- Jim Rapoport was 2-for-4.
- Amaury Cazana was 4-for-4 with a double and a HR. In between at bats, he perfected cold fusion.
- PJ Walters went 6 innings allowing 6 hits and 2 runs. He walked 1 and struck out 6. It’s curious to me what the organization plans for Walters. He’s pitching well in Memphis but there will always be questions about how his stuff will play in the big leagues.
- Eduardo Sanchez pitched a scoreless frame with 1 hit and 1 strikeout.
Springfield 6, Corpus Christi 1
- Tommy Pham was 4-for-5 with a pair of doubles and a pair of HRs. Pham’s HRs were 395ft and something around 320-330ft to left centerfield and left field, respectively. I’m going to withhold some of my commentary for a full Springfield writeup but Pham had one of the best games of any player I’ve seen in person. Really spectacular.
- Pete Kozma and Andrew Brown were 2-for-5 with a double.
- Xavier Scruggs went 2-for-4 with a HR.
- David Kopp pitched an efficient and effective 6 innings allowing 6 hits and 1 run. He struck out 6 throwing 50 of 67 pitches for strikes. Kopp came up limping after retiring the last out of the 6th — Kary Booher reports that it’s just a calf strain.
- Blake King pitched a scoreless frame walking 1 and striking out 2.
- Niko Vasquez was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Vasquez has a .889 OPS in the last 10 games.
- Alex Castellanos was 1-for-3 with a HR.
- Kevin Thomas pitched 7 innings striking out 7. He walked 2 and allowed 2 hits. Thomas has shown good (not great) strikeout rates and a strong groundball rate this season. I feel like I find myself writing that A LOT about starting pitchers in the Cardinals system. Scott Schneider, Brian Broderick, Brandon Dickson, Joe Kelly, etc.
- Casey Mulligan struck out 2 and allowed 1 hit in a scoreless frame.
- Matt Adams was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles.
- CJ Beatty was 2-for-4.
- Frederick Parejo walked 3 times in 4 trips to the plate.
- Eric Fornataro struck out 4 in 5 innings. He allowed 5 hits and 2 walks for 4 runs (1 earned).
- Nick Greenwood struck out 3 and walked 1 in 2 scoreless, hitless frames.
- Chris Edmundson was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Nick Longmire was 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Victor Sanchez was 1-for-2 with a pair of walks.
- Yunier Castillo, Joey Bergman and Pat Biserta all went 2-for-4. Bergman doubled.
- John Gast is out to make me look dumb for not being excited about his signing. Gast pitched 6 scoreless frames and struck out an outstanding 11 strikeouts. Of the remaining 7 outs, 6 were on the ground. Gast has struck out 21 in 18 innings and walked just 2 batters.
- Johnson City’s offense tallied 5 hits and 1 walk.
- Ryan Copeland allowed 4 hits and 2 runs (1 earned) in 5 innings. He walked 1 and struck out 4.
- Hector Hernandez took the loss allowing 4 runs in 4 innings.
Entries (RSS)
Thomas has really looked good as a starter. In 10 games his ERA is 1.07 (I know, ERA dont mean squat) but with his GB rate if he continues not to give up homers he could be good. Old for his league. He’ll be 25 in AA next year but if he can come close to repeating this year’s performance there, I’ll consider him a good prospect.
Looks like Springfield put on a display for AZ.
Not sure what you mean by “good prospect,” but a guy who’s 25 and hasn’t remotely sniffed the upper parts of the farm system, let alone the Show, pretty well by definition is not a “good prospect” in my book.
That said, there’s no reason why Thomas can’t be *useful* — which is not the same thing, and has considerable value. There also is value in having him safely through the “Injury Nexus,” the catch phrase for the tendency for pitchers to be at enhanced risk of blowing out their arms until they’re about 25 or older. So I think I’m basically with you here, although I would stop short of calling him a good prospect.
That works much better with hitters; pitchers’ learning and aging curves are too hard to predict. I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but using a pitcher’s age as such a large determining factor in your opinion of him isn’t nearly as useful as doing the same with a hitter.
Thomas is doing a nice job helping Palm Beach to the playoffs.
Sounds likes a truly monster game by Pham last night. Looking forward to the in-depth write-up.
As the year has gone on Pham has got me more and more excited. Hopefully this won’t be DJ Tool Part 2!
As far as Gast he was one of the guys I put in the “intriguing” category for our 2010 draft class. He was highly touted at a well known baseball HS. He was projected to go as high as the 1st Rd out of HS but then he blew out his elbow as a senior and had TJ. At FL St. he just never regained his stuff and his FB was never back up to where it was before TJ until glimpses of it this year. He was hitting low-mid 90′s regularly in the beginning of the year but faded as the year went on and ended up sitting in the high 80′s. He has a potential plus CB with an avg CH. Not sure if anyone has seen him live this year but would be curious to know if his FB is sitting in the high 80s or low-mid 90s. He has the making over a middle to back of the rotation guy but that highly depends on how his control progresses and more importantly can he consistently keep his FB in the 90s.
I saw him pitch an inning in the CWS. His pitches had crazy left-to-right movement, with some vertical drop as well. I don’t recall how his FB velocity registered, but the fact I don’t remember suggests it was okay — no red flags there.
Can you prepare a list of those players whose contracts expire this year in the minors and explain what the options are for these players. It seems to me that there are several players with contracts expiring at the end of this season and only a few spots that could be opened to protect them as a cardinal. I know that there are several older players on the AAA roster who are not on the 40 man roster….how are they protected and still with the cardinals? Is this year unique for this problem? I think that Lunhow has done great job recruiting and projecting which has mad every team in the farm system competitive.
Tom S. actually wrote an article about this on VEB today.
Thanks….where can we read this article?
http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2010/8/14/1618477/rosterfarianism
What happens to Dickson, Lynn, King and Kulik. I think this is their year as well.
It might be for King, but he won’t be protected, as there’s very little chance he needs to be. Lynn was drafted in ’08, so we don’t have to worry about him for another year. I doubt either of the other two receive serious consideration for a spot on the 40. I could be wrong, though.
I think I agree here. Every year I ponder the Rule V–40 man roster– 25 man roster question and wonder what it might mean for the Cards. Usually, in the end, not so much. Oh sure, I guess there are the Ugglas and Sorias of the Rule V world. Still, it seems like it ends up being more an academic exercise than anything tangible. If our farm system is as lightly regarded as is widely reported, I can’t see a rush on our TJ Maxx, marked-down, out-of-season, factory close-out merchandise on the Rule V rack.
Actually I have lots of friends that play in all different organizations and IMO, even some of their true prospects aren’t as good as some of our non prospects, it’s all in the perception. If our system is soooo bad, why are our teams doing well? Batavia won two years ago and Memphis won last year, to me that says more about an organization than a lot of other stuff. Or is it because when you spend 15 million on one draft pick, you don’t have much to spend on above average guys. milb is about putting a good product on the field as well as having one or two of you propsects having teammates.
I don’t think the rule 5 means much to most teams. That means benefits kick in, and most don’t want to do that. The true prospects are already on the 20 man or on the 40 man in less than the 4 or 5 years it takes to reach 5 year rule criteria.
Kulik is an 08, Dickson a FA signed in 06. I agree with King, doesn’t need to be protected, he’s not ready to sit on a ML roster.
Not sure of the hang up on protection for eligible rule 5 guys. That only exposes them to the rule 5, in which a team has to place them on their 25 man for a season (yes are rules regarding getting out of that). Do you see any player that a team will give up a 40 man spot and place him on their 25 man for a season? Do you see any player the cards want to start the clock ticking? Also, you have to be active for 90 days, that leaves out the ones who are injured.
As a big time scout once told me,mostly protection is more about who will be worth keeping for future trade, not necessarily who will see that teams ML field. So think in terms of who will add value for trade come next year or two.
Also, think in terms of investment made by the drafting team, will the cards leave someone like Kozma exposed for 50K from another team when they invested over a million, that’s throwing money out the window. Placing on the 40 man is purley for business purposes, not is what is best for the player. But it does mean a guaranteed trip to spring training and more $$ next season.
It is my opinion that there will be lots of AAA gone as the more in my opinion talented AA players move up. That’s another really sad realistic part of the business of baseball.
I may be wrong in what I have posted, so anyone feel free to make corrections if necessary.
The biggest plus for the players is a whole lot more money come next season,
It has been said before, but why is Casey Mulligan down at Palm Beach? He has nothing to prove there. Are they lettin ghim get his confodence back after his injury and struggling at Springfield.
I don’t think there is a roster spot at this time for Casey to return. Not sure why they sent another reliever up recently and not him. They have different reasons for moves rather than what we think they should or should not do.
Saw Pham playing for QC against Peoria last year (or the year before). The ball really jumps off his bat…when he makes contact. Don’t want to steal az’s thunder, but he just looks like a major leaguer. The question with him has always been about making contact and he’s apparently improved in that area.
Hey, everyone, isn’t it about time to start up the Niko bandwagon again? Everyone toned it down last year after all the hyperventilating in 2008, but this is a 21-year old more than holding his own in high-A. And he is playing third base, a position of obvious interest for the Cards. Rev that bandwagon up again!!
So, does Marti ever get a cup of coffee or what?
I’d love to see it, but at his age, I doubt it. The fact that they continually send him to the Mexican League every year shows they’re not serious about ever having him on the 25 man roster, IMO. He has some value for Memphis down the stretch, especially now that Craig, Jay, and Stav have graduated to the big league club, but he has no true value for the Cards otherwise. We’d have to see some serious injuries to our starters and bench to see it happen. How awesome would it be to see him step into the batters box at Busch, just once, and watch him jack one through the Arch and into the Mighty Mississippi? Of course, after that happened, they’d have to rename it the Cazana River.
Sorry, but for the good of the rest of the community, you have been banned. You’ve either been rude, lame or just plain annoying. Good day.
The website is having some weird issues with it’s banning plugin. I have no idea why it defaults to that on occasion.
When trying to project minor league players, what are the best stats to look at? We all know the main ones can be deceiving.