Palm Beach had the only win of the day, although they did it without their ringer, Allen Craig. He sat out for the second day in a row, having played only one game in his rehab assignment. The team’s recent attempts to bring back injured players have been messy, hopefully this is them being careful with an increasingly critical asset. Quad Cities lost their game in the ninth but remain the only Cardinals minor league affiliate above .500. As long as the big club is winning…
- Not much of note on offense, the Redbirds managing just three singles and a walk as their baserunners of the night.
- Adron Chambers had one of those singles and the walk.
- Brian Broderick was adequate, giving up 6 hits, 3 walks, both the earned runs and striking out a pair in six innings.
- Maikel Cleto had a perfect inning with a K.
- Eduardo Sanchez had a scoreless inning but gave up a triple and walked a batter.
- Kolten Wong is the name of the day, going 3-5 with a pair of doubles.
- Oscar Taveras also had a double.
- Newly-promoted Kyle Conley (replacing the once-again injured Tommy Pham) was 2-4 with a double.
- Scott Gorgen was mediocre but kept it on the ground mostly in 5 innings with 3 walks, 4 strikeouts and 4 earned runs in 5.1 IP, but gave up no extra base hits.
- Today in “Still Playing Professional Baseball”: One-time Cardinal farmhand Royce Ring picked up the win for Tulsa.
- Struggling outfielder Nick Longmire finally has a good day, going 2-5 with a double.
- Mike O’Neill was 2-3 with a double and a pair of walks.
- Starlin Rodriguez was 3 for 5 and a double short of the cycle.
- Alan Ahmady was 2-4 with a walk.
- Jonathan Rodriguez was 2-5 with a double.
- Anthony Ferrara was solid in 7 innings, giving up only three hits with a couple walks and a couple strikeouts.
Quad Cities 3, Bowling Green 4
- The River Bandits played small ball, getting all their runs in the fifth without hitting the ball out of the infield.
- Matt Williams had the only extra base hit of the night, with a double.
- Nick Martini was 3-5.
- Dail Villanueva was quite good, striking out 6 in 6 IP without walking a batter. He gave up a home run and a couple earned runs.
- Lefty Danny Miranda blew the save, giving up his first two runs of the year, resulting in a walk-off win for Bowling Green.
Entries (RSS)
Cleto Only has 2 walks so far – good sign in a sss.
I disagree about Gorgen. I listened to some of the game. He was nearing his pitch limit but extended him into the 6th inning unfortunately. He gave up 3 of his 5 hits in the 5th. All 4 of his runs and 2 of his 3 walks.
In the 5th he gave up a single. Picked the guy off. Then gave up 2 straight singles and 2 walks plating 1 man. He was then replaced and the next pitcher immediately gave up a Grand Slam allowing 3 of Gorgens runs to score.
They were commenting going into the 6th that this is the most innings Gorgen had thrown since his surgery.
Had he been taken out after the 5th his line would have been. 5in, 2hits, 1walk, 4k’s and 0 runs.
There may be good reasons for a player struggling but that doesn’t change the fact that they struggled.
I would say that “struggled” implies throughout the game. As Andrew pointed out, that wasn’t the case for Gorgen. I don’t know what his pitchcount was supposed to be, but they may have extended it and it didn’t work out. I’m fine with that. Obviously, we want all of our pitchers pitching through 7 innings, but I do think there is a difference between a pitcher pitching well for 5 innnings, and then tiring vs. just saying he “struggled” – especially in development. I’m only guessing, but I would say the Organization was probably quite happy with his overall results given the circumstances (longest outing after coming back from major injury).
Your point is of course correct, but I do think there are different degrees of struggle that mean different things.
First, the announcers were wrong. Gorgen pitched 6 full innings on April 10, and that game was far, far better than the last two.
Second, in the past two starts, Gorgen has gone five innings both times, giving up a total of 9 hits, 6 runs (all earned), and 6 base-on-balls to go along with 8 strikeouts. As a point of comparison, in the April 10 start, he gave up 3 hits, 1 run, and zero BBs to go along with 6 strikeouts. That was a good start; the previous two were not.
If he’s wearing down in the fifth, that’s not good for a starter. That’s too soon. Granted, he’s coming off of surgery, but the question remains where he is in his pitch count. He obviously was efficient enough to go 6 innings just a couple of games ago; if he’s nearing that same pitch count in 5 innings, then yes, he’s struggling a bit.
You are right – IP are not as relevant as pitchcounts at this level….and that was Andrew’s point that Gorgen was near his pitch limit when he started the 6th – if that was true, then he indeed did have his “longest” outing in terms of pitches thrown regardless of IP. However, it isn’t always an apple and oranges situtation with pitchcounts as they relate to innings pitched. A small strikezone will drive up pitchcounts in almost any situation – even in MLB, but moreso in AA. Errors drive up pitchcounts and an aggresive hitting opponent drive pitchcounts down.
It seems some pitchers have “strict” pitch limits and others don’t – I don’t know if this is because of age difference or what. Based on what Andrew said, it would seem Gorgen is not in the “strict” limit group…..maybe it is because they want to evaluate his potential to move to Memphis and they don’t want the pitchers in Memphis to have strict limits? I have no idea – just throwing it out there if anyone can clarify.
Again the guy is just coming off TJ surgery. The numbers you give if you split them up into two starts it isn’t bad.
Based on your math his start before this he went 5 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs and 3 walks it’s not bad.
Considering how Wainwright it pitching after his TJ I would say Gorgen is doing outstanding. I don’t expect his stamina or pitch count will be raised to the middle or end of the year.
Notice that Adams was not in the lineup for Memphis. Is he ailing?
Hyperextended right elbow.
hyper extended elbow.
Yikes! Whats the prognosis?
Nothing serious. extended slightly on a tag at first when the throw pulled him off the bag. Very similiar to the play that AP injured his wrist. Matt will be back in the line-up upon returning to Memphis this week.
They’ll be fitting him for a prosthesis next week.
+1
Can you explain your comment about the Cardinal’s history of bring back players from injury as being “messy”? I’d say their have been a fair number that have not returned in the originally estimated time frame but I can’t remember hardly any that started rehab (such as Craig has) and then struggled with health issues.
I agree, they may have brought back schumaker before his timing was right, the last two years, but he was healthy both times, until he crashed into the wall. Mulder is the only player i really remember who kept having false starts
Carp in 2007 and 2008 DeRosa,Loshe,freese Rolen now Craig and Carp again. We will see if Berkman and Jay come back in a reasonable time frame. only Pujols came back early.
Not sure what your point is.
You are just listing players who were hurt. All teams have players get hurt.
Also, are you listing carpenter? One of the few pitchers to come back from a torn labrum?
Not sure what your point is with these players.
His post said “recent history”.
“Recent attempts”; not “history.” Big difference. See Craig and Carp in Spring Training, followed by Shumaker.
What was wrong about carp and shumaker?
I think in Jay and shumaker’s case, and explaining of what a warning track is might be a good idea.
Am I correct in remembering that there is something about the amount of time a player can be on a rehab assignment (something around 21 days)? If that’s the case, and Craig won’t be ready in 21 days would he have to go on the DL again or would we have to go ahead and activate him and option him to Memphis until ready? It seems like they would have to be 100% sure the knee is ready to at least play every other day right now and 2/3 games by activation time. Not sure if any of this may have changed in the CBA.
This is correct. If Craig is not ready at the end of his rehab assignment, it’s back to the DL.
Not sure what that means. He doesn’t leave the DL while on rehab assignment. Does that mean a minimum of 15 more days?
Yes, a minimum of 15 more.
It’s not uncommon for any pitcher to struggle after TJS. Some have command issues while others have velo issues.
Keep in mind that Gorgen has had previous issues with shoulder. Many pitchers that have shoulder issues end up with elbow issues, and vice versa.
As far as rehab, the player is usually the one that tells the training staff they are ready to go, upon doc examination and clearance, but some do get rushed just because of circumstances. Players that are not really ready usually will try to push the envelope because time on the DL means someone else is going to take over your job.
I am not understanding how some here speak out about whether the organization was happy or not, whether the players struggled, what the injury entailed, etc. How do you know that? Unless you are involved with that particular player or the clubhouse, you have no clue, really. Even the players actually don’t always know what is going on with each other.
I’m guessing you didn’t read “I’m only guessing”…….I’m actually quite careful about what I write. If I write “I’m only guessing” that is exactly what it means….it’s an opinion. If you don’t see a caveat (“I believe”, or “I think”) , you can assume there is something to it and you are welcome to take it or leave it.