The Batavia Muckdogs started their season off with a loss to the Auburn Doubledays. A few notable ’12 draftees made their pro debuts in the game including Patrick Wisdom and Anthony Melchionda. Oscar Taveras hit a home run in Springfield’s loss but Starlin Rodriguez and the newly promoted Tyler Rahmatulla helped power Palm Beach to the system’s one win on the night.
Hitting:
- Kolten Wong went 1-for-5 w/ 1 R and 1 SB
- Oscar Taveras went 2-for-3 w/ a solo shot and 1 BB
- Matt Carpenter went 0-for-3 w/ 1 BB and 1 R while on his rehab assignment
- Chris Swauger (1 BB), Travis Tartamella and Jose Garcia singled in 4 PA
Pitching:
- Trevor Rosenthal is seeing steady improvement and kept his team in the game: 5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R (2 ER), 1 BB and 4 K
- Kevin Thomas gave up a solo homer in his 1.0 IP, he also recorded 1 K
- Deryk Hooker was saddled with the loss despite a decent outing: 2.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB and 3 K
Hitting:
- Starlin Rodriguez went 2-for-5 w/ 1 2B, 1 R and 1 RBI
- Christopher Edmondson went 1-for-5 w/ 1 3B and 1 RBI
- Luis De La Cruz went 1-for-3 w/ 1 2B, 1 BB and 1 R
- Nick Longmire went 1-for-3 w/ 1 3B, 1 R and 1 RBI
- Tyler Rahmatulla batted ninth and went 1-for-3 w/ 1 RBI
Pitching:
- Scott McGregor got the start for the Cardinals: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R (1 ER), 2 BB and 2 K
- Iden Nazario was the first reliever out of the pen and pitched 2.0 shutout innings, they included 2 H, 1 BB and 2 K
- Scott Schneider entered the game a proceeded to give up two unearned runs before Dean Kiekhefer was called upon to shut the door. Kiekhefer pitched 1.1 shutout innings that included 1 H and 1 K, he was credited with the win.
Hitting:
- Roberto Reyes went 1-for-4 w/ 1 2B, 1 BB and 1 R
- David Washington went 3-for-5 w/ 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 R and 2 RBI
- Jesus Montero went 3-for-3 w/ 1 2B and 1 RBI
- Steven Ramos went 1-for-3 w/ 1 RBI
Pitching:
- Ben Freeman got the opening day start and was solid: 6.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 BB and 4 K
- Jose Almarante and Adam Bileckyj combined to give up 3 runs in the last 2.2 innings
As a side note, I was able to attend this game in Batavia. I was able to take a video of Breyvic Valera’s second at-bat vs. Silvio Medina. Valera made good contact in the at-bats I saw and seemed to be fluid in the field though he is definitely on the small side. Other impressions:
- Wisdom made an error at third, but he looked strong defensively otherwise, nice arm
- David Washington is huge, he has a long swing but when he connects, it travels
- Jesus Montero is a solidly built guy and seemed to have a nice approach at the plate
- Gary Apelian had no strike zone judgment (this is just one night)
- Tony Renda, the 2nd round pick of the Nats this year, can hit. He is only listed at 5’8”, but he was putting a charge into the ball
- There was no stadium gun, but Freeman looked to be getting it up there nicely. Control and inconsistent breaking ball were the main issues, as they are with most NYPL pitchers.
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That Batavia roster seems kind of long in the tooth for short-season ball. Almarante and Bileckyj are 23, and there’s a pretty long list of guys born in ’88 and ’89.
Freeman and Valera are the only ones born in ’92.
All true, but you gotta put the “polished” college kids from the 2012 draft somewhere. I don’t know that it makes sense to start them in the full-season leagues unless they’re coming in at the Wong and (hopefully) Macha level. One “older” guy on that team that I’m interested in watching is Daniel Bibona. He missed all of last season with an injury, but the Cardinals appeared quite high on him at one time — not often that you see a player getting drafted twice by the same major-league team. If his velocity, etc., survived, he might not be the old man on that team for long.
Does anyone have good beta on what Dean Kiekhefer’s stuff is like? He seems to keep getting thrown into messes and then getting out of them, which argues that he’s got the mentality to be a major-league LOOGY — if the stuff will play.
Kiekhefer doesn’t have over powering stuff his FB will sat generally around 88-92 maybe topping at 93 and his secondary offerings include a curve and a change-up the thing that makes Kiekhefer so effective is his command of his pitchers they say he really keeps hitter off balanced at the plate.
Here’s a video of Kiekhefer in college http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ctgD8b0pU
Also makes him effective is his side arm/sub marine motion to the plate. He hides the ball very well which gives his average FB extra life. He is one of the top LOOGY’s in the system.
Kiekhefer throws low 3/4, not sidearm or submarine. His fastball sits 86-89 and will touch 90. Very good changeup and a decent breaking ball. His fastball has a great plane with a ton of sink.
In the Gulf Coast League opener the Cards got an excellent performance from RH Silfredo Garcia, 6 IP 2H 0 BB and 8 K with an 8 to 2 GB to FO ratio.
He is from Venezuela and is 6’2″. He will be 21 in a month.
Anyone have a scouting report on him?
OT’s blast was against the wind…….
Rosenthal did not pitch particularly well. He was pitching high in the zone all night according to Game Day’s at-bat screeen. One walk was a positive.
I was actually able to see the Johnson City Cards in an exhibition on Sunday. Carson Kelly and Steve Bean were starting. Bean is a skinny guy with a Matt Carpenter-ish lefty swing, more on the front foot. Kelly is a huge 17 year old and looked pretty stiff, let one through the wickets in his only chance from the field. Staylin Lopez(?) started and ranged from 73-85 on the stadium gun. He was in trouble most of the night against a local semi-pro team consisting of players from local colleges. I was most impressed with Idelmaro(sp?) Vargas. I noticed he got a cup of tea with Springfield earlier in the year. Any ideas why he’s in JC now? He had a really nice swing from the left side and was able to stay back on a change where he got started way to early and shot it back at the pitcher. He seemed more advanced than the rest of the team. Also, CJ Mcelroy can fly!
Johnson City has some very exciting starters. I don’t even think Lopez is a real starter as they didn’t want to use one during a exhibition game. They have Victor DeLeon who is a Top 40 prospect and can hit 96. Juan Bautista who was in the DSL last year and the Cardinals Brass were talking about before last year. They also have Bryan Martinez who missed last year but has been very productive before that. Luhnow really liked him when he was here he’s 6-3 throws low 90′s with a hard slider and pitchability.
So, it looks like the “huge” David Washington is in short season ball for the fourth straight year? Is there an explanation for why somebody would be in short season ball that long? Are the organizations saving money by having them in SS? It hardly seems possible for anybody to be in SS ball for four years and ever make it to the major leagues.
I don’t think there’s any money to be saved. I’m pretty sure they have to pay them to play in EST and SS ball.
Problem with Washington is he hasn’t played well enough to take a spot on a full-season team.
On the bright side, he’s only 21, so he’s playing against guys his own age, on average, even though it’s his 4th year of pro ball and a lot of the college guys are in their first year.
I doubt if anyone’s counting on him to make it to the majors, but isn’t that true of almost everybody else on that roster?
Players don’t get paid in spring training or extended spring training, solely meal money and/or living out money.
Oscar Taveras is an absolute beast. Seems every single day he has at least one or two hits, and usually at least one is for extra bases. What he’s done this year has been orders of magnitude more impressive than his BABIP-inflated dominance at QC last year. He’s jumped two levels, hit for more power, hit nearly as well (compared to league average) as he did in single-A, and done it all without needing an apparently lucky BABIP. He’s also given himself half a chance of being an (albeit probably not terribly good) CF.
Any possibility he’s not a top-10 prospect in baseball at the end of the year if he continues to hit like this?
This season he has really restocked his prospect status he was an underrated prospect coming into the season. This season he has really broke out by the numbers hitting for more power and improving his ISO by 100 points. Though somehow that unorthodox swing makes consistent hard contact that is why his BABIP is so high. OT has a plus arm in CF is athletic enough to handle that position has taken better routes in the OF he has really improved defensively. He should be a Top 10 prospect by mid season if he keeps raking like this.
If Washington is terrific in Batavia, I imagine they’ll get him some time at Q.C. this year; he’s still just 21, as he was drafted at 18, and he was so overmatched in his first go-round in the Gulf Coast League (isolated slugging of .000), that the 15th-rounder has never really achieved “prospect” status.
In Washington’s case, it looks like his development is simply a matter of getting that long frame of his under control enough to make consistent contact; if he can reduce the K’s into the 20-22% range, the Cards might have something, as the power is obviously on the uptick.
2009 ISO .000
2010 ISO .148
2011 ISO .222
Washington might just be a guy who needs to percolate longer than most.;)
Thanks, busta, for the first-hand Johnson City reports. Glad to see they’re starting Carson Kelly there, rather than the GCL — should be a tough challenge for the kid.
As RCH mentioned, Taveras’ tater was against the wind. Listed at 16 MPH. And he hit it out to centerfield. Versus a pitcher featured earlier in the day by John Sickels. Huzzah.
Another thing about Taveras: He led off the 9th inning, his team trailing by a run. He took six straight pitches, walking on a full count. That’s some serious situational patience, for a guy who we all know looooves to swing the bat. Very baseball-mature.
Yeah, that clutch walk by OT sounds like more good news. I don’t think he’ll ever be a walks machine, but at his age – think (perhaps unlike adams last year) he’s got time to learn what pitches to swing on and what pitches to take against more refined pitching, and he’s more or less maintained the same walk rate from last year. Also, the rumors of a lazy attitude from last year seem a thing of the past, too. All I hear about his in-game attitude this year is highly positivem
Is that 10 sbs for Wong? For a guy not advertised as speedy at draft time, he’s a decent base runner.
He was always thought of as a crafty base stealer. Someone who will steal bases at a higher clip than his pure speed tool would seem to indicate. Ala David DeJesus if that helps illustrate my point any.
A lot of people though the Wong selection in 2011 was going to be a “bust” pick because they thought he was a defensive failure at 2B and had average speed. Well we all knew he would hit at all levels but he has really improved his game defensively becoming more of a liability also has improved his quickness and speed on the base paths swiping already 12 this season you could see likely a career 20-25 steals per season out of Wong.
Wow Starlin Rodriguez has improved his numbers .404 BABIP has a better Walk Rate now at 9.5 BB% better OBP at .391 SLG and wOBA are improved over last season. Wonder what kind of numbers he would put up if he were healthy all season for Palm Beach because he has been a hit machine for them in that lead off spot.
No one thought Wong was a defensive failure at 2nd base. He was just seen to be average, people questioned that pick because he had only average tools across the board besides his hit tool. I’m not sure about OT stayin in CF either, he dosent have great speed or anything I don’t think he has the range. I think he’s gotten a little better but ultimatly he will get bigger most likely as he gets older and think he is destined for corner spot
Correct about Wong. Before his draft year, he was more of utility player (and Team USA used him as such) and I think may have played outfield more at first during his college career. He eventually settled in at 2nd during his junior year. He played there long enough to establish he was solid with the glove, with some scouts saying that he had the potential to develop into a plus defender. Also, Wong stole 22 bases during his MVP Cape Cod League season, so I seriously doubt that his ability on the base paths comes as a surprise to many people. As Cj said, some didn’t like the pick because it was perceived as a safe pick of a polished player at a traditionally low-profile position (as opposed to short, catcher, and center field) while there were still high-upside pitchers on the board.
Cj–DanUp has a fun piece over at VEB today about the Cardinals and their non-perfect centerfielders. Jon Jay’s defensive ability to play center was once as “well regarded” as Taveras’s when he was a prospect. The point being…sometimes first impressions don’t count.
i seem to remember keith law tweeting something about wong to the effect of: “no speed, no power. what’s to like?”
Yeah, I believe Law was *quite* skeptical of Pedroia and Altuve, too — until they were absolutely murdering the ball in the upper minors. Many “scouting types” still adhere to the outdated Nothing Really Matters Until Double-A rule, and damn near all scouts like short players even less than Randy Newman.
Wong’s short, and a very hard worker. Neither of those facts in any way preclude his having excellent baseball tools, which he does. ;)
In 2004 Joe Mather was beginning his 4th season of short season ball at this time and he was a year older than Washington is now. Mather did, however, get a quick callup to Peoria that season. mather is now back in the majors so there is hope for Washington. as for Bibona, he was quad cities best pitcher the 2nd half in 2010 on a staff that included Miller, Kelly, and Fornataro. i always thought that he was sent to qc while Gast went to Batavia because he was a 4 year college guy.