Pinch hitting for the night.
Tonight on Future Redbirds: Another start cut short in Springfield. A catcher distances himself from the mound in Palm Beach. Meanwhile, in the low minors, the starting pitchers flash dominance to lead their teams to victory. All that and cake in your Daily Farm Report.
- Eric Duncan picked up a double and a HR in 4 trips to the plate.
- Zach Cox was 1-for-4 and tried to have his own personal Bryce Harper moment. Cox also committed his 16th error of the season. Word on the street is his defense hasn’t been sharp at the hot corner.
- Another abbreviated outing in Springfield. After Shelby Miller‘s 7 batter outing last night, Joe Kelly manages just 2 IP. He allowed 5 runs (1 earned) on 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4.
- Sam Freeman pitched 2 perfect innings striking out 3. When I saw Freeman in person, I wasn’t impressed but that was pre-surgery and I haven’t seen him live (non-video) since.
- Robert Stock was 2-for-3. Stock took a lot of warranted criticism last year for hitting like garbage at Quad Cities. He managed just a .577 OPS over 300 ABs there. His return to Quad Cities in 2011 was still a struggle during his 50 ABs this season. Since being moved up to Palm Beach, he’s hit quite well posting a .290/.347/.383 line in the pitcher friendly Florida State League. It’s way too early to anoint him as fixed but it’s rather unexpected to see him flourish offensively, for however brief a period, in his current hitting environs.
- Deryk Hooker continues his way back through the system after starting the year in Springfield and suffering an injury. He pitched 4 scoreless innings allowing 3 hits and striking out 5.
- Jordan Swagerty picked up the save with a scoreless inning. It’s interesting to note that in the small sample size of this season, Swagerty’s walk rate is actually better as a starter but his strikeout rate makes a healthy jump as a reliever.
- Kolten Wong was 2-for-5 with a triple. But, was there a back flip?
- Mike O’Neill was 2-for-5 with a double.
- Geoff Klein was 2-for-5. Only saw a little bit of Klein when I was in QC last. He caught Boone Whiting on the last day I was there. He made a threw the ball away trying to get a runner but looked solid for the most part blocking balls. Admittedly, Whiting was an easy catch that day.
- Packy Elkins (apparently the nickname originates from college; he’s supposed to be a bit of a cutup) was 1-for-2 with a triple and a pair of walks.
- Zach Russell got bit by the command bug again allowing 4 walks in 2 innings of work. He was tagged for 5 runs on 5 hits while striking out 3.
Batavia 1, Brooklyn 3 (Game 1: 7 innings)
- Garrett Wittels was 2-for-4.
- Romulo Ruiz was 2-for-3 with a double.
- Seth Maness struck out 4 in 5 innings of work. He was saddled with 7 hits which turned into 3 runs (2 earned). While Maness hasn’t shown quite the strikeout capacity of Ryan Copeland or Boone Whiting, he’s another physically smaller pitcher with very little in the way of platoon splits and excellent command. I’ll be keeping an eye out for him in Quad Cities next year.
Batavia 2, Brooklyn 1 (Game 2: 8 innings)
- Garrett Wittels went 3-for-4 with a double.
- Juan Castillo was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Todd McInnis pitched 5 innings allowing just 1 unearned run on 4 hits. He stuck out 2.
- Danny Miranda struck out the side in his inning of work while picking up the win.
- Matt Williams went 3-for-4 falling a home run short of the cycle.
- Jonathan Keener was 2-for-3 with a double.
- Kyle Hald struck out 9 in 6 innings of work. He 2 hit Bristol allowing a solo HR for the only opposition run. A lefty out of Old Dominion drafted in the 18th round of this year’s draft, he’s struck out 51 batters in 41.2 IP.
The cake is a lie.
Entries (RSS)
What did Cox do? Gave a kiss sign to the pitcher?
click the link
“The cake is a lie” OK, I’ll bite – that is in reference to what?
OK, I googled it. Now know what it means but not sure how it fits in context here.
It was a joke unto itself completely unrelated to the players in the DFR.
Heres a question for everyone…does Wittels crack the top ten prospects at years end? if not is he top 15? 20?
Call me a sucker but I’m routing for him
No way.
I’ll second that.
But it’s nice to have him for depth in the middle infield.
Dont get carried away…doing it at Batavia is better than JC, but it is still only Batavia.
He’s got a sub .700 OPS right now. I hope he does well too but he’s not close to making any prospect lists.
Wittels is not even in the Top 20 – He’s interesting for sure but he has a long way to go to prove he is worthy of the Top 20 in our deep system (weird to say that!) let alone the Top 10.
Who is to watch a Batavia. I check the box scores every night but nobody really stands out to me.
I think Anthony Gacia let those 2 HR’s yesterday go to his head. He stuckout 3 time tonight.
Maness has a 75% GB rate.
I have a good feeling about Klein.
Hooker is probably where he should have been to start the season (in retrospect) Hopefully they let him stay there, get his game together, and he comes back strong in AA next year
Anyone know what Freeman is up to velocity wise at this point? His velocity wwas down at the beginning of the year (after surgery)
Was looking at last years lefties that were drafted and noticed two names that have dissapeared after putting up decent numbers in JC last year. Where are they??? Nadeau especially…
Jeff Nadeau
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=595342
Robert Revesz
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=519185
pretty sure they are still in the organization, just out for the year with injury.
Excited to see what Wong is doing at QC. I realize that skeptics would point out an advanced college bat *should* do well in the Midwest League, but he’s still just 20 years old and his production is similar and even superior to another recent college advanced bat at 2B in his first season, such as Jason Kipnis, while Wong is doing it at a full-season league. Color me impressed.
The game recap says Wong was removed for a pinch runner after his triple in the eighth due to a leg injury. Anyone know the extent of the injury or what happened?
D. Goold just tweeted that Wonggoes to the DL with a hamstring injury.
In addition, he mentions that Swagerty will move up to AA and Kopp will move up to AAA.
http://twitter.com/#!/dgoold/status/102059143808036864
Bryan Anderson has raised his avg. from .200 to .287 since getting more playing time. i would like to see him get a chance to compete with Cruz for the backup job next year. Since Cruz can play other positions, there could be room for both and Cruz has never really hit much above class A.
I totally agree – either the Cards need to give Anderson a chance next year or let him go somewhere else – another year in AAA would do nothing
It would give the memphis redbirds an starting catcher and a backup if someone gets hurt. It isn’t the st. Louis cardinals business to get every minor leaguer to the big leagues, it is to win.
rec’d
If they don’t have someone capable of starting in Memphis besides Anderson, that’s a problem
And someone capable of coming up to the big club if one of the catchers on the 25 man roster goes down. There is a place for Anderson with the Cards organization next year only if we don’t bring in another Laird (or Laird himself). It would be a huge disservice to Anderson to spend another season in AAA as the backup catcher there but if he is #3 on the organization depth chart and only an injury away from a callup, that’s different.
Not sure I’d want Cruz on the ML roster if he wasn’t the backup catcher. Sure wouldn’t want to keep him as a backup corner infielder over someone like Matt Carpenter.
You comment about Bryan Anderson is interesting. He hasn’t had a wOBA+ over 100 since 2008 in SPR (in only 86 PAs, so not really notable anyway). He hasn’t improved his offensive profile in the last 4 years. Even this year at Memphis, his wOBAr (.349) is still below Tony Cruz’ in Memphis (.366). Cruz was simply killed by a .257 BABIP.
I’m fine with letting Bryan Anderson go somewhere else. He’s just never panned out as an offense-first catcher.
Not sure what’s gotten into springfield pitchers, could be a good job of scouting from the other team.
Cox had an error, then argued a call by the umpire, it’s almost end of season he needs time off, he has played almost every game.
“Mozeliak played down a biceps condition that forced top prospect Shelby Miller from a Thursday start in Springfield’s game against San Antonio.”
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/article_1afca260-8530-57e1-9b93-7dbb7b076c5f.html#ixzz1Up70AwRI
It shocks me this has gotten so little discussion. Kary Booher reported he was shaking his hand throughout his outing. That doesn’t sound good.
Originally Miller and Warner said through Booher that he was just shaking sweat off of him. This link is the frst indication that it was anything but sweat. That said many didn’t buy the sweat line because it was only 78 degrees.
For what it is worth, The Springfield radio announcer ( didn’t get his name) was on Kmox post game show
and he said he yelled down to the trainer after Shelby was removed and the trainer yelled back up that he was fine.
He also said that Cox’s fielding was a little ragged when he first came up to Springfield but was better and he was making plays now he couldn’t make then. He said his bat was impressive.
On miller, he said when he right he is ahead of AA hitters.
ON Jackson the SS, he said his glove is major league ready right now and with a little more expierence he was confident he could b a .250 plus hitter in majors, possibly next year.
ON Adams he was more glowing, He said he could’t see him as anything other than a 1st baseman (outfield definitely out) but was a good 1st baseman, no problems. He added that he did’nt know what the Cards plans were on Pujols but they were not going to sign him they had a replacement in Adams. He said unless you had have seen him on a regular basis ye wouldn’t believe the power he has and he puts them into the street beyond the stadium on a regular basis (a good 450 ft).
I don’t any of this, it’s just what the man said.
Shut. Shelby. Down
IMO Brian Anderson could possibly be a better hitter than Molina in STL. Anderson is still 24 years old and Molina can be dealt at some point for something else of value that the team needs. It just depends on how Anderson is doing defensively as a catcher. He improved enough where he could catch at the major league level. Watching him catch last year in STL the only pitcher that gave him a problem is Chris Carpenter and that’s because he kept shaking him off continually and wouldn’t let him call the game. That’s the only pitcher that I saw him having a problem with. Which I’m sure Carpenter isn’t going to listen to any young catcher. I would move him up to STL and have him as the #1 catcher and Cruz as #2. As unpopular as I know this would be… I would trade Molina…
Watch the games that jaime garcia pitches to anyone but molina and then say that yadi’s defense and handling of pitchers isnt almost invaluable to the team
I’m confused…. are you saying that his handle “isn’t almost invaluable”… as in not valuable??? So that means that we could trade him then…
As for Laird… he’s not a starter… Look at a point and time it becomes necessary to move someone. I think in Molina’s case he is worth something in a trade… We have extra catchers that the org has developed and Anderson is very capable of hitting ML pitching… he is also capable of catching and calling a game… as some point you have to move the old to get something and return and go with a younger guy that can play the position. Anderson as the Starter and a vetran as a back up..
I meant he is invaluable. And what makes you so sure that Anderson can hit mlb pitching? Im just sayin it doesnt make sense to trade the best fielding catcher in baseball, and replace him with a subpar defensive catcher, who is a singles hitter