Shelby Miller ALERT!
After watching today’s starter get pummeled by the Washington Nationals (and then watch the bullpen not do much better), it’s great to turn an eye to two pitchers the organization holds in high and see them succeed. Lance Lynn, being steady but not ‘wow-ing’ people and Shelby Miller, the ‘wow’ of the Cardinals farm system right now give the Cardinals two arms that, at the latest next spring, give the Cardinals flexibility to remold their rotation or temporarily the backend of their bullpen.
On to the DFR!
- James Rapoport went 2-for-4 with a BB.
- Pete Kozma was 1-for-4 with a RS.
- Aaron Luna went 1-for-3.
- Donovan Solano had 2 singles in 4 ABs.
- Jose Garcia went 1-for-3.
- DJ Tools had the only XBH for the Redbirds, belting a 2-R HR. He was 2-for-3 with 3 RBI.
- Lance Lynn threw 7 IP giving up 6 H and 2BB. He yielded 2 R (1 ER) and had 6 K.
- Chuck Fick threw a clean IP with 1 K.
- Victor Marte threw the same for the save.
- Eric Duncan hit a solo HR in his 4 ABs.
- Steven Hill went 2-for-5 with 2 HRs and a whopping 5 RBI.
- Alex Castellanos went 3-for-5.
- Zack Cox, hitting down in the order, racked up 2 2Bs in his 4 at-bats.
- Audry Perez and Domnit Bolivar went 1-for-4.
- Ryan Jackson (2B) and Chris Swauger both went 2-for-4.
- Shelby Miller twirled a gem tonight, giving up only 4 H and 2 BB in 8 IP. He struckout 8 while yielding no runs. Shelby threw 108 pitches, 71 of them for strikes.
- Jorge Rondon gave up the only blemish of the game on 2 H against his 1 K in 1 IP.
- Michael Swinson went had a 2B and 2 BBs with 1 RBI.
- Cody Stanley went 1-for-5 with 4 RBIs.
- Nick Longmire was 2-for-3 with a 2B and RBI.
- Victor Sanchez went 2-for-4 with 2 2Bs.
- Christopher Edmondson went 2-for-4 with a 2B.
- Seth Blair threw 3.2 IP giving up 7 H and 5 R (4 ER). He struckout 5 and walked 1.
- Dean Kiekhefer pitched 2.1 IP, giving up a lone H and BB while striking out 3.
- Justin Wright logged the win by working 3 IP of 2 H, 4 K baseball.
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The best news by far is that Miller advanced to Double A, to a hitters league and park, and still is a dominating pitcher. Looks like we struck gold with him and Cox. Hope it is the same for Martinez!
Cox is loking more like tarnished silver. That still has some value but it is not gold.
Agreed. But we must keep in perspective that he has still been playing professional level baseball for only about 10 months now. I think his development appears on track.
I’ve always felt Cox is more of a serviceable player than anything like striking gold. His secondary skills other than his hit tool all fall below average to me. Yes, I saw him live in college as well.
Miller was doing it against a pretty poor offense outside of Trout, but the fact that he was able to go 8 innings and sustain his stuff was the most promising thing for me. Very few players are really stars in MLB, but Miller has a shot to be one.
I have said all year that Miller would get a cup of copy in Memphis this year. Seems on track for that still.
Justin Wright has to go to PB soon.
When Adams comes back, I’d expect Hill to get bck to Memphis.
A cup of copy? I’m generally not one to pick on typos and stuff, but that one made me laugh a bit.
Anyway, I’m also not a strict pitch count guy, but I don’t see any reason why Shelby should be throwing over a 100 pitches in an outing at this stage.
I’m not too concerned with Miller throwing 108 pitches. It would be different if we were pushing him every outting to throw 100-115 pitches at this point but that just isn’t the case. When he is rolling like this you want him to finish the inning which is what he did. I would be much more concerned with college pitchers that get abused consistently with 120-135 pitches (or sometimes more) an outting.
Agreed, working deep into a ballgame is something he needs to adjust to. Its going to be something he will be expected to do in the MLB.
The difference with college guys, of course, is that they pitch once every seven days, instead of once every five.
My view is that I actually like that they pushed Miller a little bit. I believe that is his career high for pitches in a game, and he still helpd his stuff. Encouraging to say the least.
Understood on college guys but they still throw plenty between starts as well. I’m just not a huge fan of continuously giving a pitcher 120-135 pitches in an outting throughout the whole season. Happens WAY too often in college
108 over 8 innings is different than 108 over 5 innings.
Justin Wright has a lethal FB/CB combo. He will be a rock solid bullpen arm in a few yrs
Is that really true? I thought I’d read that he was a soft tossing lefty with little to project. I prefer your version of course.
No way. He throws hard.
the time i saw him he didn’t overly impress me, but nevertheless, he’s definitely not a soft tossing lefty.
As TBird stated he is short. But I have seen video of him and saw him live at Busch. His FB isn’t crazy good or anything….probably low 90s. But his delivery hides the ball well so its deceptively fast and gets on hitters quickly. His CB is a plus pitch right now from what I have seen. As a lefty reliever he will almost certainly move through the system in the next 1.5-2 years IMO.
At 5’9″ he’ll have to go the route of Tim Collins (KC) who was doing to AA what Wright is doing at Low A. Long way for him to go.
As dominate as Shelby is, he needs a lot of maturing. Kind of like what happened with Lynn. Right now he needs work and time to practice, Springfield a much better place for him to do that than in Memphis.
He’s still learning how to use what pitches in situations, and still needs work on his secondary pitches. He’s getting it though and he’s a good kid, full of life and energy. I am not sure that they could ask for more out of him right now.
Very true, Shelby does need time to develop his pitches and command thereof and Springfield is a good place for him to do this.
However, if I can present a counterpoint, it might be the case that Springfield is not the appropriate place for his development. If Shelby keeps overwhelming the Texas League on pure stuff alone, Memphis or maybe even the major leagues could be the appropriate place for his continued development. This would be a similar situation to other talented prospects like Heyward or Hosmer who still have facets of their games to improve, but were not receiving sufficient resistance at lower levels to spur their development.
***Let me just say that I agree w/ “Pitch and Hit” that I would prefer if Shelby finishes the year in Springfield.
Yea he should finish the year in Springfield. I listened to some of the game alot of K’s were on fastballs on the corner and strikes where the batters swings at a elevated pitch. Definately good but MLB hitters are less likely to do that. Read an old interview from Walt Jocketty about Rick Ankiel before he was called up where Jocketty said he kind of hoped that Ankiel would struggle some at Memphis because it’s better for young players to face adversity and failure for the first time in there lives in the minors rather than in the Majors. Unfortunately he didn’t and we saw what it was like when he first ffaced failure in the Bigs.
So isn’t 108 a lot of pitches for Miller at this age? Does the organization have a pitch limit for their minor leagues?
No, 108 is not bad as long as it wasn’t 108 of labored innings. He throws pretty effortlessly as well. 108 also means he saw a lot of hitters, which lowered his ERA.
As CC suggested he might see time up there when the rosters expand if they are still playing. Even if just to get a few innings in. There is a big difference between AA and AAA. By the time you reach AAA you are expected to have figured it out on your own, I am not sure he’s ready for that. I am not sure that moving anyone up (that young) 3 levels in a season is that productive.
It may be time to start serioulsy questioning the Blair pick. Any top player from a up level division 1 college program should dominate low A. He has been horrible, the only thing I can think of is that they are making him change something with his mechanics. As far as the pitch count, how do you ever expect these guys to pitch deep in games in the majors if they aren’t allowed to in the minors? Fatigue is what gets kids hurt not pitch counts. If he was still strong and not laboring then he should be allowed to go over 100. By the same token if he is in the second inning with 60 pitches but is wore out and struggling then he should be lifted regardless of the number of pitches. The manager is paid to manage his players, this is part of it. TLR took a big chance with Garcia in Colorado a few weeks ago because of “pitch counts”. Everyone could see he was totalled gased after the first inning but TLR ran him back out their because he only threw 50 pitches and he didn’t want to kill the bull pen. That is when kids get hurt, the Cards were lucky that didn’t cause an injury. Screw the bull pen, the 24 year old stud lefty is more important to the organization than Bauista or Franklin.
Start questioning the Blair pick. I’d say that time has passed…I’m in full blown remorse. Still, the kid has an electric arm and there is some time to turn him into a pitcher.
I keep hoping for Blair, what with that college pedigree and all. Just doesn’t seem to be happening yet. I wasn’t wanting the moon—just a right handed reliever. Speaking of right handed relievers, have you seen any that might be serviceable??? After watching Batista one night, and Franklin the next, I could almost say (and God help me for this, ’cause my head’s starting to swivel 360 and I’m starting to spit pea green soup), I almost miss Brad Thompson. “The power of Christ compels you….”
I remember reading a Pop Warner interview (from last year I think) and he said he didn’t like to coddle starting pitchers. He said something to the effect that at AA they need to throw as many innings as the big boys. If Cardinals management did not dictate a pitch count for Shelby to Pop, it is in character for Pop to leave him out there for 108 while pitching effectively.
Here’s a truckload of wishful thinking: Maybe this is progress for blair? Only 1 bb. Maybe they’re getting him in the zone first, then refining command?
Good to see Nick Longmire start to hit (finally). He is 6 for his last 12 after coming back from injury, and most importantly his K rate has gone down over the course of this season. If he can get things figured out, he could be a solid player.
Is it just me or does the Quad Cities lineup click when Tavarez plays regardless of whether he produces? 9 runs is not too shabby.
Ditto on Longmire – I have been on the wagon as soon as we drafted him. Got all the tools but needs to be a better all around hitter and specifically a better 2 strike hitter. He might be making strides.
Can anybody enlighten me on what toy pham’s injury was. I missed it initially.
Left wrist injury suffered while trying to rob a homerun; he had or is going to have surgery.
http://blogs.news-leader.com/cardinals/2011/06/10/wrist-surgery-awaits-cards-outfielder-pham/
I don’t see a problem with 100 plus pitches once in a while,when promoted he will be asked to do that regularly.Everyone should remember that between longer season and higher pitch counts,Miller will most likely go through a ‘dead arm’ period this season, so when he is pitching well,let him go.On a side note,does anyone think it would be worth all the 40 man moves to sign Kazmir to convert him to a lefty reliever? He’s still only 27 and Duncan has a nice track record with these kinds of guys.
Kazmir is broken. IIRC he’s throwing about 86mph this year. I just don’t think he’s going to get anyone out with that, even if his arm stays attached. He’s not really a Dunc guy either – again IIRC he was a heavy fastball, flyball-and-strikeout oriented pitcher when he was successful in the past. I’m just not sure he has any more value than guys like Ian Snell (who we dumped earlier in the year).
Fel Monk is right kazmir’s problem was that he was not a pitch to contact pitcher but rather a strike out/fly out and he went deep in counts and high pitch counts. He most likely will go work on his stuff and try to come back in the spring on an invite to spring training. teams don’t often give up on guys with that much talent.
I think this is one reason why they are trying to get Shelby to use secondary pitches, to keep his count lowso that over time he doesn’t over pitch. The strike outs are impressive but they dont come in a 3-5 pitch inning.
Worth a shot at this point, Franklin, Batista, Miller and Tallet bring nothing to the team and really hurt the bullpen. These 4 guys unreliabilty has caused TLR to overuse Sanchez to the point where he’s not even with the team now and is in STL getting his shoulder examed by Paletta. Valdes since being demoted from starting rotation to reliever has been very good at Memphis with very good lefty/lefty splits. He’s a start to replace Miller or Tallet. Maybe Ottavino or Dickson get another shot to come in with the long man/innings eater role. That was Franklin can retire or we can DFA Batista.
With all the injuries and D.L. issues the offense, until recently, has held it’s own. Holliday will be back tonight and Freese may well be by the first of the month. But the problem with the bullpen remains. (And so does the crappy middle infield defense, but that’s for another discussion). Now, do you try to solve the bullpen woes internally by making Lynn the 5th starter and putting McClellan/Boggs back in the pen as higher leverage set-up men/spot starters? Or do you try to bring up Memphis guys for innings eaters in the bullpen (ala Hawksworth), or do you look externally for veteran relief help and spend some of your farm/current role players to obtain it?? It will be interesting to see how management seeks solutions.
I would place McC back in the bullpen for long relief and bring up Lynn. He (Mc) isn’t trained long term to be a starter, the injury is not surprising, but neither was his struggle last night. You are away from the game you got to adjust, didn’t they give him any rehab innings anywhere?
Steven Hill is going to hold most of Springfield’s career offensive records for a long, long time.
Steve Hill really belongs in AAA in the everyday lineup, but where?
in nick stavinoha’s roster spot.
Any word on when Adams might be returning? The guy sure was in a groove and hate to see the long layoff. It hasn’t helped Taveras.