Just Palm Beach picks up the win. An uneven day for the starting pitchers as Memphis and Quad Cities both get rocked.
- Apparently, yesterday’s real talk got through to Adron Chambers. He went 4-for-5 with a double and a triple.
- Zack Cox went 1-for-5 with a home run. It’s another slow start for Cox who hovering around .600 with his OPS.
- Eugenio Velez went 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Bryan Anderson was 2-for-4.
- Brian Broderick got lit up in 3 innings of work allowing 6 runs (4 earned). He struck out 3 and walked 2 but allowed 9 runs including 2 homeruns. Broderick needed 75 innings to get through 3 innings.
- Jess Todd struck out 2 in 2.2 scoreless innings.
- Oscar Taveras was 2-for-3 with a double.
- Kyle Conley was 2-for-4.
- Raniel Rosario wears the golden sombrero on the night.
- John Gast allowed 3 runs on 5 hits in 5 innings. He struck out 4 but allowed 2 homeruns.
- Edwar Cabrera, who talked about last week, held the Cardinals to 2 hits in 7 innings while striking out 7.
- Kevin Thomas pitched a pair of perfect innings.
- Nick Longmire went 1-for-3 with a HR to put Palm Beach on the board in the 8th inning.
- Palm Beach had some timely hitting with their 4 non-HR singles and a lone walk during the game.
- While Anthony Ferrara held the opposition to just 1 run, he failed to strike out a batter allowing 2 walks and 6 hits.
- Aidan Lucas and Chase Reid pitched 1 and 2 scoreless innings respectively. They both struck out 2. Lucas walked 1 and Reid allowed 1 hit.
Quad Cities 6, West Michigan 8
- Matt Williams and David Medina both went hitless in 3 at bats but drew 2 walks.
- Nick Martini was 2-for-3 with a pair of walks.
- Colin Walsh was 1-for-4 with a walk.
- A bit of a rough night for Sam Gaviglio who allowed 6 hits in 4 innings for 5 runs (4 earned). He struck out 2 and walked 3 but had another strong night of outcomes on balls in play with 9 groundouts.
- Heath Wyatt pitched a 1 hit scoreless inning. Wyatt is up to 12 innings without allowing an earned run.
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I was able to watch someof the Springfield Cardinals game again. Thank goodness for the roadtrips against Tulsa and NWA. It allows me to watch the games on the computer. Springfield needs that system for home games too. They faced Edwar Cabrera today and he was fantastic. Some don’t t hink he’s a prospect because he doesn’t throw hard (sits 87-89) but the guy knows how to pitch. He didn’t lead the MILB in strikeouts for no reason. He’s a lefty with outstanding movement on his fastball and a great curve and change. He would be a real test for our 2 lefty hitting prospects Wong and Taveras.
Wong’s first AB he swung at the 1st pitch and grounded out to send base. Taveras’s AB he took two balls inside and then a called strike and then got a good pitch to hit and lashed it to the 1st baseman for a hard line out. He took a good AB against a very tough pitcher.
Wong’s second AB he attempted a bunt single down the third base line and it took a great one handed play by Nolan Arenado in order to retire him at first. Taveras’s second AB he took a few breaking pitches before hit a scorching line drive off the wall in RF right down the line. I originally thought it was going out as it almost looked identical to the HR from a few nights ago but it bounched off the wall. He hit it so hard he almost was thrown out at 2b and that is without a HR stare down that we got used to in St. Louis.
Wong’s 3rd AB he grounded to the pitcher for a 1-3. Taveras’s 3rd AB Cabrera threw a pitch inside and then hit Taveras on the next pitch.
Wong’s 4th AB with Cabrera out of the game a man on 1st and 3rd he grounded to the 1st baseman who went to second for the force and for an RBI. Taveras singled sharply past the diving 1st baseman.
I know in the past I’ve harped on Taveras rolling over balls weakly to the 2nd baseman and 1st baseman. Not tonight. Despite the fact that all 3 of the balls he hit couldn’t have been more than 10 feet off the line each he swung at inside pitches and hit them very hard. He stayed balanced through his swing and barrelled the ball something he wasn’t doing some of the earlier games on the computer abotu a week ago. The fact that he hit the two balls so hard against Cabrera who could get out MLB left handers with his stuff is especially impressive.
None of the other offense players were note worthy. They were simply outclassed by Cabrera.
Gast threw very well. Gave up a single in the 1st and picked the man off. He simply ran into a man coming out of a funk. Kent Matthes was the Califorina League MVP last year who has started slow. Not anymore. He hit a 2 run homerun and a solo shot. Gast got a fastball up letter high on one and a change up was left up on the second one. He tattooed both balls. Those 2 swings accounted for all 3 runs he gave up in the 5 innings tonight.
Thanks for the thorough report!
Interesting remark the other day from prospect maven Mike Newman (of Fangraphs & Scouting The Sally). The chat Q & A exchange went as follows:
Q: Have you had a chance to see Oscar Taveras?
Newman: Spoke to somebody last night who commented Taveras had 30 HR potential in CF, but the batting average would not be there.
Now, how anybody could conclude that Taveras won’t hit for average is rather astonishing to me…but leaving that aside, the projection of O.T. *either* playing MLB centerfield *or* popping 30 homers in his prime is new news, I’d say.
To a larger point: Is it just me, or is the anonymous, gossipy aspect of Newman’s comment just a bit, I don’t know, arbitrary and even irritating on some level?
Fangraphs prospect coverage is … lacking.
Fangraphs’s writeup on Carlos for their top 15 said he “…has the ceiling of a No. 2 starter…”, which was a red flag for their prospect coverage. That’s not to say he’s a surefire ace, but if we’re talking ceiling then he’s way off. J.J. Cooper at Baseball America wrote the now famous line in a chat of his own that “He may have a higher ceiling than the Sistine Chapel” when answering a question about Martinez. I’ve read a few of their chats as well and come away with the impression that they’re mostly using statistics and second hand knowledge for the basis of their opinion.
Bob not sure if you read some of my other reports but Taveras seems to have changed his setup and stance a bit. Not sure what Newman was watching but I do agree slightly if Taveras just focuses on pulling the ball and trying to hit HR’s his average won’t be there. It seemed he was getting into that rut but has adjusted in the last few days. His power is there once he learns how to just pick a spot when he’s ahead in the count and if the ball isn’t in that spot to let it go he will hit 25 homeruns.
If I had his ear or the ear or someone in the organization I would tell Oscar, I know you can hit anything but you hit better when A. your ahead in the count and hit a YOUR pitch B. If it’s not your pitch let it go until there 2 strikes. C. With 2 strikes focus on taking the outside pitches up the middle.
In the AB’s i’ve seen from him this year, he gets ahead in the count early but ultimately it seems on 2-1 he will decide to swing at a pitch that isn’t ideal to drive and hit it less strongly than he has in the past. I’m not necessarily worried about his walks because I am seeing a good eye in his AB’s. I would just like him to once ahead in the count swing at a good hitters pitch not a pitchers pitch.
Chambers has been hitting well for the last week. As I pointed out in a comment to yesterday’s farm report, he was 8-24 (.333), with 4BB to 3SO in the week leading up to yesterday’s offensive eruption. That is why I was little thrown off by your timing in questioning his performance in yesterday’s fr. He was hitting very poorly after a hot start, but has been turning it around. A week earlier I would have agreed completely with your comment from yesterday. Hopefully Adron can keep up the hot hitting, because I think its going to be difficult for the Cards to justify keeping Komatsu, unless he too turns things around a bit. It would be nice to have somebody in position for a call-up, if needed later, that is actually playing well.
Thanks for the additional insights, Andrew; it does seem that Oscar’s XBH’s are going much more to his pull side than last year, when they were split roughly 50/50.
Hard to argue with the results, though. ;)
On a scale of 1-10, my concern about his walk rate (or nonwalk rate, I guess) is about a 3. An isolated slugging of .300+ is amazing for anyone, let alone a teenager in Double-A ball…who’s hitting .330 to boot. As long as the K rate is only 15% or so, I won’t fret about the *seeming* lack of selectivity. Heck, maybe he’s gonna be Ted Williams Lite: a guy who pulls almost everything, while still hitting for extreme average plus elite power.
A person can dream, right?
Here’s a question: when do you promote Oscar to AAA? Moreover, with the apparent emergence of Jon Jay as a 3-4 WAR centerfielder, how does Taveras fit into the Big League plans? (I don’t think he can stay down on the farm until 2014 when Beltran leaves.)
I think they need to leave him at AA all year. Most likely even next year he won’t be starting as we should still have Beltran, Jay and Craig next year. All year in AA this year and work on being more well rounded and putting together the two facets of his hitting 1. the hitting for power, 2. the hitting for high average. Have him stay longer in MLB camp next Spring and then start in AAA.
Agreed. I say keep Taveras in Springfield all year and start him at Memphis in 2013. Berkman probably then retires. Matt Adams and Allen Craig battle in Spring Training for the 1B job. If Craig wins and continues to produce, back to Memphis for Adams and Taveras replaces Beltran in 2014. If Adams wins, Craig continues to roam and battles Taveras in Spring Training for the starting RF job in 2014. Good problem to have.
I don’t think Craig plays 1st. Adams wins 1st base job and Craig plays RF when Jay is out of the lineup.
Zack Cox does seem to be picking things up lately; he is hitting a much improved .289/.325/.579 in his last 10 games. This includes all seven of his extra base hits on the season. He is also on an 8-game hitting streak, with 6 of those 7 extra base hits coming during that stretch. We’ll have to wait and see whether that’s a real improvement or just a mirage of arbitrary endpoints.
He usually starts slow in any new level and then adjusts strongly.