“Everybody gets into rough spots, but you have to overcome it somehow,” – Pete Kozma
With the draft class being finalized a few short days ago, it is interesting to look at what our top pick from 2007 is doing. We all know about the errors and the inconsistency at the plate. He’s been dubbed a slap hitting infielder with doubles power. Perhaps, though, he may be finally developing into a potential MLB player. Apparently Pop Warner told the young short-fielder to relax his approach and stay confident in his abilities.
Since that speech, he’s hit at a .438 clip with 5 2Bs and 5 HRs. For the month of August, he looks like a real prospect with a slash line of .318/.357/.652.
I don’t particularly believe that Pete has turned the corner or this is anything more than a hot streak that just happened to coincide with Pop’s words of encouragement. However, it would be a welcome addition to have the former 1st round pick round into an above average MLB player. Or, atleast, be better than Aaron Miles.
Memphis 13, Salt Lake 3
James Rapoport went 1-for-5 with a 2B.
Tyler Greene was 3-for-4 with 2 R and a 2B.
Daniel Descalso scored 4 runs by going 1-for-3 with 2 BBs.
Amaury Cazana drove in 6 runs on a 2B, HR and 1B going 3-for-4.
Reuben Gotay went 3-for-5 with a 2B, HR and 4 RBI.
Kevin Howard went 1-for-5 with a 2B and 2 RBI.
PJ Walters had a near carbon copy of his last outing going 7 IP yielding only 5 H, 2 ER , 2 BB and 7 K.
Eduardo Sanchez went 1 IP with 1 H, 1 UER, 1 BB and 1 K.
Chuckie Fick handed out a BB in 1 IP.
Springfield 6, Corpus Christi 5 (11 innings)
Daryl Jones went 1-for-6 with a 3B.
Pete Kozma was 4-for-5 with a 2B, 2 HR and 3 RBI.
Matthew Carpenter went 1-for-4 with a 2B.
Xavier Scruggs had a 2B and RBI.
Nick Additon gave up 2 ER on 5 H over 5.0 IP. He struckout 6 and walked 2.
Thomas Eager took a blown save getting just 1 out giving up 2 R (1 ER) on 2 H, 1 BB and 1 K.
Blake King struckout 2 and walked 1 in 1.2 IP.
Tyler Norrick gave up a H, BB and K in 1 IP.
Adam Reifer took the 2nd blown save of the game by giving up 1 ER on 2 H and 1 K in 1 IP.
Trey Hearne picked up the win with 2 BB, 2 K in 2 IP.
Palm Beach 4, St. Lucie 1
D’Marcus Ingram went 2-for-4.
Alex Castellanos went 1-for-4 with a 2B and R.
Ryde Rodriguez went 2-for-4.
Domnit Bolivar went 2-for-3 with a HR and 2 RBI.
Kevin Thomas picked up his 10th win by yielding only 3 H, 1 BB and 1 ER over 7 IP. HE had 7K.
Cory Rauschenberger walked 1 in 1 IP.
David Carpenter recorded his 20th save with 2K in 1 IP.
Muckdogs 2, Eastwood Mall Scrappers 4
Juan Castillo went 2-for-4.
Victor Sanchez went 1-for-4 with a 2B.
Adam Melker was 1-for-3 with 2 RBI.
Zach Russell handed out 4 BB in 5 IP. He gave up a H and struckout 5.
Matthew North took the blown save and the loss after giving up 3 ER on 4 H (1 HR), 1 BB over 2 IP.
David Kington struckout 2 in 1 IP. He gave up a H and UER.
Riverbandits 9, Clinton 2
Luis Mateo went 2-for-5 with 2 RBI.
Devin Goodwin picked up 2 RBI on 2 2Bs and 2BB in 3 ABs.
Matt Adams went 1-for-4 with a 2B and 2 RBI.
Rainel Rosario went 2-for-3 with 2 R, a 2B and 3B.
Edgar Lara went 0-for-3 but had 2 RBI.
Robert Stock had a H and RBI.
Michael Blazek recorded his 7th win over 5 IP. He struckout 6, gave up a BB, 5 H ad 2 ER.
Daniel Calhoun threw 2 IP with 1 H, 2 BB and a K.
Christopher Corrigan went 2 IP with 3 H, 1 BB and 1 K.
Entries (RSS)
Any chance that Amaury Cazana gets the callup as a 4th OF instead of Craig or Stavinoha? I think the Stavinoha experiment as a PH and 4-5th OF is starting to show it’s a bad idea, and Craig hasn’t hit enough to this point to warrant the defensive downgrade he brings in RF. Obviously while Rasmus is banged up, I think somebody not named Skip Shumaker should be given a shot to see if they can make things happen and put a jolt in this offense. I’m not sure if Cazana profiles as a RF, but he can’t be much worse than Stav or Craig there defensively and his bat has played all year in Memphis. We signed him because we thought he might have a shot at contributing to this team, and at 36 this is one of his last opportunities to make an impact with the big-league club. Just a thought…
Albert Pujols would never allow Lord Marti to appear in St. Louis. It would be like Zeus inviting Poseidon to Mount Olympus. No world is large to hold both gods.
i was going to write something very similar….
I would like to see it, but doubt it is going to happen. He would have to be added to the 40 man, plus they keep loaning him to the Mexcian League, so I don;t think he is highly thought of. If he keeps hitting like this though I believe they would have to notice.
Is Kozma turning into a real prospect again? He has 13 HRs from the SS position. We could really use some pop there. 36% of his hits go for extra bases. Thats a pretty decent clip. He is also taking a decent number of walks. His OBP is 70 higher than his BA. If he could hit .270 with a .340 OBP that would be great. Especially if he maintains the power.
Ok all the nah sayers come in and dash my hopes.
I know this might be ignorant, but I’m not giving up on Kozma just yet.. I saw Springfield play earlier this year and Kozma looked really, really good. He hit a bomb of a HR to LF, had a double in the gap, roped a single and showed solid range at SS. He hasn’t really produced at any level, but maybe he’s just now starting to figure it out? We can hope..
Well I look at it 2 ways. First he is still only 22 years old and if he can be an avg MLB SS with power then that has quite a bit of value. I am more concerned with his fielding than I am his hitting really. In our system you can be a slick fielding SS and hit just enough and get plenty of playing time and potentially be a starter. But if you hit at a premium position but still can’t field then you will find yourself on the bench a lot. The other way to look at this is he has never consistently shown he can put it all together for a full season…we have saw glimpses from time to time.
I am not going to give up on him by any means but I feel next year is a critical year for him to either take that next step forward or take the step backwards to being a bench guy at best. Believe me…I am still rooting for him!
I don’t think you’re wrong. Somehow Kozma seems to be a whipping boy for Cards fans. Probably because he was a first rd pick. However, Pete didn’t make the pick. It also shouldn’t be forgotten that Pete has never played at a level where he wasn’t one of the younger players in his league and he still is at 22 yrs and 4 mos. If you projected him out to 550 ab’s this year his line would look like .250/17/80. The kid has made steady improvement, and I think it will continue.
I heard something about him this past weekend, that his errors are due to the fact that he played on astro turf through HS (?) and that he is still considered young and the organization stands behind him 100%.
Kozma has the tools, I always thought that he just had to learn to be patient, get into his count and relax. Perhaps being a first pick and not performing to fan expectations hindered him a bit and that he HAS to step up with Hill gone, and he has. I hope to see more good things out of Pete.
I agree, Kozma gets beat up a lot for reasons that have nothing to do with him. I look at it this way, if he makes the big league roster at 24 that would be right on schedule. That gives him two more years in the minors to improve. He’s shown some signs this year so I look for a big year from him next year. After next year is the time to pass judgement on him as a player, anything till then is just premature. The minors are about players improving and learning their craft, not every players is Albert Pujols are Serling Castro. Some kids have to struggle to put it all together. I’d rather him struggle in the minors than kill College pitchers for 3 years.
I think Marti has no chance of being called up due to the 40 man roster. we have 5 catchers there now, not sure if there is an open spot or if we would have to move someone. Agree on Kozma. he is 22. he has struggled, esp with his glove. I have thought he may need to get out of the organization to fulfill his talent. He seems to put so much pressure on himself. If he can learn to relax, accept who he is and just play ball, I think he can be a solid big leaguer. I think the same of Green. if Tyler just relaxes and plays, he will be ok. like Brendan Ryan said he learned from skip…..when you accept you are a big leaguer, you arrive. I must say I am excited about the system. it is getting more solid each year. next year I can’t see the cards getting any extra picks anyway, and it will likely be the last year b4 draft rules and slots change. I hope they go after it, get as many high end talents as they can and spend to sign them. after 2011, the only way to get up on the competition will be with international players.
They can easily make room on the 40 man roster if they wanted to. Marti will needed to be protected or be exposed tot he Rule 5 draft. I could see a team who needed a RH power bat taking a flyer on him (most likely an AL team).
Lopez is still type A….he is the last type A currently, even if he falls to type B he is should get offered arb considering he is only at $1 mil this year. They might re-sign him, but unless he is really cheap again i would rather take the picks and play tyler greene.
I think he is due for a significant pay increase even with arbitration and the Cardinals don’t want to risk losing the case. I think he will just let him go on the market and not offer him another contract.
Just tweeted that Cards traded P DAvid Carpenter for infielder Pedro Feliz. I thought they thought more of Caprenter than that (Fe;iz has an OPS of .550). Mo is in desperation mode.
I just hate this trade. I would have much preferred they just promoted Carpenter to STL and play him. This trade sucks.
I think you’re thinking of the wrong Carpenter. They traded pitcher David Carpenter, not 3B Matt Carpenter.
I would have rather seen either Carpenter promoted to play 3B than Feliz.
Yep, my bad. Hate the trade but at least we didn’t give up real prospect. I would have just promoted Gotay than acquire Feliz.
Do you even know what a real prospect is?
OPSing .962 at AA is a nice start JA.
Talkin about the other Carpenter DA
And we’ve found a family member. This isn’t the right way to approach the topic. And the acronyms aren’t fooling anyone so don’t type them anymore.
Horrible trade – agree with cariocacardinal, this is a move made because the front office felt some heat, no other reason
They actually managed to acquire somebody who’s hitting even worse than Ryan.
Which takes effort to pull off.
Maybe that’s why they traded for Feliz – to boost Ryan’s confidence. There’s somebody on this team that hits worse than me.
Look at what Lopez did for us when he came over from the Nationals. I am sure that line of thinking is going on with TLR and Moz. Plus Feliz is an awesome defender. That should help and might have given us the win the other night that Lopez cost us with his error.
Agreed. There’s not much to lose here. He didn’t cost them much. He plays better defense than what they’ve been getting. He’s probably hitting better than Lopez has in the last month (a tailspin). Hopefully, a winning environment can get the juices flowing again.
Feliz doesn’t play a good 3B anymore. This was a terrible acquisition.
A few things—
I knew there was a reason that I hadn’t exited the Petey K bandwagon (assuming such a thing ever existed)
I think its both a desperation trade and a decent one. DCarp is about the 6th best RELIEF prospect in the system. In other words, he is a non-prospect. Feliz is an upgrade…granted that is not saying a whole lot.
Still, I wonder why no Inge. He is probably the superior glovesman and batsman at this point.
Feliz is an upgrade on who?
He’s not better than Lopez. He’s not better than Gotay. He’s not better than Ryan or Greene. He’s probably not better than Solano or even Matt Carpenter. He might be better than playing Miles at 3B against left-handed pitching but that’s about it.
Pointless trade. About the best thing you can say about it is that “at least if he only plays vs LHP with Lopez at 2B we’re no worse off than playing Miles at 2B and Lopez at 3B; any other way of using him is a downgrade and he’s probably not as good as just promoting Tyler Greene anyway”. That’s about as faint praise as you can get…
He is an upgrade on any/all of those guys mentioned. A substantial upgrade? No….but an upgrade nonetheless.
Seems like making a move for the sake of making a move. Felize becomes yet one more member in the Lineup of the Usual Suspects. I suppose there aren’t a lot of opportunities out there right now to get better at third. Inge has been mentioned, but no one knows the asking price (might not have been too much). Reynolds from Arizona may well be going somewhere else, eventually, but that’s a winter move and not an August one. I guess, I’d just as soon they put T. Greene there and take their best shot. But that’s not what Tony wanted. When we patch or bolster a roster spot, we go to the Preston Wilsons, the Randy Winns, the Aaron Miles, and the Pedro Felizes of the world. It’s the common fix for a team in an August divisional race. It’s just that 3rd base, a position usually implying a player carrying some form of power/offense, is, for the Cardinals, just another place in the lineup for us that’s a net drag on our output. I’m starting to think we don’t have enough offense to get this thing done, if all we’ve got is sitting around waiting for Rasmus or AP to hit a home run.