- Ruben Gotay was 2-for-4 with a walk.
- Mark Hamilton was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles. I’ve never been terribly high on Hamilton myself but I’d be curious what he could do if he was actually healthy for a full season.
- Matt Pagnozzi was 3-for-5 with a double.
- A nice outing from PJ Walters who went 7 innings allowing just 1 run on 6 hits. He struck out 6. Walters is striking out more than a batter an inning on the season with 4:1 K:BB rates. The worry has to be that he’s the Cardinals version of Yusmeiro Petit and the stuff just never plays at the majors.
- Rich Rundles failed to retire a batter allowing 2 runs on 3 hits.
- Josh Kinney relieved Rundles getting a pair of strikeouts and 1 hit in an inning of work.
- Fernando Salas closed out the game with a scoreless 1-hit 9th.
Springfield 1, NW Arkansas 10 (7 innings)
- Springfield was two hit with Chris Swauger tripling and Matt Carpenter doubling for the only hits. The team collected a measly two walks as well.
- Nick Additon lasted 5 innings allowing 4 runs on 5 hits while striking out 4.
- Gary Daley got lit up for 5 ER while retiring just 1 hitter. He allowed 3 hits and 2 walks.
Springfield 11, NW Arkansas 4 (7 innings)
- Antonio DeJesus was 2-for-4 with a walk.
- Tommy Pham was 1-for-3 with a pair of walks.
- Matt Carpenter was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Carpenter’s numbers have cooled a bit coming back into the good territory rather than the excellent. He’s hitting .318 on the season and drawing walks (OBP over .400) with good power (ISO over .150). The question for me is how good his defense is. If he’s good at the hot corner, than he’s likely a major leaguer of some sort. If not, the offense may not be enough by time he reaches the majors.
- Steve Hill was 3-for-3 with a double, a HR and a walk.
- Chris Swauger was 2-for-5 with a double and a triple.
- Brian Broderick was touched up for 9 hits in 6.1 innings but somehow manged to escape most of the damage allowing just 4 runs (3 earned) while striking out 3.
- Blake King retired the last two batters of the game.
- Alex Castellanos was 3-for-4 with a HR.
- Scott Schneider stumbled allowing 4 runs over 5 innings. He walked 4 batters allowing 7 hits while striking out 4.
- Luis Mateo was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.
- Devin Goodwin was 2-for-5 with a double.
- Edgar Lara was 3-for-5.
- Alan Ahmady was 4-for-4 with a triple.
- CJ Beatty was just 1-for-4 but it was his second Grand Slam of the season.
- A mixed outing for Joe Kelly who went 5 innings allowing 5 hits and 3 runs (2 earned). He walked 1 and struck out 5 with a one more groundout than flyout. I’m a but surprised the team hasn’t backed off of Kelly more later in the season give that he was primarily used as a reliever in college. Kelly continues to put up good numbers though.
- Chris Notti pitched 2 perfect innings striking out 1.
- Audry Perez was 3-for-4.
- Nick McCully allowed 6 hits over 5 innings for 3 runs. He struck out 4.
- Matt North struck out 4 over 2 innings allowing 1 hit and 1 walk.
Johnson City 7, Kingsport 6 (12 innings)
- Chris Edmundson was 2-for-5 with a triple and a walk.
- Philip Cerreto was 2-for-4 with a double and a pair of walks.
- Roberto Reyes was 2-for-2.
- Boone Whiting allowed 6 hits and 6 runs (3 earned) over 3.1 innings. He struck out 5. Whiting has 31 strikouts in 21.2 innings and an astonishing 1 walk.
- Jeff Nadeau went 3 innings striking out 5 while allowing 1 hit and 2 walks.
- Hector Corpas struck out 2 and walked 1 in 2 innings of work.
Entries (RSS)
The good thing about Walters over Petit is the groundball percentages. Usually Walters GB% is around 45% or so (currently at 38%). Petit on the other hand, has a GB% in the low 30th percentile (currently 27%). While it’s not a tell all, I do feel a little more comfortable about him and fully expect him to make it and stay at the big show in time.
Gary Daley Jr. is in a funk. Without Daley’s velocity, PJ Walters is in a groove. Walters K’d about 1 per inning in 2009 too.
Audry Perez is hitting well at Batavia. If he can catch, the bat looks playable. Keith Law may be right on Perez.
I have always been a big fan of the Matt Carpenter pick and watch him a bit when he was at TCU. He was an above avg defender back then but haven’t heard how he has done since being in pro ball. I think he has a legit shot of being a MLB regular but obviously I want to see him match his success in the upper minors.
Has anyone scouted Catcher Bryan Anderson’s defense this season? When it was being discussed a couple of days ago about which players we follow, I should have mentioned Anderson. My hope is that his defense is good enough to be the back up to Molina going forward starting next year. He seems to be able to hit enough that, as a left handed bat, he could give Molina more days off than Larue has been able to do.
PJ has to be completely disheartened. If he can’t beat out Jeff Suppan for a starter’s spot, considering Suppan might be the worst 5th starter in the majors, then it’s likely that it’s never going to happen for him.
The Cardinals sure do win a lot of games considering we have so many “worsts”. Miles. LaRue. Suppan. Come on, I can name 10+ players that have been worse then each of those guys. Easily. Especially in Miles case.
Matt Carpenter can play for Memphis in 2011. He may be a Wade Boggs kind of 3Bman, hits for average and modest power. Good to have him at AAA, in case of injuries.
@rydeshelby: I could definitely agree with you that he could be a Boggs type hitter. Probably never going to be as good as Boggs but similiar style of hitter for sure.
@JC: I know there were some previous discussion here about whether he could switch to 2b. At second base his his OBP would really play up. Same with the #1 pick Cox. It seems that the Cards system is becoming so deep that there is not enough available playing time, particularly at the higher levels to consider those type of position switches.
Second and shortstop are the two positions at which they need offensive improvement, particularly to locate guys who can get on base (and a little speed). At this point in the MLB season Kelly Johnson and Dan Uggla seem to be ideal candidates to help their offense.
Similar question to my Bryan Anderson question above, although Steven Hill and Tony Cruz are both right handed hitters and are probably a year further away than Anderson, do either or both of them catch well enough to be a major league #2 catcher, who hit enough to give Molina more time off in future years?
cough (release daley already) cough
@bc:
He doesn’t seem the type to be disheartened just more determined. He’s never missed a start and pitching with a broken finger and doing well, does he have to put in another year at the AAA level?
I think Tyler Greene will be filling the SS spot for awhile. I’ve seen him play 3x’s this year, he is laying off a lot more of the bad pitches in the dirt or over his head. He has pop and speed, and his glove plays. 2nd base is the dead zone, and frankly, if Freese come’s back, Lopez would have it covered. Ryan and Schu are backups to me. the 2 yr deal they gave Schu was a bad deal, there was no reason to do it. next year I also think that Gotay will have play as a backup, he has had a good year at AAA. Miles, Ryan, Schu won’t all be on this team next year. Anderson as backup C is a good call. the only problem is TLR’s noted reluctance to go with kids. The progression of the farm system is continuing. Cox may be a 3/2nd baseman w/i a couple of years. The fly in the ointment is what will they feel obligated to do this offseason to make Albert happy….assuming it happens this offseason.
Daley seemingly had it figured out last year and was doing well, who knows what happened but the guy hastoo much talent to release already.
@Andrew: He also has some of the worst command this side of Steve Blass.
Yup, it’s strange though because the end of last year and part of the beginning of this year he had pretty good command, it seems to have just left him.
@Andrew: sorry, just don’t see the talent. never had a FIP below 5 since A- ball, terrible command.
I have never seen the talent with Daley and never considered him a legit prospect. I don’t think he even gets a sniff in the bigs. But thats just my opinion.
I’m not sure what FIP is, what I’m going on is hearing a discussion by the pitching coach of QC. Also read an interview from a Springfield pitcher when asked what 1 pitch would he want from a teammate he said Gary Daleys sinker is considered the best pitch in the league. He just needs command. He had it at the end of last year but I guess he lost it again.
@Stan: Well, you can get away with having a lot of “worsts” when you also have a lot of “bests,” like Waino and Pujols. Suppan is in the running as the worst 5th starter in the majors. Miles is in the running as the worst field player in the majors. And LaRue is in the running as the worst backup catcher. I’m very comfortable with those characterizations.
Relevant article regarding Daley and his command.
http://www.news-leader.com/article/201007150257/SPORTS02/7150339?odyssey=mod_related_topix