The farm said goodbye to May with a perfect night, while Springfield enjoyed the day off. Carlos Martinez got the start tonight, so read on to see how he did…
- Nick Stavinoha hit a 3-run home run and was 3-5 with 5 RBI’s and a stolen base
- Adron Chambers led off and finished 2-4 with his 8th stolen base on the year and was also hit by a pitch
- Aaron Luna was 2-3 with a double and 2 RBI’s. He also had a stolen base
- Mark Hamilton hit cleanup and went 2-4 with a double, RBI, and walk
- Matt Carpenter was 1-4 with a double and walk
- P.J. Walters had a line of 5.1 IP, 8 H, 4 R (3 earned), 1 walk, and 4 K’s
- Chuckie Fick, Raul Valdes, and Victor Marte all pitched a shutout inning each
- Kyle Conley hit 3rd and finished 3-5 with a double. He’s sporting a .897 OPS and is showing a ton of power in high-A with an ISO of .240 after coming off of a wrist injury from last year that limited him to 8 games. The power is real as evidenced by the .610 slugging percentage between Batavia and Quad Cities in 2009 after being drafted and his massive power numbers at the University of Washington. He has serious doubts in the outfield with below average range and a weak arm, but his bat plays very well in a corner outfield spot if he can stick there.
- Niko Vasquez hit his first HR since being sent down and was 1-2 with a walk
- D’Marcus Ingram hit a solo-HR and was 2-5 on the night
- Xavier Scruggs had a hat trick in K’s and finished 1-4 on the night with 1 RBI and a stolen base
- Joe Kelly gave up only 1 hit and 1 run in 7.2 innings but walked 5 and hit 2 batters. He struck out 9 and had 9 groundouts compared to 1 in the air. He’s given up just 2 hits in his last 15 IP.
Quad Cities 5, West Michigan 4
- Ronny Gil was 2-4 with 1 RBI. He’s a guy to keep an eye on this year in the lower levels. Signed from the DR for his glove at short, he displays a ton of speed and pretty good patience.
- Victor Sanchez went 2-4 with a double and stolen base
- Virgil Hill had a double and RBI as his only hit in 4 plate appearances
- Carlos Martinez, who Keith Law ranked as the 25th best prospect in baseball on his updated rankings, gave up 2 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks, and struck out 6 in 5 IP. He was burned by a little wildness early and by giving up a 2-run home run in the 3rd, but he struck out 5 of the last 6 batters he faced.
Entries (RSS)
Chambers finally warming up — hope it continues.
We haven’t had too much success with guys getting their power back after wrist injuries – hope Conley can defy recent history. We could use a true OF sluggers in the lower minors.
Kelly seems to be tiring a lot in the 6th-7th inning. understandable with his background. hopefully he can stretch it out a little further.
Regarding Conley… What was the wrist injury?? I suspect that explains the slow start this year and missing most all of last year.
Does anyone else wish that they would go ahead and change Kelly over to a reliever? I know it would lessen his value and he has been improving as a starter, but I have heard his delivery requires a fair amount of effort to it so i wonder if he is ever going to be the kind of pitcher that goes deep in games. Not to mention as a reliever he just might be able to make it to the majors by next year.
I don’t get this at all the guy is finally starting to go deep in games and dominate like the organization thought he would and you want to convert him back to relief? The issue with him in the past is he seemed very hittable for the stuff he has but it doesnt seem that way anymore. He’s a groundball machine he throws hard and has a great sinker No reason to move him to relief until he shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he can’t be a starter.
Agreed. He’s quite comparable to jess Todd in fact (see previous post) who, IMO, they switched away from starting a little early and then saw his trade value drop (despite the fact he’s been successful in the minors as a reliever).
I’m not sure we’ll need too many more RHRP in the majors next year anyhow, and I think Todd (behind Lynn) is our best current chance of developing a 4th starter-type in the high minors.
I meant Kelly, not Todd, in the 2nd paragraph!
No way…Joe Kelly should remain a starter until he proves himself otherwise. He might be the 3rd best SP prospect in this system.
I agree. I’ve been very skeptical about Kelly because the results just haven’t been there. This makes three good starts in a row though and he had some other good ones earlier. Let’s not mess with him just when he’s starting to put things together.
Kelly’s been lights out pretty much all year.
I don’t recall hearing any concerns about Kelly’s delivery (Swaggerty, yes; Kelly, no). As others have said, it’s been about his results compared to the stuff he has.
Maybe I was wrong about his delivery. I honestly can’t remember when or where I heard it, but it seems like I heard it somewhere. Maybe I am just combining him and Swagerty into some non-existent prospect.
That said I wonder if we are maybe getting a little overexcited over his improvement over the last few outings. I am excited about it too and truly hope he can cut it as a starter, but I have my doubts. Look at his stat line from last night and you can see it was one of the least impressive no hit bids I’ve ever seen (again just looking at stats as I did not see any of the game so correct me if I’m off base). Through 7 2/3 innings he had 5 bb’s and 2 hbp’s. Clearly his stuff was dominating, but it does not look like he commanded it. Looking further all but one of those bb’s and both hbp’s came in the sixth inning or later. This included walking in a run in the sixth. Compare that with the first five where he struck out 8 and walked one. If he did not have the no hitter in place he probably would not have made it out of the sixth.
To me this screams dominating short reliever or so so fourth starter. I would take the dominating reliever personally. I know we have a lot of them but that is where I think he has the most long term value. I think he should keep starting at Palm Beach, but if he gets promoted he should start work as a reliever to maximize his value. Maybe I’m wrong (part of me hopes I am), but I don’t think he will cut it as a starter.
Sorry this is so long.
Luna played 2B tonight. If it works for Tony why not for Maloney!
Interesting, I was wondering if they would possibly experiment with Pham @ 2B given he came to the organization as a SS. Maybe he is next in line for the LaRussa 2B conversion. We don’t draft second basemen, we create them.
I wouldn’t be suprised if he’s Colby’s backup and then the starting CF and Colby can move to RF.
I was wondering about Luna also. I checked his career Milb stats and the guy has always had a great OBP and has some pop in his bat. If his D is OK we might have something there. Maybe a versatile utility guy if nothing else.
That’s some high expectations for Pham Andrew. I hope they are realized. He’s certainly off to a good start @ AA but we have been burned by prospects having offensive explosions at Springfield before. I thought I read something about Pham getting his contacts adjusted in 2010 and this being the possible reason for the great advance offensively at Springfield. I hope it’s real.
Preach. Pham offers good value in the outfield defensively, and it looks as if he’ll hit well enough to stick in CF.
It was disappointing when they moved Luna off second base and started playing him in the outfield a couple of years ago. It’s nice to see them put him back there in the middle infield again. His offense would, obviously, play much nicer there than a corner of the outfield. The “keystone position” seems to be gaining a measure of intrigue at multiple levels of the organization.
Just curious…(I really don’t know the wanted numbers) what numbers does a corner outfielder (LF in Luna’s case) need to put up? I read this thread and looked at Memphis’ stats. He OPS behind Hamlton & Brown, SLG behind them, He also has 3 HR in only 67 abs. Granted the team leaders only have 8. Seems to have some speed.
you’re looking at the wrong numbers for luna. his real threat is getting on base. he knows how to take a walk, and has a biggio-like magnetism for inside pitches. he would be an unconventional corner OF, in that people usually look for slugging from that spot, but that’s as much to do with the flaws in conventional baseball wisdom as anything else. if the guy can carry over his high-OBP into the majors and field respectably in the OF, he’s a valuable player. i doubt he’s a starter long term, but he could be a plausible RH 5th OF in a leftie-heavy system
Thanks for the clarification. His slugging is pretty decent behind Hamilton and Brown that’s why I asked.
Yeah, I guess those sorts of offensive skills were exactly why I was hoping he could stick in the middle infield in a post-Fernando Vina, post-Womack, post-Adam Kennedy-apocalypse, Schumaker-era-sort-of-revolving-door-at second-base world we’ve lived in for the past several years. I’ve always liked Luna. I watched him excel in high school football catching Chase Daniel passes, and later at Rice. He has speed and some punch. Luna as second baseman, or Luna as outfielder, I guess it doesn’t much matter to me. I just hope he gets a chance. Heck, the last few seasons in St Louis, the guy manning second base one night may just as likely be in right filed the next. I like the analogy, t.s., with Biggio. Never thought of that before. One could only hope.
Kinda cool Kelley lost his shutout before he lost the no-hitter, you don’t see that often. I think he had the no hitter through 7.
Kelley had 5 walks before the seventh? He would have been better off if he let them hit him, let his defense go to work and expelled less effort. Unfortunetly, pitchers get caught up in the lack of offense/defense down there, hence the reason why Miller was sent up.
I am glad to see that PJ got run support. Considering that Memphis is next to last in BA, these guys have been working really hard to win games on their own and look like goats at the end of the day.
3 of the walks, the hit and both HBP came in the 6th or later thus my comment about him tiring.
Keith Law’s Top 25 Prospects now has Shelby Miller at #4 and Carlos Martinez at #25. Me likey…
I really, really like Joe Kelly. Second in the FSL in groundouts (he was top 5 last year). If he can get the walks down a tick, I’d have even more faith but I still think his performance is more than impressive enough to warrant keeping him as a starter. There are other starters who are less likely to stick their long term than Kelly right now in the PB rotation.
True, Swagerty may have less of a shot.
Velo. Groundballs. K/9.
Those are the main things for young pitchers to me. Having a nice BB/9 is helpful, but the above three things are what I look for.
Joe Kelly has a lot of tools, and I see no reason to move him to reliever.
-Like to see Chambers hitting a litte bit in the leadoff spot, still has an “ok” OBP in the .350 range. If he can start hitting and adjusting to the PCL, the Cardinals might have something.
-Glad to see Stav poke one out, he is going to need to put that on his resume when he gets the boot when either Castellanos or Pham gets called up later his summer.
-Still waiting on Carpenter to have the huge breakout game, he just seems to have a 1 hit game each night
-Looks like Mark “the big ham” Hamilton is sick of Memphis and wants to get back to the show somehow, you gotta think the MO is pumped every morning when he see’s MH box scores.
-And is it me, but without Salas, Sanchez and Reifer, doesn’t Memphis have the least exciting bullpen in quite a few seasons? I actually wouldnt mind seeing Otto move there, and see what we got there. I just don’t see a future as a SP, but if he becomes a max effort guy out of the pen, who knows?
-Due to age and production so far, i think you will see Conley move quick pretty soon and I wouldnt be surprised to see Ingram follow far behind him
-And I agree, don’t mess with a good thing, Joe Kelly is pitching very well in PB especially the past three starts (3 ER in the last 22 IP). Although moving him to the ‘pen would be the quickest route to STL, he as shown too much promise as a starter. Even if he ends ups as reliever in the bigs, he is becoming a “pitcher” right now and less of a “thrower”.
-And looks like Carlos Martinez “K-Mart” is following the Shelby Blueprint of a year ago.
…….
sorry to be long winded, but i have been talking baseball on STLtoday.com forum, and it can be the most frustrating thing in the world
You lose brain cells just hanging around that place.
Yeah. They’ve got a couple of guys over there that actually know what they’re talking about, but most of the time it’s chickens with their heads cut off over there.
Agree cards talk is a joke. You post stuff that makes total baseball sense and get what seems like a bunch of 12 year old making idiotic post in replies. I quit posting over there last year. I still read the threads though.
As far as Conley… I think there’s people that can see things we don’t in the org. Despite the bad start at QC they promoted him anyway to PB and it looks like he has started hitting. Wasn’t aware what his injury was last year. But the wrist injury explains it all. Thus why played 8 gms last year and got off to the bad start at QC.
Maybe they saw something or maybe they said he’s 24 so he needs to perform at a higher level or hit the road. They put him at a higher level and he is so far meeting the challenge.
The existence of Viva El Birdos makes the existence of Cards talk entirely pointless for anyone who wants an intelligent forum for Cardinals discussion.
Conley should see Springfield this year but don’t rush it. wait another month. ahmady was rushed. i was at the qc game and Martinez was clocked only at high 80′s to low 90′s.
What? Sorry I don’t buy that because everyone would heard about it already. Also it’s not likely that he strikes out 5 of his last 6 with only a 91 MPH fastball. Who’s radar gun did you get this from?