Plenty of name-brand prospects started tonight for the organization but only Palm Beach, sans a top prospect starter, managed a win.
- Joe Kelly lasted five innings of mediocre baseball, giving up nine hits, walking three and striking out four.
- Ryan Jackson was 1-3 with a walk.
- Bryan Anderson was 2-4.
- Cedric Hunter was 1-2 with a walk.
- Maikel Cleto seems to be hitting his stride with a couple perfect innings and four strikeouts.
- Trevor Rosenthal was great, throwing seven scoreless innings with 7 IP and four hits, 2 walks to 4 strikeouts.
- Wong and Taveras went 1-4 each.
- Greg Garcia was 1-3 with a walk.
- Adam Melker and Nick Derba were 2-4.
- Ryan Sheriff struck out only a batter but didn’t walk anyone in seven innings with seven hits and three earned runs.
- Nick Longmire had a day, going 4-4 with a double and a triple. Yet he’s still only batting .195/.241/.305.
- Rainel Rosario was 2-4 with a double and a walk.
- Aidan Lucas struck out a batter in a couple perfect innings
- Tyrell Jenkins got knocked around pretty severely. He went only 4.2 innings and gave up 8 runs on 7 hits.
- Colin Walsh keeps on proving he’s too advanced for Low A ball, going 3-4 with a walk and hitting his tenth home run.
- Tyler Rahmatulla hit a pair of doubles.
- Luis Mateo has had a good season so far, albeit without much plate discipline, hitting home runs six and seven and taking his only eighth walk of the year.
Entries (RSS)
You have to imagine that Walsh will get promoted soon, right?
not if they’re converting him back to 2b
Cleto has been very, very, very good. Highest K rate in entire org., lowest SIERA, and still young for AAA.
It looks like he could possibly be a steal from the Brendan Ryan trade. Maybe he’s just in a hot stretch, but if he’s figured something out, he could be a dominant late-inning reliever.
I still wish he was starting games in AAA because he was able to maintain his velocity so well deep in ball games. Oh well. Obviously the Cardinals have a better idea of what he’s capable of than I do so I’m just glad to see him having success.
Still a small sample in outings. His command overall looks better in his past 10 outings. He’s struck out over 18 in 14 IP. If Sanchez continues to be wild in the bullpen for the Cardinals. You could potentially see him getting a spot in the BP.
Siera is a stat that is too dependent on strikeouts. And knocks anyone that pitches to contact. That said, cleto has pitched very well recently after a slow start.
SIERA also happens to be the stat with the best correlation with year-over-year ERA, so perhaps other stats don’t rely enough on the strikeout. In any event, I like my pitchers, especially my high-leverage relievers, to strike out a lot of guys.
I did some digging into Ryan Sherriff. He looks like a guy that got a spot start or starts due to injury and he was already in EST. Anyway not a bad way to start your full season career. On this site on his draft profile there are 3 videos of him. Not a bad lefty.
Its a jump to go from a juco up to Palm Beach, so a nifty job by Sheriff to eat seven innings.
Luis Mateo is excelling in the Midwest League, much like Colin Walsh.
Rosenthal’s shut-out was apparently preserved by a great play by Kyle Conley in RF – article said it was a highlight reel catch. Kudos to the D. When you only have 4 SO’s in 7 innings, your D is locking it up.
Yay Rosie! Now walk less people and strike out more!
I feel bad for Kelly, even the pitchers from LV hate the thin air.
It’s kind of expected that pitchers will give up more runs in the western stadiums in the PCL.
Maness pitched today his line 7.2 IP 5 H 0 ER 0 R 1 BB 8 K 9 Groundouts 5 Flyouts. Continues to have outstanding command.
I watched the last 2 games in Springfield. Rosie deserved better from the bullpen. Simpson pitched to 4 hitters and got one of the out. To add insult to injury they go to Kevin Thomas with men on 2d and 3rd and 1 out. He K’s the first hitter gets a couple strikes on the hitter and bounces the ball off the plate. Not only was the catcher unable to block the ball, he diddled around until both runners scored…before Thomas K’d the next hitter.
In that game, Wong bunted with men on first and 3rd. The ball went all the way to the 2B and he still had time to throw out the man from 3rd. Now I wasn’t watching the guy at 3rd (Melker) but he must have walked home backwards to be thrown out.
Then in the 8th Taveras crushes a line drive which bounces just in front of the wall in straight away center and the coach holds him up for a single. The ball was thrown back towards the infield about 20 feet off the bag. He could have hop scotched to second. They were down 3-2 at the time and could have used a guy on second.
Today Taveras was on 3rd with no outs and Scruggs skied one to left center and Taveras wasn’t allowed to try his arm. Taveras never did score. It just feels like the coaching is afraid of making a mistake and consequently making a bundle of them.
Comments on Rosie yesterday:
He began the game not trusting his stuff. He got deep into counts in the first couple innings with virtually every hitter. He pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the first. His low K rate is related to his unwillingness to challenge hitters. He was often behind in the count early on. As the game progressed he picked up a few of his K’s and became more effective. I became much more confident in his stuff as the game progressed.
Comments on Seth Maness today:
A great game. The kid can pitch. He moves the ball well and just didn’t struggle anywhere. 8 K’s in 7.2 innings. A few balls hit hard right at em but seemed in control throughout. I only remember one walk…Lead off guy first inning. I had just told my wife he doesn’t walk anybody and walked the lead off guy…. tsk. He hit the last batter he faced which kept him from finishing 8 innings.
Fornataro and Butler are doing fine in the pen. Haven’t got much use for the rest of them.
Xavier Scruggs hits the ball a ton when he hits it. He just doesn’t hit it often enough.
Sorry, meant to say Rosie became much more confident in his stuff as the game progressed.
Thanks for the report. From listening and watching 2 of Rosenthal’s games I get the same impression that he doesn’t always trust his stuff which is ridicolous because his stuff is probably the best in the league IMO.
The goal of minor league baseball is not to win games; it’s to develop players.
I agree coaches should be more aggressive on the bases, but I have to think fear of running a top prospect guy into an injury holds the coaches up more than making mistakes/trying to win ballgames.
I don’t totally disagree, but part of preparing players is teaching them how to play. Players don’t suddenly figure it all out in the majors…and we don’t want them to have to unlearn something they picked up in the minors. Either a player learns to play the game aggressively or he doesn’t.
You can’t play the game living in fear of getting hurt. These guys should be learning the right way to bunt, steal, slide etc. Then they should be doing all those things in preparation of moving to the majors.
I remember when I worked in A ball. The were were a few rain delays. The teams got together with the umps and finally called it. The reason being was not officially announced. Only that the field wasn’t playable. But the reality was that both teams had millions of dollars tied up on the field and it just wasn’t worth the risk for either team.
That makes sense… But on Sunday and Monday field conditions were perfect. Just sayin’.