The farm went 2-1, Shelby Miller was up to his old tricks, and Springfield was rained out against Tulsa. The details after the break!
- Raul Valdes pitched 6 innings and gave up 7 H, 1 R, 2 BB, and recorded 3 K’s
- Adron Chambers and Tony Cruz both went yard for their only hit of the night
- Matt Carpenter was 1-2 with 1 RBI and 2 walks, as he continues to show very good patience at the plate. The third-base situation will be interesting to watch unfold over the next month, as the Cardinals will give Craig, Descalso, Punto, and even Greene shots at playing time. If Carpenter starts displaying the power he had last year, he may force the hand of the Cardinals if none of the other candidates respond to the challenge. Check out the detailed post earlier today from Tim for some good info. regarding Carpenter’s situation.
- Pete Kozma hit 1-4, while his OPS hovers below .500
Baseball America Top 15 – Florida Marlins
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- Alan Ahmady belted two doubles and went 3-4 with 3 RBI’s. He has 15 walks compared to 13 K’s early on this season, which has led to a nice slash line of .357/.483/.414. He doesn’t have the power to stick at 3rd or 1st base, but he has displayed very good patience going back to his days at Fresno State. The Cardinals have been grooming him for a UTIL role, so I’d love to see a scouting report on his defense.
- Zack Cox went 2-4 with 1 RBI. He’s sporting a .307 SLG% through 101 at bats, but we’re still looking at a sample size here.
- Xavier Scruggs went 2-4 with the only other extra-base hit for the Cardinals (a double) and 1 RBI
- Shelby Miller put the worst start of his young career in his rear-view mirror and put up a line of 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, and 10 K. He has 42 K’s in 28 innings, and 7 of his 13 walks came in his last start.
- Chris Corrigan, Tyler Lyons, and Sam Freeman combined to pitch 3 shutout innings. Corrigan allowed 3 base runners, but Lyons got out of the jam.
Baseball America Top 15 – Pittsburgh Pirates
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- Nick Longmire finally showing some extra-base power with 2 doubles, going 2-5 w/ 1 RBI
- Patrick Elkins hit 2-3 with 2 walks
- Yunier Castillo was 2-4 with a triple
- Zach Russell was shaky in his 5 IP, giving up 4 runs (3 earned). He gave up 2 HR, 6 H, and 2 BB
- Angel De Jesus and Keith Butler combined for 4 shutout innings and 5 strike outs
- We had 2 goats of the game. Frederick Parejo earned a
, while Kyle Conley added that + 1. I googled what we’re supposed to call 5 K’s in a game, and wikipedia shot out “olympic rings” or a platinum sombrero. Not sure Conley cared enough to do the same.
Baseball America Top 15 – Milwaukee Brewers
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Entries (RSS)
I believe this is the first game the Taveras has missed that wasn’t related to an injury. Although its entirely possible he tweaked the hammy yesterday but all indications are was he was back to full speed this series so I’m not sure what’s actually going on. Hope hes ok. Part of me was worried as this corresponded to the Heath Bell tweet from Joe Strauss. I really hope the Cardinals aren’t willing to package Taveras for a year of Heath Bell.
He got taken out in the seventh inning of yesterday’s game. He may well have tweaked something. Why else take him out unless its precautionary because of the inclement weather. If that were the case, today was likely no better.
If it was a straight up one for one deal, you have to make that trade of Taveras for Heath Bell unless you believe Taveras has star potential. Not just starter potential, but star potential.
Taveras is in A-ball and a very long way from the big leagues, and Heath Bell could be the difference in winning the division this year, and would bring comp picks if we didn’t re-sign him.
Are you that confident Bell would do better than Salas or Sanchez?
For the record, he said “could be”.
And yes, he is definitely talented enough and adding him pushes everyone down a rung. Does that mean losing a Franklin or Batista? Or does management take a easier path and send down a Salas or Sanchez? Hopefully, it would be the smart move but, to be honest, we don’t really know.
Either way, a bullpen of
C – Bell
L – Miller
R – Sanchez
R – Boggs
R – Salas
L – Tallet
R – Batista or Franklin (I think I actually prefer Batista)
is light years better than
L – Miller
R – Sanchez
R – Boggs
R – Salas
L – Tallet
R – Batista
R – Franklin
You forgot Motte. Whreupon I’ d drop both Franklin and Batista.
there you go.
I knew i was forgetting someone.
and if you do drop Franklin/Batista for Bell and Motte (since I forgot him), that’s a hell of a bullpen and yes, I think that greatly improves our post-season chances.
I’m pretty sure heath bell would do better than salas and sanchez.
Good point even though the game today was at 11am and probably warmer than yesterday.
Conley and Parejo must have holes in their swings. 9 Ks are ugly.
Seems like Longmire is starting to swing a better bat. Anyone know if they are toying with his swing at all? Haven’t seen any video of him this year to compare to last year.
Sam Freeman seems to be pitching very well after his TJ surgery. I suspect he’ll be moved quickly if he continues. It’d be nice to have a good home grown lefty for next year’s bull pen.
Freeman is pitching well but before last night he had 4K and 3 BB in 7.1 innings. I´d like to see him get his K totals up (like last night) befor eI declare him as recovered.
Whatever happened to Jess Todd will destroy us all? I heard he got DFA’d by Cleveland. Memphis needs a closer.
I have a question as someone who isn’t a big prospect expert. When is Shelby getting moved up? When he is dominating the way he is, does he really have a lot to learn at this level?
He’ll be lucky to get to Springfield this year. If he continues to dominate, he’ll possibly get the call up after the draft, but I wouldn’t worry about it too terribly much.
To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him start in Memphis next year no matter where he finishes this season (A+ or AA).
Nevertheless, all indications have pointed to the Cardinals taking him along as slowly as absolutly possible so I wouldn’t be holding my breath (especially a month into the season) waiting for him to get the call to Springfield.
According to an article in the Springfield News-Leader today MO says that moving Miller to Springfield would happen sooner rather than later, once other people are ready for movement in the system. Looks like to me sometime in June. That is what I keep hearing from people with the club at the games also.
Cool. Glad to be wrong. I’d love to see how he’d fare in a tougher/less pitching friendly league. And it would make his move to Memphis next year that much easier.
So, after the draft, more than likely.
I’m not buying it. The entire organization has taken the approach of bringing him along slowly. By all accounts, he was ready to move up to High A ball last year, but they decided to keep him with Quad Cities. I’d say maybe a promotion mid-July at the earliest assuming he still is pitching extremely well. I just can’t see them rushing Shelby Miller, our prized arm in the system. He’s only in his second full year of pro ball. A guy that I’ve been arguing against, Julio Teheran, is only a few months younger than Shelby, but he’s been in the system for three years now. In his third year, he is in AAA but last year spent time between Low A ball, High A ball, as well as AA ball.
I do think a call up is in order this year, but I think June is a bit too optimistc unless he’s completely dominant AND there aren’t any mechanical issues like last year when they shut down Shelby midseason last year.
I am probably disregarding contract issues too much, but why not bring up Carpenter to take a turn at 3rd and send Hamilton down? Options aside, this just makes the most sense
We could go with an everyday lineup of:
1b-Al, 2b-DD, SS-Theriot, 3b-Carp with the usuals as C and OF
We would also feature a nice, versatile bench of Craig, Punto, Greene, Jay, and Laird
Once Skip comes back, send Jay down and have an even more versatile bench
Like I said, I am probably missing points about the 40 man and options, but that looks like a pretty sound team to me
But correct me if I am wrong….
moving Freese to the 60 day DL would allow for the aforementioned moves to occur?
You’re right PJ, but I don’t think they think Freese will be out that long right?
9 to 12 weeks is longer than 60 days.
What happens when Freese comes back?
If he were really to find his way to the 60 day DL, I don’t think we would be too worried about that. I am sure someone would be clamoring for a DFA.
Or perhaps, we will have a great 3b combo from both sides of the plate and a great bat off of the bench )best case scenario)…or perhaps trade bait. I wonder if the Pads would like Freese back for Bell?
while i am curious how carpenter would perform in a trial, the injury also provides an opportunity to get more at bats for descalso and greene to determine whether they can handle a larger role on next year’s roster. i am not convinced that carpenter would be so much of an upgrade that keeping him down will cost the team some games.
I’m of the same mindset. I just don’t fear this so much that a month without Freese (without calling up Carpenter) would put the team that far into a hole. I guess part of me is patiently waiting for Albert Pujols to arrive but if/when that happens, he’ll pick up any if not all of the production we’ve lost from Freese.
But, I’d say that after a month, if Descalso, Greene, Punto, etc., etc., simply are not getting it done and it’s negatively affecting the standing, then go ahead. I just don’t think Carpenter is ready for mlb yet. He struggled to start the season and just started getting it going again (although the power is still a bit missing), so he might still need a little time to get settled in. If he were killing the ball all month, I’d feel differently.
But, until we start getting affected in the standings, I see no reason to rush him up.
They’d have to drop someone from the 40 man roster, and there really isn’t an obvious one. There really aren’t any positional players that we could expose to waivers AND not get picked up. Mark Hamilton is the most likely, but he’d likely get claimed. The only way he gets called up is if the Cardinals decide to keep Salas/Sanchez in the ‘pen, and DFA either Brian Augenstein or someone similar.
My bet is that we just platoon Descalso, Craig, and some Tyler Greene there.
I think Walters is the next guy off the 40 man at this point.
It does seem like the logical thing, but I’d be willing to bet that Mo is more likely to see what Descalso and company are capable of.
Good to see Miller leave the game with an exclamation mark. Striking out the side to end the 6th.