What a night last night in baseball! We should feel blessed that the Cardinals options for a CF are Colby Rasmus and this guy below and not Drew “Can’t Hit My Weight with runners on” Stubbs. But I don’t think anyone has called him that since his 4-H days.
Speaking of CF’ers, one of my all-time favorites, and the guy I emulated from the right side of the plate in whiffle ball HR derbys in the back yard retired yesterday, 75 years to the day after some guy named Herman. When it comes to surefire prospects, Ken was one. I’ll miss The Kid.
Congrats to The Chief Justice!
On to the DFR!
- James Rapoport walked and scored a run.
- Daniel Descalso went 1-for-4 with 3 R , 2B and 1 RBI.
- Allen Craig went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI.
- Brian Anderson and Amaury Cazana both went 2-for-4. Anderson hit a 2B and had 2 RBI.
- Oneli Perez got the start going 6 IP, with 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB and 3 K. He yielded a HR.
- Rich Rundles pitched a perfect inning striking out 2 for a hold.
- Josh Kinney pitched a perfect inning striking out 1 for a hold.
- I’m Not Your Babe Fernando Salas picked up the save pitching a perfect 9th, striking out 2.
Springfield 11, Corpus Christi 12
The Good
- Daryl Jones AWAKE! DJ Tools went 4-for-6 with 2 3B, a HR, 3 R and 4 RBI.
- Pete Kozma went 2-for-4 with 2 R and 2 BB.
- Matt Carpenter went 3-for-5 with 2B and HR, 4 RBI.
- Steven Hill went 3-for-6 with 2B and 1 R.
- Jose Garcia went 1-for-5 with 2 R.
- Adron Chambers came off the bench and got a hit and scored a run.
- Mike Folli hit a HR in his lone AB.
The Ugly
- The first 3 Cardinal pitchers pitched 4.1 innings, gave up 11 H and 10 BB and 12 ER. That’s horrific.
- Nick Additon was roughed up in 3 IP. He gave up 6 H and 5 ER on 4 BB and 2 HR. He struck out 1.
- Matt Meyer wasn’t much better. He took the loss in his lone inning, giving up 5 ER on 3 H and 3 BB with 1 HR.
- Thomas Eager pitched 0.1 inning and gave up 2 H, 2 ER and 3 BB.
- Jason Buursma got things back on track for the pitching staff by throwing 2.2 shutout innings giving up 1 H and 1 K.
- Casey Mulligan walked 1 and struckout 1 in his inning.
- D’Marcus Ingram went 1-for-4 with R.
- Ryan Jackson went 1-for-4 with a 2B and 2 RBI.
- Matthew Adams went 3-for-4 with a 2B.
- Ivan Castro went 1-for-3.
- Michael Blazek went 4 IP, giving up 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB and striking out 3.
- Jorge Rondon matched Blazek in IP, H and BB, but cut down the ER to 2 while striking out 2.
- Chris Swauger went 2-for-5 with 1 R and 2 RBI.
- Tony Cruz went 1-for-4 with 1 RBI.
- Xavier Scruggs went 2-for-3 with a HR.
- Domnit Bolvar hit a solo HR as well.
- Jarred Bogany went 2-for-4 with a 2B.
- Tommy Pham went 3-for-4 with a R.
- Richard Castillo threw 6 shutout innings, striking out 3, walking 2 and giving up 5 H.
- Ramon Delgado struck out 4 and walked 1 in his 2 IP.
- Matthew Frevert picked up 1 K in 1 IP.
Entries (RSS)
Good to see Pete Kozma continue climbing back toward relevance—.269/.332/.441 in the Texas League at 22 would be getting me reasonably excited if he had spent last year hitting .280 in Palm Beach. Pham’s starting off June hot, too.
It may be the hometown bias for me, but I think Kozma gets a raw deal. Not to say he has lived up to first round billing, but he does not get the same deference as other prospects by some who post here. I am glad to see him develop and hope for continued improvement.
A questions about him: if he continues on this recent trend, where does he play next year? What becomes of Tyler Greene? Does Greene make the big club as a utility guy and Kozma go up to AAA? Just curious on people’s thoughts.
@Travis: that’s what I see as logical, but they have moved him up a level every year as soon as he starts to get hot at the lower level. I don’t see them doing that this year to AAA, until maybe late in the season depending on how S’Cards are looking in the playoff race.
@Travis: Unless his D improves, then I don’t see a move for Kozma to AAA any time soon. And I disagree that Kozma gets a raw deal, as I feel all the criticism is well deserved. For a guy who was supposed to be a plus defender, he has struggled. He appears to struggle with the mental aspect of the game, and is unable to make the plays he should. Perhaps his struggles to adjust and his mental weakness are due to a poor attitude (that’s just pure speculation based on observation on my part).
He’s always appeared to be a bit of a slap hitter, with poor hitting mechanics (at least what I’ve seen from the past. I haven’t seen him yet this year to observe if his swing has changed). Also his throwing mechanics probably need work. The guy has been a never ending project, who has been extremely slow to adjust… not what you want to see from a #1 pick, so I feel the criticism is justified. I do hope though that he is able to eventually turn it around and at least make himself a valuable utility IF if nothing else.
I feel like Kozma will continue to develop and end up playing 2nd base in the ML in 2 0r 3 years. He was rushed to AA and now he is beginning to feel more at ease playing at this level. My concern is the pitching. One game it is the starters that struggle and the next game, the relievers struggle….the level of consistency is not there in AA. The only pitchers that have been consistent are Gorgen (D/L)….Kopp….Mulligan….King…..Reifer….with Bursima improving every game. Carpenter is on fire and I still have confidence in Cutler.
Good to see Jose Garcia get promoted to Springfield.
Good to see Swauger off the DL and playing well, I think he also ha a couple of SB’s.
Ingram has a 11 game hit streak for QC I believe.
I know many people aren’t high on Castillo, but he threw another good game last night and Frevert and Delgaldo continue to dominate out of the Palm Beach bullpen
Does anyone know that happened to Miller? I thought he would be starting today but someone else is. I hope he isn’t hurt…
@dk:
I agree with the assessment of Kozma.. I made a post on here the other day about Kozma’s poor FLD% and large amount of errors and was slapped down about it. I’m sorry but the FLD% doesn’t lie and generally game scores are pretty generouse as far as giving errors. If the guy got to a ball that most other players wouldn’t have got to and some how bobbled it or made a throwing errors they are more than likely not going to receive an error because it will be ruled an infield hit anyway.
@ kozma critics: he has made too many errors …but he is the best defensive SS prospect in AA. He was drafted
on that premise and his SS play will play at ML level. Wichita State does not play around when recruiting SS.
And so… his bat coming around at this time in Aa is about what good scouts would expect. Anyone remember Aaron
Holman?
@tnek5:
I just checked and he’s pitching today. Not sure if he was supposed to go yesterday or not.
While fielding percentage doesn’t completely lie, it doesn’t tell you the whole truth. The idea that an infield hit would be ruled is a fallacy (as somebody who watched Ozzie Smith get called for errors on similar plays year after year).
It should be noted that Kozma has one of the best range factor ratings in the Texas League.
Also, FWIW, Kozma led the TL in assists by a shortstop last season, with 375 in 113 games. His fielding % of .957 wasn’t far behind the league leader, who was at .964. Granted, his 25 errors were one off the league lead, but he was also within one of the league lead in DPs. That’s why the coaches voted him best defensive shortstop.
Back in 2004, Brendan Ryan, who was 22 — same age Kozma is now — had 31 errors in 104 games for Peoria in the Midwest League.
If he’s still making errors at the same rate three years from now, he won’t be a major-league shortstop. My point is that it’s not at all unusual for a future MLB SS to make mistakes at his age in the minors.
@mizzcards: the problem is that you cannot rely completely on fld% … there is not one great defensive statistic so you have to look at them all and the rest say that he is a good defensive SS.
@Wade: I agree with those who say his D is “good” as yes, the numbers indicate that and the talent is obviously there. He’s just been slow to put it all together and become a true plus fielder. All the mental errors and throwing errors greatly overshadow what range he has. This guy has got to become tougher and more mature mentally before anyone considers moving him up to AAA and further. The tools are there, he just lacks to ability to put it all together, and until he proves that he can, he’s a bust #1 pick in my book. I still have hope that he can be a useful SS, but that hope is begining to fade.
Lou, Thanks for the perspective. That makes me feel better about his defensive lapses.
My thought was more of the way people react to Kozma and people react to guys like D Jones. Seems like more people react badly to Kozma than Jones.
@Travis:
Part of that could be because Daryl Jones was a rough HS player taken in the 3rd round while Pete Kozma will always been known as the guy the Cardinals took instead of taking Rick Porcello. Which isn’t fair to Pete, but he’s been facing that since Day 1.