Happy Memorial Day everyone! You’ve got an early DFR to help you procrastinate so you can forget about going to work tomorrow for a few minutes.
My boy, Arquimedes Nieto adjusted his mirrors just right and earned himself a promotion up to AA Springfield today and he appeared in relief as you will see in the holiday DFR.
The system celebrated with a 3-0!
- Evan MacLane fresh off his cup off coffee in the bigs in which they gave him the cup of coffee, it was too hot to drink and before he could drink it, they took it away… He pitched like a big leaguer scattering 6 hits in 7 innings striking out only 2 but walking none.
- Pete Parise finished off the game with 2 innings.
- Dan Descalso led the team with a 3-4 afternoon with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs.
- Amaury Cazana also had a 2-run HR.
- Donovan Solano had a 2 RBI single.
- Joe Mather was 2-5 with a double.
- Matt Pagnozzi chipped in with a 2-3 with a walk.
- David Kopp started the game for the Cardinals and danced around 6 hits and 4 walks in 5 innings allowing 2 runs. He struck out 3.
- Blake King came in and stranded 1 of 2 Kopp’s runners while striking out the side. Unfortunately, he also walked 2.
- Arquimedes Nieto fresh off his promotion pitched the last 3 innings striking out 4 and allowing 2 walks and 2 hits.
- Matt Carpenter led the team with 3 hits, one of them a double.
- Pete Kozma had a double, an RBI and a walk. He’s slowly getting that OPS up, but it is still at .761 for the year.
- Daryl Jones and Curt Smith both had 2 singles.
Palm Beach was off.
- Deryk Hooker went the first 4 innings and gave up 5 runs (4 earned) on 8 hits. He struck out 3 and walked 2.
- However, the story of the day for QC was Scott Schneider, yes, Scott Schneider of the hot April and not as hot May. He got hot again today allowing no hits through the next 5 innings, getting strikeouts on 7 of his 15 outs.
- Niko Vasquez has his feet under him at QC this year adding another 3-4 with a HR and 2 RBIs. He has an OBP of .432 and an OPS of .902.
- D’Marcus Ingram also went yard.
- Ryde Rodriquez also had a 3-4 afternoon with 2 RBIs.
- Michael Swinson had a triple.
Entries (RSS)
Actually, Schneider had two rough outings back-to-back early in May, then righted himself. Since the second bad one on May 9, he’s given up 6 hits and 2 runs in 18 innings with 14 SO/2 BB. A blip was bound to happen, and it’s nice to see that overall, he’s still holding steady.
Also nice to see Kozma show some consistent life at the plate; he went hitless in only one game this past month.
Ingram has a .941 OPS from the leadoff position. 22 y.o. and this the 3rd year he has played at least part of the year at QC. MOVE HIM UP!
Cazana has a 1.208 OPS his last 10 games. His OPS for the year (28 AB’s) with runners in scoring position is a measly 1.443 !!!
Sanchez was DL’d which made room for Nieto.
Schneiders manager is on record saying that he thinks Schneider will be a big leaguer. With all his success its easy to forget that this is his first full year pitching and he didn’t really do it at all before.
Kozma:
Is finally hitting at AA with a .327 Avg in May and a .389 Avg over his last 10 games. However with a career .941 fld% at SS he will not be left at that possition unless he improves. This year his FLD% at SS is .930 with with 16 errors in 46 games (very poor).
Matt Carpenter:
All this guy has done is hit hit and hit. He had a .382 avg for the month of May and has a .395 Avg in his last 10 games. He additionally has a career .971 FLD% as a 3rd basemen with a .987 FLD% at Palm Beach and .960 FLD% at Springfield this year. The guy has only made 9 errors in a total of 320 chances so far in his minor league career. I wouldn’t be surprised to him promoted to AAA by the end of this month if he has another month like may in June. The biggest question is that it appears that he has a very good glove at 3rd base. Is there any chance that he could move to 2nd base since Freese will be at 3rd for at least the next 5 or 6 years in a Cardnals uniform.
Evan MacLane:
I was realy hoping that the plan was to bring Evan into the game at Wrigley on Saturday when Ottavino was done so I could see what he looks like against big league hitters. The guy is obviously more than a AAA pitcher. However will his stuff fly in the majors or is he just a AAAA pitcher. I really want to see the guy get a chance and was hoping that he would have been kept up there as the long reliever 13th pitcher over the next 10 days and see if he got a chance. His BB rate is astonding. However his hits per inning are high and lead to the oppinion that he is very hittable. There are two offsetting points here though. The reason that his bb’s are so low is because he is always around the plate and throwing strikes which addittionally will lead to hits as well. Baseball is a game of inches and the difference between a lot of the hits he has given up and them being outs is a matter of inches. I would like to see him at STL this year.
One last thing if you look at WHIP for the Memphis Starters:
PJ Walters 0.64
Adam Ottavino 1.17
Evan MacLane 1.20
Brandon Dickson 1.27
Lance Lynn 1.29
I wanna see Lord Marti in St. Louis at some point. I don’t care if it’s only for 1 AB. If it happens, I can die a happy man.
Looks like Nieto back to Palm Beach. Fick off the DL to replace Sanchez.
@cariocacardinal:
What is the word on Dirty Sanchez’ injury?
@mizzcards: WHIP and fielding percentage, mizzcards?
@Erik: How often does fangraphs update their minor league stats? DJ and Kozma don’t have any 2010 stats there when I went looking.
@Jeffery:
If Chuckie Fick is healthy, I think that he will be positioned as a starter in AA. I am not sure who would be moved to a reliever. It seems like the cardinals like their starters to be taller than their relievers. I think that Reifer, King and Mulligan are strong relievers with maybe Mulligan being groomed as a closer. I still have confidence in Cutler and Kulick.
Can you give a list of those players whose contracts expire this year in the minors who will need to be added to the 40 man roster to be protected by the cardinals under the rule 5 program? It seems to me that there are several players that fall into this category….and only a few spots to accommodate for protection. The cardinals have a very young team and many have proven that they belong, but how can they protect them at the end of this year. Also, please explain what happens to those players not protected by the cardinals and how they would figure into a new club.
@mizzcards: WHIP is BS.
@Hugo: the Stats Inc folks jacked up the prices, as in a lot, so Appelman stopped carrying them.
\@erik: Any chance to change the links in DFRs to a site that has stats? I loved being able to just click through and see how a season was going. Either way, keep up the good work.
@Hugo: For just cold hard stats and plenty of links, Minor League Splits has a daily update of each club’s minor league affiliates, with links galore to click on for numbers. I wish they had wOBA.
@Hungary Jack: I heard he turned an ankle. Haven’t heard how badly he is injured.
i would second linking player names to a site that has stats. why did you stop linking to firstinning.com?
@kelley:
If they are not protected by being placed on the 40 man, they are open to be drafted in rule 5 (if this is their rule 5 draft year). I am going to assume that most will not be protected unless the organization feels they will be an impact player at the highest level either in STL or for trade. And I am going to assume that most will not be drafted. This is not to say they are not very good players, just most do not show that they will play at the ML level (in this organization anyway). Being drafted in rule5 opens opportunities for some who may not have it here. But let’s be honest, if one has been playing in an organization for 5-6 years and not at the ML level yet, chances are they never will be.
Brian Walton @ Thecardinalnation.com most likely could answer your question as to who is eligible this year.
@ pitch and hit
Organizations have 3 full mionor league seasons for college players and 4 full minor league seasons for high schoolers before they become eligible for the rule 5 draft.
@erik:
Fld% is indicative of how well a player fields his position. For instance David Freese’s career minor league FLD% at 3rd base was .955 with 40 errors in 892 chances. Another example is Allen Craig’s career minor league FLD% of .927 at 3rd base with 46 errors in 630 chances. The FLD % is why the organization moved him Craig off 3rd base.
@mizzcards:
The rule for the 5year draft is 19 or older is 4 full seasons and for players drafted 18 or younger 5 full seasons. Correct me if wrong. It was changed in 2006. Teams claimed the earlier time frame didn’t give them enough time to develop players, especially those out of HS.
It’s not really a bad thing either, as the player must be added to the 40 man and then on the 25 man for the following season (unless traded). There are a lot of guys, I would imagine, who would love to be added to those rosters, however, is there any player that you see that is ready for that in our system, not playing in AAA?
So what I was trying to say is that I wouldn’t worry about it too much, chances are greater of being released than selected in the rule 5 draft.
There will be room to add 6-8 depending on who they remove from the 40 man roster (Robinson, Kinney, Pagnozzi?) and if they want to sign any FA’s. Off the top of my head. 40 man adds in the off season -
Sure bets:
Sanchez
Descalso
Probables:
Kozma
Chambers
Mulligan
Reifer
Possibles
Hill
Rapoport
Kopp
Henley
Parise
Dickson
Solano (based on his strong Spring)
Brown
Cruz
Cazana
Diapolous
Carpenter
King
There are another 20 or so guys who could be subject to the rule 5 draft but wont be deemed worthy of consideration.
@mizzcards: I’m not trying to be condescending or anything, but I can’t believe this conversation is actually taking place in 2010.
Fielding % values being immobile and having excellent hands more highly than range on the field with average hands, and is a pretty poor evaluator of overall fielding ability. What we really want is to find a way to measure a defender that gives him credit for making plays – which is very different to debiting him for screwing up in the middle of plays. It’s not about simply not screwing up with the balls hit to you, it’s about getting to balls that the average player won’t get to.
Total Zone does that while also factoring in errors (fielding and throwing). I won’t get into all the nuts and bolts of it, a simple google search will tell you more, but Kozma rates as an above average SS, good for about +5 runs per 150 chances. There’s also scouts, managers and coaches who rated him the best defensive SS in the Texas League last year…so the stats jive with the eyeballs. There are more sophisticated defensive metrics out there such as UZR and John Dewan’s DRS, but all we have now for the minors is total zone.
Granted, maybe Craig didn’t have the throwing capability or the hands to handle 3B, but I doubt they came to that conclusion by looking at something as archaic as fielding %. I’m sure their own observations is what made them come to that decision.
@cariocacardinal:
Looking at your list I can only see maybe 4 or 5 guys that might be added:
Sanchez
Descalso
Kozma
Henley
Mulligan
Reifer
Keep in mind that the ones at AAA or AA would have to be kepted on the ML 25 man roster if drafted in the rule 5 and I don’t see that happening with anyone on the list. Sanchez… maybe
@erik:
Im glad that there is more to it than errors and fielding percentage. I agree that you can rate a player at getting to balls such as having range like Brendan Ryan does for instance. But the fact that a guy can not handle balls listed as total chances makes you wonder what the deal is. If you look at Ryan and Skip’s FLD% last year they were right around .980 meaning that they handled what they got to. I have also rarley saw a regular everyday starting 3rd baseman or SS with a FLD% under .950 or .940% stay a regular starter at the ML level. Espeacially at SS.
@cariocacardinal:
Are all of these players shown ending there contract this year? It seems to me that a few have not been in the cardinal organization 3 years yet.
@mizz…The problem with fielding percentage is that it doesn’t differentate between the errors that any decent player shouldn’t make and the ones that happen because an above-average fielder created a chance out of a play that wouldn’t happen with most players. Ozzie Smith’s career fielding percentage was .978, and that was probably the best defensive shortstop in the modern age.
That’s why fielding percentage is pretty worthless when it comes to prospect evaluation.
@Forsch31: I think the fact that Ryan and Schu both had similar FPCT should show exactly why it isn’t as valuable of a metric anymore. Boog makes errors out of sure base hits, Schu makes errors out of sure outs.
@cariocacardinal:
Are you talking about those qualified for the rule 5 to be placed on teh 40 man roster, because many of those mentioned are not. For example Kozma, he was a 2007 HS draft, that means that this is only his 3rd full season.
@Hugo:
you just made me lmao.. Schu makes errors out of sure outs is correct. I have continued to watch games where Schu and Lopez continually give the opponents extra outs
@pitch and hit:
Not correct. Its not HS or college that matters but age. Kozma was already 19 when drafted and signed. Almost positiv e everyone I listed will be rule 5 eligible.