Shelby Miller threw another bullpen on Saturday. He’s already calling his fastball a two-seamer. These prospects just grow up so fast . . .
Miller’s brief September stint in QC is, imo, a good but almost completely inconsequential item in terms of his development. The consensus seems to be that it’s a bit aggressive but in a positive way. Personally, I don’t think it’s aggressive at all given that he’s expected to start there next season.
Erin Bolen has some comments from Daryl Jones and Pop Warner on his future after a season derailed by injuries. In much the same way that Colby Rasmus’s injuries did little to his stock after 2008, Jones isn’t going to be undone by one injury season either. He’ll still find himself in the top 5 of most (if not all) major Cardinal rankings and he’s still one of the most projectable outfielders in the Cardinals’ system.
Pete Kozma is struggling less. If nothing else, this was a well timed piece as Kozma blasted two homeruns over the weekend.
A Brett Wallace scouting report without comment.
By signing bonus, the Cardinals nabbed the 7th best talent with the 19th pick.
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I have a comment on the Brett Wallace video–he isn’t going to make it at 3rd. It was practice and there were balls that kinda ate him up.
he’s a lot bigger looking than I thought he looked before. and I thought he looked big then.
I guess it’s probably safe to assume that Kozma will be repeating a level. Glad to see the homers, though.
Wallace’s scouting report seems to reiterate what is already known. Might stick there for a few years, but as a minus defender. If his range was the only problem, that might convince me….but his arm looks way below average. I see a Ryan Braunish tenure at 3B.
Yeah, I hope Kozma spends at least the first half of 2010 at Springfield, it will help him to keep working there with Warner etc.
Hard to tell from that video of Wallace how bad or average a defender he will be but my first impression is he will be a full time dh sooner rather than later.
Thanks for the corralling of the links!
Nothing to do with the links, but hasn’t Luhnow been quoted as saying that Mateo will probably start out next year with Johnson City?
Whoa…. No wonder Tony was in no hurry to bring up Wallace to play third. Did you see his arm motion? Granted, it was practice, but, man, it looks awful. Teams that can execute good bunting skills should do nothing but put’em down on this kid. I knew he was a bit of a tree-trunker. This video makes him look like Prince Fielder Jr. I am sorry, but YEAH! FOR HOLLIDAY!
just above the djtools story on the news-leader site is a story indicating that henley, hearne, descalso, and lynn made the AS team for the texas league.
@Blaise–The video of Wallace was shot during warm-ups; that’s why he was short-arming it. If you check up the forum entry, the guy who shot the video says you can’t judge his arm by it. He was looking at his glovework instead.
it’s been widely reported his arm motion is unusual.
I don’t get the comparing Rasmus’ off year and Jones’ dismal year. Jones was returning to a league where he had over 125 ab’s – Rasmus was moving up a level. Jones started out good and got worse – Colby got better as the year went on. Jones made his high level prospect status on mostly one year – Colby had several years as a high level prospect.
All the articles on Jones seems to make it sound like his struggles realte to his injury when the reality he slumped miserably long before his injury.
I am worried Jones has lost his power stroke and may never find it again.
I haven’t seen much of Jones to say if I think he will be good or not, if we resign Holliday what do with do with Jones? Try to keep his value up any way possible and trade him? I think talented players that don’t have a position shouldnt just be traded for veterans but also for talented younger players at positions we need, AKA starting pitching
Pierce:
Luhnow once predicted Roberto would begin this season at Johnson City. In reality Roberto spent this summer in the Gulf Coast League and is learning. Its a long climb.
Jeff has a way of getting enthused. These kids Roberto and Wagner need to develop at their own pace. Wagner should begin next summer in the Gulf Coast too.
Iliked the video of Wallace. He has good enough hands for 3B and that seems the important thing. He was just tossing the ball to a team-mate, so the throws can be ignored. Since his hands are good, the As can stick him at 3B and he will field good enough for as long as they need him there. If he works out hard with a trainer and firms up his lower body a bit, his range could increase. He should have a fine ML career.
RRW-
Good hands? Really. In a way it doesn’t matter as much at third. I have played some third and it is much more about getting your hands on the ball and having a strong arm. Wallace does have very good hand-eye coordination and reactions, so he will get his hands on the ball, but his arm looked pretty lame. He is a first baseman…maybe.
“Walrus” is becoming a more apt nickname than I ever imagined it would. He really needs to work on his body. He doesn’t really look that atheletic outside of his plus hand-eye skill. I don’t want to say that fat people break down more but unathletic fat people do. Kirby Pucket and Tony Gwynn had good careers with questionable bodies, but they were truly great atheletes–from what I have seen the book is still out on Wallace.
Good to hear tha Kozma will be playing in AA next year. Having seen him play a couple times his swing needs a lot of work–I hope he has had his come to Jesus moment hitting-wise..despite the errors he can pick it at short.
That video of Wallace leaves a lot to be desired as far as projecting his fielding prowess. (At least for my untrained eye) . Since it is just warmups and at about 40% of game conditions.
Sounds like he is a hard worker—maybe he will be able to spend a season at the mlb level playing third if the A’s or another team needs him there.
Glad to read in the article on Kozma that his defense has improved quite a bit this past month.
Funny how much our views on wallace change now that he plays for someone else
I beg to differ. Up until this point, the only views(or video) of Wallace has been when he was first drafted and considerably thinner . It raises red flags to me that so much has been made about his weight to his face, yet, he STILL has fallen into worse shape than ever before. I am just guessing but when Tony said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Why do you want to hurry this kid up? He has got a LONG ways to go.” it makes a lot more sense. We all would have been slightly shocked at how fat the Walrus was and a ton of judgement, fair or not, would have been placed on his weight if he didn’t immediately start playing like John Kruk in his prime. Once that fan mindset would begin, Wallace would find it very difficult not to let it affect his confidence in an extremely hurtful fashion. He’s raker, no doubt, but, he would have had a very tough time trying to shed the “fat guy” image. I make these comparisons because I have been affected by these issues first hand.