Congrats to the Memphis Redbirds who made the PCL playoffs in their last regular season game today!
Let’s quickly run down the success of the minor league teams this year. Palm Beach was the only squad not to make the playoffs. This is certainly not a be-all end-all status report of the health of the system, but I can remember recently when the minor league affiliates were in last place in all levels. This is better! Better players make better teams who win more games. Easy right?
Memphis: playoff berth
Springfield: playoff berth as a wild card
Palm Beach: 4.5 GB in the 1st half, 2 GB in the 2nd half
Quad Cities: Won division in 2nd half to make playoffs
Batavia: Won division to make playoffs
Johnson City: Championship!
Congrats to the Cardinals affiliates who made the postseason. On to the end of the regular season DFR!
- Evan Maclane got the start and was not great, but was saved by his relief corps.
- Matt Scherer pitched 1.2 shutout innings, putting out the fire.
- Adam Reifer in his first AAA appearance was asked to hold a 6-6 tie in the 8th in the game to put the Redbirds into the playoffs. No pressure kid. He allowed 1 walk and nothing else in a no-hit shutout inning. It is interesting to see that the Cardinals are giving Reifer is getting a chance in the playoffs and playoff chase for Memphis.
- Josh Kinney got the save.
- Mark Hamilton was the hitter’s hero for the Redbirds. He was 3-4 with a HR and 2 doubles.
- Dan Descalso had a double and a single.
- Allen Craig went 2-4.
- Ryan Kulik got the start in the losing effort, going 5.2 innings scattering 8 hits, striking out 4.
- Scott Gorgen got his 4th appearance since returning from injury and pitched his 4th inning. He walked 2 and allowed no hits and no runs.
- Daryl Jones had the only extra base hit for the Cardinals, a double.
- Matt Carpenter and Aaron Luna each had two singles.
- Jorge Rondon did not have a game to remember as he gave up 7 runs in 4.2 innings. But at least he struck out 9.
- Chris Corrigan and Aaron Terry finished off the game.
- Cody Stanley had a pinch-hit 2 run HR.
- Edgar Lara and Devin Goodwin each had the only other hits in the game.
Entries (RSS)
Stanley had a pinch-hit solo HR and plated another with a sac fly.
Congrats to the Redbirds. I hope they continue on so I can watch them on ESPN2 like last year. Although, I’d like to see Greene, Craig and Kinney up with the big squad asap.
Dang good season for the minor leagues.
Reifer was not sharp. He walked the first batter on 4 pitches. Got behind the 2nd batter 3-1 before getting a pop up and got behind the 3rd batter before getting him to hit into a double play. Good result but not necessarily a good approach. Hopefully it was just nerves from first AAA game.
He was brought up due to Memphis exhausting their bullpen the day before. I wonder if he’ll go back to Springfield today or stay up.
i watched Reifer on milb.tv..he was good enough in a tough situation, in a clutch game..awesome first game for him in AAA
According to Luhnow, we have the best minor league system record and the 4th youngest system in baseball. LAst year we were the youngest.
In the last week or so I have read comments here and elsewhere about “according to Luhnow”. Has he been interviewed somewhere for which I can get a link so that I can read/hear his comments? I always enjoy reading/hearing the comments of someone on the inside. Thanks.
He is on KTRS about every other Sunday morning.
You can usually listen after the fact at this link. http://ktrs.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=34&Itemid=317
I read this site regularly but never post. I wondered if anyone has ever done any sort of analysis on system age and results with regards to future performance/number of minor league players making the majors. It would be interesting to see if the young system or system-wide record actually means something or just sounds good in theory.
I know some people dismiss it, but I think it is a good sign for the future with all the minor league teams doing so well this year.
I hope that they bring Reifer back, he’s the closer, Springfield really needs him. Springfield actually hasn’t been playing their best, with the loss of Hill, Pham and Cutler it’s been tough.
the youngest thing is kind of a 2 edge sword
good to not be overrun with AAAA players, but
also can mean big turnover because people don’t stay in the system long and are continually being replaced by new draftees
fungible young or old, or better drafts?
I think it’s a temporary phenomenon. Last year was the first time that most of the players at AA and AAA were homegrown — overwhelmingly, they were products of the drafts from ’05-’08. That’s why we had the youngest AA and AAA teams in MiLB. This year they’re a bit older, because most of the players are the same ones. They’re repeating AA or AAA, or advancing to AAA and waiting for a spot.
As a consequence of having so many repeaters at those levels, we ended up with slightly older teams at A and A+. It used to be almost automatic for college guys like Ryan Jackson and Jason Stidham to start at A+ in their first full year as a pro, with a chance to advance to AA. But now there’s a backlog of players at those levels. I’m pretty sure Carpenter is the only ’09 draftee to reach AA in ’10, but there could be a pitcher I missed.
The other factor is the aggressive Latin American program. A few years ago we had 4 full-season and 2 short-season teams. Now we have the same 4 full-season teams, but 5 short-season teams. This is the first or second year when it’s really affected new draftees, making it harder to earn playing time even in the Gulf Coast League. Just a few years ago, a guy like Anthony Garcia would’ve started at JC the year he was drafted (’09) and probably advanced to QC the next year, even if he wasn’t ready for it. (That’s why we had so many last-place teams.) But instead he played 2 years in the GCL, posting an .862 OPS this year.
I like the new system. If draftees can’t win a spot at QC after 2 or 3 years of short-season ball, or a kid signed at 16 or 17 can’t advance after 3 or 4 years, then the odds are about zero that those guys might’ve become big leaguers.
Hamilton should get a callup. The bench really has no one with power on it and it would be nice to see someone pinch hit that could actually get an extra base hit.