Derrick Goold has some early top prospect assignments in his Bird Land blog today:
No. 1 prospect Shelby Miller, a righthanded pitcher, and No. 2 prospect, third baseman Zack Cox, have been assigned to the High-A Palm Beach club.
The Cardinals are not in a position to confirm the assignment, but it’s expected that Martinez will continue pitching in extended spring training rather than join the full-season rotation in Quad Cities.
All three assignments make sense. Miller moves up a level. Cox gets his first full season ball experience in Palm Beach. Martinez continues his education before moving to Quad Cities this summer. Smart move by the Cardinals, no reason to push Martinez when he is still new to the country.
As far as Quad Cities, I think their rotation will be fine for the time being:
Assigned to the Quad Cities No. 1 roster as RHP Seth Blair, RHP Jordan Swagerty and RHP Trevor Rosenthal.
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I have no real problem with this, I think we will see Martinez sooner rather than later in QC though.
Martinez lack of blowing people away in ST indicates to me they have asked him to work on something specific and that he hasn’t mastered it yet. EST is not surprising.
I think Cox will be in Springfield by mid season. Maybe sooner than Shelby.
I’d rather have him stay in EST and get his mechanics and other nuances down before actually trotting him out there. Absolutely no need to rush the kid, he’s still extremely young.
I’m fine with Shelby starting off in PB so long as they move him up by mid-season if he dominates in the FSL. Yes, it is nice for him to feel good about his ability but he must be challenged as well. The challenge awaits in Springfield.
Springfield News-Leader says they want him to work with Dennis Martinez at Palm Beach.
Trust me, I want to see Shelby with the Springfield team, so I can check out Shelby in person myself, but I don’t think he should jump to AA ball unless he is dominating High A ball and his mechanics are sound.
I’m annoyed with the Kane County Cougars.
I live right down the road from their park and they play the Bandits early in April buuuuut……. it’s a Monday to Thursday series all game during the day. Wtf? And seeing that list of pitchers makes me even angrier.
but I’ll get over it when they come to town again in May.
How is the Kane County Park? I’m in Springfield, Illinois and watch the RiverBandits in Peoria usually. Going to Modern Woodsmen Park this year trying to decide if I want to make the 3-4 hour drive to Kane County. They are the A’s organization right?
Andrew, I’m a central IL guy myself (live in Chi now), do you know where Rushville is?? It’s about an hour west of Springfield.
Rushville-Industry
Not anymore.
They changed affiliation this year to the Royals.
As for their park, it’s just meh. It was probably built in the 80s and it kinda looks like it. I think they did the first “renovation”/remodel of it before last season and I couldn’t really tell what was improved when I went last year.
(just looked it up, it was built in 1991)
Honestly, there are two better minor league ballparks in the suburbs here but both are Independent teams. The Schaumburg Flyers and the Joliet Slammers (formerly, as in up until last year, the Joliet Jackhammers) play in much better stadiums. I think the fields are comparable in distance and stuff too. Kinda sad.
They used to play the high school state tournament in Geneva (Kane County) but even that tournament left for greener pastures in Joliet (the only thing better there is the ballpark).
But, it’s worth heading up if you’ve got the time. I like seeing new ballparks and it’s a ballpark. Especially if they’re playing the Bandits.
While it’s not the best, it does beat the old ballpark I worked at in Rockford, though. I was there in it’s last year when the team was called the Rockford Reds (formerly, the Cubbies, Royals, Expos and now is the Dayton Dragons). That park was crap, but the new park they built up in Machesney Park (I think) is pretty nice. Small, but nice. Perfect for an Independent team.
Cool…….I played and worked at Lanphier Ball Park in Springfield. Springfield Cardinals home for forever. No recent MLBer played there but read a newspaper article a few years ago that about 7 Hall of Famers have played there total. Robin Roberts, Mike Schmidt, Ryne Sandberg, Jimmy Fox. Just a wide arrangement of names.
Yup sure do know where Rushville is.
I’ve been anxious to see where some of these guys are going to be assigned. I’m guessing Martinez ends up in the QC once the weather starts to warm up a bit. I’m also hoping to see Jenkins here as well. Add in the names already mentioned above and I’ll be able to see someone “of interest” pitching just about any game.
It looks like they want to let El Presidente help Carlos become comfortable state side, which is smart more. We are really forunate to have a guy of Dennis Martinez’s experience in our organization so we should utilize it to the max. Cox seems to be on the same path as Wallace was but with him being on the 40 man I don’t see anyway he isn’t in Springfield by mid season. He has to be ready to be on the big league club by the break of camp 2013 for that contract ot make any sense.
2013 will be Cox’s 3rd option year (if I can count properly) so he could still be sent down but agree with the notion that Cox must accumulate MLB time before he is out of options. Maybe not necessarily breaking camp in 2013 but he needs an extended look in 2013. I’d prefer he get a full year of AA and of AAA as well before being rocketed to the majors in 2013. Probably not a big deal if he gets 1/2 a year of AA in 2011 then a full year of AAA in 2012. It’s a tight schedule for developing Cox that shall be derailed if he is injured or struggles at any level before he hits the 25 man roster.
Cox should get a fourth option year unless this is changed in the new CBA.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/columnists/askba05sept.html
In some circumstances, baseball rules allow for a fourth option. A player receives a fourth option if he has less than five seasons of pro experience. Draftees who immediately sign a major league contract will qualify unless they reach the majors quickly and stick there. Otherwise, they’ll have their three options exhausted after their first three years in pro ball.
+1 Didn’t know that.
Anthony Reyes got a 4th option year I believe.
I didn’t realize that either. I also did not know that SS and Rookie level does not count. I guess that does limit the risk for the team a bit, especially with pitchers considering their chances of developing a major arm injury upon experiencing the longer pro season and innings loads.
That’s why Cox was assigned to the GCL last year -s o it wouldn’t count as a year of pro experience.
Conservative all around. Can’t say I’m surprised. I just really hope Martinez moves up soon.
No big surprise here. I like the prospect of both Cox and Miller ending the year in Springfield. This sets the stage for a potential callup for both in 2012 sometime. We have no reason to rush Martinez and this is his first opportunity to be in the states so why not let him get accustom to our culture and then produce in QC and maybe if all goes well he gets bumped to PB near the end of the year. We have the opportunity to see some of our highest ceiling prospects ending up in PB or above this year. To me that’s very exciting!
I doubt he gets past Quad Cities even if he does dominate the QC hitters. They didn’t bump up Shelby Miller, doubt they’d bump Martinez up.
Just out of pure selfishness I wish Shelby and zack cox were assigned to springfield. I’m a student at Missouri state so Hammons field is 5 minutes off campus.
I say you will get to see them starting mid-year. We expect full reports from you when they make it!
I like the slow start for Martinez as well. With his slight build, I am nervous about him mounting a large number of innings while he is a young guy. He needs to build into it.
+1. “Ride ‘em hard, put ‘em away wet” is not the philosophy for building a pitching staff long-term.
Problem being I’ll only be down here until early may. Than I’ll be back in St Louis.