Please trade Allen Craig. Just to spare my soul the anguish of watching this guy waste away in AAA. He just turned 25 not even a week ago, so it’s not like we are afraid he’s too young. The Cardinals have a knack for watching a guy be hot in AAA and then not calling him up until that phase has passed. You may say “Well, until he got hot, he’s only been putting up a .700 OPS or so” and I say to you look at his home-road splits. Autozone suppresses runs. Craig gets on the road and he mashes. If he promises to sprint to first on walks and play 40 feet away from homeplate while manning the 3rd sack, can he get the job? Craig’s problem is that he is over 6 feet tall and was born with God-given talent.
/rant
After Tonight, Mitchell Boggs’ last 21 innings have seen 19 strikeouts, 8 BBs, 15 hits and 1 ER (which came tonight). I’m extremely excited about both Mitchell and Blake going forward as starters. I would very much like to see them get shots at that 5th starting spot so we can see how they fair at the MLB level. Mitchell’s big knock was that he didn’t have ANY secondary pitches. Hopefully, that is no longer the case. If anyone can refine his breaking stuff, it’s Chris Carpenter…who he should be around every waking moment of every single day.
{azru edit: Just an FYI — I’m making a weekend trip to Springfield to watch the S-Cards face off against the Arkansians from the north western part of the state. I’ll be around for Friday and Saturday’s DFR with a special fill-in on Sunday.}
- Craig went 1-for-2 with another HR (a 2-run shot).
- Tyler Greene, Mr. No Offense according to Al, went 2-for-4 to raise his AAA average to .281.
- Jarrett Hoffpauir, who impressed in his brief MLB career, went 3-for-4 with a double and 2 RBI.
- Mitchell Boggs went 6 strong innings, striking out 7. He scattered 8 hits (a bit much) and 2 walks, allowing only 1 ER. We now have two candidates to replace Todd Wellemeyer for those of you with eyes and logic. Those of you without, you’ll still get Todd on Sunday. Ok, so maybe that’s just towards 1 man.
- Matthew Scherer gave up a hit in his inning.
- Royce Ring was perfect in 1 IP.
- Pete Parise got 2 outs and gave up 2 hits.
- Jess Todd came in to strikeout the last batter to lock things down. Easy save.
- Mike Folli hit a triple.
- Everything else was a lone single for 6 other players.
- Trey Hearne took the loss with his 6 inning showing. He struck out none, walked 1 and gave up 4 ER.
- Sam Freeman came on for 2 innings of relief, giving up a solo HR and walking a batter.
- Adron Chambers, Aaron Luna and Oliver Marmol all had singles.
- Nick Additon pitched 5.2 innings and was unluckily tagged with 5 runs (only 1 was earned). He struck 5, walked 4 and gave up 6 hits.
- Thomas Eager went 2.1 innings. The Good News is he struck out 4, the bad news is he gave up 2 ER on 3 hits.
- Daytona stole 6 bases in this game.
Quad Cities 2, West Michigan 6
- Frederick Parejo had the only XBH, hitting a double and driving in 2 runs.
- Everything else was singles from 4 guys.
- Scott McGregor gave up 3 ERs in 5.2 innings for the loss. He was tagged with 7 hits and struck out 5.
- Ramon Delgado walked 1 and gave up 2 hits for an earned run in his 1.1 inning.
- Matthew Frevert pitched 1 inning. His line: 2 hits, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 Ks.
- Gary Daley took the last inning, giving up a hit and striking out a batter.
- Alan Ahmady had a double and 2 RBI.
- Nico Vasquez struck out 3 times.
- Jairo Martinez went 2-for-4.
- Michael Blazek was another victim of the unearned run. He gave up 5 runs, only 2 earned of his own. He went 5 innings, struck out 5 and gave up 6 hits to go along with 2 walks.
- Daniel Richardson’s 2 innings saw another run score and him walk 2 but strikeout 3.
- Tyler Leach got 2 outs, but gave up 2 ERs on 2 hits and a walk.
- Christopher Corrigan got 1 groundout.
- Ross Smith hit 2 round trippers today, going 3-for-5.
- Audrey Perez was 1-for-5 with a double.
- Ted Obregon drove in a run with a 2-for-4 night.
- Randy Santos only struck out 1 batter in 4 innings. He gave up 5 Runs (1 ER) on 8 hits.
- John Durham pitched 1.1 innings, giving up 3 ER on 4 hits. He walked and struck out 1.
- Aaron Terry struck out 4 of the 8 of the outs he got. He also walked 1.
- Kyle Heim kinda imploded in the 9th, tagged with 5 ERs on 4 hits (one of which was a HR).
These next 72 hours could see some of these names vanish to other farm systems. Be safe, my precious eggs!
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man batavia and palm beach both committed like 5 errors
i wonder what craig did to be stuck in AAA. he really deserves a shot in the big leagues at this point, and with ankiel not doing so well and duncan out of the picture, the time is ripe for him to get a shot.
Wellemeyer has been so brutal. In my opinion hawk, todd or boggs>welley
Wow, that Craig rant was probably the most convincing thing I’ve read about baseball in a long time.
Isn’t it about time for Craig to give left field the ole college try? It’s where everyone else in the organization eventually winds up, why not another guy with a big bat and no position?
I am fully on board with any of the STL-MEM frequent fliers taking some starts from Wellemeyer. Hard to do worse at this point, right?
I’d love to see Hawk or Boggs take over for Wellemeyer. The fact is, either guy gives us a better chance of winning. This division race is gonna be way too close to keep running Wellemeyer out there every fifth day, hoping for the best. If the FO is committed to building from within, then they need to prove it right here.
Anyone else concerned about Descalso only playing 1 time in the last 4 games since Hoffpauir was sent back down??
Azru-Have fun at the games this weekend in Springfield. You will see the least talent they have had since 2006 season.
Wouldn’t it have made sense to call up Allen Craig
a couple of weeks ago…put him in left … bat him 5th…
and see if he could make the transition to the majors?
At least, then, if he failed, the Holliday deal might make sense.
But to give up a natural-born hitter (and who knows how many others)
when Craig possibly could give StL approx. the same value / rbi as Holliday,
is unfathomable. Insane.
Players I’ll look for:
Kozma
Salas
Samuel
Henley
Sanchez
Gorgen
Freeman
Norrick
Hill
Players I’ll miss:
Lynn (very bummed about this)
Hearne
descalso with only one start in 4 day does concern me…potential everday players need developmental time, not to be blocked with guys whose upside is backup 2b
Allen craig to the big club is a no brainer for me, but then i thought he should be on the team all year
Gary Daley runs his scoreless streak to three.
Is that the longest in his career?
I am very surprised that no one has really been talking a bout Garcia pitching in GCL very much. Arguably our top pitching prospect has started his rehab and I haven’t seen any real discussion about it yet.
RE: Boggs secondary stuff. In the majors this year his breaking stuff has been a pretty good swing and miss pitch (sample size caveats apply) according to some numbers I ran with Pitch F/X (~50% whiff rate). His change up on the other hand looked fairly useless, both from a movement and whiff perspective.
HL sometimes you just make too much sense.
I know being a fan of a team with La Russa as manager is never without its “God! Why is [scrappy player] starting in right field!” rant moments.
But it seems like this season has been ESPECIALLY frustrating vis. La Russa and his roster.
-13 pitchers
-Joe Thurston
-Duncan/Ankiel starting
-Wellemeyer
-No Barton (on the Opening Day roster, I mean…don’t know if I can say it’s Tony’s fault he was traded for crap)
-Rasmus not being the default CF for the first two months of the season (although I don’t know if we could really say Tony didn’t have an argument, as Colby DID start slow per usual…but even so, he was (and is) still our best defensive outfielder)
Am I missing anything?
I mean, that’s a ridiculous laundry list of questionable or downright bad roster decisions.
And it’s not like it’s only an occasional HL rant or baaron novella that makes these points. Most fans with more than a passing knowledge of the game see the obvious problems with most of these roster decisions.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t recall seeing a single defense of, for instance, the 13 man pitching staff…even from the most staunch La Russa supporters.
I don’t want to come across like I think La Russa has no value. I don’t. And I know HL’s rant wasn’t just about (or necessarily directed at) La Russa per se (the FO should get just as much or more criticism for Craig not being in STL).
But man! Night after night we’re left scratching our heads wondering WHAT THE HELL is going on with the active roster. And it’s not just some fringe group of fans…it’s the majority of the VEB/FR community!
Is it possible that we’re all crazy? Or has the roster management been as bad this year as we all think?
Obligatory apologies for length.
I haven’t heard much about Matt Carpenter lately. Just curious if he’s injured or if he just isn’t mashing at the rate he was earlier.
I think he was in the DFR last night.
Carpenter has struggled lately, he is under .300 now, but we knew he couldn’t keep up at that pace.
Troy Glaus is being moved to Springfield this weekend so you will get to check him out.
Looks like Freese took Peterson spot on the Springfield Roster. So it looks like they will have Freese at 3B and Glaus in LF this evening.