The system earned a split on the evening. Richard Castillo had another strong start at double-A. Drew Benes missed some bats in high-A. Brian Broderick had another rough outing though he was also victimized by poor defense… again. Kip Wells and Anthony Reyes teamed up to put the hurt on Memphis. To be honest with you guys, I would have stayed up to watch Reyes’ outing on Gameday had I known he was pitching. Details after the jump…
Memphis 3, Tucson 9
- Ryan Jackson was 1-for-3 with a HR and walk.
- Zack Cox was 1-for-3 with a double, his 14th of the season. He also committed his 11th error of the season.
- Eugenio Velez, Lou Montanez, and Mark Hamilton had singles.
- Brian Broderick‘s had another ugly outing: 2.2 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 8 R (4 ER), & 3 K. In Broderick’s past 25.2 innings, he’s allowed 35 runs (25 earned). That stretch has included 8 HR.
- Nick Greenwood pitched 2.1 innings; he allowed 1 R on 2 H, 1 BB, and 1 K.
- Maikel Cleto continues to assert himself with another hitless inning that featured 2 K against 1 BB. Adam Reifer did the same but one-upped him by not allowing a walk.
- Clay Zavada also pitched an inning, striking out one.
- BONUS: Kip Wells and Anthony Reyes combined to pitch the entire game for Tucson. Reyes was particularly impressive; Flat Bill only allowed 1 hit in 3 innings and struck out 6!
- Oscar Taveras was the only position player with more than one hit. He went 2-for-5 with 2 singles and a SB (5th of the season).
- Jermaine Curtis went 1-for-4 with a walk.
- Kolten Wong, Audry Perez, and Greg Garcia all added singles.
- Kyle Conley and Chris Swauger walked once while Xavier Scruggs walked twice.
- Richard Castillo had another strong outing in his second double-A appearance: 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 1 R, & 3 K. Of the 13 outs on balls in play, 10 were on the ground.
- Michael Blazek avoided giving up a run despite allowing 2 H in 0.2 IP. He struck out 1 batter before Keith Butler ended the inning for him by inducing a pop-up. In the 9th inning, Butler allowed 1 R on 1 H, 1 BB, & 1 K.
- Starlin Rodriguez had the only extra base hit (triple) for PB; he also walked once.
- Chris Edmonson, Nicholas Longmire, and Travis Tartamella each had a single and two walks. Longmire also stole his 4th base of the season.
- Rainel Rosario and Ronny Gil had singles.
- Mike O’Neill added two walks while Jonathan Rodriguez had one.
- Drew Benes missed some bats tonight, striking out 8 in only 5.2 IP that included 7 H (2 HR), 1 BB, & 3 R.
- Scott Schneider allowed 1 run on 3 hits in 1 inning; he also had 1 strike out.
- Iden Nazario allowed 2 hits but also struck out 2 batters in 1 inning.
- Dean Kiekhefer notched his 4th save of the season by pitching 1 inning. He allowed 1 hit and recorded 1 strike out.
- Virgil Hill was 2-for-3 with a walk.
- Nick Martini was 2-for-4.
- Matt Williams and Juan Castillo each had a double.
- Luis Mateo, Roberto De La Cruz, and David Medina all had singles. Mateo also stole his 9th and 10th bases on the season.
- Tyler Rahmatulla and Roberto Reyes added a walk a piece. Reyes stole his 2nd base.
- Kyle Hald found mixed results tonight: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 4 BB, 4 R (3 ER), & 7 K. 8 of the 9 outs on balls in play were grounders.
- Travis Miller struck out 2 in 2 innings; he allowed 1 hit and 1 run.
- Danny Miranda struck out 2 in a perfect inning of work.
Entries (RSS)
Taveras has already matched his stolen base attempt total from last year, and has yet to be caught. I realize he may never put up higher totals than Pujols did, but it sure is nice to see evidence that he’s responded to the advice he got this spring to work on the running game.
Cleto has really turned things around in the pen after a rough start. Time for a call up?
Anyone know why Collin Walsh isn’t playing for QC? Injured?
Under the weather.
I thought they said he was going to move back to second base? Maybe they’re giving him some time to get reacclimated to it before giving him a start there? I honestly don’t know though.
Noticed that Springfield had 3 DPs behind Castillo. The infield of Curtis, Garcia, and Wong seems to work pretty well together.
Another Castillo, Juan, has a .420 wOBA for QC. A catcher who can hit would seem to be valuable, although I have no idea if he’s a catcher who can catch. Any firsthand observations about his defense?
I wonder how Anthony Reyes’ sinker is coming along? Lol.
Must have been pretty good last night!
Wrong! Didnt you read he actually struck people out…
Dave Duncan heading to the hall of fame and A.Reyes bouncing in Aball. Sometimes is just best to shut up and do what your told.
I wonder if Richard Castillo has found/embraced a new pitch, or at least a new style of pitching. Always a flyball guy before this year, he was a mild groundball inducer for Palm Beach before his promotion, and over his first two AA starts, the 22-year-old has a groundout/flyout ratio of 22-to-5. Nice to think that a guy his age having conspicuous success across high-A/AA isn’t even one of the top 10 pitching prospects in the organization.
Cleto in May: 13 IP, 7 hits, 2 runs, 18 K’s, and 4 BB’s. What I like best, though, is that for the season as a whole, lefty batters are hitting just .150 against the big righty. Guys who make LOOGYs a luxury rather than necessity are OK in my book. ;)
Greg Garcia minutia:
Appy League walk rate 7%
Midwest League rate 10%
Florida State League 12%
Texas League rate…20%
I’m looking forward to that Garcia writeup. :)
Great post! Especially like the Cleto stats! He could be a real weapon if he’s figured something out.
I am not sure if it is figuring out something or he just was placed in the wrong spot to begin with when he arrived.
His command (or lack of pinpoint with his velo) is perfect for the pen.
Developing relievers, in my opinion, is not what the cardinals do best but perhaps they are getting better at it, realizing that not every pitcher is suited as a starter.
Taveras is on a pretty long homerless drought. Last one was May 12th.
Siergrest with a pretty good outings missed alot of AB in High A today. 5 IP 1 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 4 K. Might of been an injury.
Couple of young lefties with good potential to be a LOOGY in the future. Gast pitching for Memphis. Lyons pitching for Springfield. Siergrest already pitched today for Palm Beach. And for Quad Cities Gaviglio.
Keith Law with an updated Top 25 on ESPN for Insiders. He notes that he left Carlos Martinez off the list because of his injury. Bundy comes in at #1.
Forgot the link: http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story?id=7963607&_slug_=dylan-bundy-baltimore-orioles-new-no-1-prospect-baseball-mlb&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fmlb%2fstory%3fid%3d7963607%26_slug_%3ddylan-bundy-baltimore-orioles-new-no-1-prospect-baseball-mlb
Do Miller and Taveras make it for us non-subscribers?
Yes. Miller #9 and Taveras #21.
I have a big issue with Gerrit Cole (#7) being put above Shelby. He’s a month younger and two levels lower, so why is Cole ranked higher?
I just read Law’s chat transcript and someone asked him the ETA on Miller. Here is what he had to say:
“Unknown. Velocity is down a grade. Performance has been mostly OK outside of Monday night in Tuscon, which is a brutal place for any pitcher … but still, he shouldn’t be sitting 90-92.”
That should also answer your question as to why Miller was lower than we may have expected.
Forgot to include that in the chat, he said Jenkins would have been in his top 50 if he had made his list that long.
Broderick is not doing anything to keep himself under consideration in Memphis. Gast should probably stay in Memphis. If Dickson returns, Broderick should just go to the bullpen.
With all due respect for Law, I can’t see any way to rate Bundy the #1 prospect in all of baseball. Not until there’s *some* evidence the kid can throw 80-90 pitches every 5 or 6 days, for month after month, without breaking down. The talent is undeniable, of course…but durability is the chief requirement for starting pitchers…and that’s Bundy’s big question mark.
For us non-insiders, BigRob, where are the Birds on KLaw’s top 25? Thanks!
I think the Bundy pick is justified. With arguably 4 plus pitches in addition to unbelievable results, his could very well be higher than any minor leaguer in the game. He is not going deep into games because of the short leash. We will find out more about him as the kid gloves start to come off. But how can you argue against a .23 whip, 0.00 era and .93 fip. Bottom line, he’s a beast.
Who should be ranked higher than him?
“his *ceiling could very well be higher”….
I sometimes am mystified how frequent followers of a prospect site fail to understand that ‘stuff’ or ‘tools’ are more important than any minor league numbers to a prospect.
Bundy is the #1 prospect in baseball because he has the ‘stuff’ or ‘talent’ to be among the best pitchers in baseball.
Miller is 9th and Taveras 21st.
I don’t think scouts or prospect-commenters really have any basis for or expertise on judging “durability” for pitchers. Bundy isn’t injured now, and hasn’t had a history of being injured, so there’s no basis to ding him. He’s not going to become a better prospect if he pitches this year without injury. After all he could pitch without injury right up until the day he gets promoted to the majors and then get injured. Someone would never be able to say someone is a “durable ML starting pitcher” until he’d been starting for 4-5 years.
Better to just grade them on ceiling/talent/tools and proximity and leave it at that. Judging pitchers on durability just adds more error into the process.
Bob, that disqualifies pretty much every pitcher.
I have no doubt miller could sit 92-94, but if that 2 mph causes him to sacrifice movement and command, it’s not worth it
I’m more concerned with reports regarding Miller’s
Curveball, which apparently has not been as good as I expected
Correct. Basically, that’s correct.
I think a very good argument could be made that NO pitcher should ever be the overall #1 ranked prospect in the game; I believe that Joe “TINSTAAPP” Sheehan has actually argued that no pitcher should ever even be in the top 4 or 5…and I’m not sure I disagree.
As for who’s likely to be durable in the future, I’ll take the guys who’ve *already* established *some* record of durability over the guys with zero track record every time.
To throw up your hands and say, “pitchers get hurt, they’re all risky, so I’m going to effectively ignore whether or not a guy has ever made 24-26 starts, or thrown 130-150 innings — much less whether he’s done it, then come back healthy the next year and done it again” feels like a cop-out to me. You *have* to factor in history, or lack thereof.
Case in point: Carlos Martinez, who Law has dropped from his top 25 due to this year’s shoulder trouble, is the same Carlos Martinez who had no record of durability when Law ranked him #4 overall in his 2011 mid-season ratings, coming off Carlos’ Futures Game showing. I said then that such a high ranking was likely a radical misstep, that talent alone ain’t enough to place a pitcher so high.
The pre-2012 Matt Moore, on the other hand, would be a guy who could *reasonably* be considered for a top 4 or 5 overall slot, because (unlike Martinez 11 months ago, or Bundy right now) Moore had established that his arm could take the grind of starting, week after week, month after month, over consecutive seasons.
Who should be above Bundy? Taveras and Profar for sure. Probably Lindor, Machado, and Wil Myers, too. I’d have to give it more thought, but those names spring immediately to mind.
Or put it this way: I’ll bet even money Taveras exceeds 30 WAR in his career. Would you do the same with Bundy? Because if you will, I’ll take that bet.
Very good write-up here.
I would take bundy over Tavares for 30 war in their career
We have a Gentlemen’s Wager then, Cj. ;)
Let’s meet back here at the future Future Redbirds, in say, eight years? Wear a fedora so I’ll know you.