Comments on: Daily Farm Report 8/5/2011

By: pitch and hit

pitch and hit — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 13:13:46 +0000

Warner and staff have gone on record to say that kelly needs better command of his FB.

By: GTL

GTL — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:35:56 +0000

Fair enough. He doesn’t need to prove anything to the org as he was only just drafted and they’re the ones who decide where he is anyway. He’ll never be considered a good prospect though if he’s always old for his league (as he’s on track to be). Real prospects are generally younger than the league average (the “average age” isn’t really the average age of a true prospect, but the average age of the prospects plus all of the organizational filler). I just think that if the org thinks highly of him at all it wouldn’t really be pushing him to start next year at PB, it would simply be placing him where a prospect his age should be.

By: RichardRich

RichardRich — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:17:07 +0000

Amazingly Matt Adams now has 23 of his 25 HR in the 3 big HR parks of the Texas League.

By: cariocacardinal

cariocacardinal — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 19:47:38 +0000

Needs to prove to whom? Last year the Cards put Greg Garcia at JC all year. This year he is doing well at PB. If Rahmatulla is in PB next year he will be young for the league. I’d love to see him at a higher level but he is less than a year older than the league average and has plenty of time to catch up. I assume the Cards know what they are doing and have him at JC for a reason.

By: GTL

GTL — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 19:22:17 +0000

I’m no expert on the minor league rosters and which players the org considers expendable, but to me Rahmatulla deserves a promotion more than anyone else in the system. Not only because he’s EARNED it but because he NEEDS it to prove that he can play with guys his own age.

By: GTL

GTL — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 19:13:40 +0000

Looking over Joe Kelly’s numbers it seems to me he has been extremely unlucky so far in his career. His first two seasons he had high BABIPs and horrible 51.1 and 58.7 LOB%. This would help explain why he put up ugly ERAs (4.75 and 4.62) despite very respectable FIPs (2.61 and 3.31). He’s been stung at Springfield by a .390 BABIP and 66.2 LOB%, but what’s especially hurt him are his HRs allowed. His previous high at any stop in the minors was .26 HR/9 last year. So far in Springfield (SSS of course) it’s over 1 HR/9.

Really my opinion of him went up a lot after looking at those numbers. Unless there’s a reason why his ERAs have consistently been so much higher than his FIPs I’d say his minor league track record is pretty impressive (gotta get the walks down though… they’ve increased at each stop along the way, which is the one red flag I see in his stats). In my opinion, players with crappy GB% are the most likely to have ERAs considerably worse than their FIPs. As I understand, though, Joe Kelly is just the opposite. If his stuff is as nasty as they claim and he can get a little better control of it, I could see him projecting to a #3 starter or so.

By: Gruntosaurus

Gruntosaurus — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:59:25 +0000

Could room be found for him at QC yet this year?

By: GTL

GTL — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:56:30 +0000

Roberto De La Cruz has certainly been putting up some eye popping power numbers at JC (ISO is a ludicrous .301) but I think he has a long ways to go to be considered a top flight 3B prospect. The first things that jump out at me looking at his numbers are his horribly low BB rate (4%) and his equally horrible K rate (25%). If he could work on that BB rate then he might develop into a pretty good three true outcomes player, which would definitely be an asset. He’s still young at 19 years old, and there’s reason to hope that he’ll improve his plate discipline with more time. If nothing else, this season has proven that he wasn’t the bust that some people on this site labeled him a year ago.

Rahmatulla’s numbers, on the other hand, are amazing across the board. At 21, though, he’s far too old to be at JC (he’ll be 22 by the start of next season). If it were up to me he’d start next year at PB, so we can get a realistic look at whether he’s really a special talent or was just feasting on younger competition.

By: HogwildCard

HogwildCard — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:31:48 +0000

Yeah. I would not worry about his arm at all. saw him numerous times at Arkansas both pitching and playing third. He was not really a 92-93 guy, more 90-91, but I would say that is still pretty solid for a third baseman. He has more than enough armstrength for third, in fact that is his best defensive asset. I saw him at a game at Northwest Arkansas for Springfield and his arm looked solid then too. Although he did have one throw he sailed a little, but not so much that Adams wasn’t able to corral it.

By: tom s.

tom s. — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:27:14 +0000

Joe kelly’s results have not been great at springfield. However, his K rate has been good, and his BB rate slightly up. He’s mostly been hurt by too many HR. It’s possible they just find him too hittable, but I suspect it’s mostly a mix of luck and the springfield stadium.