More intra-organization games today. Some very nice stats from a couple of guys that might help the big club this year.
Memphis 4, Springfield 3
Memphis Stats:
- Lance Lynn put up a line of 7 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, and 9 K
- Eduardo Sanchez pitched a scoreless inning with 1 K
- Cory Rauschenberger went 1 inning giving up 0 ER, 1 H, and striking out 1
- Andrew Brown went 2-for-3 with 1 R
- Tony Cruz went 2-for-2 with 1 HR, 1 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI, and 1 BB
- Pete Kozma also went 2-for-2 with 1 2B, and 1 RBI
- Donovan Solano and Ramon Vazquez each had a hit, Vazquez included an RBI
Springfield Stats:
- Kevin Thomas went 5.1 innings with a line of 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, and 3 K
- Ramon Delgado pitched 2.0 scoreless with 2 K
- Aaron Luna had 1 HR and 2 RBI in his 3 AB
- Nick Derba and Chris Swauger both went 1-for-3, Derba had a triple and Swauger an RBI
- Xavier Scruggs went 1-for-4 with 1 2B and 1 R
Quad Cities 8, Palm Beach 0
Quad Cities Stats:
- Justin Smith went 4.2 innings giving up 1 H, 3 BB, while striking out 7
- Andrew Moss went 3.1 innings with a line that inlcuded 3 H, 1 BB, and 3 K
- Keith Butler went one scoreless that included 1 K
- Nick Longmire went 2-for-4 with 1 2B, and 1 R
- Victor Sanchez was 2-for-3 with 2 2B, 2 R, and 1 BB
- Jonathan Rodriquez had 1 2B, 2 R, and 2 BB in his 4 PA
- Cody Stanley had an RBI and went 1-for-3
- Frederick Parejo went 1-for-3 with 1 BB and 1 R
- Yunier Castillo went 1-for-4 with 2 RBI
Palm Beach Stats:
- John Gast was not great, giving up 4 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, while striking out 3 in his 4.0 innings
- Joe Kelly was equally meh in his 2.0 innings, he gave up 4 H, 3 ER, and 1 BB with only one K
- Jose Rada and Hector Corpas posted zeroes in their 1 IP
- Jorge Rondon went 1.0 inning which included 1 BB and 2 K
- Zack Cox went 1-for-4
- Alan Ahmady, Luis Mateo, and Audry Perez all had one hit in 3 PA
Entries (RSS)
Andrew Brown continues to rake.
Alan Ahmady is worth watching if he can play some where other than first base. 2 straight years of .400+ OBP.
I thought Ahmady was a 3rd baseman.
He has played more 3B than 1B in the minors to date. To the extent that minor-league stats mean anything, his line at 3B suggested basically adequate range, but he made a LOT of errors (fielding percentage below .900). Again, one shouldn’t read much into that in isolation, but a certain other 3B prospect in the system that we all salivate over had a FP of .973, as well as a significantly better range factor.
I’ve never seen Ahmady as anything but a 3b. I don’t think he will ever play first.
He played more 1B than 3B last year at QC.
He rarely played in QC right? He served a 50 game suspension last year or the year before and then went to Batavia after. I never saw him play 1b in Spring Training. This next year Quad cities infield will be Jrod at 3b, Castilllo at SS, Starlin Rodriguez at 2b and Victor Sanchez at 1b.
I believe he played 1B at QC after Adams was hurt. If I remember that was about a week left in the regular season and then playoffs.
Not sure what his place is honestly, QC has Sanchez at 1b and PB has Cerreto at 1b. He’s also behind Jrod at 3b in QC and Cox at 3b in PB.
Well he is on the PB roster for now so I dont think QC is in the discussion. I expect him to be the utility guy there. He can play 1B behind Cerreto (but it also depends on whether they want to get Lara time there), 2B behind Matos, he can play 2B with Matos sliding over to SS, and he can play 3B. He hasn’t played much 2B as a pro but did some in college.
Of course they could make us all foam at the moth and have him play 3B, and send Cox to 2B when they want to give Matos or Bolivar a break.
I agree that Andrew Brown can hit and he seems to be over looked by many. I expected Gast, Kelly and Thomas to excel once they left Spring training camp. Who do you think projects better Cox or Adams regarding being the best hitting prospect?
Seems like everyone is leaving this one alone!!!!! I think different styles, so hard to measure. I’m sure we will have a better time at analyzing this one when Cox moves up to AA and plays alongside Adams.
Cox as a 3B doesn’t have to hit as well as a 1B like Adams to break into the majors.
I think it all depends on how each produces. I personally like Adams swing more but I haven’t seen much of Cox.
9 more ks in 7 innings for Lynn. Has he changed his pitching style? Is he getting swing and miss Ks? He never looked like a swing and miss guy.
He was a swing and miss guy the 2d half last year. He definitely has a swing and miss fast ball.
Lynn added his 4-seam FB to his 2 seam sinking FB last year. His K’s increased but he gave up quite a few more long balls (2009 – 0.3/9IP vs 2010 – 1.2/9IP). The key for him this year is to consistently mix up the 2 and 4 seam FB with the rest of his pitches and make sure work on his control on a consistent basis.
He didn’t combine them until the second half of last year which is when he numbers really started to get good. He constantly gets alot of swings and misses because he throws the 2 seamer down and then changed the eye level with the 4 seamer up.
I think there was a little more to what happened with Lynn last year. One scout reported it this way:
In this particular start, Lynn was dominant. He struck out 11 batters in 6.2 innings of work. They weren’t flukey strikeouts either. He was able to generate a tremendous amount of swings-and-misses. Here are the breakdowns…
Fastballs Thrown – 65
Fastball Strikes – 43
Fastball Swings-and-Misses – 16
That means 24% of all fastballs and 37% of his fastball strikes resulted in a swing-and-miss. To put that in perspective, that is the highest rate on both marks of any pitcher I tracked this year. In fact, nobody really came close to that.
So why was Lynn’s fastball so difficult to hit? Part of it was the better life on the pitch, but the pitch had a real perception that it would start low and then rise, making it really difficult to lay off. In addition, Lynn’s other pitches come out of his hand looking similar. They all will start off low, rise, and while the fastball looks like it continues to rise, the change-up and curveball both drop off late.
Lynn is fairly fastball reliant, but I thought he did a good job of varying the location of the pitch. I also thought he did a good job of deciding when he should go to something off-speed.
The scout noticed that Lynn had made some important changes in his mechanics from earlier in the season. Minor variations but likely to explain the better results.
I saw a video of the 16K game where they just showed all the swings and misses and K’s in succession. Lynn in an interview mentioned that the second part of last year was the only time in recent memory that he combined his fastballs. He threw only 2 seamers during his whole time in the Cardinal organization and only 4 seamers in college.
That is correct. Which is what I was trying to represent in my original statement. Should have said he use to only have a 4 seam in college but then moved solely to a 2 seam in the Cards Org. The key is mixing both pitches with his other arsenal and really “pitching” and not just throwing and relying heavily on his FB at all times. We see this with many younger pitchers. Many of them are throwers and not pitchers. Once they learn how to pitch the results are higher level minors and majors start to show that. I have high hopes for him this year and feel he will somehow get into the Cards rotation by mid-year.
No need to rush him. Let him get a full year in Memphis. Yes he looked really good last year some of the games I saw himpitch.
I am not sure letting him have a year and a half in AAA Memphis is rushing him. If he performed well in the 2nd half of 2010 and the 1st half of 2011 then not sure he has anything left to prove. His total innings was up to 160+ last year so he should be prepared to hit that 180-185 IP range. So I don’t think this is a situation of rushing him or not…but I do see him as the next in line and hopefully that won’t be needed until at least mid-year.
Not rushing but there is simply no place for him at this time. In order for him to be in STL we would have to have an injury. And even at that I’m wondering if Walters gets another shot if he does well in Memphis. I honestly doubt it though. Walters should have the Brad Thompson role in STL imo.
Agreed on Walters. I personally think he is a AAAA player. He might make it as a long reliever but probably won’t have a long career. I still believe Lynn showed he was close to ready in ST and if mid-year we have an injury (and quite frankly if you think you will go all year with no injuries your crazy) then Lynn gets the call.
There’s no place for him now, but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a full year out of McClellan. The guy only pitched 75 innings last year. At some point he may need to go back to the pen and let Lynn take over.
So I guess he is using his 4-seamer as an out pitch. The could lead to the tick in velocity.
How’s Andrew Brown’s defense?
What’s gotten into Kozma?
It seems like he’s forgotten his role: make errors, not hit, and make people weep over the Passed Over Pitcher Who Shall Not Be Named…
I’m still hoping that the Cardinals get at least a fringe major league-ish value out of that draft pick. One that they really didn’t have much room to screw up at the time, which we are seeing the consequences of today(or is there some other shortstop in the high minors that could possibly give the Cardinals any value whatsoever?).
Maybe Kozma has found something. Three years of minor league statistics as evidence would point to the negative. So the probability is low, but not absent.
He’s starting at Memphis which is a shock to me hope he does well.
Vuch indicated that kozma changed his approach this winter. Maybe he shortened that looooonnnnnnggg swing
Does anyone have a scouting report on Kevin Thomas. He seems to get people out, I was just curious. Same with Zawacki, if you could post a scouting report that would be sweet, thanks