The farm was split today with a 2-2 record, while a Carlos Martinez gem salvaged the night for our starting pitchers. Nick Additon wasn’t too bad either, but you’ll have to read on below to get the details!
- Daryl Jones hit his 2nd HR of the year, a 2-run shot, and finished 1-4
- Donovan Solano hit 1-3 with a walk
- Adron Chambers hit 2nd and was 2-4 with 1 RBI
- James Rapoport led off the game and was 1-3 with a walk
- Nick Additon pitched pretty well in 7 innings and gave up 7 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk, and struck out 5. Additon has looked good so far in the PCL, but his extreme fly-ball tendencies are a concern
- Audry Perez hit a 2-run blast and was 2-4 with 3 RBI. Perez is hitting well for a catcher, but he’s walked only 3 times this year in 170 at-bats
- D’Marcus Ingram and Domnit Bolivar were both 1-4 with a walk
- Travis Tartamella had one of two Springfield’s extra-base hits (a double) and finished 2-4
- Michael Blazek was shelled, giving up 4 home runs and 8 earned runs over 4 innings
- Richard Castillo, Sam Freeman, and Nick Greenwood combined to pitch 4 shutout innings out of the pen
- In his first game since being promoted, Robert Stock hit a solo blast in his first at-bat and then went on to finish 3-5
- Rainel Rosario added to Stock’s HR with a grand slam in the 8th
- Greg Garcia led off and was 3-5 with a double and 2 RBI
- Adam Melker went 2-5
- Alan Ahmady was 1-3 with a double and 2 walks
- Eric Fornataro gave up 6 runs in 4 innings of work off of 6 hits, 2 walks, a wild pitch, and 1 HR
- Nick Longmire went 2-4 with a double
- Colin Walsh was 3-4 with a double and 2 RBI
- Oscar Taveras hit 3rd and finished 1-5. His stock in prospects rankings could rise a ton with a healthy 2nd half
- Michael Swinson led off and hit 3-4 with a walk
- We saved the best pitching performance for last. Carlos Martinez was dominant tonight, striking out 8 in 6 innings of scoreless baseball. He gave up only 1 walk and 3 hits, none of which went for extra bases. To add to his line, he got 10 groundouts compared to 1 in the air. The only negative bit of info I can give you on the night for him were his 2 wild pitches, but he got a batter to strike out on one of them.
- Ryan Copeland and Cale Johnson relieved Martinez by pitching 3 scoreless innings and striking out 5
Entries (RSS)
Players do not walk their way out of the Dominican, they need to come out swinging and fight for their futures.
AAA rookie Additon is outpitching other Memphis starters.
Noticed Kyle Conley was put on the DL for PB. Any news on what it was for?
Hopefully day for Stock is a sign that his stock will be rising as a catching prospect. (Sorry had to do it) Maybe a move to the next level is what he need to jumpstart him. We will just have to wait and see.
Boy, Martinez sure is fun, isn’t he? I know they both still have a long way, but it is really nice having two guys with the abilities of Shelby Miller and Carlos Martinez in our system. Now lets hope Trevor Rosenthal can improve on his season and Tyrell Jenkins takes off.
Definitely a lot to be hopeful from a pitching side of things. More exctiting pitching prospects than I can remember from my time of paying attn to the farm system.
Remove Martinez’s ill-fated start May 14 @ Beloit where he gave up 6ER on 5 hits and 3 BBs in 2 2/3 innings and his numbers on the year are:
30 IP, 19 hits, 3ER, 41 SO/9 BB, good for a .90 ERA and .93 WHIP.
I know he has made only 7 professional state-side starts, but I think he has figured out low A hitters.
Anyone else shocked Stock was promoted? Hmm – hope he turns it around
No, not at all. The lower levels are going to get stocked with the recent draftees, and when you give a guy a million dollar bonus, you promote him and give him every shot to make it.
I was surprised. He’d done nothing to prove he could hit low A pitching. Maybe the move was made to prove to him that he needs to switch to pitching.
I’m not sure it was a promotion as much as a demotion for a Palm Beach catcher…
who was demoted?
The catcher that went after the pitcher with a baseball bat after he was thrown behind at the plate ….
DJ Tools homerun was a walk-off.
Lets hope its not too late for him.
Couple questions. At what point does Additon get talked about as a major league quality arm? I know he’s not a top of the rotation guy but can’t he be a 4th/5th starter type? All he’s ever done is get guys out at every stop.
Also—I live in Wisconsin and would like to go see Martinez pitch in the Fox Cities. With the All-Star break for the MWL coming up I’m not sure when he would pitch then. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
He’s been pretty mediocre most of the way up. He has a 4.50ish FIP as far as I can see at AA and a 4.30 at AAA. Probably means he can be a 5th starter at major league level, but not for a contending club like the Cardinals who hope to get some sort of production out of their 5th guy. I’m not convinced he’s as good as Lynn going forward, but he’s probably a fair guy to have as depth.
I’d be interested to see if he’d be a low cost Tallet replacement next year – not sure what his splits are like, but he seems the only LHP in the high minors with a shot at being a major league guy. I’d see what he can do in the pen next year as a lefty specialist/occasional spot-starter.
I forgot to mention that Bryan Augenstein pitched 2 perfect innings and struck out 3 in his rehab appearance for Palm Beach. It’ll be interesting to see what transaction gets made when they think he’s ready, if any.
I’ve gone to Peoria and South Bend hoping to see him play and had no luck. Will try again in Fort Wayne. Good luck.
Re: Martinez
Unless he’s added velocity, Additon works his fastball in the 86-88 range, I believe. (Good enough for a southpaw IF you’ve got movement, location, and a couple other solid offerings…but it obviously leaves less margin for error.)
Nick’s skeptics always cited the limited FB, and high flyball rates, saying he would struggle once he got to the Texas League. And they were right. Last year, Additon was mediocre for Springfield, and surrendered a ton of homers.
This year, though, he’s doing just fine for Memphis (3.08 ERA, and 2.56 as a starter), and is 23 years old, which is age-appropriate for a true prospect in AAA. Is he throwing a bit harder? Has he added a pitch? I dunno…but based on what he’s doing now, and based on ’07, ’08, and ’09, I’d say he has mid-rotation potential (i.e., a 200-inning guy with an ERA+ of 105-110 or so).
Will a severe flyball pitcher with sub-par velocity even get a chance with the Redbirds, though? I sort of doubt it.
Anyway, one big point in Nick’s favor is his sturdy history of good health—the young man simply never misses his rotation turn. Gotta love that. :)
This sounds like the same argument that was presented for PJ Walters and he just couldn’t quite hack the majors. I remain very skeptical of Additon. He doesn’t look like a major league pitcher to me. If he’s going to make the majors it will be on his control of the strikezone — get that down to under 3 BB/9 and he might be able to hang around.
I remain firmly off the Additon bandwagon though.
Think I agree with Azru here – looks like a AAAA guy mostly.
He hasn’t really made a huge improvement moving from AA to AAA. His strikeout rate is a little lower than where it was in his last year or so in AA (about 7 per 9), and his walk rate has increased a little in AAA. He’s not getting significantly more groundballs as far as I can see, so most of his apparent “improvement” looks to me like luck, and moving from a home ground that is an absolute launching pad to one that is only moderately good for power hitting. Basically, a few less of his flyballs are leaving the yard.
As I said, though – and this is without real knowledge of his splits, I think he’s good enough that he could be a cheap lefty out of the pen for a year or two.
Apparently Carpenter (3b) has been sent back to Memphis, but I can’t find the corresponding activation or call up. Anybody know?
McClellan activated
Count me as not a fan of the way this org has handled Robert Stock. When he was drafted I was excited to see if he could hack it as a catcher but I think that question has been answered with a firm and decisive no. The fact that they haven’t realized this and switched him to pitcher already makes me worry they never will. I guess there’s a chance he turns into the next Motte.
There was some contention here the other day that it was possible (and the Cardinals might feel) his abilities as a pitching prospect were a bit exaggerated; although he could hit mid-90s, IIRC he only sat low-90s with his FB and had slightly unrefined breaking stuff. Given his age now, and the fact he hasn’t pitched for over 2 years, it’s arguable that perhaps they feel there’s no real chance of him making it as a pitcher.
Which would kinda suck, really – I’m with you, and I think they should’ve called time on his catching career last year and got him into shape as a pitcher over the winter. I also don’t like that he’s taken PA away from Stanley this year (until the promotion), who I think is a much better bet to make it to the show.
Players have a lot of say about where they play. If Stock gives up on catching, he may try pitching.
Stock is going to be a solid player. He was promoted b/c he was a higher pick than Cody Stanley. Give it some time people
Nice to see Chambers and Jones stringing together some good games. Maybe it’s not too late for DJ Tools…
The DSL Cards are off to a poor, poor start—but there is at least one bright spot so far.
February signee Leobaldo Pina is batting .289 after his 3-4 yesterday. The 16-year-old stringbean shortstop (6′ 2″ and 160 lbs.) has hit safely in all ten games, and stolen three bases without being caught. No extra base hits yet, but he’s doing okay with plate discipline (3/9 BB/K) considering his extreme youthfulness.
The kid got a $300,000 bonus, so the organization must think pretty highly of him….
Hope to see more such inkings when July 2 rolls around. ;)
Thanks for the update.
BA has been previewing the July 2 signings. The only kid mentioned with Cardinals connections is Wilmer Becerra, a Venezuelan shortstop who’s 6’3″ and runs a 6.6 60. Ben Badler writes that he’s an athletic shortstop with power potential who figures to move to the outfield.
Jeff Luhnow has mentioned that the Cards are looking for a shortstop, but according to Badler, the real strength in the Caribbean this year is outfielders with power.
Uhhh. . .I would take an outfielder with power. It’s not as though we’re fully stocked with those in the low minors.
I would too. We’ve tried a couple of times to get a big, athletic corner outfielder — first Wagner Mateo in the Dominican, then Austin Wilson in the draft.
Who knows, if Bacerra is really 16, and he moves to the outfield when he fills out, and a magic pony turns him into a power hitter, maybe he’ll be the guy.
Stock’s offensive production has been weak, but I love the walk rate.
Its odd to see a 2011 Texas League “All-Star” now with a 5.29 ERA, 1.51 WHIP and leading the league in HR allowed.
any updates on tommy pham’s injury?
I missed it, what was his injury?
I think he’s done for the year, needs wrist surgery.
Jones’ walk-off would been likely caught if Memphis didn’t have that odd HR landing spot where their pen cuts into the field in left center.
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?&sid=milb&content_id=15913315
Interesting to see Victor Marte stop his celebration when he notices that Shane Peterson might be hurt. The announcer said Marte and Rauschenberger jumped over the fence to see if he was okay.
Peterson played last night, so I guess he’s fine.