Top offensive prospects have big days as the system 4-2 in a full slate of games.
- Matt Adams has gone right back to the business of dominating with a pair of home runs and a double.
- Steven Hill was 3-5 with a double and a home run.
- Bryan Anderson was 3-5 with second home run of the year.
- Pete Kozma went 2-3 with a couple walks.
- Ryan Jackson had a double and a walk.
- Brandon Dickson had a solid outing, spreading eight hits over seven innings while giving up only one run.
- Chuckie Fick closed it out with a strike out in a perfect inning.
- Oscar Taveras has been on fire (yet again) and hit his 15th home run and 22nd double in a 3-5 day.
- Jose Garcia was 2-3.
- Richard Castillo got all of his outs via the ground out or strike out, going 6.1 innings and giving up three earned runs.
- Deryk Hooker went 1.2 hitless innings.
- Keith Butler struck out a pair and got the save.
- The Palm Beach offense managed only two hits, both of them singles.
- Mike O’Neill was 1-2 with a pair of walks.
- Kevin Siegrist was very good in a short outing, going five innings with six strike outs, allowing only a single hit with a 4-1 GO/FO ratio.
- Dean Kiekhefer had two scoreless innings.
- Anthony Garcia‘s OPS is up to .895 going 4-4 with his eighth home run.
- Colin Walsh is not the Cardinals’ future 2B, attempting the position but committing three errors in a horrific day for the River Bandits defense.
- Luis Mateo and Roberto de la Cruz both were 2-5 with a double, but de la Cruz also was charged with two errors at first base and Mateo had one.
- David Medina and Juan Castillo both had three hits on the day.
- Kyle Hald gave up ten hits and a homer in just 3.1 IP. He struck out four without walking a batter.
- Ethan Cole had the only solid pitching appearance, going 1.1 perfect innings.
- Garrett Wittels, Jacob Wilson and Roberto Reyes all were 2-4.
- Gary Apelian hit a home run.
- Ben Freeman stranded all seven of the baserunners he allowed, giving up a solo shot as the lone run of the game. He struck out five in 6.2 innings.
- Brandon Creath had a pair of strike outs in 1.1 IP.
- Yunier Castillo struck out two to earn the save.
- Carson Kelly was 2-4 with a double.
- Michael Knox hit his second home run of the young season.
- Cory Jones, Michael Aldrete and Jeffry Rauh put up eight innings of no-hit baseball, albeit with five walks.
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Milb.com has a nice article about the JC Cards’ near-miss on the no-hitter:
http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120624&content_id=33885640&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb
Also regarding the QC errors: Obviously, I didn’t see the game, but the box score said all 3 of Walsh’s errors were throwing. And then de la Cruz, playing first, was charged with 1 catching and 1 throwing error. I just wonder if some or all of Walsh’s errors were in-betweeners. Maybe slightly off-line throws that were catchable? Or maybe it was worse, and de la Cruz’s catching error should’ve been charged to Walsh?
Either way, I think it’s safe to say the Cards’ MiLB depth chart at second base goes Wong -> S. Rodriguez -> B. Valera, with a couple guys like Greg Garcia and Ildemaro Vargas in the mix as utility infielders. If Walsh is going to hit his way into consideration, it’s maybe as a four-corners guy.
I took in the Quad City/ Peoria game yesterday from a perch right behind home plate, right in front of the scouts. Some observations:
De La Cruz played first like he had never put on a glove before. In addition to the errors that were charged to him you could have assigned him two of the throwing errors. De La Cruz’s actions around the bag were absolutely grotesque. I keep thinking of poor first basemen like Jack Clark and David Ortiz but to compare them to De La Cruz would be totally unfair. The worst part is that he seemed totally unconcerned about fielding even though he should have been embarassed. A couple of times he didn’t even stretch for a throw on close play. Later in the game a Quad City runner (I think it was Pritchard, could have been Mateo) didn’t slide on an attempted stolen base and was barely thrown out. The scouts were shocked that he wasn’t pulled from the game. In other words, someone needs to light a fire under these kids.
Garcia is a stud. His home run was a blast and he knew it. He has great extension on his swing and really quick wrists. He hit a liner up the middle in the game that was a laser (the scouts said it was 101 mph going out). The one negative is that his speed is kind of pedestrian for his size. He beat out a couple of singles and hustled all the way but it took a while for him to get there. The scouts timed him at 4.5 seconds.
Hald’s start wasn’t all that bad. He has a wicked slider but didn’t have great control on it and the ump basically just refused to call it a strike after a while.
Walsh is a really good hitter but he’s no second baseman. One of his errors was pretty bad and he also was egregiously late getting to second on what should have been a double play.
Medina is pretty bad in right too. He lost a ball in the sun and then dropped it after picking it up on what looked like a bad news bears play. After the play he went and got some sunglasses from Garcia.
On the Peoria kids: Baez seemed bored He has pretty good range but his hands were pretty bad. He should have been charged with an error twice. The home scorer was very generous. Their closer Wang was the most impressive pitcher of the game. The QC hitters were helpless against him. The last pitch was 96 with movement and I don’t think many major leaguers could have hit it.
Thanks for the report!
Any thoughts about Garcia in the field, other than the lack of speed you noted?
I don’t really recall him having to make many plays.
That brings to mind a comment from the scouts about Medina though. After he looped in a throw to the infield to no one in particular, one scout said “I’ll be generous and say he has a 35 arm”. Ouch.
Yeesh!
I think everyone who follows the Cards’ prospects has an eye out for Garcia. He’s only 20 (seems like he should be older after 3 years in short season ball), and is putting up somewhat better numbers than Rasmus at the same ages and levels. (Granted, Colby was almost 19 when he was drafted, while Garcia was 17.)
But when the Cards didn’t invite Garcia to the pre-camp for their top prospects, I thought maybe that was a tell about his overall potential. Now I can’t imagine that was the case. Even is he’s limited to LF or 1B, that bat looks like it’s going to play.
With Walsh at 2b, De La Cruz at 1b and Williams at ss/3b all on the QC infield, it just may rank as one of the worst fielding teams ever. Walsh needs to be put into LF and hope he doesn’t become another Lonnie ‘Skates’ Smith with the glove. Thank god Ronny Gil and his 23 errors are in PB, not QC.
Nice report I’ve heard Garcia has tremendous bat speed I could see him developing more power as he develops down the road certainly a prospect to watch.
Nice to see Carson Kelly get a few hits.
Notwithstanding the outcome, I approve the Walsh 2B experiment. The low minors are the place to get things like that done, not after arrival on the major-league 25-man roster. (I’m looking at you, Skip Schumaker.)
“THE BUTLER DID IT” ! AGAIN! Keith Butler is 15 for 15 in save opportunities with a 1.71 ERA and a K per inning pitched in the hitter friendly TEXAS League
Is Butler a prospect?
Yes he is not getting much attention heard reports that his Fastball is now up to 90-92 consistent now and he still has that plus slider he uses. Has an impressive LOB% of 87.8 and a 23.9 K Rate a nice FIP of 2.82.
Thanks for the firsthand reportage, PMIC!
Re: Anthony Garcia…John Sickels recently said Garcia looked much larger than his listed 6′ and 180 lbs., i.e. more like 6′ 2″ and 195. Was that your impression as well?
Castillo: Eight AA starts, at *least* six innings each time out, and still no homers permitted. Impressive.
I saw the first game of the series and Garcia about 4 times this year. Yea he’s bigger than 6 foot 180, the 6’2 195 probably fits more though. he does need to lose some weight IMO.
Has also pitched 13 consecutive quality starts dating back to April 12th. Castillo also has turned into more of a contact pitcher in Springfield owns a 2.21 GO/AO ratio in his 8 starts small sample but impressive.
I’m no expert but yes I’d say he must weigh more than 180. He isn’t skinny and you can see some very real muscle definition. I wouldn’t argue with anyone who told me he was either 6’0 or 6’2. 6’0 is probably a minimum though.
Nice to see all the prospects, or at least former prospects, starting for Memphis. No Velez, Romak, Hunter, or Montanez.
Impressive statistical season Taveras 279 AB, 2nd in H with 90, Tied for 1st in Doubles with 22, 3rd in HR at 15, 3rd in RBI at 51, 1st in Total Bases in 165, 4th in OBP at .377, 2nd in Slugging at .591, 1st in AVG at a steady .323 AVG, 2nd in OPS at .968 hope he continues up this production.
I wonder how many starters, at any level, are on a roll of 13 straight Quality Starts? I would guess that Castillo is in fact the only one.
Wish I knew more about his transformation into Captain Wormkiller. (I went back over his AA game logs, and his groundout/flyout ratio is now 78-to-23.)
I know I keep doing this…but anyway…since his awful 3-24 first week of the season, Anthony Garcia is hitting roughly .310/.400/.560. Funny thing is, if Baseball America finally deigns to put Garcia in his league’s top 20 this year, they will undoubtedly call 2012 Anthony’s “breakout campaign”, when of course he’s just doing exactly the same thing he did last year, and the year before. And I do mean EXACTLY. To wit:
In, 2010 Garcia exceeded the GCL by 192 points of OPS.
Last year, A.G. topped his Appy mates by 197 points.
So far this year? Well, he’s 198 points above his MWL brethren.
Last Fun Fact:
Garcia’s isolated slugging is on a sweet upward trend, with a solid .187 in April, an excellent .219 in May, and a tremendous .292 in June. Gotta like that. ;)
I had a hard time getting the series I saw him to start the year. He was simply not very good in Spring and during that first series. I’ve seen him 3 times since I believe and I’m really starting to come around.