It was another quiet night on the fa…..oh what? Carlos Martinez got the start? Scratch that!
3 teams took the field tonight as the farm finished 2-1. Check out the details below!
- Both Mark Hamilton and Freddie Bynum went 3-4 with a double. Bynum added a stolen base
- Adron Chambers hit 2nd, walked twice, and stole his 19th base for Memphis
- Tyler Greene was hitless in the DH spot, but to keep him from being excluded from the DFR he stole his 14th base
- Pete Kozma had a double as his sole hit in 4 at-bats
- Matt Carpenter was 0-4
- Brian Broderick was very solid on the night as he went 7 innings of 1 run ball and gave up 8 hits (1 double), walked zero, and struck out 2. His GO:FO ratio was 11:4
- Bryan Augenstein pitched 2 scoreless innings out of the pen and struck out 2
- Robert Stock continues to post good numbers in Palm Beach as he went 2-3 with a double and 2 walks. He was also caught stealing
- Adam Melker hit in the 9th spot and did the most damage with a double, triple, and 3 RBI in 4 at-bats
- Kyle Conley had 3 singles
- Xavier Scruggs went 1-5 with a double
- Niko Vasquez walked once and finished 1-4. He committed a throwing error, his 4th for Palm Beach
- Alan Ahmady was 2-4
- Carlos Martinez continued his recent struggles after he gave up 4 runs off of 8 hits, 2 walks, and 2 hit batters in 4.1 innings. The good news is that he struck out 7 and didn’t give up an extra-base hit. As mentioned earlier, it might be time to send Martinez to the bullpen for the rest of the season. He’s had a very impressive season and will sit in the top quarter of most top 100 prospect lists for next season.
- Anthony Garcia hit cleanup and was the only Cardinals batter to record more than 1 hit. He finished 2-4, which were both singles
- Roberto De La Cruz continues to flash power with his 13th home run on the season, a 2-run shot for his only hit
- Tyler Rahmatulla doesn’t want to be left out of a DFR as he recorded a double in 4 at-bats. He also committed his 7th error
- Neal Pritchard hit 9th and went 1-3
- Benjamin Freeman didn’t last long after giving up 6 runs (5 earned) off of 7 hits (2 doubles), 1 walk, and 1 strikeout
- Dyllon Nuernberg struck out 3 over 2.2 scoreless innings. He walked 1 batter
- Matt Rein struck out 2 over a scoreless inning and walked a batter
Entries (RSS)
Martinez was dominant until the 5th inning and fell apart.
Tired arm!!
Clearly, Martinez needs to be suspended.
Too soon?
Time to send Martinez to the bullpen or shut him down completely. You can keep up a rigorous but regimented workout session that ensures he’s ready for next year and builds off success from this year. You send him out as a starter in game situations and the only thing you can control is pitch count…not workload intensity or how often he pitches from the stretch.
I’ll never understand this fascination with sending guys to the bullpen. Pitching out of the bullpen is an entirely different process as you don’t know when to warm up, you have to warm up quicker and you get limited work in each time. This makes sense for a guy like Swagerty who has done it for a large part of his career, but makes no sense for Martinez or Miller who have always been starters. You defintiely risk injuring them by pulling them out of their comfort zone.
Since the #1 goal for our top talents is to develop them I have no issue with sending him our there for 3-5 innings on his regular rotation and as soon as he starts to get tired pulling him. That will help keep his innings down and prevent too much wear on his arm but not force him to alter his routine. Although it means we may lose a few more games down the stretch by not having our starter go deep into games I (and I assume the Cards staff) are more than willing to make that sacrifice to do the best thing for Miller and Martinez.
Agreed. If the issue is “being tired” – and I think it’s just speculation that it is – then just limit his innings or pitch count in the context of his normal starts, or even skip a start or two. You build endurance by pitching, not by sitting. And his innings this year have not seen a big jump from prior seasons, nor are they out of line with his age.
Having a top prospect pitch out of the pen in A ball is not the same concept as in the show. In the show, winning the game is paramount, thus, game situations dictate when you go to the pen. That would not be the case if Carlos went to the pen in PB. They’d script when he was to appear and how many pitches he would throw. I think it would be more like a piggy back arrangement. Another pitcher starts and goes 4 then Carlos comes in at the start of the 5th and gets 50 pitches. He’s done whenever he hits the limit, even if it is in the middle of a batter. At least that’s how I would envision it happening.
Agree. There more like real-time bullpen sessions.
Understand your point, but why not just start him for a couple of innings and bring someone else in. To me, the easiest way to control the situation is to keep him in the rotation.