The farm posts a record of 1-2 on the night and Zack Cox continues his hot streak in today’s DFR.
Hitting:
- Adron Chambers and Aaron Luna both had 1 2B in 4 PA’s
- Andrew Brown went 1-for-2 w/ 1 BB, 1 RBI and 1 SB
- Bryan Anderson went 1-for-3 w/ 1 2B, 1 BB, and 1 RBI
Pitching:
- Lance Lynn put up a decent line of 6.0 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, and 6 K
- Chuckie Fick and Blake King gave up a combined 7 runs in 2.0 IP
- Jason Buursma posted a scoreless inning though he had 2 BB
Hitting:
- Tommy Pham went 1-for-3 w/ 1 2B and 1 R from the leadoff spot
- Ryan Jackson provided some thump by going 2-for-4 w/ 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, and 2 R
- Matt Adams went 2-for-3
- Niko Vasquez launched a solo shot, he was 2-for-4
Pitching:
- Maikel Cleto was just ok in his first AA start, he put up a line of 5.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 BB, and 5 K
- Jose Rada went 2.0 scoreless innings, he gave up 1 H and struck out 3
- Nick Greenwood came in a gave up 3 R in his inning and was saddled with the loss
- Jesse Simpson closed it out with a perfect inning
Hitting:
- D’Marcus Ingram is having a very good season, he continued it by going 1-for-2 w/ 2 BB, 3 R, and 1 SB
- Zack Cox continued his torrid hitting by going 3-for-5 w/ 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, and 2 R
- Rainel Rosario had only one hit in his 5 AB, he had 2 RBI and 1 SB
- Domnit Bolivar went 2-for-4 w/ 1 3B and 1 R
Pitching:
- Eric Fornataro was solid again posting a line of 6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, and 5 K
- Tyler Lyons went 2.0 scoreless giving up 2 H
- Chase Reid gave up 1 R on 3 H in his 1.0 IP
Entries (RSS)
Hopefully people will stop worrying about Cox now as it looks like he’s finally adjusting to High-A pitching. That OPS is climbing and he’s got HR’s in back-to-back days, he’s a beast and will now start to show it..
In looking at Cox (yes, I said it), the thing that stands out (no pun intended), is his platoon splits. He has about a .400OBP and .500SLG against RHP (pretty good at Palm Beach!) and much worse stats against LHP. This is not all that surprising as most young LH batters probably haven’t seen a lot of LHP pitching in their short careers, and besides, sometimes LH batters generally aren’t as good against LHP, which is why there are LOOGYs.
Jesse Simpson and Nick Greenwood? Decent arms or org. fillers? They always seem to show up on the DFRs in positive lights.
Org fillers.
I dont consider anyone hwo makes it to the major leagues as org filler. They may turn out to be marginal major leaguers but not org filler. And I think Greenwood will play in the majors. (he is a lefty that can breathe!)
Sorta depends on whether you consider replacement-level guys to be worth anything. I guess the technical definition is that replacement-level players have literally no value, but all that said I think having a group of warm bodies in AAA that you can either use as very specific occasional role players (competent PH from one side, like Mark Hamilton, or a 2nd lefty from the pen, like Greenwood may become, who has little value in and of himself but allows you to use your right-handed relievers with severe splits, like Jason Motte, more productively) has some value. At the very least, having a surfeit of guys like that should prevent you having to be exposed to 200-odd PAs from the Pedro Feliz’s of this world (theoretically).
And has any one else seen King’s line? It may not be 100% updated, but through 11 IP he has 4 hits, 16 BB and 17 Ks… Wow
When I saw King in Albuquerque last weekend, he had absolutely no idea where his pitches were going. 12 pitches, 10 balls, including a HBP with two guys already on via walks. This will not end well.
Before last season, King’s biggest issue was his control. It looks like he’s having big issues again.
the thing that stands out to me about cox is his bb/k split —– 4 walks, 24 k’s against class A pitching. that’s extremely concerning.
Very concerning.
I know Cox is a player that will have an OBP very much attached to his batting average, but 4 walks in 130 plate appearances is terrible.
Matt Adams: 7 BBs in 132 PAs
Both Cox and Adams have nearly identical batting averages. Obviously, Adams is hitting for power in a way that Cox can only dream about but their ability to draw walks is similar.
I’m glad Cox has started hitting and with some power so we can start worrying about his walk rate now. Less worried than Adams because it is his first year. By mid-year next year it will be a huge concern barring improvement.
The thing is that plate discipline is usually the one skill that never goes away.
Cox didn’t walk much at Arkansas either.
Unless my math is off (which is an excellent possibility), at Arkansas Cox walked about 10% of the time in 2009 in 199 ABs and 14% in 2010 in 238 ABs. His BB/SO splits weren’t good–in 2009, it was 20/65 (which is horrible) and 34/37 (which was a good improvement). So, he was trending up before this season, and based on his history, I’d suspect that after he adjusts to A+ pitching (which he seems to be doing now), his plate discipline should normalize, ’cause it’s far below right now than what it was in college.
Or he was hitting so well in college teams pitched around him alot and put him on base so he couldn’t hurt them.
No, what really changed was that his strikeouts dropped a ton (a rate from 33% to 15%) while his walkout rate slightly improved. He was simply hitting the ball twice as much as the previous season while showing a bit better plate discipline. That’s what made him a first round prospect.
IIRC, he changed his approach hugely because of concerns that he was striking out too much, and became more of a contact-hitting, low-power, line-drive guy. The two schools of thought were either “wow, a college hitter who’s so advanced he can completely change his approach and have success in two pretty different ways, that shows maturity and a couple of possible routes to professional success” and “uh-oh, here’s a guy for whom hitting for average and hitting for power seem mutually exclusive, that’s a bit worrying”.
I think I kinda fall between both camps, tbh, but at least he’s showing us a new side to his game this year by managing to combine the high-strikeout approach with the no-power approach…
Is it not politically correct to note that Adams had a BB?
‘Cause, you know, it really is an accomplishment for him….
I feel so bad when the bull pen blows a decent pitching preformance.
What ever happened to all of those great relief arms we have?
They’re in the majors (Sanchez, Salas), injured (Reifer) or currently being used as starters (Kelly, Swagerty). There’s nobody at any level of the minor league system currently pitching in relief who seems to have much of a future in MLB.
This was Greenwood’s first bad performance.
Nice game for Audry Perez…0-4 with 2 K’s, a passed ball and a throwing error.
They put Perez with him because he’s caught to him, derba may have made a difference.
Perez was just called up it was his second AA game, give the guy a break. Cleto wasn’t good at all in his first game so none of the blame is on Perez. Cleto was uncharacteristically wild getting behind in countes early. He also gave up a 3 run hr, 2 doubles off the wall and a line drive off his leg. He had control issues in his first game in relief at Springfield. Just has to get back to the mechanics he had in Palm beach.
I’m really hoping that Ryan Jackson is the starting Memphis shortstop sooner rather than later. Which in turn shorten the amount of time he will need to become the St. Louis Cardinals starting shortstop.
I just would so much rather see a shortstop that can pick it and hit .250 than one that will hit an empty .300 and play the position terribly. “Uh um Ryan Theriot!!!” “Cough, Cough!!”
I too am sick of Theriot at SS already. I wonder what it’ll take to move Nick Punto (an excellent defender who’s played SS for much of his career) to that position, Descalso to 2B and put in a proper 3B (Carpenter? A healthy Freese? Even Craig?) who can hit? I think we’d be looking a lot stronger with that lineup, or even giving Tyler Greene an extended run.
My guess is they swap Kozma and Jackson round at some point this year, which both players probably need tbh, although it’s a bit of a slap in the face for the Kozmanaut to be overstepped by a later round, later year draftee. He needs to move down again because he’s clearly overmatched at AAA (heck, he’s been overmatched at basically every level) and I think if he’s going to ever have a chance of learning anything he really needs to go back to square one.
With the promotion of salas and sanchez, and the injury to reifer, we don’t have a lot of serious relief prospects in the high minors. Sam freeman and some starters likely to end up in the bullpen (ottavino and cleto) top the list. I don’t think that fick or king or castillo seem like significant relief prospects.
I was thinking about this the other day too. We graduated our best pair of relievers and watched our third get hurt. That’s a huge blow to the minor league system and I don’t see any more pure relievers in the pipeline.
Agreed – But plenty of starters just won’t cut it as starters and will turn into very good if not great relievers. Happens all the time. I see plenty of guys that are in the grey area of starter vs reliever especially in our lower minors. But Ottavino is one that comes to mind in the upper minors.
I’m looking at you Joe Kelly!
Ottavino’s stuff seems to play better in the bullpen, but does his walkrate? I think he ends up being an inconsistent, kinda tweener-ish player wherever he is.
That said, if I ran the show I think I’d DFA Franklin now and at least have a look at him in the pen. Carrying two sub-replacement level long relievers (Batista and Franklin) is really starting to hurt us with all the close games the big league club seem to be playing.
Losing Reifer has been painful.
What’s with Augenstein? Is he really that hurt, he could be relieving in AAA where it is badly needed. Is it because they can’t send him down? Used up options?
What about Mulligan, he still has dead arm? How long does a dead arm take to recover?
Anyone know anything on either of these players?
King has not been doing well at all, if injured he needs to be honest and shut it down, those type of outings hurt more than help. I thought that he was just getting squeezed, but if you can’t control the ball, that’s trouble.
My opinion is that Memphis is going to get an overhaul, some starters will have to go into relief if things don’t improve…soon.
Cleto needs a lot of work, too bad they couldn’t leave him in PB to work with Martinez, but I think they suddenly realized a valuable spot hs been taken up.
Just my opinion, but I am not sure this makes sense, having a pitcher AND a catcher just called up starting the same day?
They took out (not even on the fake DL) Cutler for Perez, is Perez that good or is it his bat?
He’s an actual prospect and was the most productive hitter at Palm Beach this year. His D is supposed to be good also.
Unless he’s improved a lot, I’d say his D is marginal.
Perez? Luhnow and Vuch have always been high on his defense. The reason he stayed behind at Batavia last year was he wasn’t very good at English which essentially makes it hard for him to communicate with many pitchers. When did you ever hear anything bad about Perez’s D? Not saying your wrong but just curious.
Perez’s defense is excellent.
Luhnow is high on everyone! Vuch have never heard anything but faint praise. I have heard his defense is only so-so from 2 different people who have seen him play regularly (private conversations).
Besides, just look at his stats. Throwing out just 50% of runners for his career (and getting worse as he goes up). A passed ball every 5 games (that’s a lot!).
Any catcher throwing out 50% of base stealers is doing very well.
“Vuch have never heard anything….” What does this mean?
Yes, 50% is good but it should have read 30%, not so good (typo). Insert “From” in front of the Vuch statement.
30 percent is not bad.
The Cards have moved Perez and Castillo ahead of bonus baby Stock and 4th rounder Stanley.
Derba is not a prospect, Perez is. If he adjusts to AA, he can get most of the playing time.
Perez and Castillo have been in the system 4 and 5 years each compared to Stanley’s one. Stock cant hit. Perez is a legitimate prospect if he can improve his defense. Derba may not be a prospect but he’s light years ahead of those guys in the defense and game handling aspects of the position.
30% at the major league level is not bad. In the low minors it is mediocre.
I think it was the Batavia manager last year that praised his defense. Him skippinig Quad Cities and performing well enough in the first 100ab’s to get promoted to tells me alot. I also think that passed balls are iffy in short season baseball as you never know if they were scored right and how hard they are to handle from the pitchers. Hopefully he is a good defensive catcher as he seems to be abl eto hit.
If the passed balls were so iffy, all minor league catchers would have the same bloated PB numbers – they dont. I seem to remember some interview (s) saying he had the potential to be a good defensive catcher. I think we’ll know more by the end of the season. Hopefully Derba can teach him some stuff also.
If you want to talk about skipping levels. giving how little he played, Castillo basically went from rookie ball (JC) to PB. (skipping 2 levels).
Yea what Castillo has done is very impressive for sure.
Of course skipping levels is one thing. Skipping levels and succeeding (a la Adams) is what is impressive. We need to wait on Castillo and to a certain extent Perez.
Completely agree.
Hey, Nationals DFA’d Broderick. Does that mean we get him back? We could definitely use him.
DFA means they have 10 days to trade him or for him to clear waivers. If he is not traded and clears waivers, we can have him back for $25K. Any team that trades for him or claims him on waivers has to put (and Keep) him on their 25 man roster.
So whats the odds you say. I think we could grab him back. AAA needs him and the MLB roster could use him honestly.
Pretty high, but who knows what the Cards brass thinks of him. Washington may try to trade for him (with us) rather than send him back. Actually, early in the year I wasn’t sure we’d want him back but with the guys we’ve had to call up, the injuries, and King sucking eggs we could use him at this point.
Isn’t he a starter though? Memphis’s rotation seems pretty set in stone at this point with Ottavino, Lynn, Dickson, Walters and Valdes. Also Kopp probably moving pretty quickly once he proves hes healthy.
Move valdes to the bullpen. Or trade him for a bag of balls honestly. Color me unimpressed.
I could honestly move Valdes to the pen. Or trade him for a bag of balls. Either way, color me unimpressed.
Why does he have to be in Memphis?
I would not call the memphis rotation set in stone. Valdes is a LOOGY waiting to happen, and a terrible starter. The club could at any time decide ottavino’s future is as a reliever. Broderick, augenstein, or a promotion from AA (is additon with memphis now) could fill a role in the rotation.
Valdes is a terrible starter and is probably the only one that will be moved. Yoru right about Ottavino possibly changing but he’s still the most effective starter with the lowest ERA even after today which was not his best game.