vasquez and Ivan Castro both had doubles.
- Xavier Scruggs was 2-for-4.
- 10 hits, 0 runs. If you get bored, try this one too.
- Kevin Siegrist pitched 3 scoreless innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 4.
- Justin Edwards night wasn’t so fun. Not only did he give up the lone run of the game but he also picked up 2 errors. In his 3.1 innings, he struck out 1 and was hit 4 times.
- Santo Maertz struck out 4 in 1.2 innings.
- LaCurtis Mayes walked 1 and struckout 1 in an inning.
- Raniel Rosaro and Edgar Lara both had doubles. Raniel had a walk, an RBI, a caught stealing and a pickoff. Perhaps tether thyself to thy bag?
- Ross Smith and Matthew Adams both had singles.
- Anthony Ferrara was the starter, going 4.1 innings. He gave up 1 ER on 6 hits, walking 2 and striking out 2.
- Michael Thompson pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, striking out 4 and giving up 2 hits.
- Jason Novak was hit with the blown save, giving up 2 ER and only getting 2 outs.
- Kyle Heim took the loss in the 9th, giving up a walkoff HR to the 2nd batter he faced.
Yuck. That’s an awful lot of losing. Hopefully the rain will wash it all away and bring about sunshine for better days.
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As for the Texas League ASG, the link can be found here.
I’m not sure how we can conclude that Boggs or PJ are not ready at the MLB level. Both had K/9 rates over 8 and PJ was especially good at getting swing and miss strikes. Both were hurt by sky high BAIP numbers.
I would have no problem with both of them getting a chance in place of Wellemeyer and Thompson. PJ epically doesn’t really have any more to do in AAA.
Should follow up and say I am a bit worried about whatever happened to PJs great control. I am not sure why his walk rate is up.
something has to be wrong when a good control pitcher like Walters goes bad. Anybody have a clue?
I have wondered why Boggs didn’t get a chance again when Lohse went on the DL. While I know he struggled at Memphis upon his demotion, he pitched well with the big league club this year. He had a 3.22 ERA in his 20+ innings. While he didn’t work deep in many games, to some degree he wasn’t given a chance. He needs to be allowed to try and work through some of those jams to see if can start to give us 6-7 innings.
Boggs not being in our rotation right now makes no sense to me…He hasn’t been good since coming back to memphis, but all he did when pitching for St. Louis was pitch better than Welly has this season…come on MO, use your authority
I watched PJ last night and Boggs on Sunday and both are throwing the ball well and just having those innings where nothing is going right. PJ threw 5 scorless innings last night and left the game with the bases juiced and 2 outs and Manning came in and gave up a bomb. Several of the hits were poor contact hits and he really deserved better. Boggs has had several games just like that, He threw 3 scoreless innings in New Orleans facing the minimum batters and came out in the 4th and gave up a double, a single that most 3rd basemen would have made a play on , a bloop single that the left fielder should have caught and a HBP (probably from frustration) and a rain delay caused him to leave the game and when it proceeded , Manning came in and gave up those 3 runs plus 4 more. I think Boggs is ready to pitch for someome in the bigs , they just need to put him there and let him pitch like everyone else. His ERA was good and his k/bb had improved over last year in the bigs he just needed to have times to get his legs under him after missing some of spring and Larussa not pull him before the 5th was over. The cards need to bring them up and let them pitch and quit bringing someone different up each week and sending them back down in 3 days.
guys, nothing is wrong with pj, his control is actually better than last year at this time & he is keeping the ball in the park so far ,not alot of extra base hits. he is just a little tired , he will get a second wind (i hope soon) & be ok. someone should look up the innings he has pitched since spring training of 08, counting winter ball, he hasnt had a offseason yet. when he gets tired his arm drops a little & his change up & slider flatten out & it makes them very hittable pitches..his velocity hasnt dropped, he has actually been throwing harder.. so health wise he is fine , just going thru a rough patch, probably the worst rough stretch of his baseball carreer. i am going to see him pitch monday, i will dial him in…believe me he is tougher on himself than any coach or anyone else could ever be, whats killing him is the losses , he hates losing & feels like he is letting his team down..the winning streak starts monday…i already feel sorry for round rock (lol)…
If he is tired, he should tell someone. Skipping a start or two for Memphis would be better than blowing out his arm.
The Cardinals need him lest they intend of signing more Pineiro’s of the world.
Thanks for the info 3up. Don’t doubt he is tired but how does he get rest? Will the All Star break be enough? Should they skip him 1 time thru the rotation? Does he need to go on the 7 day DL just to rest his tired arm? As short as he’s going in games these days his arm can’t be too tired :(
He threw 110 ppitches last night.
Hell why not give Hawksworth a start, he hasn’t given up an ER in his last five appearances for the Cards.
no cario, he would go nuts if they skipped him. of course he needs to pitch better, but he just has to concentrate a little more on his arm & dont let it drop. he will get rest in october, no winter ball this year & he can take a little longer off this year before spring training, before he wasnt sure of his situation so he would be up to 75-80 pitches before spring training. now he knows where he should be when he reports & that will give him the extra off time. thats a good one on going short in games , i like that. (lol)
HL, there isnt a starter in memphis pitching well right now, and i could tell you something about all of them but i will keep that to myself. they are all tired , no one feels great everytime they pitch, it is something you have to learn to work thru. i wasnt making excuses just trying to explain why i thought he was struggling a little. i fully expect him to fix it & have a good last month or so.if you cant do it now & work thru the rough stretches how are you going to make it as starter & pitch 200 innings a year. the big leagues is full of guys that throw 120-140 innings a year..to me that isnt considered a good starter..he isnt going to throw his arm out, he has pitched 200 innings in a year before. it is just a rough stretch nothing more nothing less. most people dont even notice his arm down , but i do. i can tell just by the hits, if he give s up a few bleeders especially to lefties ,then his change up is staying up not sinking, when he stays on top, it is a swing & miss. pretty simple stuff, no need to talk about someone throwing there arm out…thats bad karma..& we dont have that around here..
PJ’s Home/Road splits are strange.
H: ERA 2.38, BAA .231, GO/AO 2.13 in 34.0 IP
A: ERA 8.90, BAA .333, GO/AO 0.67 in 30.1 IP
goog thing hes coming home for his next 2 starts….cause he is terrible on the road.
joe kelly assigned to batavia … don’t remember seeing that anywhere yet so sorry if that’s a double post.
What is bothering me is that Todd, by all accounts, is on Cleveland’s short list of the PTBNL from the DeRosa deal. Now, the Destroyer is a PCL All-Star… I guess it is a
no-brainer that Jess Todd is a Cleveland Indian in waiting…. Does this bother you too ?
The only other name that I heard on the short list is AA Francisco Samuels, but he does not fit the profile for near major league ready pitching talent that Cleveland stipulated. I don’t know offhand if we have anyone to replace Todd now, unless we convert Ottavino to a reliever or someone else.
Maybe Mozeliak knows a lot more than I do about dealing Todd. I wish it was someone else.
i cant help but wonder if we’re not all a little too high on jess todd.
I’m not that high on Jess Todd but still don’t think we should give up Perez (already gone) and Todd (possible PTBN) for DeRosa, unless DeRo resigns and gives us atleast 2 more yrs with similar numbers to this yr and last yr. I guess we’ll see.