For whatever it’s worth, I do not expect the Cardinals to move Shelby Miller in a trade. It’s simply not going to happen. There’s no one out there like Matt Holliday this year (aka a 5 WAR player) and the Cardinals system lacks blue chip prospects. They aren’t going to toss Shelby for peanuts.
Daryl Jones, Lance Lynn, Eduardo Sanchez, et al are likely available at this point to varying degrees.
A rough night for the farm system though a few players (Oscar Taveras most notably) had big nights.
- Ruben Gotay was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles. I have to admit that I’m still somewhat intrigued by Gotay. He’s hitting .276/.406/.419 now after hitting .272/.429/.450 last season. His MLE from minorleaguesplits.com comes in at a tepid .235/.335/.340 which goes a good distance in quelling my curiosity. Still Gotay has seemingly reinvented himself in the minors and if I was a rebuilding organization, I’d try and snap him up and invite him to Spring Training.
- Nick Stavinoha was 3-for-4 with a double.
- Amaury Cazana was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.
- Donovan Solano was 2-for-5 with a double and a walk. After making a good impression in Spring Training, Solano has been nothing short of awful at the plate posting a .565 OPS.
- Lance Lynn got the start and went 6 innings allowing 8 hits and 1 walk for 3 runs (1 earned). He struck out 5.
- Fernando Salas got touched up for 2 hits and 2 walks for 1 ER. He struck out 1.
- Daryl Jones was 0-for-2 with a pair of walks. He’s inching closer to a .700 OPS which would be bad as opposed to awful. With whispers about his work ethic being less than ideal and another disappointing season, it’s safe to say he’s out of the top 10 prospects.
- Steve Hill was 1-for-4 with a HR.
- Trey Hearne struck out 6 in 6 innings. He walked 3 and allowed 4 hits for 3 ER.
- Blake King struck out 2 in a perfect frame.
- D’Marcus Ingram was 3-for-4.
- Alex Castellanos was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Richard Castillo got hammered for 11 hits in 4 innings. He struck out 1 batter while allowing 7 runs (6 earned).
- Colt Sedbrook, erstwhile second baseman, pitched the final two innings allowing 6 hits and 1 ER. He struck out 2. How badly do you get razzed if you get struck out by a non-pitcher.
- Edgar Lara was 1-for-2 with a pair of walks. Lara is a powerfully built player with a long dangerous swing. If he can get a hold of the ball, it’ll go a long way. The problem is that he’s struggling to get a hold of the ball with 90 strikeouts in 232 ABs.
- Jorge Rondon got lit up for 5 runs in 1.2 IP. Unable to escape the second inning he allowed 4 walks and 3 hits. I’d like to see the Cardinals move him back to the bullpen.
- Jesse Simpson struck out 2 in 2 perfect innings. I was underwhelmed by Simpson when I saw him in person but he continues to produce with excellent groundball and strikeout rates.
- Nick Longmire was 2-for-5. While I’ll remain cautious given this is short season ball, you have to be pleased with a .308/.395/.571 line to date. He’s walking above that 10% mark and striking out less than 20% of the time — both arbitrary lines in the sand for me. The only cause for trepidation is the 13% LD rate with a .343 BABIP.
- Geoffrey Klein was 2-for-2 with a double.
- Victor Sanchez was 4-for-5.
- Joey Bergman was 3-for-5 with a double.
- Jonathan Edwards, who I can’t believe is still in the organization, went 2-for-4 with a HR and a walk.
- Jose Rada picked up the win pitching the 9th/10th (1.2 IP). He struck out 4 allowed just 1 hit and 1 unearned run.
Johnson City 6, Elizabethton 11
- Oscar Taveras have yourself a night. The athletic CF went 2-for-4 with a pair of HRs and a walk.
- Philip Cerreto was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Cale Johnson allowed 14 hits in 4.1 innings resulting in all 11 runs that Elizabethton scored. 5 of those runs were earned. There were 5 errors in the game but 3 came from SS Cesar Valera (2 in the first and 1 in the third).
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Taveras hit both homers, plus drew a walk, against Adrian Salcedo. So what, you ask? Salcedo entered the game with just under 50 IP, zero HR’s allowed, and a 52-to-4 strikeout to free pass ratio.
Oh, and the homers were into the wind.
Hard to believe Taveras might not even be the best 18-year-old hitting prospect in the organization….
Ok Bob, I’ll bite. Who would that be? Garcia at GCL?
My guess would be Mr. Matias.
Hmm,,,,I thought Matias was a pitcher not a hitter.
And I thought I could read….
I have no idea who else that would be.
Audry Perez< I believe he is still 18.
wow, way off, he is 22. I give up.
My guess is that he meant Austin Wilson even though he’s not actually in the organization.
Give the man a kewpie doll!
Anthony Garcia is on pace to be the first GCL teenager in nearly a decade to hit for average (.300+) and power (.175+ isolated slg.) while walking more than whiffing.
The last one was Hanley Ramirez in 2002.
Before him, the last one was Justin Morneau a couple years earlier.
As long as Garcia’s bat keeps company like that, I’ll be happy. ;)
Bob I’m impressed with your knowledge of GCL lore. Do you know anything more about Garcia than the numbers?
not that this totally discounts the numbers but I doubt the others you mention were repeating the league. Impressive in any case though.
Brett Wallace makes his major league debut tonight, who knows what team it’ll be for haha.
Random thoughts:
Will Castillo even be a top 40 prospect? (i doubt it). Wonder what happened to him.
Does Castellanos’ 1.082 OPS signal he has found the magic or will it be a blip on his career? Too bad he couldn’t stick at 2B.
The super defensive OF in Springfield (Dejesus) has put up .852 and .850 OPS’s in June and July. I still think he is a possible major leaguer. (give me him over Rappaport at least).
We have a sudden plethora of catchers hitting well this year. We have 6 who have OPS’s over .800 (Stanley. Tartamella, Castillo, Perez, De La Cruz, Hill) as well as Cruz and Cutler who are OPS’ing over .800 in significant AB’s in their current locations. Several others including Anderson and Klein in the .700′s.
Oops another thought that was so random I forgot it.
We have a ton of guys in short season ball who are getting no hype for their really good seasons. (O’neil, Walsh, Melker, Cerrato, Garcia (GCL OF), Castillo (JC catcher), Ramos and others. Some are slightly old for their league (but not significantly) and others are actually young. I would say it is as fans we are getting smarter and more cynical about short season performances yet their are other short season players such as Longmire, Taveras, and Stanley that people are hyping their performances. Certainly not all of those I mentioned will pan out as prospects but my guess is a couple will.
Castillo excited some because percocious for claimed age.
Like Mark Shorey, DeJesus has abilities, but the Cards are not giving him the at bats to develop into a ML prospect.
Actually, for as poorly as he started, I thought Dejesus got an exorbitant number of AB’s. Shorey didn’t advance because he lost his power stroke. Dejesus’ keys are his OBP and his defense. If those 2 stay solid he will have a chance.
The thing about Castillo is that he is doing worse repeating the same level.
Castillo was never very good. His stuff is fringy at best. He had a good year, got name dropped a few times and people jumped on that train too early.
Clarification: the 1.082 OPS for Castellanos was for the month of July.
Do you guys have any info on the Cardinals new prospect LHP Nick Greenwood? He is the new guy we got from the Padres in the Ludwick trade…..
It’s coming.
Apparently the guy just isn’t good. Callis said he doesn’t even know if he can be a LHRP (via twitter).
Only thing good about him is he LH and he throws a lot of GB outs. He’ll need a whole lot of those GB outs if this trade is to make any sense.
I was at the Springfield game last night and watched Jones misjudge two different balls hit to him…one turned him completely around and on the other he started back and then had to come up and missed the catch. That play cost the cardinals a run. His hitting has also left him and I am trying to figure where his “five tools” might have gone. If he continues on the same pace , he won’t have enough tools to fill his tool belt. Kozma is hitting the ball very hard, but just foul or to a player. He needs some better luck. King, Eager and Bursma are throwing the ball quite well these days.
Why don’t more people talk about steven hill? He continues to mash the ball. I watch a ton of sgfld games and he may not be the best defensive player but he doesnt look like a liability at catcher and he can really hit.
If you were at the game you would know that the OF was told to play deep when the ball was shallow. Yes, they over played that ball.
Seems like it was not just Jones who lost the game but the team lost it themselves and missed many chances. Why just on DJ, is it because he’s on the 40 man roster?
The releiver doing the best is Reifer, 12 innings, 1 walk with 13 strikeouts. Ny opinion anyway.
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20100731/SPORTS02/7310381/Bounces-go-against-Springfield
The fact that Jones just held the ball and not make a throw is the reason the run was scored. Jones started the year in LF. Then was moved to center even though Chambers was the better outfielder. He is not a good centerfielder and just average in left. When Chambers got moved up it look like Jones was on a mission the next few games, but since has reqressed back since. May and POP both talked to Jones at length after not getting rid of the ball after the inning was over.
Hill is a good hitter, but his passed balls are at about 20 right now and he is average throwing runners out. He needs to improve behind the plate to continue moving up the system.
I agree with you in that he plays left better, but I don’t feel like he gets a good read off the bat and therefore he gets a late start at the ball. I know that an outfielders first step should be back, but they have to make a quick read and go to the ball. The third reason that run scored was that Luna was going full speed for the ball and I guess they didn’t talk about who was going to make the play and who would back the play up because they both dove for the ball. I also think that DeJesus could cover more ground in center. I also agree that Hill is a very good hitter and if he can improve his defensive skills or move to first, then he has a chance to keep moving.
I was at the game, but I was not privileged to know that the outfield was told to play deep on that play, but I was privileged to see that Jones didn’t get a good read off the ball and he was late moving to the ball and didn’t make the play along with the fact that he held the ball too long once he had it in his possession. The play last night should have been a routine play and it would have been for DeJesus or Chambers, and the run should not of scored. Jones is a top ten prospect and on the 40 man roster and advertised to be a five tool player and that is what I expect to see if he is playing in the field. I do agree with you in that Jones didn’t lose the game by himself, the cardinals needed more timely hitting with runners in scoring position. I also agree that Reifer is a very good relief pitcher and I should have included him with Buursma, Eager and King because they all four are doing great for the cardinals.
Personally I like DeJesus. I never did see DJ as a 5 tool player. I think he’s playing very unsure of himself and his potential this year, hopefully better days ahead.
In case you missed it, Carlos Matias struck out 12 in 6 scoreless inning yesterday for the DSL team.