Daily Farm Report – AAA Championship Game
Posted on September 22nd, 2009 by Jeff in Daily Farm Reports
PJ Walters Jeremy Hellickson
3.58 FIP 2.66 FIP
The AAA championship game will be on live on ESPN 2 at 7pm Eastern.
Live blog is over at Viva El Birdos here.
UPDATED: DFR for the game is after the jump!
- PJ Walters started for the Redbirds (as seen above) and allowed 4 runs in 4 innings.
- Adam Ottavino relieved Walters and pitched 2 innings, but allowed 2 runners in the 7th.
- Fernando Salas stranded those runners with a tidy bit of pitching.
- Josh Kinney was nails with 2 Ks in 2 innings.
- Royce Ring took the loss with 1 nail-biting evening and leaving the game with men on 1st and 3rd.
- Oneli Perez‘s first pitch was a wild pitch past Brandon Yarbrough and the game was over.
- Allen Craig had a single and opposite field HR.
- Jon Jay had a solo HR.
- Sugar Shane Robinson hit into a 1-2-3 double play with the bases loaded in the top of the 10th inning to spoil a rally.
- David Freese had 2 walks.
Entries (RSS)
Walters…? seriously? Why not Garcia?
Tough loss but a great season. A nice preview for 2010 and beyond, some of these guys are gonna be good ballplayers
disappointing game for the redbirds..they had their chance to win many times..oh well though, great season for them!
the forgotten prospect is forgotten again..allen craig isn’t among the callups..what does he have to do? hit .500 in the second half next year instead of .405 this year? tony and mo are flat out wrong on this
I don’t understand the racket about bringing Allen Craig up. The Cardinals have 12 games left in the regular season. At best, he might start 1 or 2 games and get another 3 to 4 pinch hit opportunities. You’re definitely not going to learn whether he can play third base or the outfield. We complain about making decisions based on small sample sizes in spring training but this would be the definition of a small sample size. Is this really worth the effort of putting him on the 40-man roster?
Impressions:
1. Odd choice of Walters starting over Garcia and Ottavino. Walters has AA talent and rookie league savvy if his gaffe at first base is any indication.
2. Ottavino has a major league body with a major league arm attached to it. Still, he seems far away from the majors as he pitches up a lot and doesn’t have great secondary pitches.
3. I’m a big supporter of Freese getting first crack at 3b next year. He looked good at the plate and made one good play but could have made a better effort on one or two balls to his left.
4. The team seemed a little low key for a championship game. Durham seemed much more energetic and capitalized on Memphis mistakes. Considering this, the odd choice of Walters, Walters’ gaffe, the wild pitch, Ottavino’s slow progress etc. it makes me wonder yet again if our hatchlings are being raised in a nurturing environment. I know it’s one game and they had a great end of season run but this has been a relatively disappointing year as far as the development of our prospects. I wouldn’t mind seeing a shakeup of managers and coaches for next year.
I thoroughly enjoyed the game being on ESPN2. DUR/TB brought an element of speed that Memphis really had trouble adjusting to. It was nice to see Memphis battle back from 4-0 to tie it up, but yeah, Robinson’s dp was a backbreaker. Craig likwise hit into a demoralizing 3-6-3 twin killing in the 11th that snuffed what I thought was going to be the rallypoint of the game.
After watching the game, I am comfortable with Freese’s swing and approach at the plate. Not sure he reminded me of Bob Horner (per the announcers…and surprisingly not the dumbest thing said during the game), but I think it will translate to the bigs decent enough. I likewise thought Craig had some nice at bats. Jon Jay with the opposite field shot off the LHP was nice…but it looks to me like he has put on about 15 lbs. over the season…he is not looking like the proto-type leadoff speed player. Perhaps someone needs to remind him of the steps at the U. I also think Perez’s game ending pitch should have been speared/snuffed by Yarbrough…that was minor league baseball right there…pitiful ending.
I also have to agree I am surprised to hear Craig didn’t get the call. My personal opinion is this is a great time to be getting that first taste of the show…what it takes to be a part of it…and then to see the celebration/reward at the end of a season of hard work. Are they really going to give those at bats to K. Greene? Thurston? Seriously? This may be the worst bench we have ever had.
Great point about the bench. Who would you rather pinch hit in the late innings? K. Greene? T. Greene? Thurston? Craig? or Freese? Rank em!
Make that 10 games left, not 12. (That’s what I get for using ESPN’s Hunt for October feature without doing the math myself.)
Didn’t we make a fuss last year when Colby didn’t get a call-up? Or was he injured at that point?
Either way, call-ups don’t seem all that important to me, especially when the team is getting set for the playoffs.
I understand why the Cards want to take a look at Freese — he might be the starting 3B next year. And T. Greene gives us some speed off the bench and might have better range at SS than some of the other backups.
But Craig is just one more RH bat on a team that already has a ton of them. If he makes the team next year it’ll be as a bench player anyway, at least at first. And whatever he does now won’t have any bearing on that — he’ll still have to win the job in spring training.
“Not sure he reminded me of Bob Horner (per the announcers…and surprisingly not the dumbest thing said during the game), but I think it will translate to the bigs decent enough.”
I loved it when the play-by-play guy said Freese was “one of the best prospects in all of baseball.”
Besides the few games remaining, the Cards will probably have an opening on their post-season roster, and it would be filled by either Freese or T. Greene. They are not going to put Craig on the roster when he has never before been in the majors. If the Cards go with 11 pitchers, then there are six bench players after the usual starting 8. These six will consist of Ankiel, Thurston, K. Greene, LaRue, Lugo, and ??. Since the last person will probably not be Glaus, that leaves room for one more – presumably Freese or T. Greene, since Stav is injured and Barden is no longer on the 40-man roster. So, the Cards want to look at these two. Craig simply doesn’t fit given this matter, the few remaining games, and not being on the 40-man.
On the pitching side, besides 4 starters (including Lohse), I see Franklin, Smoltz, Miller, Reyes, McClellan, Hawksworth, and either Motte or Thompson. TLR could take both of them and go with only 13 position players.
Ryan, they did “give the Padres a million dollars” and Jim Edmonds for Freese. He must be one of the best prospects in all baseball, right?
I also thought it hilarious when the play-by-play guy thanked the “stats people” for the great stat of Redbirds 0 runs, 2 hits in first five innings compared to 3 runs, 3 hits in the 6th. They really had to dig deep for those stats.
the only way i look at the callup situation now is that the cardinals are saving 71 k for not bringing up craig..that’s it..a money thing for them and using the third catcher excuse..they didn’t need a catcher for the first how many months and now they need one?
If one of the position call ups really is going to make the post season roster I think it baffles me even more that Craig wasn’t called. The call up will likely not make an appearance on defense and Craig murdered lefties in AAA this year. There’s a lot of portsiders on the opposition staffs.
Craig also isn’t a member of the 40-man roster; they’d have to add him just for the couple of games he’d get into. With only one spot available, they decided to add Pagnozzi to it instead to give LaRue and Molina some rest/injury protection in prepration for the playoffs.
the 40 man roster excuse doesn’t hold any weight..he has to be added this year or be exposed the rule 5 draft which he will get picked up in
Azru had a comment on VEB I’ve been thinking about. I think we agree brian barden is not the RF of the future. We are quite weak there.
Henley is the prime prospect in the high minors, and aaron luna, who has gotten some play there is probably next. With stavinoha and robinson not looking like MLers, who are our options even in a pinch. Jay, craig, jones . . . Are these guys all so weak-armed they can’t be trusted in right?
It seems to me that lack of range is a bigger deal than arm, even in RF.stav made several spot starts there, and his defensive limitations are bigger than jay’s.
With luddy injury-prone and struggling this year, who do you see backing him up in RF?
What’s the point of carrying K Greene on the playoff roster? He’s a liability on the field and not very good at the plate either. The Cards already have a backup SS in Lugo. Our bench lacks a RH power bat and Craig would fit perfectly.
If they really hate to add Craig on the 40 man roster so cannot call up him, I’d rather have T Greene or Hoffpauir on our bench than K Greene.