Lots of recent games canceled due to rain has rotations up in the air. Springfield has the day off while Quad Cities will have a doubleheader.
Memphis @ Colorado Springs, 8:05pm: Maikel Cleto
Springfield: No Scheduled Games
Palm Beach vs. Chattanooga, 6:35pm: Arquimedes Nieto
Quad Cities @ Beloit, 5:30pm: Ryan Copeland
Quad Cities @ Beloit, TBD: Drew Benes (Would normally be Blair’s spot but he’s be DL’d — someone will be starting out of the pen)
Batavia vs. Brooklyn, 7:05pm: Todd McInnis
Johnson City vs. Bristol, 7:00pm: Ben Freeman
Entries (RSS)
I may be strange but I look with more anticipation to starts from guys like Neito and Freeman than from Miller and Martinez. I assume the M & M boys will do well. I’m more on the lookout for the next rising star.
Just curious, but other than a cool name, why Nieto as a rising star? Looks like a standard RH soft tosser.
I cant speak to his stuff but only to his results. The Cards thought Neito good enough to be a starter in the Texas league shortly after his 21st birthday. He drew attention to himself when in a brief appearance as a 19 y.o. in the 2008 World Games he struck out two major league players. Besides, I didn’t say he was a rising star yet just one of the players who could become one. He was however the FSL pitcher of the week last week. :)
For a second I thought you were referring by M&M boys to McInnis and Maness! Just kidding.
Just asking, but does it seem like the Cards have accumlated and this drafted a number of not particularly hard throwing righties, such as McInnis, Maness and Gaviglio, with guys like Nieto and Castillo and Dickson, etc. accumulated previously. Not complaining, just asking if anyone has any knowledge about their rational for such a strategy when very seldom does that type of pitcher ultimately succeed at the major league level?
Neito and Castillo were teenage Latin signings who probably we were hopeful would gain velocity as they got older but didn’t happen. I believe Gaviglio throws in the low 90′s so not sure he belongs on this list. The others were late round draft choices who if they through harder would have been drafted sooner. Seriously, what do you expect from a 25th round draft choice (McInness)? Dickson I would say has worked out pretty good for a non-drafted free agent out of college.
I can think of another soft tossing right hander who did pretty good. Believe his name was Maddux or something like that. Came up with the Cubbies I believe.
and again, nobody can mention soft-tossing righties without the maddux card being played.
albert einstein failed math in school, but that doesn’t mean everybody who failed math is einstein.
Don’t forget that Michael Jordan was cut from his freshman basketball team!
Kevin Siegrist is a tall, white, left-handed pitcher. He’s Randy Johnson! We’ve got the next Randy Johnson! Yeeeaahh!
Maddux was by no means a soft tosser. That is one of the things that people overstate.
Bob Tewksberry was a soft tosser.
Guess that depends on your definition. The prime of his career Maddux topped out 88-89. That used to be called an “average” fast ball at the time, however, I think the definition of average in terms of velocity has risen to probably around 92 or so.
I guess my question is whether it is a conscious decision to draft/sign a number of such guys because eventually you will hit on a star quality pitcher of that type, while in the meantime eating innings for your minor league teams and tricking other teams to take such pitchers as trade chips in mid-season trades (e.g. Walters), and/or be usable as long relievers/6th starters (e.g. Thompson)?
Not every minor leaguer is going to throw 95 of course. You’ve listed some RH starting pitchers with 89-90 mph fastballs but I’m betting that every team’s system has similar guys since RH pitchers with 89-90 mph fastballs are probably the most common type of pitcher.
Doesn’t seem like a “strategy” more than a case of supply and demand.
Gaviglio rarely breaks 90 MPH. He was sitting mid 80s in his Super Regional start but he was obviously a little gassed.
He did look really bad at Super Regionals. I’m sure he was gassed but it’s scary because we don’t know how much more he has.
What’s the story on the Blair DL? Not that I’m surprised, but what’s the reported injury?
Probably has an injury to his ego and his pride. Hopefully he can find the cure for that :)
This s a ridiculous thing to say.
Especially when, in my mind, there’s a question of how long he’s had this injury.
Just saw a report that Gaviglio signed today for $175K – I wonder if he will pitch this year.
thanks for the info. do you know where we can see an updated list of all of our 2011 draft signings. thanks.
Try Baseball America.com. Then 2011 draft update.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/draftdb/2011xteam.php?team=1019
tilson seems to be the big fish. i think we get him in the end.
i would be very surprised if medrano held out, since he’s a rising college senior.
kirsch doesn’t seem like a good candidate to hold out further; he was drafted 13th by the pirates and went back to school last year. coming back only to be drafted 21st round would seem like a hard lesson.
aramis garcia seems to be a big open question. both him and kamplain are HS players with college commits who could jump a lot after some college exposure.
brett graves has announced he is not signing, and everyone else unsigned is 40 or lower. at this point, i just assume all the unsigned super-low round guys are going to try again later.
David Schmidt is the other local HS pitcher we drafted late and he will be attending Stanford. Sad Graves and Schmidt both are going to school as its always nice to root for the local products.
Tilson will sign – I have no doubt about that. I am guessing roughly twice or a little more than slot so it will be Aug 15th for sure.
Garcia is the other guys that I want badly and I have heard ZERO rumblings about him signing/not signing since we drafted him. Only that it would be a tough sign.
Any update on Tilson?
I’d be surprised if we heard something before August 15th.
The Maddux as a soft tossed is a bit of a fallacy. Coming up ands in his first few years, Maddux sat in the 90-92 range.
Also true of the ultimate left-handed soft tosser, John Tudor. People who saw him in his 84-mph-through-the-hole-in-a-life-saver days with the Cardinals often forget that he busted it into the low nineties 5 to 10 years earlier.
As a righty who doesn’t have a soft-tossing problem, what has the level of development been this year for Maikel Cleto?? Is he a potential starter in the future at the major league level, or is he more realistically a reliever candidate going forward?
I see it being VERY unlikely he sticks as a starter in the bigs. His inconsistencies will prevent him from being trusted as a starter. In the pen he is a back of the bully type of guy that should have a long and solid career if he stays healthy IMO.
I think it’s impossible to tell at this point. He was very raw and a thrower when we got him and he’s improved by leaps and bounds this year. I don’t think you can rule someone out so quickly especially when they have taken such a big step this year.
I understand where you are coming from but how he goes about his business gives me no confidence that he will every be consistent for 6 IP every 5th day. Not giving up on him and I hope he proves me wrong as a starter is more valuable than a reliever but I just don’t see it.
What do you mean how he goes about his business? I saw his last game where he threw a 3 hitter. He still has his heat and his breaking pitch is much improving. 2 of his 4 k’s were on called third strike breaking balls. You do remember he only got as high as high A with the Mariners and he started this year in High A here. Pretty good for someone who started in Palm Beach and has pitched in SPringfield, St. Louis and Memphis this year.
I mean on a consistent basis he has not gotten the job done. He has some bad outings, then some outings where things are going pretty well and then he loses it, other games where he looks good but rarely goes more than 6IP. If he was going good most of the time and only going 6IP I wouldn’t be as concerned. But its 2 good outings then 2 bad ones. 1 really good one then a stinker. Thats what I mean about how he goes about his business night in and out.
Fair enough but which Minor League pitcher has a consistent good games other than Shelby Miller? And Cleto is facing better competition than Miller this year so far. Just saying just think of this as his 1st or second year in the minors because he is a totally different pitcher now. The fact is he has MLB stuff his breaking ball is coming along and no need to write him off so quickly.
Minor Leaguers are more inconsistent than MLB pitchers…thats understood. The amount of inconsistencies that he has provided this year makes me think there is a slim chance he makes it as a starter. Like I said I hope he proves me wrong but I am just not seeing it. There is always an argument on both sides and time will tell of course.
As a sidenote I have not been impressed how the Cards have handled him this year having him bounce around so much even though he had minimal experience above A ball. I know he was on the 40 man which comes into play.
Speaking of Cleto- Tonight in Colorado Springs which is a MAJOR hitters park he has a 1 hitter through 5. Only given up 1 run he is having control issues with 6 walks but he also has 6 k’s.
Another big problem and reason he can’t go deep into games…WAY too many walks especially since the beginning of July. No way he can get away with that in the bigs as a starter.
The fact that this is his first year above High A ball and that he has actually done well at AA and AAA with a taste of the majors causes me to want to see him with a full season next year at AAA before I conclude as to whether he can start long term or is a reliever.
I really hope there’s more rainouts tomorrow because I’m counting on Springfield’s rotation being shuffled in time for Shelby to pitch in San Antonio. More rain!