Archive for July, 2010

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As the Oswalt turns…..

The Astros want:

two top prospects, a third minor-league player and a young player who is ‘major league ready’

The Cardinals are offering:

two young players currently on MLB roster and other minor league prospect

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Link

Shelby Miller ALERT!

As many of you probably saw in yesterday’s thread, Austin Wilson was at Busch Stadium yesterday on a recruiting trip that would put USC to shame! For those who aren’t up to date on Wilson, he was ranked 5th overall in this draft class by Keith Law back in February. As BJ Rains says, he’s mentioned in the same manner that Jason Heyward was not too long ago. The Cardinals were able to get this guy in the 12th round and by all means, if he intends to play baseball they should offer him out of slot money if he’s on the fence.
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Jeff is on assignment in Hawaii for the next three weeks. Assignment as in on his honeymoon. So you get the FR godfather. Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon Jeff to do a service for me. But, until that day – accept this justice as a gift on um, … Jeff’s wedding day… And I hope that their first child be a masculine child. OK, I’ll stop with The Godfather quotes now.

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A couple notes:

1. I’m going to turn on threaded commenting again. I’m hopeful that I can just flick a switch and it will work but bear with me on this one. I hope it helps the comment sections flow better. (Update: The threaded comments are live. See how you like it and whether or not it’s better than the @reply format we had been using.)
2. Best wishes to Adam Ottavino as he comes to a tough decision regarding surgery. Despite the fact that I’m blunt about my perception of prospects and their chances at success, I would like nothing more than for all of them to succeed. This is, frankly, a crappy situation for Ottavino and I hope it turns out as well as possible.
3. If you follow me on twitter (@azruavatar) or you want to find some more prospect updates you’ll get some captions of interviews with Jeff Luhnow. Luhnow was on John Marecek’s Sunday morning show on 550AM KTRS discussing numerous prospects and unsigned draftees including Cox and Wilson.

On to the DFR.

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Both of the Springfield games were rained out last night (they’re behind like 3 games on the season — triple header!) but Palm Beach had a double header so we’ll cover a full slate.

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I get e-mails or comments on occasion asking me about players and why they haven’t signed yet or if I think they will.  Occasionally I hear rumblings by about a certain player but more often than not, there’s just not that much to relay. These things take time and they’re very fluid negotiations.  Via BJ Rains, we get this tweet:

Luhnow not excited about talks with Zack Cox, has talked with Austin Wilson: http://tinyurl.com/33denll

To start with, the tweet is misleading. Read the exact quote from Luhnow in the article (which has good info by the way):

Asked if he was confident that the Cardinals and Cox would be able to meet in the middle on a contract before the August 16 deadline, Cardinals’ vice president of scouting and player development Jeff Luhnow didn’t seem overly enthused.

“No because our first selection was part available to us because of some desires that other clubs weren’t willing to even consider,” Luhnow said. “I think that one could be a lengthy process. …We knew that there was a disconnect between what most clubs probably had as a value and what the player was stating that he was wanting to come out as a sophomore, especially elite players at the top of the draft, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

The key is the lead. Luhnow may not be confident that they’ll meet in the middle, but that’s a far cry from being “not excited” about being able to sign Cox. There’s some liberal interpretation being used in my opinion. The reality is that Luhnow is wise to take a hard line for two reasons: 1) Austin Wilson is great leverage until he firmly says ‘no’ and 2) Cox would be drafted lower in the 2011 draft. Luhnow and the Cardinals have an unusual amount of leverage over the draft-eligible sophomore and I expect them to use it forcefully, as they should.

There’s some updates on Seth Blair, Jordan Swaggerty & Tyrell Jenkins.  Also some words on Austin Wilson. I remain unreasonably optimistic that Wilson will sign and that the Cardinals will open up my least favorite euphemism “DeWallet” to get that deal done.  Wilson would instantly be a top 5 prospect in the system given his projection, current skills and body type.

To summarize, I expect the Cardinals to sign Blair and Swaggerty without issue. Zach Cox & Austin Wilson will drag things out to the end but one or both will likely sign. Tyrell Jenkins is more of an enigma to me and I’d not be surprised by a yes or no decision from him.