If you’re looking at the username Pierce in the top left-handed corner of today’s DFR, you’re probably wondering who in the world that is. I often wonder the same thing myself.
First of all, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Pierce, and I’ll be helping out with the DFR’s this year. I’m currently working in minor league baseball with the Tulsa Drillers, so I hope to provide a unique perspective throughout the season. When Springfield is in town, I also hope to be sneaking out more often than usual during those games to give a more detailed account of some of the players. The extra innings I use to sneak out in the ballpark during those games may put my current job at risk, but anything to help out the Future Redbirds community, right?? Joking!
I’ll stop boring you with the details and get on to what you’re all really here for….the Daily Farm Report!!
- Pete Kozma, Matt Carpenter, and Nick Stavinoha went a combined 0-11 at the top of the order.
- Bryan Anderson went 2-4 with a SB
- Mark Hamilton and Adron Chambers each had a single
- The rest of the team went hitless. Daryl Jones had a hat trick with 3 K’s
- It looked to be a sloppy game defensively, as Solano, Kozma, and Fick each had an error.
- Adam Ottavino made his first start since last July off of a torn right labrum. He went 5.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 earned), 4 BB, and 5 K
- Eduardo Sanchez pitched a perfect 9th with 1 K. I like the back end of the bullpen in Memphis more than I do in St. Louis.
- Tommy Pham led off and went 2-5 with 2 RBI. He hit his first HR of the year and will be one of the more interesting prospects to watch this year after his breakout season in 2010. Not that I need to say much to add to the Pham bandwagon.
- Speaking of bandwagons, Niko Vasquez also went 2-5 with a double and RBI. He struck out twice
- 2-5 was the theme tonight, as Matt Adams added 2 1B and 2 RBI
- Aaron Luna was 3-4 with 2 2B and 1 BB
- Tyler Henley added a solo HR
- Ryan Jackson and Steven Hill both went hitless. One interesting development will be how well Jackson improves upon his slash line of .278/.359/.362 between QC and PB last year. Upon being drafted, his defense was noted as being MLB ready with an Adam Everett bat. He increased his LD% by nearly 5 percent last year and could be looked upon as the next starting SS for the Cards.
- In his Texas League debut, Michael Blazek went 7 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, and 2 K. 13 of his 17 outs that reached the field came via the groundball.
- Casey Mulligan recorded his 2nd save of the year with a perfect 9th
- Audry Perez and Adam Melker each had 2 hits apiece. Perez added a grand slam in the 9th with no outs as the only extra-base hit for PB
- Zack Cox went 0-2 w/ 2 BB and 1 RBI
- Ronald Ramirez went 3-4
- Edgar Lara and Philip Cerreto added the only other 2 hits
- Base running wasn’t a strong point today, as Cox and Luis Mateo were both caught stealing
- Eric Fornataro took the loss w/ 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 4 BB, and 3 K
- Cody Stanley went 2-4 with 1 2B, 2 RBI, and 1 BB. I think Stanley has the chance to vault up prospect rankings this year. Already known for his good defense, there’s no reason he can’t rise quickly through the system.
- Jonathan Rodriguez hit cleanup and went 2-5 with a double and RBI
- Greg Garcia added a triple with 2 RBI’s. He went 2-4 in the game
- Nick Longmire was the River Bandits’ only hitless batter. He had a BB and K
- Kevin Siegrist had a solid outing. He gave up 2 runs (1 earned) through 6 IP w/ 1 BB and 2 K. 9 outs were on the ground compared to 3 in the air.
Entries (RSS)
Longmire continues to struggle…..someone get him a hitting coach to help rework his swing.
Seems like all the top bats (Longmire, Cox, Carpenter) are struggling while the low expectation hitters (Kozma, Jackson, Vazquez) are getting off to a good start
Welcome to the DFR’s, Pierce. Thank you for including the link to the box scores.
Interesting that New Orleans starts Rueben Gotay and Joe Thurston in their infield. And people rip our farm system.
Our local team here in Allentown, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, is the Phillies’ AAA affiliate. They have maybe 3 or 4 guys 25 or younger. The average age is probably 28-30. They have a couple of actual prospects, like Mike Stutes (a pitcher the Cards drafted but didn’t sign in 2007), and the rest are AAAA guys, most signed as free agents from other orgs.
As we all know, the Cards have had the youngest teams at AA and AAA the past couple of years. They may not anymore — lots of the same guys are still at Memphis, which means they’re all 2 years older now. But the overwhelming majority are guys in their mid-20s who were originally drafted and signed by the Cards.
I don’t know how rare that is, but it’s 180 degrees from the Phillies’ approach.
+1. In my case, the nearby AAA team is the Albuquerque Isotopes (Dodgers), who have “prospects” like Juan Castro (38 years old!), Randy Keisler (35), Tim Redding (33), and so on, to go along with real prospects like Dee Gordon, Trayvon Robinson, Jerry Sands, etc., who actually appear on their (unimpressive, IMO) top-20 prospects lists. The “average” Isotopes starting pitcher to this (early) point in the season is over 28 years old, has made it to the Show briefly in the past, and will never be a star — typical AAAA guys. This despite the perception that the strength of the Dodgers’ farm system is in their pitching. For reference, the Memphis Redbirds’ starters average about 26.7, a generally young contingent being biased somewhat by the presence of ancient 33-year-old Raul Valdes. (Ancient … at least from a biological if not cultural perspective, he could be my son…)
Any AAA team will be populated with guys like that, particularly among pitchers. Consider San Francisco: for all the young guns they have on their major-league pitching staff, every start made so far by the Fresno Grizzlies, their PCL team, has been by a pitcher at least 27.5 years old. It’s just the nature of the beast for major-league teams to stash “break glass in case of emergency” guys at AAA, again particularly pitchers.
The AAA teams in the PCL Pacific conference rarely see any of the big club’s higher ceiling pitchers, as the majority of the ballparks in that division will eat a pitcher for lunch, regardless of how good they are. I know the Rockies stack their Skysox rotation with former big leaguers on minor league deals, or AAAA types. In fact, our old friend Clayton Mortensen gave up 9 runs in his first 3 innings in CO Springs this past weekend.
So it’s common practice, for the pitching “prospects” to go from AA to the big leagues. Now the hitters are often a different story.
I really don’t know whether the teams in the American conference are typically handled in the same manner. (I believe Isotopes stadium is also very hitter friendly though, and so I could understand why they to would choose not to harm their younger pitchers’ confidence.)
Many of the stadiums in the Pacific League are like Coors without the humidor. Salt Lake City regulary has 50 mph winds. I’m sure teams take stats from this division wiht a grain of salt when evaluating a player.
Albuquerque is indeed hitter friendly, having both a dose of Salt-Lake-like spring winds (they usually die down by June, though) and Denver/Springs-like thin-air issues (the park is at just about exactly an elevation of one mile). There have still been a lot of good pitchers who pass through there. This year, however… There are interesting discussions as to who is harmed more by playing at a high-altitude launching pad while in the minors: hitters or pitchers? Not sure there’s a consensus.
Incidentally, that park also has some extraordinary skies — the old term “high sky,” for a sky where it’s hard to pick out a high fly ball, was practically invented for Albuquerque. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on a baseball diamond was a few years ago when Memphis came to town, and Chris Duncan was trying to judge a particularly high pop-up in left field. He looked like 6’5″ of Brownian motion out there.
I second the thanks for including the box score links.
I’m dropping Longmire from the top bats category until he changes his swing. I simply don’t think it will hit good pitching. I’m seeing why he “seemingly” underachieved in college.
Isn’t it too early to declare Longmire can’t hit good pitching?? Its been a week, and he hit well in his pro debut last year.
Pujols must not be able to hit MLB pitching anymore according to this line of reasoning.
I’m mentioning it because I watched the first 4 games of the year from about 50 feet away right behind homeplate. His issue is his swing, he has a loopy swing. Meaning his hands go around the ball not to the ball. It’s hard to describe but its very obviously.
Still early. Not saying your wrong, but I think we should give it a little time for him to make adjustments before we overreact.
Yea I may not have made it clear I wasn’t intending on saying he never would be just that he HAS to make the adjustments in order to compete.
I’d feel more comfortable giving Sanchez a shot than switching to Batista, Boggs or Motte should TLR decide he’s seen enough from Franklin. I don’t expect Sanchez to dominate instantly but it seems like he fits the closer profile. Any reason to think he needs more seasoning?
I’m in agreement with bringing him up, but I think he needs this year in MLB to get used to things and then take over next year full time.
Sorry for mentioning this on FRB, but I think the Cardinals have so little chance of winning their division this year that the org should do whatever is best for individual prospects w.o. worrying about winning a game or two at the MLB level.
I’d feel the opposite if I thought a game or two would get the Cards into the postseason.
So whatever the brain trust thinks is best for Sanchez is what they should do, in my opinion. If they think he needs to close in the PCL, stick with it. If they want to challenge him against MLB hitters in low-leverage situations, now’s the time.
I would like to see Salas move up, just so Sanchez and Reifer get more high-leverage innings. But he’s valuable, too, so the same logic applies: whatever they think works best for his development is the best course of action.
Lou—we are 10 games in and our pitching has been solid. I don’t think I am ready to write off the big club, but to each his own
Very good job with your first DFR Pierce. One question. Is Cody Stanley really considered a good defensive catcher? For some reason I thought he was considered to be challenged in that respect. If he really can play defense then I’ll be on that band wagon.
Well let me comment on that as I saw him catch 3 games this weekend. He caught in college so he’s not a guy that just got moved to catcher. I wasn’t overly impressed with his arm but you can’t argue with results as he has thrown out 4 or 5 people this year already. Only 1 was successful in the games I saw. He also has very quick and nimble feet.
Thanks. If you get to see more, or hear more, about Stanley’s defense I’d appreciate knowing about it. He appears to have the highest offensive ceiling for our catchers so, if the defense is good or better, he’s got to be our top prospect behind the plate.
I wouldn’t say that though he has the highest ceiling as a batter though. Perez has alot of upside as a hitter as does Castillo.
Pierce, thanks for joining the FRB writing crew. I love my daily DFR.